Invite you to open your bibles to second Corinthians chapter 4. We've been working our way through second Corinthians. This week and next week, we'll be looking at the resurrection. And in particular, in this text, we've already looked at it in 2nd Corinthians. The, the Corinthian church has been making accusations against Paul.
Joel Brooks:They've been somewhat suspicious of him because so many bad things keep happening to him. I mean, how many times can he be arrested, stoned, beaten? And I mean, 1 shipwreck maybe, but 3 shipwrecks. And and so they're starting to look at Paul and say, is God really on your side? I mean, are are are you are you really doing what God wants you to do?
Joel Brooks:Why why are these bad things happen happening to pray? Perhaps you don't have enough faith. Perhaps you don't love God enough. And this is Paul's answer to that. And he answers them by saying, this is how we are to view suffering in this life.
Joel Brooks:We'll begin reading in verse 13. Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believed. And so I spoke. We also believe. And so we also speak.
Joel Brooks:Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake. So that is grace extends to more and more people. It may increase Thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart.
Joel Brooks:Though our outer nature is wasting away. Our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Our father, we ask that in this moment, we would hear clearly through you, from you. And this can only be accomplished through you and your spirit. And so we ask that he come. Spirit, you're welcome here to move in our midst and to open up our ears and open up our minds to hear from you and to see Jesus clearly.
Joel Brooks:For when we see him clearly, we will begin to look like him. So God, in these moments now, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:I was reading through the gospel of John this past week. And as I got to chapter 11, I just I just kinda stopped. I I couldn't get past it. The chapter is about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It's one of the most familiar passages in scripture.
Joel Brooks:Probably every one of you have at least one verse from it memorized. Jesus wept. Okay? And as I I was reading through that, I was just drawn into the story because as all the elements you love in a good story, it's, there's the tension. There's the tragedy.
Joel Brooks:There's the despair. There's the hero. There's the hope. There's the great reversal. And so it makes for a great story.
Joel Brooks:But but really the things that I was meditating on had nothing to do with that. I began thinking this, you know, at some point, Mary and Martha, we're gonna have to go through this whole thing again. They were gonna have to bury Lazarus again. I mean, if if Lazarus died before they did, and and most men die before the women there. And so if that happened, then then they would have to do the same thing again.
Joel Brooks:They would have to wrap up his body in the funeral cloth. They would have to listen to the same funeral dirges again. They would have to gather the mourners around, and they would they would once again see their brother, Lazarus, placed in the tomb all over again. As a matter of fact, every person that Jesus healed was gonna have to, at some point, suffer again in their life. Every person.
Joel Brooks:And and the the paralyzed man who was who was lowered through the roof and laid down at the at Jesus's feet there, and and Jesus and his power raised him up. And the man came up with a leap, and he rolled up his mat, and he went home rejoicing. That same man, if he grew to be old, likely had arthritis in those same legs. Probably had a hard time, you know, not only could he no longer leap, he probably had a hard time just walking across the room. The blind men that Jesus healed would have certainly enjoyed many years of great vision, but over the years, as age set in, those eyes would have grown dim, words would have become blurry.
Joel Brooks:The the hemorrhaging woman. I love that story, how she reaches out and she touches the robe of Jesus, and she is instantly healed. She likely died not too many years after that, because she seems to be somewhat of an older woman. So so where where is the hope for all of these people? And I know we we concentrate on the miracles, and we love seeing that, but where is the ultimate hope for these people?
Joel Brooks:And was it in another healing? You know, let let's pray that that Jesus will come and put another Band Aid on us to just kinda do a temporary repair, trying to put off the inevitable. Yeah. Was the hope for Mary and Martha when they had to bury Lazarus again? What was there a hope that okay.
Joel Brooks:Well, now that Jesus has gone and he's ascended in heaven, you know, he's given us his spirit. We we we have his apostles. Maybe we could get some of them. Maybe we could get Peter or John or James. Maybe they could come and they'll raise Lazarus back to life.
Joel Brooks:Was was that their next plan? What was their hope? Their hope was the same hope that we have. That's in the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of our bodies. There's our hope.
Joel Brooks:This is the hope that Paul talks about in verses 13 and 14. Verse 13, when he says, since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believe. And so I spoke, we also believe. And so we also speak. Let me just stop right there because that's probably somewhat of a confusing passage.
Joel Brooks:You know, like, why is it in there? There there's part of it that's in quotations that I believed and so I spoke. And that that's a line from Psalm 116, which is the the chapter that we opened up our service with. So it's part of it's there in your worship guide. And whenever you would quote just part of a psalm, you're trying to bring the whole thing to remembrance.
Joel Brooks:Much like if I ever said to you something like the road less traveled. If I use that phrase in a conversation, immediately, you're thinking of Robert Frost and you're thinking of the entire poem. Here, Paul brings up those words right there. I believed and so I spoke. And instantly are to be thinking of Psalm 116, which is all about despair.
Joel Brooks:It's all about being at death, and yet god raising you up and rescuing you. It's really autobiographical of of Paul's life when you read through it, with all the lines that are there. You have lines like precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. So you see, some are rescued in this life, and then some are rescued actually in their death. So so that's the the verse 13.
Joel Brooks:And then then Paul moves past that. He wants that as your backdrop, but then he moves past that to verse 14 saying, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. Paul's hope rests completely on the resurrection of Jesus. A matter of fact, he has already told the Corinthians this in his previous letter. First Corinthians chapter 15.
Joel Brooks:He says if Jesus was not raised from the dead, and if we are not going to be raised someday with him, we of all people are most to be pitied. And he says, if that's the case, we should just eat, drink, for tomorrow we die. And and Jesus is writing this to the Corinthian church to a people who've experienced all types of miracles. People who've experienced all types of healings. They've seen the power of Jesus in their congregational midst.
Joel Brooks:And maybe saying, if we have just that, if your faith rests just in that, and not on the hope of the resurrection, you're to be pitied. Of all men, we're to most be pitied. You see, for Paul, the resurrection isn't just some fuzzy event in the distant future that has no real relevance for his life. For Paul, it's it's a cosmic certainty. It's it's the one hope that he could build everything on his whole life builds out of that.
Joel Brooks:It's the lens that that that he puts on in which he can interpret everything that is happening to him. He sees it now in light of the resurrection. And because of this certainty, when Lazarus died again, Mary and Martha would have still most certainly mourned, but because their hope was now the resurrection, they would not mourn as people without hope. We don't mourn as people without hope. Death has lost its sting.
Joel Brooks:Mary and Martha, after the resurrection of Jesus, would have known that death is not the final word for their brother. And their hope would have rested there. Let me ask you. Where where is your hope? Is there hope in your retirement, you know, setting setting enough money, hell, in your 401k?
Joel Brooks:Is Is there hope in your health? Is it and, you know, having kids when when when I have kids, then, man, then then everything's gonna come together. Or for those of you who are married yet, is your hope that one day you will find a spouse? The sober reality is this, if you find a spouse, one day, you will either bury your spouse or your spouse will bury you. One day, I will either bury Lauren or she will bury me if we don't die together.
Joel Brooks:That's just the sober reality. Knowing that this is going to happen, I need to make sure my hope is on something rock solid. Look at verse 16 17. So we do not lose heart. Right there, that's that's what we all want.
Joel Brooks:Right? I I don't think anybody came here thinking. I hope Joel enables us to, you know, leads us to lose heart tonight. We we are we don't want to lose heart. So how does this happen?
Joel Brooks:So we do not lose lose heart. Their outer nature is wasting away. Our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight, some of your versions might say light. The ESV actually has both for this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
Joel Brooks:You might not be able to tell it, but I I I work out I work out 2, 3 times a week at the gym, the Jewish community center. And I found that when you're there, you're allowed to talk of 1 about 1 or 2 things. You can either talk about football. It doesn't matter if it's college or professional. The the only thing that matters is that you pretend you're an expert and just be very passionate, you know, about it.
Joel Brooks:The the other thing that you're allowed to talk about is all your ailments, everything that's hurting you. It's it's kinda like group therapy. You come together to to just talk about these things. And and so if if your knee is hurting you when you go in there, you, you know, you look at the guy squatting £400 and you're like, you know, I I I would be doing that, but, you know, I've I've got this bum knee and the doctors just said, I I can't do that right now. And and so you just you you talk about that.
Joel Brooks:Now I've noticed that much of the time that is in the gym is actually people talking about how they need need to rehab certain injuries, but they're not actually rehabbing the injuries. They're just kind of talking about them. And I find it really humorous when I listen to these discussions because somebody's gonna say, yeah, man. I mean, I went to the doc and the doc says I've got some, like, degenerative hip thing. And so I've just got really be careful and somebody else is gonna go.
Joel Brooks:Yeah. I know. I mean, I've got this degenerative back thing. And I mean, I I've gotta really be careful too. And it's humorous to me because I'm thinking, when is it not degenerative?
Joel Brooks:I mean, when is there ever ever a regenerative arthritis? It's it's always degenerative. The moment you hit 30, nothing is ever gonna regenerate after that. It is it is always degenerative. Our bodies are wasting away.
Joel Brooks:Of course, we're aware of this every time we look in the mirror. I've got a confession. I look in the mirror a lot. Alright? I I I look at my face more than any person ever should.
Joel Brooks:I I know y'all do too. Not my face. I'll look at your own face. But you look at your face just a whole lot in the mirror. I mean, you you kind of you're there.
Joel Brooks:You're, like, studying it like it's a treasure map, you know, trying trying to find something hidden in there. Some of you probably have magnifying mirrors there. Like, anybody's gonna look at your face with with a magnifying lens. But just in case, you gotta be prepared. I mean, I have every pour on my nose memorized.
Joel Brooks:I mean, I know exactly where it is. And because we all spend so much time looking at our face in the mirror, one thing really stands out to us, and that's the fact that we're getting older, we're aging. Nobody looks in the mirror, and they're like, you know, and, you know, I I look younger this year than I did last year. You you never do that. All you do is you notice new wrinkles, new age spots, more gray hairs.
Joel Brooks:You can see that you're degenerating. You're you're slowly wasting away. You could say it this way, you you could see that you're slowly dying. That's what's happening, is you're slowly dying. Our hearts don't work like, you know, electric clocks that you plug in and they go forever.
Joel Brooks:Your hearts work like a little wind up clock. Alright? They've been wound up and then you're set free, and it's got a limited time, and then it winds down. All of you are like, why did I come tonight? I mean, like, of all the nights to come, I decided to come tonight.
Joel Brooks:This is what Paul's talking about in verse 16 when he says that our our outer nature or outer self is wasting away. And, of of course, this is our bodies, but he's he's not just talking about our bodies. He's he's talking about more than this. He's talking about everything that makes up this life that we live in. He's for instance, he's talking about, like, our relationships.
Joel Brooks:Your your relationships are wasting away. Where once it seemed like you had unlimited time, unlimited friends, and that's all you could do, just gather around with your friends, but then time and circumstance happen. You get jobs, you have kids, it's it's so much harder to get together. Friends move away, and and and relationships begin to crumble. Your your looks begin to crumble.
Joel Brooks:Your health begins to crumble. Your skills begin to crumble, where once you were the master of your trade, and now all of a sudden there's some young whippersnapper coming up who's better than you are. It's it's it's all dying. It's all wasting away. Or wearing thin.
Joel Brooks:That's another way you could translate that. Our outer self is is wearing thin. But our inner life, our inner self, our inner nature is doing the opposite. It's it's getting stronger. It's getting more vibrant.
Joel Brooks:More life is being pumped into it. And Paul tells us the reason why in verse 17 when he says, for this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Now you you could land at that verse for a while. I could do a 4 week series on that verse. He Paul says something very similar to this in Romans 8.
Joel Brooks:In Romans 8 18, he says this. I want you to listen carefully. He says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. It's a very similar verse, but there's one huge difference there. So I'm gonna read these 2 verses side by side.
Joel Brooks:I want you to listen and and see if you could pick out one of the one of the big differences there. This is Romans 8 18 again. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed us. Here's 2nd Corinthians. For this, my light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
Joel Brooks:Here's the difference. In in Romans 8, Paul is he's comparing something. He's saying that your present suffering and your future glory, they can't really even be compared with one another because your future glory is so great. But that's not what he is saying in the text we're looking at tonight in second Corinthians. He's saying that your present suffering, able to have that glory, to be able to hold that glory.
Joel Brooks:Your present suffering prepares you. This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. What he's saying is what we've already seen so far in this book that there can be no resurrection unless there is at first death. There can be no inner renewal unless there's an outward wasting away. There could be no future glory, unless there is a present suffering.
Joel Brooks:Suffering is the tool that God is going to use in our lives to prepare us for glory. Now if if you can understand that, if you could get that just in your head and in your heart, there is a rock for which you could build your life. And no matter what the storm is that comes your way, and there will be storms that come your way, you'll be able to endure it. Suffering is the tool that god uses to prepare us for glory. Well, how?
Joel Brooks:How do afflictions prepare us for glory? In some ways, we can we could get a hint of this or a taste of this in in this life, this principle at work in this life. Most of the shallow people I know, by by shallow, I mean, people who you could tell just haven't really thought in-depth about anything, who who don't really understand wisdom, people who are, who you would say they're just of little substance. Okay? They're out there.
Joel Brooks:Most of those people have never suffered in this life. Most of those people, instead of suffering, they they've been given a a very easy life, perhaps, where they have been given everything they ever wanted. Perhaps they were never punished as a child. They had everything provided for them. If they ever came up with an obstacle, instead of having to go through the obstacle, somebody just removed the obstacle for them.
Joel Brooks:And this resulted in them becoming very shallow people. In contrast to this, the people who I know who have a weightiness to them and by the way, the word glory in Hebrew simply means heavy. It means weight. Who who are able to to have glory in them, a weightiness to them. Who who are people of substance.
Joel Brooks:That's another way you could put it. Who who who are wise, substantial people. These are people who have suffered in their life. That's just a general principle that I that I have seen at work in this life. And I I just have to remind myself as that parent.
Joel Brooks:So you have to remind yourself of this because you so desperately want for your children to never know pain. You so desperately want like, I just I want them to avoid all pain. But then you have to ask, what would be the result of that? What would be the result if you never let your child feel the result of their I mean, feel the consequences of their sin that are bad choices? Or if you gave your child everything they ever wanted?
Joel Brooks:Or if you remove every obstacle for them, what would be the result of that? The result would be a a very shallow adult when they grew up. One who had no no depth to them. Thankfully, our heavenly father is a better father than any of us, and he allows us to suffer at times in order to prepare us to carry a weight of glory. So we could see, hopefully, in that just, you know, small example there, how suffering does prepare us for glory here in this life.
Joel Brooks:But there's just really a hint that we see. What Paul is really doing is just explaining the paradox of Christian living in which you have to die to live. You have to follow Jesus. You have to take up a cross, but you're gonna gain Christ. I heard a theologian explain it to me this way.
Joel Brooks:He said if you're a parent and you have a nightmare about your children dying, and if you're a parent, you're going to have nightmares about your children dying at some time at some point, when you wake up, I mean, and I remember I had a very vivid one one time. Our our whole our whole house was flooding, which makes no sense because it's on a hill, you know, but and and I'm trying to rescue our children, and I have to pick which ones I'm gonna rescue. And I just I mean, it's just this horrible thing. And and when you finally you wake up and you realize the nightmare is over, the the first thing you want to do is you just wanna go in their rooms, and you just wanna kiss them even though they're asleep. You just wanna hug them, you just you just wanna love on them.
Joel Brooks:Because having experienced the nightmare has actually made you a better parent, has actually stirred you up to greater affections towards them. And going through this life, one day we'll look back at it, and it's gonna be just like it's a nightmare with all the suffering, with all the hardships we have gone through. But what it has done is resulted in greater affections, greater devotion, an ability to appreciate the glory that is coming in a far greater way. That's what Paul saying here. He's saying that when it comes to life here, there's gonna a day be a day that we look back in light of the the glory that we'll one day have, and this is all gonna look like a bad dream.
Joel Brooks:You can really understand what he is saying here when you compare it to what he wrote in the first chapter. I'm gonna have to get a little technical on you. Hope you don't mind. It's worth it. 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 8.
Joel Brooks:It's a verse we've looked at a number of times. I'll read it to you. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. K. We've already looked at this a good bit, how how Paul at one point came to such a point of despair, of depression.
Joel Brooks:He He wanted his life to be over. Alright? That verse, 1 8, sheds so much light on chapter 417. Because in in this verse, Paul explains that at one point in his life, in in one eight, he despaired of life itself, and he uses the word he felt burned. And that word burned is baros.
Joel Brooks:I'm sorry. I'm gonna have to use Greek for just a little bit. The the word burned is baros, and it means weight. He felt a weight on him. And then he says this weight on him was utterly beyond his strength.
Joel Brooks:That word utterly is the word hyperbole. It's where we get the word hyperbole. It was it was beyond him. It was utterly beyond. Now he uses those same words, baros and hyperbole, in chapter 4 verse 17, when he says that the afflictions that we experience are preparing him for the weight of glory.
Joel Brooks:The word weight there is baros. And the word beyond all comparison is the word hyperbole twice. He actually says hyperbole to hyperbole, or beyond to beyond, or exponentially beyond glory. Alright. So hopefully you're with me here.
Joel Brooks:This is this is Paul's point. He says there was a time in my life when I was down and I was in such despair. It felt like a crushing weight. It sapped me of all my strength. It was beyond my strength to endure.
Joel Brooks:But now looking back at that time, I see that that weight was preparing me for a different weight. That's not just beyond my strength, it's beyond glory to glory. It's preparing me for exponential glory. So that horrible circumstance back then is what is preparing him for exponential glory in the future. So when Paul went through that despair, it was painful.
Joel Brooks:It's not easy. Suffering is not easy. Don't ever think that. I'm sure he wanted out of it. Nobody wants to suffer.
Joel Brooks:However, having been brought through that suffering, if Paul was given a chance again, if god said, Paul, you could go back in your life, and this time, you can I'll let you avoid all suffering if you want. You won't have to suffer. You won't have to despair life. I'll give you that option if you want. Paul would say, no.
Joel Brooks:As painful as it was, as horrible as it was, bring it through me again because it has prepared me exponentially for glory. And so he would choose to go through all the beatings, all the whippings, all the stonings, all the shipwrecks again. Because the exponential exponential glory that that is preparing him for will make all of that look like a distant bad nightmare. This is why you have in Paul's letters, if you go through them, they're almost all about suffering. There's always something about suffering in there and how you're to endure suffering.
Joel Brooks:You're to patiently endure suffering. You're to persevere through suffering. There is very, very little about asking god to deliver you from it. But god to walk you through it. Because Paul understands that it is a tool.
Joel Brooks:Now I have in no way suffered like Paul. Nobody has. At the risk of sounding, I don't know, Trite in doing this. I've got a bum shoulder. Alright?
Joel Brooks:Bum is kind of an understatement. I've got 14 screws in the shoulder. It's a record for Birmingham. I just went to Vanderbilt, to their shoulder clinic, and they said it was a record there as well. So, yay.
Joel Brooks:I am often in a lot of pain. I I spend a lot of nights, if you're a parent, this happens a lot anyway, where you play musical beds. You know, like, this morning, I woke up on a couch upstairs. Lauren woke up on a couch downstairs, and Georgia was somehow in our bed. You know, that that just that just kinda happens when you're a parent.
Joel Brooks:But I I spend a lot of nights in a in a chair packed with ice. Just having a hard time sleeping. My my best days now, would have kept me in bed in college. That's that's what I can hope for. Embarrassing, but I'll I'll I'll share it.
Joel Brooks:Maybe to just put me down. At at the Jewish Community Center the other day, I'm trying to work out. It hurts so bad, I break down crying in front of people. Just wanting it to be different. I'm only 40 years old, and it's not gonna get better.
Joel Brooks:And it is an all consuming thought. I wish it would go away, but it never does. I am always aware of how much my shoulder hurts. Now the lord in his providence, months ago, had me start working through 2nd Corinthians. And this was the very first verse.
Joel Brooks:I'm like, circle highlight. This is this is why God wants me to do this first because I wouldn't say I was angry at god. I was I was just kinda frustrated a little bit at at why god had had was putting me through this this little suffering and trial here, which was growing to not be that little. And, and god, he he told me a couple of things. He said, 1, Joel, you have no right to be angry at me for not giving you something I never promised to give you.
Joel Brooks:And I have never promised to give you the healthy shoulder. I've never promised that you would be able to throw a ball with your kids, You could throw them around in the pool, or they get even do things like tuck them in at night without pain. I've never promised that to you. Actually, look through my word and you'll see what I have promised is that those who follow me will receive a cross and that they will suffer in this life. It's the first thing.
Joel Brooks:Hard lesson. The second thing is, don't don't mourn for what you don't have. Ask that this creates a longing in you for what you will one day have. You will be given a new body. And so now, I mean, this doesn't happen all the time.
Joel Brooks:I'm not perfect. There's sometimes I'm still really just kinda angry, but but at night when I'm, you know, packing ice or doing whatever, I'm saying, Lord, I long and I promise you, I long more than any one of you for a better shoulder. Promise you. I I will enjoy whatever new shoulder the lord gives me in my new body more than any of you, because he's preparing me for it. He's preparing me for that weight of glory.
Joel Brooks:And so instead of mourning for what I don't have, when he never promised me that anyway, I'm I'm praying that God create me a longing for what I will someday have. Let let my heart look future. Let my for this time, for this life, embrace this. And out of faith, understand that you are preparing in me something glorious. And so I do that.
Joel Brooks:I try. It's not easy. Paul ends with these words that I have to remind myself of verse 18. This is how we accomplish all this. It says, we look not to the things that are seen.
Joel Brooks:But to the things that are unseen for the things that are seen or transient. Just stop there and meditate on that for a while. The pain we feel is transient. The shoulder throbbing in me is transient. Your your your aching bones, transient.
Joel Brooks:The relationships around you that are pretty much poison and toxic to you, they're destroying you, they're transient. All the afflictions you you're you're feeling and you're seeing are transient. Passing. But the things that are unseen, which is Jesus ascended on his throne, are eternal. And so I have to fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of my faith, and just keep crying out to him.
Joel Brooks:And I pray that as a church, we would come to understand that. I believe more and more than my, one of my roles as a pastor is to prepare people to suffer. Because someday, if it hasn't happened to you wet yet, it will happen. And you can either suffer with hope or you can suffer in despair. And we can suffer in hope because of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Jesus, we proclaim loud and clear that you're the lord of the universe. You're the king of this earth, that you are the risen savior. And just as you were raised from the dead, we will be raised from the dead. Just as you received a resurrected body, we will receive a resurrected body.
Joel Brooks:In our lives, our hope is built on that rock. And god says we don't see it in this life. We need through your spirit now to make it real to us, even more real than the things we feel, and the things we do see. So do that now. And we pray this in the name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.