Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
This fall we're studying the book of Second Corinthians.
Second Corinthians is a heartfelt and practical
book calling us back to the life of the cross.
We, like the Corinthians, so often pursue glory,
admire eloquence, shun suffering, hide hurt,
and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel of Jesus
tells us that resurrection comes after a cross.
comfort comes after being crushed, that the way
up is the way down, that the way to glory is
through suffering, that his strength is made
perfect in our weakness. We'd love to meet you
and we hope you'll consider coming and joining
with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m. in the
heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find us
online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook,
Instagram, and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
sermon. God bless. We pray again for us. Lord,
now may the words of my mouth and meditations
of our hearts be pleasing in your sight. I pray
that we would heed these blessings, these benedictions
you give over your disciples there in Matthew.
It seems so foreign to us that we might See that
it is often that we draw closest to You when
we are poor in spirit and when we are persecuted
and when we are afflicted, when we mourn. For
it is in You where we find comfort and joy and
hope and peace and life abundantly. Teach us
these things this morning, Lord. Amen. All right,
so this fall we have been in the book of second
Corinthians and what we've been doing is we've
been going through it chapter by chapter and
I felt a few times now that that has Has caused
me to gloss over a few things. So while I think
it actually does largely work I'm going to take
just part of second Corinthians five this morning
and the end of chapter four. Here's part of what
happens, you know, Paul's giving you this book
and it's all bleeding together so often. You
kind of have to decide where to start from again.
And so we're going to actually begin with part
of what we looked at last week and then we're
going to go into the first half of chapter five.
With that, let me pose to you one of the great
questions of religion. Is God good? I'm not going
to answer that question entirely, not fully.
But my guess is that even if you didn't come
into this space this morning asking that question,
which probably many of you didn't, no doubt it's
a question that you've thought of, and particularly
you've thought of it in the midst of your suffering
or the suffering of a loved one who you hold
dear. And no doubt, it's a question that many
of your neighbors ask when they're confronted
with the idea or the reality of God, His goodness.
Think with me of a story of Jesus that's told
for us in John chapter 11, okay? So there's these
two friends of Jesus, they're sisters. Their
names are, yeah, which one goes first? Martha
and Mary, Mary and Martha. And they send word
to Jesus saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill.
He whom you love is ill. Jesus knew they were
talking of their brother, another of Jesus' dear
friends, Lazarus. And when Jesus heard this,
he said, this illness does not lead to death,
but it's the glory of God might be revealed.
And then verse five of that chapter, it says
this, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister,
Mary, and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus
was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place
where he was. What? Two days longer? Doesn't
he love them? Doesn't he love him? Doesn't he
know that he's ill? Is he good? Is he allowing
Lazarus to go through more pain? His sisters
whom he loves to suffer anguish? And he waits
two days to leave? Then when he does finally
go through the long journey if you know the story
what we're told is That when he arrived his friend
whom he loved had been in the tomb for four days
Think of another story from Luke chapter 8 there.
There is a ruler of the synagogue His name is
Jairus and he falls at the feet of Jesus, which
is the most understandable thing and it says
that he implores him He doesn't ask him. He's
begging Because what it tells us is that his
little daughter, his 12 -year -old daughter is
dying. I have a nearly 12 -year -old daughter.
I would have been falling on my face begging.
And then as he begins to go to Jairus' house,
this woman just touches the hem of his garment
and he stops. Like, just let her touch your hem,
be healed, go quickly. He calls out to her and
he heals her. And then while he's talking to
her, a messenger from Jairus' house comes and
he tells him, your daughter is dead. Imagine
hearing those words, right? If there are any
words which I fear most to hear, those may be
them. Daughter's dead. Imagine the weeping. You
know those two stories, you know that in the
first story we're told that Jesus wept also.
Shortest verse in the Bible, right? Jesus wept.
And if you know both those stories, what you
also know is that Lazarus and the young woman
were both raised to new life. Is God good? Isn't
that question most often and actually really
understandably asked in the context of the suffering
that we experience. And think about this, right?
Lazarus and this little girl, this 12 year old,
while raised, no doubt still lived in these bodies.
With our constant move towards corruption and
decay, with minds that don't work often as we
desire them to, with ailment after ailment seemingly
coming one after the other, no doubt their bodies
continued along the path of suffering. They were
likely afflicted and perplexed and persecuted
and struck down. They likely went from one experience
of weeping on to the next. Because often this
is how it works, right? You go from being afflicted
to perplexed to struck down. There are tastes
of goodness and grace in the afflictions of this
life as they experienced. And yet the afflictions
seem to keep coming. They seem to come one right
after the other. The sorrowful father, I mean,
think about just this little story, right, that
we have in Luke chapter eight. The sorrowful
father who's imploring Jesus is followed on then
by the woman who's had 12 years of a discharge
of blood who's been ostracized from the community,
afflicted, then perplexed, then struck down and
persecuted. And then it goes on and the girl's
dead and she's raised a new life. But no doubt
the story continues, the story of affliction.
I'm in Paul's life and very likely in your life
affliction is followed by mental anguish Paul
says perplexed, but we know this is a meant I
Mean the dynamic of being put yet again in prison
The dynamic of going to yet another community
and being riots breaking out mental anguish followed
by persecution followed by being struck down
And yet Paul has told us at the end of chapter
4 that this light light and momentary affliction
is preparing for us a weight of glory beyond
all comparison. And I imagine that the Corinthians
were honestly a lot like you and me. They were
very, very likely a lot like Martha probably.
You know, when Jesus comes to Bethany, the town
where they lived and in their house. This is
what she says first. We'll say what she says
later. But first she says, Lord, if you'd been
here, if God had been present, if you had actually
seen what was taking place, my brother would
not have died. Lord, if you're real, then certainly
he wouldn't have experienced this affliction.
or if you knew, if you had just a sense of how
bad and how sad the situation is, or if you're
really good. As we see the suffering of the world,
and we see of those we love, we see the death
of those we love, we see our own experiences,
and we wonder. The Corinthians, as I've said,
were inclined towards the good life. Last week,
I talked a little bit about what a prosperous
city Corinth was, just partly just where it's
located and the trade route from the north to
the south of Greece and the Aegean Sea and all
of that. And then the great plain that was fertile
and the springs of the spring water that flowed
up in the area. It's very prosperous place. And
it seems as though between... the letters, some
leaders had come in, Paul talks about them quite
a bit in this book, who had come in and basically
said, it's the good life that's on offer. The
eloquence is what's most compelling. Your well
-being is what shows the goodness of God, going
for strength, prosperity, and speaking against
weakness and suffering. Certainly what we can
piece together is they questioned a teacher like
Paul who had experienced all of this affliction,
all this imprisonment and shipwreck, mental anguish,
all that. And they dismissed him as not being
truly from God because how could God allow that?
But Paul doesn't just say to them as he did last
week, That he's this fragile jar of clay and
because he's this fragile jar of clay we actually
see the the strength power of God made perfect
in his weakness, but He actually goes on and
this this section that I want to look at this
morning He says that our affliction in this life
is actually preparing us for something far greater
than we would ever imagine and part of what we're
inclined to do is Hold on tight to this life.
And he wants to invite us to say, no, there is
more. There's more. How you get the more is you've
got to learn to hold on loose now. Suffering
and death in a way can even be God's grace. His
preparatory grace for what's ahead. And why this
is the case is because suffering and death so
often focus us. You know, they cause the things
that don't matter to recede into the periphery.
And here at least he says they focus our inner
selves, our inner world and the unseen world.
The first they focus our inner selves. If you
have your Bible to that passage still, open it
up. And chapter four, verse 16 says, so we do
not lose heart though. Our outer self is wasting
away. Our inner self is being renewed day by
day. And I think, I think a lot of, you know,
this dynamic, you know, that it can happen, um,
that we're more focused on the deep things that
matter when we are, not when we're experiencing
the blessings of this life, but actually it's
almost, it's really the opposite. So often we
actually focus on the deep things that matter
when we are going through the trials and afflictions
and we come close to death. Death and suffering
often actually do work in us for the transformation
of our lives. We know that death is an outer
transformation, right? The Ceasing of breathing
and the stopping of our heart and those kinds
of things but it's so much an inner transformation
And it's not just for those who are experiencing
it but for those who witness it too. It's an
inner transformation So many of you know That
it is when you're brought low When you walk through
suffering and trial that you're transformed You
find new loves, new affections, and it happens
often in this context of suffering and death.
Some of you are familiar with David Brooks. He's
written a number of books that I would recommend
to you. He's written and he's spoken a number
of times on what he calls eulogy virtues and
resume virtues. Maybe some of you have heard
him or read him talk about this. He says, eulogy
virtues are the quality of character that are
mentioned at your funeral. Things that people
say when you aren't around to hear what they're
saying. People say when you aren't there to listen.
On the other hand, resume virtues are the list
of skills that we bring to the marketplace, the
list of achievements you have to promote yourself,
the accomplishments in education, the career
that you've had, the stuff you've acquired. You've
probably heard it said. Maybe you've seen the
bumper sticker. He who dies with the most toys
wins But we actually know if you if you've been
to a funeral you have never Heard a eulogy that
says man. You should see the dirt bike that he
rode. He had the coolest mountain bike ever No
No, we and we know that it's actually just silly
to even think of it No one at your funeral is
talking about what car you drove No one at your
funeral is talking about that suit that once
just fit you so well. It's good you brought it
to the tailor. Eulogies are not spent talking
about how much money you acquired in this life.
They are not. Instead, eulogy virtues are the
virtues that speak to our inner selves. Were
you kind? full of compassion, faithful in your
relationships, honest in your dealings with others.
Were you courageous and brave? Were you a person
capable of deep, committed love? And let's be
honest, much of our life, which makes sense because
this is much of the world that we live in, and
this is our education system, and it's just kind
of the air we breathe. Much of our life is spent
on our resumes, listing out our accomplishments.
We know. We can do. The suffering and death have
a way of stripping that aside and focusing us
on what matters. Think about this. If you look
down again at verse 16, it starts, for we do
not lose heart. If you go down, actually to chapter
five, verse six, it says, so we are always of
good courage. Verse eight, yes, we are of good
courage. There's something even in the context
of Paul's suffering here that is producing in
him these eulogy virtues. This strength that
is an inner strength, that the resume virtues
have little to say about. And we know this, this
is not just a Christian experience, this in many
ways is just a human experience. Suffering and
death focuses you. Suffering and death focus
our inner selves on the things that matter. Which
is to say, as a side note and sort of an application,
If you want to grow in faithfulness, if you want
to grow in kindness, if you want to put on these
deeper character traits that actually last, attend
funerals, sit with the suffering, go to the hospital,
Sit beside someone of older age who has walked
the road long You will find that you hold on
to your possessions and to your resume much more
lightly I was actually sitting with Nevin in
the hospital a couple weeks ago, and he's nearly
100 I'm 43 very tempted to pursue the resume
virtues, believe me. It is a gift to sit with
a 99 year old who wants you to pray for them
and read scripture to them. It is. Sit with one
another in one another's pain, in your suffering.
Each time you engage with death, whether the
small deaths that we continue on in this life
or ultimately death itself, the world becomes
the world about us, the physical world about
us becomes a little less real and the eternal
world a little more real. Which leads to the
second thing here that's going on. Suffering
and death don't just focus our inner selves.
They do that on the things that matter most,
but they actually focus us on what we can't see,
the unseen. Verse 18 of chapter four, it says,
as we look not to the things that are seen, 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
our eternal. Paul says, look, focus your attention
on the unseen. If we keep going on though, in
the beginning there of chapter five, in that
first paragraph, we see a word repeated. And
I think this is a helpful word that invites us
into these two images that Paul then kind of
talks about. And the word is grown. Verse two
says, for in this tent, We groan. Verse four
says, for while we are still in this tent, we
groan being burdened. And that word there, the
word in the Greek is strainatso. Think of the
word to strain, strain. And it communicates this
sigh of deep distress, right? This groaning.
But in the Old Testament, it's also used, it's
not just a groaning, it's not just a sigh in
itself. It's often used as a sigh that leads
to prayer, which is to say it's this groaning
that then expresses itself in a hope, a desire
for something to come about, something to be
changed. Some of you will know in Romans chapter
eight, it says that creation itself is groaning.
root word, it has a little suffix on it in, in
Romans chapter eight. Um, but these are anticipatory
groans. Creation is groaning for the sons of
God to be revealed, it says, right? The children
of God to be who they are made to be. So this
is a groaning that is experiencing this, this
suffering and this reality of this life. But
what it's saying is God brings something else
about, show us what you're going to do. Bring
about your goodness. What's it groaning for?
What's it desiring? First, first thing is that
it's desiring our true home, okay? So verse two
again, for in this tent we groan, longing to
put on our heavenly dwelling. We're in this tent,
which is a dwelling, right? From this tent we
grown, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
I read this week in one of the commentaries I
was using to study this, that a pastor received
a letter from a nine -year -old girl in his church
and it read, Dear Pastor, I hope to go to heaven
someday, but later than sooner. Love, Ellen.
And Ellen, Ellen speaks for most of us. We want
things to be right. We want things to be good.
We have a deep sense that we were made for more.
We have a desire for things to be as they should.
And yet we've often made actually this tent,
which almost has this like flimsiness about it,
our home. And yet Paul says it is often in suffering
and in death that we are focused not on the scene
tent, which can call out to us, this is where
you belong. But on the more permanent structure,
the more real thing further up and further in
reality of God's home for us. Keep in mind here
that Paul is not talking about a a home that
doesn't have physicality to it or a bodiless
home. And we were made by God as physical beings.
Verse one says, for we know that if the tent
that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have
a building from God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. You think it's more,
it's even more solid than you would think. It's
more permanent, it's more lasting. So this groaning
for the unseen that suffering and death help
us focus on is for our true homes. For the place
where you were made to be. Say here, the things
that you can see, they're transient. They're
passing. Things you want to grab onto now will
one day be no more and they will be surpassed
by something far, far greater. Verse four tells
us For while we are still in this tent we groan
being burdened Not that we would be unclothed
But that we would be further clothed So that
what is mortal may be swallowed up by life He's
saying what's in store for you is actually a
deeper life a greater a greater clothing verse
three, he had said that we don't want to be found
naked. And he says that because you don't want
to be exposed to shame and the judgment of sin,
but he doesn't want to be, he doesn't want to
clothe himself. He doesn't want to put himself
forward and say, hey, look, this is what I've
done. He says, I want to be clothed with a more
eternal thing that is life itself with God himself.
Say he's getting this image back to the garden.
He's getting to the idea. One of the things that
suffering does is it exposes our need. It exposes
our need for God himself to clothe us. The righteousness
of Jesus focuses us on putting on the imperishable
rather than the perishable on focuses on putting
on the immortal rather than the mortal, the things
that are unseen rather than the things that are
seen. Paul is not only longing for a resurrection
home where all things will be right, but a resurrected
body where he will be right. And this is what
suffering and death do for us. Transform us.
They give us a new vision, a new focus. Which
if we get back to the beginning of my sermon.
It is often exactly at the place where we most
doubt the goodness of God that God in His grace
focuses us on that which is ultimately good.
That so often We start to say, how can he be
good if he allows this? How could he be good
if it allows his friend to go through such suffering?
How could he be good? Oh, 12 year old Jairus's
daughter to Terry when this child is dying. He
could be good if it's true that this Light and
momentary affliction is just preparing for us,
something that is so much better. To grace, because
so often, as we experience this, we lay aside
the things that don't matter. And when we do
that, we actually can sit before, stand before
the judgment seat of God. Because we have put
aside the allure of this world and we have clung
to our resurrected Lord, Christ himself. Suffering
and death, they cause us to walk by faith and
not by sight. Suffering and death often strip
us. They take away the things that we've built
our identity on, you know? Think of the teacher
here their eloquence their letters of recommendation
Think suffering and death often strip us of the
places of our identity our work What do we what
do we answer what do you do we answer with our
work They strip of strip us of sometimes of our
voice Place our identity upon how we can speak
to others, how we can speak in front of others,
how we can sing. They strip us sometimes of our
play, often something that people put their identity
in. Sometimes suffering and death strip us of
our relationships, which is so often where we
find our primary identity. What they do is they
strip these things away, where we must focus
on the ultimate thing. how we engage with God
Himself. Often what happens is the things that
matter most come into focus and we see when they
come into focus that they are far greater than
we ever expected. I'm hesitant to say this because
it's overused, but in a very real sense, we let
go and we let God. We hold loosely to the things
of this world and we grab onto the resurrection
that is our only hope in this world and the next
that we belong to our Lord Jesus. Let me end
with a illustration that I read. When Spain had
extended its conquest to the end of the known
world at the time, which is to say they controlled
both sides of the strait of Gibraltar. Those
fabled pillars of Hercules, right? on their Spanish
coins were those pillars and then and then there
was a scroll in inscribed with the Latin words
ne plus ultra Which is to say no more beyond
Say we've found the known world and Sailing out
of this straight. There is nothing outside of
it Nothing beyond. It's the gates to the ends
of the earth. But of course, now we know that
was kind of myopic. Rather nearsighted, isn't
it? I like how we live our lives. Nothing beyond
what I can grab onto right now. There's nothing
beyond what I am experiencing in my body right
now. course, we know how silly that coin is and
To their credit they did too after the discovery
of the new world They wisely changed that phrase
on those coins It was just plus ultra More beyond
there is more beyond what we know and what we
see And it is far greater than you imagine. It
is God preparing for us an eternal weight of
glory. Think back with me to Martha, okay? Lord,
if you'd been here, my brother would not have
died. And I wonder how much suffering she had
already experienced in her life because then
she followed it up. But even now, Even now, I
know that whatever you ask from God, He will
give you. God gave her her brother back. And
I bet her faith grew like wildflowers that day.
But then Christ himself rose from the dead. And
he said, what is true of me will be true of you.
He's the ultimate plus extra ultra rather more
beyond But he says that's true for you There
is so much more beyond there's so much more beyond
this life Is God good One of the reasons we doubt
this is because of our suffering because the
reality of death Brothers and sisters, Christ
conquers that for you. His resurrection is promised
to you, and we are told he is preparing something
for you that is so far beyond your imagining.
That is the hope you have in Christ, brothers
and sisters. Beyond all comparison, let me pray.
Lord, you know Lord, you know better than any
of us, you know better than myself how inclined
I am toward the things of this world, towards
the things that are seen and how my own ups and
downs shape my life so much. God, I thank you
for this Do Not Lose Heart, this call to courage
in the midst of this section here on suffering.
I thank you for my own heart. Lord, I pray that
we as a church But see that with you, we may
be afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed,
but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not
forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed because
you, the resurrected Christ, are with us. That
we may We may say to live as Christ, but to die,
that's gain. Because our minds and our hearts
and our eyes and our whole being has been focused
not on the things that are seen, but on the things
that are unseen. We walk by faith and not by
sight. God, I pray that we would be a church
that welcomes the opportunity to sit with one
another in our affliction and our suffering and
our pain. We know we often don't know what to
say or what to do. I pray that we would learn
to sit with one another, to be, and in that,
Lord, that you would bless us. God, I pray for
all of us here in this space, this time, that
we would hold lightly to the things of this world
and cling to the empty tomb of Jesus. God, that
we would have a deep and abiding faith That what
Paul says is this light and momentary affliction
which doesn't remotely seem light or momentary
Would in the grand scheme of what you are doing
Be truly light and momentary Because you are
preparing for us an eternal weight of glory behind
beyond all comparison God move in us in these
ways May we be found holding fast to the things
that never age. While so often we are invited
to grab, to hoard, to hold. May we hold fast
to the cross and to the empty tomb. In Jesus
name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to
Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon
has encouraged you to worship God and to celebrate
the gospel of Jesus. Please consider subscribing
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bless.