Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, that seeks
to glorify God through biblically sound, thought-provoking, and challenging talks and interviews.
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Monday 25 February 2025, Paul Grimmond, lecturer in the Ministry and
Mission Department, speaks on 2 Corinthians 5 and the way what Christ has done shapes the way we view the world.
He reminds us that because Christ died for all, therefore all have died, and therefore we no longer live for ourselves but for him.
We hope you find the episode helpful.
Father in heaven, show us Christ.
Please as we see him show us ourselves and our neighbours.
And Lord, remind us of your goodness and grace that you might grow our trust in you.
We pray it in Jesus name, Amen.
Well brothers and sisters, I wonder how your gospel glasses are going.
When you sit and look out at the world, I wonder what it is that you perceive to be around you.
Look at yourself for a moment.
What is this bag of skin and bones in which you dwell?
What's it like?
What's it for?
When you dream, what do you dream about?
When you think of Christ, how do you think of Him?
How often do you ponder what it might mean to please Jesus?
And when you think about love, whose love do you think about?
Are you so aware of the love of Christ that it controls you?
When you walk past people on King Street, how do you see them?
As you glance beside you at your neighbor, do you see the little green shoots of the new creation poking out?
Do you see the wonder of God's righteousness in your life and in the lives of your brothers and sisters in church?
How are your gospel glasses?
Now, of course, I ask all of those questions because they're actually questions that are raised by the images of the truth of
God revealed in Jesus in his passage, which has about a thousand things to say, and we've got about 20 minutes to look at it.
Um, you could read this passage and ponder it for the next year of your life and still be finding new riches to enjoy.
But my prayer this morning is that God might lift our eyes again and remind us to see the world through glasses that
are shaped by the death and resurrection of Jesus so that we might actually see ourselves and others as God sees them.
But before we get there, I want to remind you again of the context.
Do you remember chapel on Friday?
God spoke to us through Archie, didn't he?
And he reminded us that the key to not losing heart is to see the world in certain ways in light of the gospel.
And actually that's a theme that's kind of ongoing at this point.
What does it mean not to lose heart?
The problem in 2 Corinthians is that these themes of confidence and courage and not losing heart and who's commending whom and whatever
wrap over and above and around themselves and through and again and again so it's hard to remember where you're up to and how it all works.
You see at one level you walk through 2 Corinthians and there's a set of topics and you know what to do with them.
There's stuff about jars of clay and the new creation and there's stuff about giving and there's stuff about super apostles.
But actually, there's another kind of layer, it's like a rug that's woven from these strands that's all about Paul's
relationship with this church of people that he loves and he's preached the gospel to and he's desperate with them.
So I just want to show you very quickly a picture of some key verses in Corinthians and I want to show you a few themes.
Don't worry, you don't need to be able to read it.
Here are all of the references to boasting in the letter of 2 Corinthians.
There are actually an awful lot of them.
It starts at the beginning and it runs all the way to the end.
Who's boasting about whom?
What does Paul boast about?
What do the super apostles boast about?
Who are the Corinthians supposed to boast about?
And then, alongside this question of boasting, here are all the references to confidence, or to courage, or to boldness.
Intertwined with this question of what you boast about is where is your confidence?
Do you have courage?
And particularly, is Paul someone of the kind of courage and confidence that would reflect someone who is preaching a glorious gospel?
And then there's a third set of references and you'll see those in pink.
These are all the questions of who is commending.
Is Paul being commended?
Are the Corinthians being commended of the super apostles, commending themselves and who gets to commend whom, when, and where.
So over and over boasting, courage, boldness, confidence, not losing heart, who is being commended and you see little,
little moments of these show themselves in the passage today in verse six and eight, Paul says, I am of good courage.
I'm always of good courage.
Why does he have to protest so much?
Or verse 12.
We are not commending ourselves to you again, because there's this question of
who's commending who and, and what is their credentials for the thing that they do.
So in chapter five, verse 12, we are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us.
So that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than is what is in the heart.
There are a group of people who are looking at the externals rather than what goes on inside.
And Paul is saying, I am talking to you about my confidence.
So that you might be able to answer people who are looking in the wrong way at what actually matters because you see the world in
the right way and all of this occurs of course because all of these questions relate to your experience of Paul and his ministry.
Verse 13, isn't he a little mad, out of his mind, slightly beside himself?
In verse 16 there are people who are regarding him according to the flesh.
And not according to faithful spiritual categories.
Over in chapter 10 and verse 2, we'll learn that people are asking, is Paul walking according to the flesh?
Because chapter 10 and verse 10, some say, his letters are weighty and forceful,
but in person, he is unimpressive, and his speaking amounts to nothing.
Now I just want you to ponder for a moment.
That someone in your congregation is having a conversation with someone else in your congregation and says
about you, well, he can write in a way that's weighty and forceful, but in person, he's pretty ordinary.
And actually he's speaking amounts to nothing.
I just want you to feel a sting of that for just a minute.
Paul
has brought the gospel to these people.
He's loved them with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
He longs for them to continue in the Lord Jesus.
And there's all these people whispering, he's pretty rubbish, isn't he?
And what do you think of the Jesus that he preaches?
What would it take to have confidence?
Not brash, ridiculous, I'm in control of the world confidence, but faithful,
true, obedient, gracious confidence in the face of relationships like this.
Well, I think Paul shows us three things in this text that are crucial for maintaining your confidence.
He says, see the end clearly, understand the now and not yet.
He says, see Christ's work clearly and keep reminding yourself of it.
And so see others clearly and continue to do the work of the Lord.
Three things.
See the now and not yet see Christ's work and see the need of others.
The now and not yet.
Have you ever longed to be somewhere other than where you are right now?
And I hope not during the middle of this talk, but you know, another moments in your life.
Um, when I was a student, uh, I used to have math tutorials on the 14th floor of the Matthews building at the University of New South Wales.
If you've never been in that building, it's right on top end of the campus and it's the tallest building on the top end of the campus.
And the lovely thing about the math tutorial rooms is that they have windows down the southwest side of the building.
So you can sit and you can watch the board and you can wonder about the kind of intricacies
of differential calculus or the way that matrices allow you to do one way encryption.
Or, you can look out the windows and watch the planes taking off at Kingsford Smith Airport.
And I will tell you that lots of my math tutorials were not spent thinking about the wonders of differential calculus,
but a whole lot more watching those little planes taxi to the end of the runway and then the pilot kind of lets rip
and the plane rockets down the thing and takes off into the freedom of the skies and you wonder where they're going.
Because it's got to be better than what you're doing right now.
There are moments when actually you're, you're not about here, but where you would like to be.
Sometimes it happens when you're camping for a while as well.
I don't know what your experience of camping is.
I love camping.
I love it dearly.
But there are moments When you don't want to be here anymore.
I remember one particular afternoon on which we had a storm, a break and another storm during which the lightning hit a tent on the opposite
side of the campsite, uh, the rain was so heavy that our tent actually collapsed under the weight of the rain and snapped a couple of the poles.
And it was the same afternoon that a friend of mine had been taken to hospital with a funnel web spider bite.
Yes, my UK, they really are here.
Uh,
It's okay, Aussies are tough, he was totally fine.
Uh,
Camping's fun sometimes, but there are other moments.
When everything's filthy, and you're dog tired, and you just desperately want a warm shower, and you want a bed that doesn't deflate in the night.
Paul says, you see this thing that you're dwelling in, this body that you're living in,
this skin and bone that you pinch and it wrinkles and takes a while to get back to normal.
It's a tent.
It's what it is.
It's a tent.
And it's not.
Your home chapter 5 in verse 4 while we are in this tent We groan and are burdened because we do not wish to be
unclothed But to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life
What's the right posture for dwelling in a tent?
Well, it's groaning You live in a tent, but God's Got an eternal body that he's prepared for
you in the Lord Jesus Christ, that will be infinitely better than this body in which you dwell.
And don't you love that image that life eats death for breakfast.
There is gonna come a day when you'll stand face.
to face with the risen Lord Jesus and it will be the moment when life pervades all of the death filled realities of a fallen creation and
your body will be transformed to be like his glorious body and you will stand in a new dwelling that's actually fit to inherit eternity.
And so every minute in this body is a minute away from home and where you belong is not ultimately here.
How often do you remember that you're not home?
True glory, real comfort, final rest.
They're not here.
You're a disciple living in a passing creation.
Do you stop and remind yourself that you dwell in a body that's fading away?
There is something much better to come.
The busyness and the brightness and the colors and the movement of the internet, of the
person next door, of the show that you watch on television, of the thing that you eat.
Keeps whispering to you that this is all you got.
Paul says you want true confidence.
Realize where you're actually dwelling and know where your home is.
Your life goal is not to suck everything out of these nasty brutish and terribly short days.
Your goal is to be faithful to the Lord Jesus.
And to see him on that last and glorious day and to inherit all of eternity.
But of course as you remember the now and not yet and the reality of your heavenly home, there is
one other truth about what happens between here and there that is worth remembering verses 9 and 10.
So we make it our goal to please him whether we are at home in the body or away from it for we must all appear.
Before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Our salvation is not at stake, brothers and sisters.
God, in his kindness, will shield us from eternal judgment.
But there is a lot of biblical evidence.
That how you have lived your life and what you have lived for will be revealed for what it is on the day when you meet Jesus face to face.
What you have invested in, where your time has been spent, what you have engaged in, what you've
done, what you've spoken with your lips, the hours that you've spent mulling away in your life.
will actually be revealed for what they are when you appear face to face before Jesus.
Do you not want to be pleasing to your master when you see him on the day of judgment?
So think about what that means.
When you go to class today, what will it look like to please Jesus?
When you go to lunch and you think about who you're going to sit with and
about what you're going to talk about, what will it look like to please Jesus?
On the way home this afternoon, as you sit beside someone on the bus, or you walk down the street.
What's it going to look like to please Jesus because you're not home yet?
Paul sees the now and not yet clearly.
Secondly, he sees Christ's work very clearly.
Verse 11.
Because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died, and he died for all that.
Those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.
I wonder when people ask you about why you've come to college, what your answer is.
I wonder where you go.
I wonder what bubbles out of you when people ask you why you came to study here.
Well, I've got a suggestion for you next time someone asks you that question, why did you come to college?
Because Christ.
Died for all and therefore I died and I died so that I might live for something
far more Important than my short term comfort or a reasonable retirement plan.
Are you here because someone told you you should come?
Because your secular job wasn't going great But you get a kick out of teaching people Because you get nice
feelings when people say nice things that you about you at church because people at church are generally nice
There are lots of lurking motives, aren't there?
Lots of things that spike us and poke us and move us about and give us reasons to do things.
But I'll give you a God honoring biblical reason to be here.
When Christ died, you died, and you died so that you might no longer live for yourself, but for Him who died and was raised for you.
Everything about you before you came to Christ is dead, pushing up the daisies, kaput, finished, gone.
The scripture's new life by the work of God's spirit is sprouting in you, and God is making new desires to grow in the place of the old.
And he's giving you new longings and he's reminding you of who you are and where you belong in Christ.
Now you look at the bag of bones and you give a little pinch and you try to look after it.
But can I just tell you, no amount of gyming is going to save it.
No amount of running, no amount of exercise, no amount of eating correctly is gonna keep it from the grave.
Because the signs of the new creation are not yet present in your body, they will appear at the end when Christ comes.
The signs of the new creation that are at work right now is what's happening in your heart and your mind and your motivations
and as you seek to put into practice the truths that God has made real because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Do you see in yourself?
Do you see in your brothers and sisters?
If you are in Christ, the old has gone and the new has come.
You are a new creation.
Now it defies belief sometimes, right?
You look and you wonder, and yet here is the promise of all of the truth of God.
God's spirit, the Holy spirit, the spirit of life, the spirit that breathed life
into Adam and Eve is now the spirit at work in you and you have spiritual life.
And you have new life, and all of your old life has been forgotten because of verse 21.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Do you know there's only one person in the entire history of the world who has had no sin?
Think about all of the billions of people who have lived.
There is one person.
Who has ever been without sin, never lived for him, just for himself, never disregarded God in the moment,
never let his anger get out of control, never justified his lust, never pretended that white lies are okay
because they're not black lies, hasn't harbored jealousy or greed in his heart, hasn't looked on in envy.
There is one man in all of the history of the world who does not deserve to face the anger and wrath of a just and holy God.
And do you know what happened to him?
The father sent the son to go to the cross to stand in the place of people who are like that,
so that in him We might become the righteousness of God.
If that does not astound you, or knock you over, or just leave you in awe of the graciousness of
your Father, and the wondrous love of the Lord Jesus Christ, then nothing will touch your heart.
You are completely, finally, totally, and utterly forgiven of every sin that you have ever committed against your Heavenly Father.
Because God made He who knew no sin to be sin for us.
That in him we might be the righteousness of God.
But 1st 16, So from now on, you can't regard anyone from a worldly point of view.
Though maybe you regarded Christ this way, you can do so no longer.
I once thought of Jesus as a fairy story.
I grew up in a home where the gospel wasn't preached and the Bible wasn't known.
And I thought Christ was make believe.
But some very precious people explained to me that Jesus was real, and that his death and resurrection meant something.
And once you have seen and understood that, you can think about nobody in the same way again.
Those people who walk past you on King Street, or whom you sit beside on the bus on the way home, or
your friends and your family who don't know Christ, stand outside of Christ, but as precious creatures
who belong to God, and who are in desperate need of the death and resurrection of Jesus, right?
You can't look as people as things to be manipulated or things that get in your
way, but actually you are supposed to love because you have been loved so deeply.
Why are you at college?
Because one died for all.
And therefore all have died no longer to live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.
Brothers and sisters, What will it mean for you to see the world through God's glasses, talk to each other about it at
morning tea and at lunch and actually for the rest of the week and the rest of your time at college and the rest of your life?
Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven, we long for the day when life will swallow up mortality
and we long for hearts that might remember that day each day and so cling less closely to the things of the world.
And Lord, we long to be at home with Jesus.
To be pleasing to him on that day.
So, Lord, remind us that we have died.
Remind us that we no longer live for what we used to live for.
Teach us to see the people that you love and long for them to know Christ and teach us to live
and speak the truth of our righteous, holy gracious Lord, who gave himself for us, our men.
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