Introduction
Does a New Millennium Offer Hope?
Happy New Year! Happy New Century & Happy New Millennium! Congratulations! You‘ve made it to the year 2000 – the long dreaded Y2K bug has proved to be less nuisance than the average mosquito.
In the midst of my unpacking, I watched just a little bit of the televised New Year’s celebrations throughout the world. In every corner of the globe, there were extravagant and exuberant celebrations: fireworks, parties, dancing. Have you ever wondered why we celebrate the coming of a new year? There is something about a New Year that makes people feel they can make a new start. It is the season of resolutions, the time when we promise ourselves that this year will be different. It’s January that’s the best sales month for gym memberships and fitness gimmicks.
People seem to feel that a new year gives a clean slate, that it holds the promise of hope. Since this is not just a New Year, but a new century and even a new millennium, that sense is heightened.
False hope vs. true hope
Those who are struggling will grasp at anything that seems to offer hope. But is hope really found in a new calendar? Down deep, you know the answer. What happens to all those New Year’s Resolutions by February?
Well, if we can’t get hope from the coming of a new millennium, where do we get hope?
Perhaps you could use a little hope. Maybe you’re losing sleep over crushing financial problems. Maybe your job is squeezing the life out of you, but you’ve got a family to support and you can’t just quit. Maybe you are watching someone you love as disease drains the life out of them drop by drop. How do you take heart, instead of losing heart? Where do you find hope at the dawn of this new millennium?
Context: Why did Paul not lose heart in the midst of suffering?
In the Book of Second Corinthians, we find the Apostle Paul walking in the shadow of suffering and death. Perhaps more than any other book in the New Testament, we get a picture of the hardships Paul endured:
There were the sufferings inflicted by his persecutors: beatings and periods of imprisonment.
He was constantly on the move in a world where travel was difficult and dangerous.
He had a physical affliction, his famous "thorn in the flesh."
He suffered emotionally through the strife and rejection of the churches he loved so deeply.
In the first chapter of this letter, he tells us “the burdens laid upon us were so great and so heavy that we gave up all hope of staying alive.” Both he and his companions felt like they had already received a death sentence.
Paul knew what it was to suffer. But in the midst of his suffering, he did not lose heart. In fact, he had hope. That’s the kind of hope I want to have: not the wishful thinking kind that imagines that a new calendar will change my life, but the kind that enables me to persevere even in the midst of my struggles. If we can find out how Paul had hope, we may be able to find that same hope for ourselves.
Why did Paul not lose heart in the valley of suffering?
Meaning of the word discouraged
Paul says in verse 16 that he never becomes discouraged. The word he uses for discouraged means, "to give up out of despair" or "to quit prematurely."
It was even used to describe the experience of a woman who is giving birth and becomes so afraid and discouraged during the process of labor that she wants to give up. Of course, by then, it’s too late to give up! You’ve got a job to do and you have no choice but to persevere ’til the end.
Paul knew he had a job to do
Paul knew that God had a job for him to do, and despite the difficulties he endured, he refused to lose heart, he refused to give up before his mission was accomplished. Paul was in it for the long haul. And he knew that if he was to achieve God’s purposes in his life, he had to have an eternal perspective, he had to get a God’s eye view of life.
When I was in high school, I was involved in a Christian organization called Young Life. We used to sing a song with a haunting melody, that began "You’d better hold on... You’d better hold on... Why don’t you build your hopes on things eternal?"
Paul knows that if he’s going to hold on, his hope must be built on eternal things. In our scripture this morning, he introduces us to these eternal things -- which are the foundation of true hope -- in a series of three contrasts.
Contrast #1 Outward vs Inward
Decay of the Body
The first contrast is between what is happening outwardly versus what is happening inwardly. Outwardly, his body is "gradually decaying." The word used here can also be used for rust, the process of corrosion that slowly eats away and eventually destroys metal.
For Paul, the difficult life he led hastened the toll that time takes on all of us. But all of us will discover, if we haven’t already, that our bodies begin to deteriorate at a fairly young age. The aging process is like that rust: a day by day, bit by bit destruction of our bodies. In our culture, where beauty and youth are so highly prized, this deterioration can be very difficult to cope with. Some of us dread seeing another birthday come, because when it comes to our physical bodies, birthdays are reminders that time is NOT on our side. Kind of depressing isn’t it?
Why Paul still hopes
Paul is very aware of that relentless process of deterioration, that rusting away, yet
He doesn’t get discouraged.
He doesn’t give up prematurely.
He steadfastly refuses to lose heart.
How does he do it? You were getting depressed just listening to me talk about birthdays! How does he do it?
The Inward Process
He does it by recognizing and valuing another process that is also going on day by day: an inward process. Inwardly, spiritually, faithful followers of Christ are not deteriorating. In fact, just the opposite is happening. Inwardly, faithful followers of Christ are being renewed and strengthened every day.
The Car
Imagine you bought a brand new car. You’re so excited about it that you decide you’re going to make a home movie chronicling the life of the car. Every day you go out with your video camera and walk around the car, catching every inch of it on film. You start filming the first day you bring it home and you keep doing it for years until that thing disintegrates into a rusted out old hulk.
Now, imagine watching that film played backwards. You start out with a rusty old hulk, and every day, it’s just a little bit less rusty. Where there was deterioration, gradually, you see restoration. Where there was brokenness, there is greater wholeness. Instead of getting rustier and more decrepit every day, the car gets stronger and shinier every day, until it’s brand new: it’s completely restored and whole.
Car -Application
That is the promise that we have. Instead of becoming weaker every day, faithful followers of Christ become stronger everyday. They become more like Christ every day. And if you come to truly value becoming like Christ more than having smooth skin or a full head of hair, then this promise will bring you tremendous hope.
Birthdays
I have a friend back home named Alison. I’ve known Alison for several years now, and I’ve noticed something. In fact its hard to help noticing if you’re around her a lot. She loves birthdays. You see, Alison will turn 16 this year. And though her birthday isn’t ‘til August, she’s been talking about it for months. She’s not excited just because of the presents and the sweets, although she likes them. It’s because she is EXCITED about getting a year older. This year, of course, she’s looking forward to getting her learner’s permit – the first step towards her license.
A couple of years ago, she was excited because she was going to turn 13 and she officially became a TEENAGER. She had looked forward to that day for a long, long time. After she turns 16, she will no doubt start to count the months until she reaches the magic age of freedom: 18!
Do you know why kids love birthdays and adults don’t? Because kids love what they are becoming, and adults are afraid of what they are becoming.
Do you remember that old commercial that said, “You’re not getting older, you’re getting better!”? If it is our desire to become like Christ, then we can be excited about our birthdays, too – because we can be excited about what we are becoming. If we realize that we are becoming more like Him with every birthday, then we can act like kids again about our birthdays. If we build our hope on becoming like Christ, on the inward process, not the outward process, then we can take heart, and not lose heart, even in the midst of suffering.
We can celebrate our birthdays again – because faithful followers of Christ are getting better all the time.
Contrast #2: Afflictions are good (Isn’t suffering great?)
The second contrast, found in verse 17, has to do with how we view our hardships themselves. Paul uses some strange words here. They’re not strange because we don’t understand them, they’re strange because we can’t believe he’s serious!
The Scale
Using the image of a scale, Paul compares his suffering in this life with what that suffering is accomplishing for him in the life to come.
I don’t know about you, but if I were to put my hurts, my loneliness, my feelings of failure, my grief and my losses on a scale, they would feel pretty heavy. The weight can be overwhelming at times.
Now, in the other side we’re going to put "glory." It’s a nice word, but it sounds pretty "fluffy," like "pie in the sky bye and bye." It’s not real, it’s not solid. It doesn’t have the same kind of weight as words like cancer and debt and divorce. It doesn’t have the weight of words like loneliness, rejection, and grief.
Paul knows full well the weight of suffering. In chapter one, he says he was weighed down beyond what he could bear. He has felt the crushing burden of more suffering than I can imagine.
But when Paul weighs his troubles with the eternal glory that is to come, he flips the scale and says, "These problems of mine, they’re a flash in the pan. They’re like a snowflake that hits my hand and “poof!” it’s gone. I can’t even feel their weight.
“But the glory that is to come, the eternal radiant splendor that will be revealed when Jesus returns, that’s heavy, that’s solid. That’s real stuff."
Time & Weight
This doesn’t come across so well in our translation, but Paul uses a time word and a "weight" word for his afflictions and the glory that is to come. He describes his suffering as temporary (that is, his suffering is small in terms of time) and light (his suffering is small in terms of weight).
In contrast, the glory that is to come is eternal – its time has no limit. To describe the "weight" of glory, he uses the most vivid, extreme language he can think of: it would translate something like "the exceedingly enormous weight of glory."
He is trying to communicate to us that this earthly life, for better or for worse, is like that snowflake. It’s here for a moment and then [snap] it’s gone. But the glory that God is preparing for those who love Him, that’s forever. And furthermore, God is actually using those very struggles, that same suffering, to work that glory into us. We are transformed not in spite of our struggles, but because of them. That’s something eternal that you can build your hope on.
Marathon
What would you do if I told you that this summer at the Groundhog Festival, a corporate sponsor was going to hold a marathon here in Punxsutawney, and that every single person who finished the course would get $50K? You didn’t have to win, you just had to finish the course. Suddenly there’d be a lot of runners in Punxsy. How about you? Do you think you’d start training, too? And when you were running, would you give up because your muscles were sore or you got shin splints? No way. Why? Because you know that those aches and pains are the price you have to pay to get that prize.
In fact, you would recognize that the very suffering that you were experiencing would be what would eventually win the prize for you. And when you got that $50 grand, you wouldn’t be thinking about how sore you were when you were training, or the stitch in your side you got at the end of the race. Because when you compared your pain with fifty thousand bucks, it would seem light, and momentary, whereas the 50 thousand would feel pretty weighty and permanent.
Comparing the sufferings of training with the "glory" of $50 grand, you were able to keep yourself from losing heart because you built your hope on what your suffering was accomplishing. You refused to focus on what your sufferings did to you in the short term, and you trusted that they would achieve something that would last.
It is difficult to imagine the glories of eternity in the presence of God - since they will be like nothing we have ever seen or experienced. But the Scripture promises that when we see them, they will far outweigh the sufferings, and even the glories of this life.
Jolts to Jewels
Paul is teaching us that the jolts of life can be turned into jewels.
RECAP:
Our first key to hope: celebrate your birthdays again – celebrate the inner renewal of becoming like Christ – you’re not getting older, you’re getting better!
The second key to hope: Believe that your jolts are being turned into jewels – treasures that will last for all of eternity.
Contrast #3 The seen vs. the unseen
Finally Paul talks about fixing our attention on things we can’t see.
What if you were to walk into my study and find me staring intently at the ceiling.
You ask, "Are you looking at something, Mary?"
"Oh, yes!"
"Really? Well, I can’t seem to see anything."
"Well of course not.” I laugh, “What I’m looking at is invisible.”
And an emergency Diaconate meeting would be called. And the Pastoral Search Committee would get together and say, “Back to the ol’ drawing board.”
You’d think I was crazy, wouldn’t you? But that’s what Paul is saying in verse 18. "For we fix our attention not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen." Why? "Because what can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever."
Vacations & “Junk”
When I was a kid we used to rent a cottage at the beach every summer. Most of our time was spent on the beach, but when we would walk through town, what would "catch my little-girl-eyes" would be cheap junk like pencils with lobster erasers, or little metal toys that made this great clicking noise. I would beg my Mom to buy me this stuff, and she would say, "Oh, you don’t need that junk."
“JUNK?!?!?!!” I was cut to the heart!
Not just because she wouldn’t buy it for me, but because she didn’t appreciate what wonderful treasures I had found!
But my Mom was a wise woman. She knew that such "prized possessions" wouldn’t last. They would break or simply lay forgotten tomorrow. Things that don’t last, aren’t worth much. They’re not worth a lot of time and energy to buy or to take care of.
Only what’s eternal lasts – and is valuable
All the things you can see (not the people, but the things) are transient. If we are to build our hopes on things eternal, we cannot build them on transient things. We cannot build our hopes on our health, our jobs, our houses, our bodies, our cars, our salaries. These things just aren’t going to last. They are not going to help us to persevere in the midst of suffering. And if we build our hopes on them, our hope will come crashing to the ground.
Instead, it is the "unseen things" that will last forever. That’s why we’re told to “Gaze on the invisible.”
The unseen things
Fix your attention on the unseen things like
Being able to celebrate your birthdays again, because by the daily process of becoming like Christ, you’re not getting older, you’re getting better.
Being excited that your that jolts can turn into jewels: the sufferings of a lifetime are being transformed into eternal glory.
If we are to keep from losing heart in this new millennium, we must build our hope on things eternal. We must be willing to sacrifice the things that are passing away for the things that last forever. We must learn to value that which God values, and to value Him most of all.
Are you struggling today? How will you persevere? How will you take heart and not lose heart in the midst of suffering? Build your hopes on things eternal.
