Word of Salvation – Vol.50 No.6 – February 2005

We Have A Future

Sermon by Rev J Joubert on Romans 8:18-25

Scripture Reading:  Isaiah 40:26-31

Suggested Hymns:  Rej 500; 393; 295; BoW 177; Rej 404; 559

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ...

Some time ago my wife and I watched a movie titled, The Indictment: The McMartin Trial, based on the true story of one of the longest, most expensive and most futile court cases in history. A very committed Christian family (mother, daughter, grand-daughter) owning a day care centre, and three female employees, were accused of sexually abusing 85 children. After six years in gaol for some, all were released after being found innocent on 85 charges of abuse.

The movie ends where the daughter, who was in her fifties and severely traumatised in goal, asks her mother, "We have lost everything - our houses, our business, our friends, our lives. I will never be able to cope with this. We have no future! Why did God allow this to happen to us?" The wise mother, who was in her seventies, said, "Don't blame God! He has got nothing to do with it! People never allowed Him to be part of this! They were too busy planning what they wanted to do. If they just allowed Him to have a say, everything would have been different! So, don't blame God! Blame mankind who don't acknowledge God anymore!"

Dear friends, how would you have responded to such accusations? How would you deal with such adversity?

I watched a television programme where one of the participants said that mankind has lost hope. He said that people don't look forward to the future anymore. He said that modern man has developed a fatalistic view of life. Apparently man has turned into a "shoulder shrugging" wimp. Is this how you feel - someone without hope, someone without a future, someone who stopped caring, someone who stopped fighting for what is important in life?

You know, if there were people who were supposed to fall to pieces, if there were people who were supposed to dress in sackcloth and pour ashes on their heads, then it was the people of the early church - especially the members of the church in Rome. They were cruelly persecuted. Thousands paid the highest price. These people could have lamented, "We don't see any purpose in living! We have no future! We have no hope! We have lost the desire to live! Nothing matters anymore!"

However, dear friend, it was these people caught up in the vortex of life, these people who struggled bitterly just to stay alive, who said, "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:38-39).

Caught up in the darkest darkness, they chanted, "We see the light!" You see, nothing could separate them from the wonderful future hope they came to believe in. They believed even more when their misery was at its peak. Fearlessly they looked ahead. Patiently they waited.

I wonder, how did they achieve this? What makes them different from modern man? Culturally modern man has come to expect and demand instantaneous results. We want things to finish quickly. We see completion in the immediate. We live in the present tense. And a rushing impatience characterises our mode of living. Destructive impatience seems to spread through our lives, placing our focus on the now, the urgent and immediate. As a result we are unwilling and unaccustomed to wait for things to fully develop or to consider the longer view.

The problem with our impatient emphasis on the immediate present is that such a perspective is far too small and limited. It leaves too little room for life to change and to get better. It fails to recognise that God is still very much at work and that the process of creation continues in our lives and in the world.

What is the difference between the early Christians and modern man? It is really only a matter of perspective. Let me illustrate it this way. If you close one eye, hold out your thumb and move it back, see how your thumb can cover up much larger objects than itself. That is the power of perspective. Because your thumb is so much closer and immediate, it appears bigger than larger things in the far distance. It is really a matter of perspective. We tend to focus on the here and now, our immediate concerns, letting them overwhelm and dominate, as they block out larger and longer-term considerations.

The early Christians saw life in the right perspective - past, present and future. They knew what they once were. They knew that they are in Christ. They knew what they were going to be one day. And this knowledge caused them to develop a perspective on life. And because of this perspective they could believe - for they knew who controlled past, present and future! They remembered Jesus' promise that nothing would happen to a child of God that God didn't allow. They knew who is in control!

Up close many things seem devastatingly crucial and momentous, yet at a distance, taken in the total context of your life, they fade insignificantly into the fabric of your background. It's in that same sense of perspective that Paul writes, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us" (Rom 8:18).

The Apostle Paul understood some things about perspective. So he applied this concept of long-term, eternal perspective to his theological interpretation of pain and suffering, of trials, tribulations, tragedies and troubles. Now Paul knew a lot first hand about suffering and hard times. He endured frequent beatings, he was whipped repeatedly, stoned and left for dead, wrote most letters from prison, many times betrayed by friends, shipwrecked at least twice, he had poor vision and suffered chronic health problems.

It is this Paul who writes, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us" (Rom 8:18). You see, Paul recognises that it's all just momentary and minor and that it doesn't compare to the glory that awaits. That is so much larger than anything that can be seen in the present.

He explains this further in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17, "So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure." God is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory. Can you believe it - Paul actually thinks that our struggles might even do us some good.

Dear friends, these early Christians grasped one of the most basic principles of life. What man deems as meaningful is not necessarily meaningful according to God. What is most important from our perspective is not necessarily important at all to God! What we expect from life is not necessarily the same as what God expects!

Do you know what this means? It means that if we really desire inner peace, if we really want life to make sense, we need to change our perspective. The idea is to strip off this life's mundane superficialities while working with others beyond their own abilities, so that through adversity we learn to think and see beyond their present situation and circumstances. It is to see from a new perspective.

Paul's perspective is to see this mortal life as the way that God prepares us for the coming eternal life. Therefore, the adversity and suffering that we faithfully endure and our experience of God's faithfulness amid tribulation is the way that our faith grows and matures into trust. And as our relationship with God improves and deepens over time, and by our own experience of God's love and sustaining presence, we will come to recognise and realise that God has been at work in our lives all along, preparing us to live eternally in the kingdom of God.

Paul stresses much more than to say just that God is always with us. Paul is making an even more outrageous claim, that somehow God will transform and redeem and recreate even the worst of our disasters to accomplish some good. That even the worst and most painful that we must endure, God can use for our benefit, for our good and growth. Paul declares in Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."

The question is a matter of perspective - how we choose to respond. For some, suffering and struggle makes them strong and compassionate, as they are drawn in closer and walking with God. Others become calloused, embittered and defeated, and they cannot see past the difficulties of the day. But the truth is that affliction is probably much better than happiness for developing strength, perseverance and character.

So, is our focus going to be on just our own present concerns, or do we look to God in faith and hope, trusting that God has something in mind beyond our immediate struggles; a far larger and more glorious purpose, to which, whatever sufferings we endure, cannot be compared?

As we read in James 1:2-4, "My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."

Now that doesn't mean that we won't truly hurt, bleed and groan, or that our losses aren't real, painful and agonising. But the promise is that God won't waste what we endure. God won't waste what we endure, for God will accomplish over time some good - some purpose.

God has promised that whatever the loss, tragedy, pain, disaster, trouble or wounds, these will not be left to just fester and rot. God offers to bring healing and hope, through which God will create something good, worthy and magnificent. God gives us this assurance in the prophecy of Isaiah.

In a context of hopelessness, agony, confusion and defeat, Isaiah tells Israel in exile to go out and look up at the stars: "Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable" (Is 40:26-28).

God reminds us that He, who created and named the universe, also has the power to restore, redeem and make right, even from the most hopeless and impossible situation. And though we may appear as inconsequential mere creatures, yet God tells us that we are beloved, precious in His sight. God will not forsake or ever abandon us. And in fact, our lives are a part of God's ongoing creative process.

Isaiah makes a seemingly outrageous claim, an unbelievable assurance to those struggling and in great pain: "He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Is 40:29-31).

The promise is that though today we may not be able soar, not now and not yet, some day - maybe even soon - some day, surely some day we shall indeed soar with laughter and joy. Over time, even the most broken and devastated life will soar, and can once again be filled with hope, promise and purpose.

Paul and Isaiah both have that long-term view of life; they are not focussed on their immediate troubles. For both Paul and Isaiah, their hopes and their expectations are not limited to just their present circumstances. Indeed, they are looking beyond, trusting in God, for there is far more than just what meets the eye.

God's redemptive purpose is at work in our lives and in our world. Therefore, we are not defined by our failings or flaws, nor by any past or present situation or circumstance. BUT rather, we are defined by the love and good purpose of God; by God's promises, by God's presence in our lives - for in the Lord our God we are truly destined to soar. "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Rom 8:25,28).

If you have a choice between a wonderful earthly life where everything happens just as you wish, or certainty about your eternal place at the wedding banquet of the Lamb - what will you choose? By the grace of God the early Christians could choose eternity. Remember everything of this earth will perish. But the things of God's kingdom are eternal. On what are you going to focus? Hope, peace, meaningfulness, the future, life itself is all a matter of perspective. What does it reveal about you?

So our call is to lift up our eyes according to Isaiah, to believe, to see above and beyond our present circumstances, and look for God's gracious hand at work in our lives. In God we surely do have a future, a glorious future, that is already in process, progressing far beyond and above the reality we see, far beyond even the best we can imagine.

Amen.