The Glory that Awaits
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Read v. 37-39.
Is it obvious why this has been called a mountain top passage?
We talked last week about being thrust into a new state.
Now but not yet, our glory is incomplete.
A question raised then is how are we now glorified yet still waiting to be glorified?
The frustration of waiting for something you know you are going to get.
College, Job
Marriage or a child
package
Do you sense the frustration? The longing? The Pain?
Paul answers this question in four ways in this text by demonstrating how the Christian is conformed and refined in their waiting.
We are refined through our suffering (18-25)
We are refined through our suffering (18-25)
Reread verse 17.
Suffer with Christ. We will suffer, but we do not suffer alone and we do not suffer for no reason.
All suffering has a purpose, at the very least serving to highlight the glory that awaits.
Paul asserts that he does not think suffering now is of any significance when we consider the transcendent glory to come.
Think of all Paul endured.
Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
Yet he still says:
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
Notice the last phrase, preparing us.
Suffering makes our hearts grow warm to the things of God. As we await our redeemer. We long to see his face.
Creation itself senses the reality of sin and suffering. It waits along with us for the revealing of glory in totality.
Now how it ought to be and we sense this.
The concept of טוב is shattered.
Gen. 3 denotes goodness and completeness.
We see the mountains and the beauty and majesty that they represent and we are in awe that God could speak and they appeared, yet those same mountains have taken the lives of thousands throughout history. We look at the beauty of the ocean and its vast expanse and it reminds us of the greatness of God, and His uncontainable nature, yet each year hurricanes, and storms damage and destroy everything in their path. Or consider the sun, it gives and sustains life on earth, without it, scientists say everything would cease in a matter of minutes. It in some small way reveals the glory of God to us, it cannot be looked at, approached, or touched yet it warms and comforts us. But even the sun can be covered by clouds for days or months and for months a year its distance is felt in the bitter cold of winter.
Why, because God subjected it. He alone has the power and authority.
Subjected for the purpose of redemption. That through the pain God might magnify his name and bring us along with him.
In Hope, not without purpose. Why protoevangelium is necessary.
I know it hurts, but I will make all things new. Just hang on Child.
He will set all things back in place. He does not concede his creation. He transforms it. With us so that the renewal of the new creation is contingent upon our glorification.
As Adam and Eve worked the Garden, functioning perfectly, our roles in creation will be fully restored along with the creation.
Groaning like childbirth.
Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
Though we do not see it, for sight is not hope but assurance in physical transient things.
Subjected to futility.
Your frustration is a sign of the Spirit within you. A down payment on future glory.
First fruits.
And this is why we wait faithfully. The glory is worth it and it is for this reason we were saved. That all things might be made knew.
While we wait we have hope that God is leading us through even in the frustration, helping us all along the way.
Refined with a helper. (26-27)
Refined with a helper. (26-27)
The hope we have in Christ allows us to look ahead, but we are weak and helpless at times. We will need a helper.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Not left to our own devices and assumptions.
We pray wrongly. Not stylistically but in content.
Not in the will of God. Since we pray as weak creatures we are unable to always truly pray in “Jesus' name: so the Spirit helps us to pray in God’s will.
He intercedes and conforms our prayers to the will of God.
When we approach God in prayer we know he hears us. He does not struggle to interpret or apply because he himself conforms our prayers. He knows our hearts.
Parent helping a child order at a restaurant.
What Should we pray for?
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
The Spirit and our Hope keep us in our weakness, to see us through as God works out his purpose for us.
Refined for a purpose (28-30)
Refined for a purpose (28-30)
For those who love God.
Remember last week. Those whose orientation is bent towards God in the Spirit.
God works all things.
That he is working all things for good now and in that he will glorify us in the end.
How should we understand this verse in suffering?
Not prosperity. Suffering may only serve to refine our faiths.
Good in God’s terms not ours.
Moo notes that perhaps this is best understood to say everything we receive on earth, good or bad, is intended by God to bring us home.
The Purpose of God
Chiefly to glorify himself
To bring us along with him, to conform us to Christ.
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
Called to A purpose
Golden Chain
Foreknew- Not foreseen faith, since we are speaking of Christians faith is assumed, but fore-loved.
NT Usage. All but three occurences mean to enter into a relationship beforehand.
OT usage. Adam knew Eve. (LXX). No particular object, known about, but that he simply knew us.
God is talking particularly to Christians here. He foresees everything, but to foreknow or love in this instance is virtually the same.
Predestined- Always to choose beforehand.
To separate and define.
Like our foreknow this is a Greek word ith the προ prefix. Do set aside beforehand.
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Being before the foundation of the word eliminates human will. We cannot have faith or actions before the world. Before those things God loved us and chose us.
Predestined to look like Jesus. The will of God. Part of his purpose so that he could call us to more.
You have been called before you had it all together.
Called- wooed from his elect. Predestined with a purpose of being called.
Hound of heaven. Notice how it is irresistible.
People and things we are just drawn to.
Justified- You are loved, chosen, called all before you are justified.
Glorified- Past tense. Right now.
God’s decision to defer glory has already been determined even if we wait. He will come through.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Do you see it now?
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
That assurance, that you look more like Jesus each day gives you confidence that he has you.
Notice it is God doing each of these actions. He has you. He is working something beautiful in and through you. He created you and chose you with a purpose in mind and he will see you through to the very end.
Mitch’s encouragement while in Chicago.
I know it hard, hang in there. I am by your side no matter what.
Refined to endure (31-39)
Refined to endure (31-39)
Who can be against us?
Everyone, but who can stand? No one.
Give us all things as he has given his son?
Why would God leave us wanting more? He deals in abundance. Psalm 23
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
All those things necessary on the journey and more. Eph. 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Who can call into question your justification? The chief judge of the universe has rendered you innocent.
V.35 clarifies and brings up potential possibilities of things that could take us from Christ, v. 36 affirms that Christians will indeed suffer these things.
More than conquerors
emphasis in the Greek.
Not only do these things hold no sway over our eternal security, not only do we overcome them, but they are worked for good. We conquer and then some.
Physical death nor the distractions of life.
angels nor demons.
your present circumstances nor those things still to come.
nothing from the heights of heaven to the depths of hell can separate you from God.
Including you.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So how are we know glorified and still being glorified?
Through God’s active work in all things we see glimpses of glory and will see it paid in full.
In our suffering we see an inexplicable fortitude and tenderness.
In our weakness and selfishness we see our hearts somehow conformed to God’s will in an age of consumerism.
In our plans we see a remarkable imprint of a greater purpose. God brought me here and I see it.
In our longsuffering endurance we see the love of God, through all circumstances, standing in the gap, pushing us forward. That small whisper urging us home.
Yes we wait, but we wait in hope because we see God and we know in whom we have believed.
which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.