Groaning and Glory
Notes
Transcript
Main Idea: Though we suffer now, nothing compares to the glory to come in Christ Jesus.
Difference between bird flue and swine flu? One requires tweetment the other oinkment
Last week we looked at our sonship we find in Jesus and how we can find our identity in Him. If you haven’t listened I would encourage you to go back and listen because we are in a place in our society where more than anything we have a group of people looking for their identity. Who am I, like who am I really, what do I believe, what do I think, how do I know? These are all questions we find people in our society asking right now and society is happy to point them to answers to ask them to look deep inside themselves and search their own hearts for their own truth and they can find who they truly are. We saw as we dove in the Gospel really doesn’t allow for this type of thinking. There is only one truth.
However, for that sonship he finished the week off with this, and we really didn’t break into it too deeply, he says,
17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs withChrist, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Did you catch it as we read it this morning? We can find ourselves as sons of Christ and as fellow heirs with him, provided, we suffer with Him. Wait, Paul, are you sure about that, are you sure what you mean there is we have to suffer with Christ for us to be a part of the inheritance with Him? Maybe you didn’t mean it maybe it means something else, sadly, it doesn’t. I know, at some point in your life you were probably told if you came to know Jesus everything in your life would get better, all of your pains and troubles would go away. We just need to worship, serve, and live for Him and all of the troubles of this world will be gone in an instant and the life we are living will be so much easier.
Unfortunately, Paul doesn’t leave that as an option for us and furthermore he goes on to tell us if we are thinking in that manner our theology is actually really poor. He says we must suffer to find ourselves as heirs with Him. Here is what most of us should already know, we can’t outrun the suffering; we can’t outrun the troubles of this world, because there are many. I love how one pastor I heard years ago said, “You are either in the middle of trouble, just came out of trouble, or you’re headed for it.” It’s just the nature of human life, and while Jesus didn’t promise us we wouldn’t have trouble, what he said is he would be with us in the middle of it.
33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
He says look, I know its hard, but even in the middle of the trouble what you need to know is in Me, you can have peace. Its not that as we follow Jesus we won’t have the trouble, its just he will enable us to have peace in the middle of all of it because he will be with us. That should be a comfort to us in all of our pain.
It shouldn’t shock us to know we will encounter trouble in the world, because we read a ton about the trouble even these disciples and followers of Jesus had as we read our Bibles.
I love what James Boice says about the situation, “Peter and John were jailed. Stephen was killed. Paul himself was imprisoned, beaten, shipwrecked, starved, threatened. And what was true of these early preachers soon became true of their followers as well. They were ridiculed, hated, abused, and eventually martyred for their faith in great numbers. In addition, they endured the many disappointments, death, deprivations, and disasters common to all human life in a fallen and extremely sinful world. … Suffering is as common to God’s people today as in the New Testament times.”
Suffering is as common to God’s people today as in the New Testament times, and all the people of God said… Amen.
So Paul picks takes this them and tells us how we can continue walking in the Spirit even in the middle of our suffering.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Here is what I want you to hear Paul saying, he says, “Look, I understand the sufferings we are going through in this life are hard, but they aren’t anything compared to what is to come in Jesus.” This is hard for some of us to hear. Listen, we believe in Jesus and we believe in all of the things he taught, we even have this head knowledge of how good he is, but Paul says all the stuff you are going through is nothing compared to what Jesus is going to give us; nothing compares to the glory that is to come.
This is hard for us to wrap our minds around because some of us are dealing with a lot. We have received a diagnosis out of left field that we never expected, and it has changed our lives forever. We are dealing with the loss of a loved one who died too soon and, perhaps, after enduring too much pain. We are struggling with the end of a relationship we never thought we would lose. This person was closer to us than anyone else has ever been, and we feel the pain of that person no longer being there. Some of us simply cannot seem to keep our heads above water financially. Every time we finally get some breathing room, something else happens. In the midst of all this, we struggle to hear these words from Paul and see any hope for the future. When we hear Paul talking like this we think, “What do you know Paul, you were the one who got to see Jesus and hear him talk to you after His death, how could you possibly understand what I am going through. You can only write that, because you don’t have any clue.”
Well, wait right there, what you may not know, because I didn’t until after I had been to college was Paul went through some stuff. Here is the crazy part about me not knowing that, it’s all talked about in the Bible, but it was nothing I had ever really heard talked about. Look at what Paul says in 2 Cor 11:24-27
24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.
26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren;
27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
I just want to paint a picture of verse 24 for you for a second while we are here, if you have seen the Passion of the Christ this is not the same type of lashes Jesus received as Paul was being whipped by the Jews instead of the Romans. Paul’s beating, while less severe, was still a brutal beating. The Jews would lash you to a pillar with your back and chest exposed and they would use a three corded whip to beat across your back. This too, would have whelped and split open the skin across the back. The whole point here, Paul is telling you is he too has been through some hard stuff, so when he comes and tells us, “Listen, I know you think its bad now, but don’t even attempt to compare it to what is to come, its not even close.”
It reminds me of the lady in my church years ago who after dealing with cancer for over 10 years and her death was imminent called me to her house to discuss her funeral. She told me she knew she had dealt with the pain for so long, but she knew even if God had completely healed her, she would eventually die. She told me she felt lucky, because now she got to go be with Jesus instead of have to wait for that mercy.
It is almost as if she had a glimpse of exactly what Paul was talking about here, she realized what Paul is trying to get us to realize. While the sufferings we are going through are real and a huge deal, none of it compares to what is to come in the glory of Jesus. So, in light of everything, we shouldn’t look at our suffering in terms of what it is doing in our present life, but view it in light of the full scope of eternity and realize as he says in 2 Corinthians, this light affliction is preparing us for the eternal glory that is to come.
Paul wants us to understand how great that glory to come is so he talks about it in the next couple of verses.
19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Isn’t this an amazing picture? He said all of creation, all of it, is waiting to see the coming glory in Jesus. This anxious longing carries with it this picture and I almost think of the kid on his birthday party and he has constantly asked his parents for a dog, skateboard, or some gaming system in today’s society, and at the party with everyone sitting there the parents look at the kid and say, “Hey sit right there, we will be right back with your gift,” and leave the room. The kid can hardly contain himself, he’s looking out the window trying to figure out where the parents are and when they are coming back, hoping, maybe even praying, they will return with exactly what they’ve asked for. This is what he’s pointing to, this expectation, this hope of the glory to come in creation.
Now, I know what you are thinking, how is it possible for creation to do this, how can I even imagine creation crying out to Him. This image comes from Luke 19:40
40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”
And we think, surely that doesn’t happen, because you’ve been in the mountains and you have never heard the rocks talk so you can’t imagine it will ever happen. Look at what David says in Psalms 19:1-4
1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
2 Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world…
He is telling us, look the creation cries out because it is showing you and telling you how amazing God is, you look at the world around you and they are pointing shouting to the majesty of the creator. And this is what Paul is telling us in these verses, he is saying creation is looking forward to the revealing of the sons of God. It makes sense to me because we messed it all up. As sin entered the world through Adam, all of creation was cursed because of our action. So, they look forward to the revelation of the sons of God because in that day, creation will also be redeemed what it was supposed to be as the Bible teaches he will create a new heaven and new earth. Not only will we be restored to what we were supposed to be, but creation will be also.
Paul doesn’t stop there though, he says its not enough for creation to be looking forward to the day that is to come when everything will be restored, but we should also be looking forward to that day like the kid at his birthday party awaiting the best present you could possibly imagine. Look at the next 3 verses
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
This is such a cool picture, I don’t know if you have ever had a child or been with a woman who as she has had a child but this gives a perfect image. The pain of childbirth is always so bad but it seems when the child is here the pain is almost forgotten because of what you now have. In fact, for months up to childbirth Jennifer always tells herself, “I can do anything for 1 minute,” because in her mind that is all she has to deal with the 1 minute of contractions at a time until they are on top of one another of course, because she knows the joy at the end, of holding the baby will wipe away all the pain she has experienced.
In fact as I thought about her experience and her mantra to herself in those months and days up until she gave birth I realize how well that can work in our lives in light of what Paul has been teaching us in this scripture. We can remind ourselves in the middle of our trials, “I know its bad, but I can deal with anything for a minute,” and I know it is longer than a minute, but in the scope of eternity it’s not much more than that. And with Him with us, we can do anything for a minute, and soon Paul tells us we will have what is to come. We can groan now in the pain of it all, but soon, we will have the glory he has promised us.
It reminds me of the movie, Avengers: End Game, and the world has been in this horrible place for some time because of the destruction of Thanos. Families have been separated, communities have been destroyed and the Avengers that are left look around the world and realize there is nothing they can do in to fix it on their own. There is this moment near the end where Captain America is standing alone and the enemy around him seems unsurmountable. His shield is broken, his body is battered, and it is almost certain he will lose. In the midst of it all he hears a voice he recognizes, portals begin opening, and friends he thought were gone step onto the battlefield. In a moment, his suffering is placed within a much larger story.
That scene gives us a small picture of what Paul is describing in Romans 8. Right now, we stand in a world marked by broken bodies, painful losses, unanswered prayers, and graves that seem permanent. But what we see right now is not the whole story. A day is coming when Christ will return, creation will be liberated from decay, the children of God will be revealed, and everything sin has broken will be made new.
The question this morning, is in the middle of your groaning, are you looking anxiously toward the horizon and the glory to come, or are you stuck in your pain? Paul would invite you this morning to not just sit and hold on to the pain you are experiencing as real as it is, but to find hope and comfort in the fact there is something better coming for us. Something he says isn’t even comparable to the pain we find ourselves in today. Are you looking to Him? Are you able to see that while you might have trouble, he is with you, and the glory he will bring will be better than anything you could possibly imagine.
