Fruit or leaves? (Mark 11.1-26)

We are very happy to resume our series on the Gospel of Mark after the summer break. We expect to finish this series before Christmas.

To illustrate the central message of today’s text, I'm going to tell you something that some of you already know. I haven't mentioned it to the whole church so far, because most of the time it's not relevant.

This time, I think it may be useful.

Generally, I like myself. I like how God created me.

But when I was a teenager, I started to develop...the best way to explain it is a feeling of inevitable failure. Not for big things, but in very ordinary situations. I always feel like there's something missing that prevents me from understanding very basic things or social situations. And so, you make a lot of mistakes in very ordinary situations, and you get used to that feeling: you feel like a failure even though you haven't failed.

My whole adult life has been like that.

To be clear: I have prayed a lot about this, and again, I love how God made me. There is no identity crisis in what I am saying. It is simply the feeling that in many situations in life, I am missing something. Like, "You're a really good guy, Jason...it's just that you're very shy, and not very smart. And that's okay: there are things you do very well. But in most ordinary areas of life, you're a little dumb, that's all."

That's what I thought.

But in February, I was diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and a fairly aggressive form of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—not physical hyperactivity, of course, but mental). I don't like those terms (I prefer to call them "challenges" rather than "disorders"), but more importantly, they are not illnesses that can be cured; they are simply part of the way God formed my brain.

This diagnosis explains so much, both to the people who know me and to myself. But the biggest thing it explains is that the things I used to think about myself are not true. I am not "a little stupid": I simply lack the tools I need to process certain information. I am not "socially awkward": I simply lack the tools I need to decode certain elements and know how to respond to them. What I used to think about myself was not true. I was wrong in my assessment of myself.

And knowing what is true about myself—that this difficulty stems from the way God created my brain—is a huge gift, because it gives me the opportunity to understand these things and learn how to manage them.

I have said all this to illustrate a very simple but very big problem that goes to the heart of this passage in Mark 11. And the problem is the same one I just mentioned: what we think about ourselves is not always true. We are sometimes wrong in our assessment of ourselves, and especially of our faith.

Many Christians think about their faith in a way that does not correspond to reality.

So in today's text, Jesus helps us to "diagnose" our faith. He helps us to see the truth about the state of our faith...which allows us to finally begin to live out what we say we believe.

But before we go any further, let's quickly review what we've seen in the first ten chapters of Mark's Gospel.

Mark encountered Christ through the apostle Peter; in his Gospel, he recounts what Peter saw during his time with Jesus. Mark's main purpose in this book is to show us who Jesus is, what he did, and how he calls us to live as disciples. A disciple is someone who follows and learns from a teacher; and the Teacher we follow and learn from is Jesus Christ himself.

Mark presents Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah whom God promised to send to the people of Israel to save them. At that time, Israel was living under Roman occupation, the people were oppressed, and naturally thought that this promised Messiah, when he came, would free them from this oppression.

And Mark immediately begins to show us that Jesus possesses absolute, perfect, universal authority. He is the Savior the people need, and therefore the people must follow him.

In chapters 1 through 7, Mark shows us Jesus' authority through his ministry. First, he acts in Galilee, among the Jews. He calls his disciples, teaches through parables, heals the sick, casts out demons, and demonstrates his power over nature. The religious leaders cannot tolerate him because they see him as a threat, and they begin to plot how they might eliminate him.

Even more surprising, after ministering among the Jews, Jesus leaves Galilee, goes to the Gentiles, and there too he teaches and performs miracles.

Then, in chapter 8, things take a different turn: Jesus heads for Jerusalem. He begins to explain to his disciples what it really means to be disciples, what it will cost them. He is transfigured before three of his disciples, proving that he is truly the Son of God. Everything seems to be going in the right direction: Jesus is walking toward victory.

But—and this is troubling for the disciples—Jesus repeats three times that he is going to Jerusalem, but that he is going there to die.

And that is where we are in the story. In today's text, which we have just read, we see that Jesus finally arrives in Jerusalem.

The triumphal entry (vv. 1-11)

Verses 1 to 11 serve as a kind of introduction to what we are about to see. Jesus told his disciples that he was going to die in Jerusalem, and yet what is about to happen here seems to contradict that idea.

Jesus and his disciples arrive in Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem. First, he sends his disciples ahead of him and tells them to go into the village, where they will find a colt that no one has ever ridden. He tells them to bring it to him, and if anyone asks them what they are doing, to say, "The Lord needs it."

So the disciples must have wondered: How does Jesus know there will be a colt there? Why would someone we don't know let us take the colt just because we say the Lord needs it? If I were them, I would have some questions.

It's amazing, but it works—everything happens exactly as Jesus said it would. Even though he is coming to Jerusalem to die, he is in control of what is happening.

So they arrive in Jerusalem, with Jesus riding on the colt, and he is welcomed in spectacular fashion. This moment is called the "triumphal entry" for good reason. The people spread their cloaks and branches on the road, as if rolling out the red carpet for him. The crowd cheers him, shouting in verse 9:

“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

There is a lot of symbolism here, which tells us a lot about who Jesus is. By riding on a donkey that no one has ever ridden before, Jesus fulfills a prophecy about the Messiah found in Zechariah 9. The Messiah is the one who would come to save God's people, and the people know it—the word "Hosanna" they shout literally means "save." They also speak in v. 10 of "the kingdom that is coming, the kingdom of David, our father!" David is the idealized king of God's people, and everyone knew that the Messiah would be of his lineage—and that Jesus is too.

It is not just a teacher who is coming to Jerusalem. It is the Messiah, the Savior, the King of God's people. These people respond to Jesus exactly as they should.

The fig tree and the temple (vv. 12-21)

After visiting Jerusalem, they return to Bethany to sleep. The next day, they take the same route back to Jerusalem. And we see something really strange. V. 12:

12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

At first glance, it's a little hard to know what's going on here: Jesus curses a tree because it has no fruit, even though it's not even fig season.

In our family, two people are early risers (Loanne and Jack), and two others are definitely not. Zadie and I need a lot of time to wake up in the morning; for a good half hour (or more), we're both pretty grumpy.

So... did Jesus have a rough night? Hasn't he had his coffee yet? Why is he so grumpy?

Of course, that's not what's going on. As Mark says, it wasn't fig season, and Jesus knew it. When he went to see the fig tree, he didn't really expect to see fruit on the branches.

Jesus does what he does for a reason that the disciples would not immediately understand. So we'll wait a little while too.

After this somewhat strange moment on the Mount of Olives, Jesus and his disciples return to Jerusalem. They enter the temple, and there, the grumpy Jesus seems to reassert himself. V. 15:

15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

What Jesus does seems extreme—but again, it's not that Jesus is in a bad mood. What he does is very calculated and appropriate.

Historically, the temple was the place where God's presence resided. It was there that God's people gathered to worship Him. Jesus himself says this when he explains why he is doing what he is doing in verse 17: he quotes Isaiah 56, where God says, "My house shall be called a house of prayer" ( Is. 56:7 )... and the people who are there have turned it into a place of commerce, a "den of thieves."

What's more, all this business was taking place in the outer court of the temple, which was the only place in the temple where non-Jews were allowed to go: they were not allowed to enter the inner court. Essentially, the place of prayer for non-Jews had been stolen to be used for commerce.

But, Jesus says in verse 17 (quoting from the book of Isaiah), God's house was not only meant to be a house of prayer, but "a house of prayer for all nations." As R.C. Sproul says, "The Jews hoped that the Messiah would purify the temple of the non-Jews, but Jesus purified the temple for the non-Jews."

Jesus "cleansed the temple" because these people—and the religious leaders who allowed this to happen—had turned the temple into something it was not meant to be.

We see in verses 18-19 that the religious leaders are furious at Jesus' actions and are looking for a way to destroy him, because the people are actively listening to him. Jesus now a real and imminent threat to them.

So Jesus and his disciples leave, returning to Bethany via the Mount of Olives, and the next morning, they take the same route again.

And what did they find? Verse 20:

20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

Let's go back a moment. If you participated in the co group this week, you probably talked about this.

All the authors of the Gospels are excellent theologians. They often structure their stories, and sometimes even rearrange the chronology a little, in order to show us a deeper spiritual truth.

Mark, in particular, likes what I call the sandwich: he starts with one story, moves on to another, then returns to the first story to show the connection between the two.

That's what he does here:

A) The fig tree (vv. 12-14)

B) The temple (vv. 15-19)

A) The fig tree (vv. 20-21)

This is not just a matter of chronology: Mark deliberately structures his passage in this way.

The question is: what does he want us to understand?

Why did Jesus curse the fig tree?

This kind of thing is not unprecedented in the Bible. God often told the Old Testament prophets to use objects or images to illustrate their point. Amos used a plumb line. Jeremiah used a yoke. For Hosea, it was his own marriage, poor man.

Jesus does exactly the same thing here: he uses the fig tree to present an image.

And the image was not new either. The fig tree is a frequent image in the Old Testament to refer to the people of Israel.

So what is so special about this fig tree? Not much, except that, as we see in verse 13, from the outside it looks like a tree that could bear fruit—its leaves are still visible. But there is no fruit.

And that is what we see in the temple.

The temple was a place that should have produced one thing, but it produced another. Because of the self-centeredness and hypocrisy of the leaders of the people, the whole purpose of the temple is obscured. There should be fruit here, but all we see are leaves: a place that looks like the house of God, but from which God has essentially been banished.

The fig tree, which looks healthy but bears no fruit, is a perfect picture of the temple and the people of Israel who turned it from a house of prayer into a den of thieves. This miracle, the only miracle of "destruction" performed by Jesus, is a warning. Just as Jesus "judged" the fig tree, God will judge his people who have the appearance of piety but bear no fruit.

The fruit of true faith (vv. 22-25)

Jesus could have stopped there—the symbolism behind his action was already clear enough. But he continues and gives his disciples an explanation of everything they have seen. An explanation that may be a little difficult to grasp, but one that will become clearer as we move through the next chapters.

Peter is surprised that the fig tree has withered: Jesus' curse the day before has worked.

And what Jesus says in response is, at first glance, just as surprising. Mark 11:22-24 (S21):

22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly?, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Verses 23-24 are well known. They are often used to defend the so-called "word of faith ministries." The idea is simple: if you have enough faith, God will do what you want. At the beginning of his book Your Best Life Now, Joel Osteen recounts how, when he goes to the mall, he often prays that God will give him a parking space near the entrance. And, he says, because he prays with faith, a space opens up right in front of him!

"Jesus showed his power with the fig tree, then told us that if we have faith, we can do even more incredible things, even move mountains! So if we really believe, what we pray for will surely happen."

At first glance, that's what Jesus seems to be saying. But we must always read verses in their context: in their immediate context and in the context of the entire Bible.

Look closely at what Jesus says. He does not say—as is often quoted—“by faith, you can move mountains.” He says, “If anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast yourself into the sea’…”  He seems to be talking about a specific mountain, not just any mountain.

And in fact, if we remember the context, it makes sense. When Jesus said this to his disciples, they were on the road between Bethany and Jerusalem, which placed them on the Mount of Olives, outside Jerusalem, just to the east.

From that vantage point, there was one building in the city that would have been visible above all others.

You guessed it: it was the temple, which was built on the highest hill in the city—a bit like Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre. Even today, this hill in Jerusalem is called the Temple Mount.

So which mountain is Jesus talking about? It is either the Temple Mount or the Mount of Olives, where Jesus and his disciples are standing. And in both cases, what he says makes sense.

Why? Because Jesus had just cursed the fig tree.

We remember that the cursed fig tree was a living parable of the judgment that God would bring upon a people who did not bear fruit.

In the year 70, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman army, and the temple was destroyed. Most theologians consider this event to be the beginning of what Jesus called "the last days." The temple disappeared—today, in its place stands the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

As for the Mount of Olives, in Zechariah 14, God speaks of the day of Christ's return, when Jerusalem will be judged. This prophecy says (perhaps figuratively) that on that day, the Mount of Olives will split in two, and the faithful who are in Jerusalem will escape through the valley created by this fissure—like an emergency exit opened by God Himself to allow them to flee judgment.

In both cases, the message is clear: Jesus tells his disciples that God's plan will be fulfilled. Soon, all of this—all of these manifestations of pride and hypocrisy on the part of a people in rebellion against God—will be judged.

But you, my disciples, will be spared, because you will be different. You will not be like the fig tree that looks healthy but bears no fruit. 

Do you see what Jesus is doing? In the context of this entire discussion, Jesus distinguishes true faith from hypocritical faith. He contrasts Jerusalem—a city that resembles a people who worship God but bear no fruit—with those who will truly be his disciples, those who will bear fruit.

And he gives them two concrete ways to recognize this fruit—and thus, Jesus summarizes the entire spiritual life of a true disciple, represented by an inner aspect and an outer aspect of the life of a faithful disciple.

The internal act is prayer: he tells them to pray with faith.

Those who bear fruit for God have an intimacy with God that compels them to pray, and to pray in a certain way.

There are two traps we can fall into when we pray. The first is the "word of faith" mentality we talked about earlier: believing that God will do whatever I say just because I have faith. I don't think Jesus encourages us in this way, and I think the rest of the Bible makes that pretty clear. (See Paul’s prayer to God in 2 Corinthians 12 if you doubt me. If we take this verse out of its context and read it in its most literal sense possible, the only conclusion we can make is that Jesus is lying when he tells us we will receive whatever we pray for. When we keep it in its context, Jesus’s words are still difficult to understand, but we can at least see that he’s aiming for something deeper than God-as-divine-vending-machine prayers.)

But there is also a second trap we can fall into, and that is praying because God tells us to pray…but without much hope that it will change anything, because in any case, God will do what He wants.

We must be careful how we apply these words of Jesus—they can easily be twisted and cause a lot of damage. But what is undeniable—and impossible to miss when reading this text—is that in these verses Jesus encourages his disciples to pray with confidence, to expect that God will truly answer their prayers.

I bake really good cookies. When my kids ask me for one, I want to say yes, because they really are very good. But what do I do if they ask me for a cookie for breakfast? Then I say no. Not because the cookie isn't good, but because it's not good for them at that particular moment. When I say no, they'll be disappointed... but not disillusioned: they know I love them and that I have a good reason for saying no. My relationship with them isn't affected.

Those who truly know God, who have a real relationship with Him, know that God hears their prayers and answers them—even if sometimes the answer is no. As John Piper said, "God always gives His children exactly what they ask for in prayer...or something even better. " He doesn't always give us what we want, but He always gives us what is good for us.

And so we pray with confidence in the goodness, wisdom, and power of our God. We expect him to answer our prayers. In fact, the most fundamental prayer we can offer is that God will fulfill his plan: that he will judge sin, return to raise up his people, and take them to eternal life with him—exactly what Zechariah 14 announced, and what Jesus refers to here.

So how do we pray as disciples of Christ? We pray with confidence and hope, wherever we are, because we know our Father. Our intimacy with him gives us confidence in him.

That is the internal aspect. But there is also an external aspect to true faith, which Jesus summarizes in verse 25.

25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

I want to be sensitive here, because I don't know what you're all going through. Forgiving is never easy, and the degree of difficulty increases with the severity of the hurt. It's hard, and recovering from such a hurt often takes time to heal. We don't necessarily feel full of grace.

That is not what Jesus is talking about; he is not talking about a feeling.

He is talking about a deliberate refusal to forgive others.

It's hard to hear, and I don't want to be too harsh, but it must be said: anyone who prays to God while refusing to forgive those who have wronged them is committing a deeply hypocritical act. (Again, I'm not talking about the emotion of it, but the decision not to forgive.)

When we come to God in prayer, we know that the only reason we can approach him without being judged on the spot is because Christ was punished in our place for our sins on the cross. We have access to this intimacy with God because our sins have been forgiven.

So how can we, who have been forgiven, refuse to forgive others? How can we claim that our faith is real if our response to the sins of others is deliberately opposed to God's response to our sin?

You see, here Jesus gives only two examples of what the “fruit” of our salvation looks like. If our faith is real, there will be an inner change—in our spiritual life and our intimacy with God—and there will be an outward change—in the way we behave and treat the people around us.

There are attitudes and actions that simply make no sense to someone who has understood and accepted the gospel of Christ.

Those who bear fruit for God are not those who perform the right rituals or who are content to "obey" on the surface. Those who stop at superficial obedience will be judged as the hypocrites that Jesus denounces in this passage.

In contrast, those who have true faith are transformed. We are different. We are "new creatures," as the apostle Paul said. And this change is visible.

Conclusion

I mentioned my diagnosis at the beginning. Others have had similar experiences, where a diagnosis like this is truly life-changing. It changes the way we look at our whole life. It helps us see things as they really are. And it helps us know how to move forward. This text should have the same effect on each of us.

Some of you think that everything is going well in your Christian life, when in fact it is not. "Look at everything I do, all the Christian activities that fill my schedule." Yes, you are doing all the "right" things, but if we pay attention to the "fruit" that, according to the Bible, true faith bears in us, we see that these "right things" are not the things that God really wants to produce in you. You are playing a role, but you do not know God—or you know Him as you know that distant uncle you see once in a while. You don't trust Him. You don't depend on Him. You live your life as if God were involved, but in reality, you keep Him at a distance, because you know very well what He will expect of you if you really give Him access to the deepest corners of your life.

Others among you feel that you have a hard time living for Christ. You struggle, and so you tell yourself that you are doing something wrong. But you pray. You implore God to help you, and you depend on him, trusting him as best you can to bring you where you need to be. And the people around you—even if you have a hard time seeing it—are edified by your presence in their lives. You are bearing fruit, even if you don't feel like it. This text helps us to know what is true about ourselves, and thus to grow.

In any case, this text invites us to examine ourselves seriously. What kind of Christians are we becoming? Are we like fig trees covered with leaves but without fruit? Do we only give the appearance of being disciples of Christ, without the inner and outer transformations that He works in us?

On our own, we are incapable of bearing fruit. But thanks to what Christ has done in us, we can now do so, with his help. It is not an easy change—this transformation is as difficult as telling that mountain to move and throw itself into the sea.

But Jesus tells us to have faith in God: to trust that all the power he possesses is at our disposal so that we may be transformed—so that we may not be content with superficial obedience, but bear true fruit. He will do it: the King who was welcomed in Jerusalem with cries of “Hosanna” is the same one who lives in us today.

So let us examine ourselves. Let us ask God to show us the areas of our lives where we are content with a mere appearance of faith. Let us ask him to convict us by his Spirit, so that we may return to him and submit every area of our lives to him, even if it requires radical change.

And let us trust that if we come to him in faith and ask him to bring true faith to life in us, he will do so.

Vision 3: Send Equipped Christians to Serve the Church in France and Beyond (Matthew 28.18-20)

This is the final week in our series on our church vision . As we've seen over the past two weeks , we need to be clear about what our purpose as a church is and why.

Just as a reminder, here is the vision of our church . Eglise Connexion exists to:

• Embody the gospel for Parisians;

• Train disciples who make disciples;

• Send equipped Christians to serve the Church of Jesus Christ .

We've seen what it means to embody the gospel in the city; we've seen what it means to train disciples who make disciples. This week, we'll look at the final point of our vision: sending empowered Christians to serve the church of Jesus Christ .

And the good news is that to look at this third point , we'll be in a single text, as I prefer to do . It's a text that most of you are probably already familiar with ; we talk about it a lot in the Church , but I'd like to take it little by little. We'll start in the text and then we'll see together just a few ways in which we can accomplish this mission within our Church .

The Mission of the Church (Matthew 28:18-20)

The text we have read comes at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus fulfilled his ministry , he died and rose again . Then he appeared to the disciples, and now at the end of the Gospel , he entrusts them with a mission, which they will then pass on to the churches they will establish in the years to come . This remains the mission of all churches today, Christ's mandate to us.

18Jesus came to them and said, “ All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me . 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And I am with you always, to the very end of the age. ”

There are essentially four commands in these three verses. They are all necessary ; each command depends on the others. And when we consider them , we should see them as assured — as not just commands, but as promises . The work is not yet finished , but the work is assured , because Christ has all authority ( v. 18), and he is with us in carrying out this mission (v. 20). No obstacle can stand in his way; nothing will prevent God's plan from being accomplished .

But now it has to be done .

So, what are the commandments that, together, constitute the mission that Christ entrusts to us?

The first is very simple: it tells us to GO (v. 19) . From all​​​ everywhere, in all nations .

Even though this command to go is very , very clear — I don't see how Christ could have said it any more clearly than that — it 's still very surprising how often we forget it , and expect people to come to us.

The mission of the Church is a mission that is necessarily centrifugal. When you put something in a centrifuge , what happens ? Everything is pushed towards the end , towards the outside .

And this is the mission of the Church . This is the direction in which the Church is called to go — not toward Jerusalem , where the disciples are at the time of this text, but outward , to all nations. We are called to go to people , not simply to bring them in . towards us.

Of course , this doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to what's going on here—quite the contrary. We've been talking about this for the past two weeks : the more we pay attention to what's going on inside the church , the better equipped we 'll be to carry out our mission outside . The Bible is full of commands about how we should behave and conduct ourselves . when we come together ; and as we saw two weeks ago, one of the most powerful tools we have to show people the gospel is the life of the church , which lives the gospel together.

But very often , churches are so focused on what's happening here that we forget to go out . We forget that there's a whole world outside , to which we're supposed to go . Where do we go ? We go outside, into the city, obviously — but even further afield, into all the nations. We'll come back to that later .

So we have to go, and once we 've gone, we 're called to make disciples.

Last Sunday we discussed where and how disciples of Christ are formed — they are formed in the local church — by Christians learning together to carry out the work of ministry .

Much has been said about Ephesians 4 in the past ; we won't reread it now , but in this passage Paul says that building up the church and doing the work of the ministry is not my job as a pastor ; it's our job as Christians . It 's not me as a pastor who builds up the members of the church ; it 's all of us , as members of the church , who have that responsibility .

This is how we grow in maturity . This is how we become more like Christ . We draw closer to one another and help one another understand the Bible, see how to live the Bible. We lovingly correct one another when we sin , and we humbly repent of that sin and help one another overcome it . We observe one another, encourage one another , and exhort one another — all parts of the body, working together to build up the whole body . We are not spiritual orphans, but brothers and sisters , members of the same family , following the same Master .

But how do we get people ready to enter this family? How do we get people ready to start this process? How do you get people to change — from hostility toward God to love for him and his family?

Occasionally, God does this in the twinkling of an eye , independent of any outside intervention : that 's what he did for the apostle Paul . But most of the time, that 's not how he does it . Most of the time, we are brought to faith in Christ because someone has preached Christ to us . As Paul says in Romans 10: 13For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved . 14But how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? Or how will they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Or how will they hear of him unless someone preaches him ?

At some point , people who don't know Christ will need to hear the gospel — the good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection — because the gospel is the primary way God's Spirit works in our hearts to transform us . The gospel is the way he gives us faith, makes us aware of our sin and our need for a Savior, and compels us to put our faith in Christ and desire to walk with him.

People need to hear the gospel . And they need to see the gospel lived . ( So you see, I think there 's a natural overlap between last Sunday's point and today 's . )

At some point , it is not enough to stay among ourselves: the gospel must go out , it must be shared , because it is through the gospel that God draws people to him, and changes their hearts , and makes them disciples of Christ through the witness and life of the church , which lives the gospel before their eyes .

So these first two commandments are considered to be commandments almost exclusively centered on " evangelism " : that is to say : we are called to go out and share the gospel with others .

And even if that is the purpose of these first two commandments to go and make disciples, the problem is that many Christians stop there . They share the gospel ... without necessarily paying attention to what happens afterward . Listening to the gospel and praying a prayer is very good ... but what about the next day ? And the day after that ? And the day after that ? ?

There's a reason Jesus did n't just say, " Go and make disciples . " There's no point in going out and making disciples if those new disciples have no way of learning how to live as disciples. I was talking this week with someone who shared his burden for the church , for people who seem to be living a half-hearted life for Christ : all the right things are said , but there's no fire, there 's no life behind it . He's right to feel that burden. The Bible is clear that if we don't cultivate our faith, if our faith isn't " kindled , " we risk learning one day that it does n't really exist.

And as we have seen the last two Sundays, the context of our faith, in which and through which our faith grows, is the Church . This is why Jesus continues .

Which brings us to the third commandment . We must go . We must make disciples. And then we must baptize them. in the name of the Father , and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

This may seem like a somewhat incidental addition, but it is anything but. A disciple of Christ cannot grow without other disciples of Christ; and baptism is the visible sign that we now belong to this community of disciples.

The fact that Jesus gives this command here , in the midst of his great evangelistic mission , should shatter many of the preconceived ideas we have about what baptism is .

Many people see baptism a bit like the Baccalaureate. You go to school for twelve years, you learn a lot, you grow as a human being and as a student , and at the end of high school , you get your Baccalaureate, which proves that you have been well educated , and that you are ready to face your higher studies .

For many people, baptism is seen as the entrance exam to higher - level Christianity —the thing you do only after you've passed a certain number of spiritual milestones. They see baptism as a rite for mature Christians , to show the world that now they've " arrived " —they're no longer baby Christians , now they 're adults .

There are two huge problems with this way of thinking . The first is that no one seems to agree on what these "spiritual milestones " should be . Many churches couldn't even tell you what they require for someone to be baptized . It often comes down to a feeling. subjective opinion that church leaders have about the believer before them .

The second problem is much simpler: according to the Bible, baptism does not exist to be a validation of spiritual maturity . Baptism is the visible sign that shows that a person has been brought into the family of God by faith in Christ. And the Bible tells us that this integration into the family of God happens immediately : as soon as we repent of our sins and place our faith in Christ, we are members of his body, we are adopted by God and become brothers and sisters in the faith.

This is why , for example, in the book of Acts, the profession of faith of a new believer and the baptism of this new believer took place almost simultaneously . The gospel is preached , people believe, they repent of their sins , and they are baptized right away .

I said all this to say that this command of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations is meaningless if these new disciples are not then brought into the local church , in which they learn to grow in their faith with the help of other Christians . Baptism is the first step in this process.

The second step we have already touched on a little . We must go and make disciples, baptize them to confirm their entry into the Church , and then, finally, we are called to teach them to observe all that Christ has taught us .

That was last week's message , so I won't repeat it all. But to put it simply, the church is supposed to spread the gospel by their words and by their lives together, not just so people go to heaven, but to equip the church to teach new believers to live as Christ commands us to live — and that applies not just to the words of Jesus found in the Gospels , but to everything taught to us by the apostles who followed him , for they were inspired by the same Spirit of Jesus Christ . The purpose of evangelism is not just to save people , but to teach them how to live like God . tells us to live .

We talk a lot about sharing the gospel , and it needs to be done. But I'm sure some of you have had this experience : You heard the gospel preached thousands of times when you were a child . But at some point, you met someone who was actually living in obedience to the commandments of Christ. And when you saw that person 's life — their joy in God and the choices they were making and the effect those choices had on their own life and the lives of others — when you saw that, Finally, You have understood the gospel . We have finally seen the effect that the gospel has on us, because we have seen what life is like when we obey the God who saved us , who gave us these commandments because he loves us.

This is our call:

Go [therefore] and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

Sending qualified Christians​​

That 's the foundation. That 's the calling of every church . And there are three ways in which these initiatives of going and doing and baptizing and teaching take place .

The first has a more local scope : Christians share the gospel with those around them , and the people around them encounter Christ . This is by far the most common way , because it is the calling of all Christians throughout history .

But sometimes we have to go a little further. The second way the church works to fulfill Christ's mission is when it sends people trained in specialized areas to do specialized work elsewhere .

The classic example is the sending of missionaries and mission teams . We have a lot of missionaries in our church , and that's what they do. They've been trained , often in specific, targeted areas , and they 're sent to another city or country to do something specific .

It has been said that today will be Mission Sunday: at the end of this service, and even more so this afternoon , we will talk together about what the mission of the church looks like outside the borders of our country. We have a mission trip planned for this fall to Togo, and there will be others in the future . Our prayer is that these discussions and trips will light a fire in members of the church , and that they will be sent out to proclaim Christ where he is not yet known . If you have not heard this before , I hope you can stay with us this afternoon to discover this.

Another example of this sending would be church planters and church planting teams . This was the case for me — after receiving general theological training , I spent two years with Loanne being trained to plant churches in France , and then we were sent to plant this church . This is the case for the church planting currently taking place in the 10th , at Oberkampf Church ; Romu and Liz joined Connexion a few years ago with the goal of putting together a team to go and plant a local church on the other side of the Place de la République . Philip Moore and his family launched the Mountain Church in the 5th last Sunday . God is doing His work in particular cities through planted churches that will proclaim the gospel for His glory.

Another example for us at Connexion is our interns. This year we have three interns: Eva, Dahlia, and Silvain. The goal of these internships is to help Christians interested in ministry find their way so that , God willing , they can serve at Connexion or elsewhere . Marjolaine completed her internship with Connexion last year before she was “ sent ” to work with women at the church on Rue de Sèvres .

In short: this is the first way in which this sending occurs — the church sends people trained to do a specific job in a specific place .

But there is still one way to accomplish Christ's mission, which is a little particular to us and linked to our context .

Last week we talked about being disciples who make disciples of Christ. We talked about the biblical reasons why this should happen, and at least a little bit about how it should happen. And there's a very strong sense of this need, because the reality is that when Christians want to learn what it means to be disciples of Christ, all too often the church sends them somewhere else , outside of the church , to be trained .

The church , more often than not, outsources the training needs of the church , rather than taking them on itself .

The reality of our church is that there is a good core of people who stay here for the long term , but there are also easily 40-50% of people who will be with us for two or three years, before leaving for entirely legitimate reasons .

Rather than seeing this turnover as a constraint, we want to see it as an opportunity . We want to use the time we have with you to train you to be pillars in the church where you will find yourself tomorrow. That 's why we have everything we have outside of worship. That 's why we train community group leaders to prepare their Bible studies . That 's why we have Entre Elles (the women's meeting) and the men's group. That 's why we have the monthly Sunday Training sessions , where we train more deeply to understand the teaching of the whole Bible, and the application of that teaching. And that 's why we now have a very robust internship program. The purpose of all this is so that when people leave Connexion after their time with us, we can send them out ready to serve the church they arrive at. I can't tell you what a gift it is for a pastor to receive into the church people who have been well - trained in the past , and who come ready and able to serve faithfully — people you know you can count on, to love others, to live in obedience to Christ , and to teach others to do the same .

This is what we want to do with every Christian here . And the reason is simple: because all power in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ . Our neighborhoods, our city, our country, the whole world, have long lived in active rebellion against our King Jesus . If he were a dictator, a cruel ruler, this rebellion would make sense. But our King is not a cruel ruler.

The prophet Isaiah praises the Lord in Isaiah 64 : 3, saying: 

Never has anyone heard or learned of such a thing, never has any eye seen another god than you act in this way for the good of those who rely on him.

All our efforts to proclaim the gospel , to embody the gospel , to train one another in the gospel , to send out Christians to serve the gospel … All these efforts are not simply so that people can one day go to heaven. These efforts are driven by our love for the people around us, so that they may know this God who loves his people , that they may know God our Father , Jesus Christ our Brother , and the Spirit our Comforter.

And because all power has been given to Christ, and because he is always with us, we can do it. Our efforts are not in vain. We can accomplish the mission he has entrusted to us , for our joy and for his glory.

Vision 2: Train disciples who make disciples (2 Timothy 3)

We are currently in a series on our church's vision. As a reminder, our vision has three points. We exist to:

1. Embody the gospel for the people of Paris;

2. Train disciples who make disciples;

3. Send empowered Christians to serve the gospel in France and elsewhere.

Last week we talked about what it looks like to embody the gospel for the people of our city; this week we're talking about the next point: training disciples who make disciples. This is the next logical step: once we encounter Christ, we must learn to live like him.

To talk about this, we're going to look at a very well-known passage, chapter 3 of Paul's second letter to Timothy.

In case you don't know what's going on in this letter: the apostle Paul had a protégé, a young man named Timothy. Timothy traveled with Paul, listened to Paul preach, and observed how Paul lived.

One day, when Timothy was mature enough, Paul left him in Ephesus to be pastor of the church there. Some time later, Paul was imprisoned by the Romans.

He wrote this letter while he was in prison, shortly before his death. He wrote it as a final exhortation to Timothy, a farewell to his son in the faith. The letter is an exhortation to Timothy to keep what is truly important at the center of his life.

Paul does this first by expressing his gratitude for Timothy's faith and exhorting him to persevere in the gospel; then he puts his exhortation in the proper context by talking about the false teachings that have arisen in Timothy's church and elsewhere. These false teachings do not come from Timothy; they come from other Christians.

And that is where the danger lies.

The danger of false disciples (vv. 1-9)

This is where we will begin, in chapter 3, verse 1.

Know that in the last days there will be difficult times, 2for people will be selfish, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, rebellious against their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3insensitive, implacable, slanderers, violent, cruel, enemies of good, 4treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. 5They will have a form of godliness but deny its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

This is what happens when true discipleship is not lived out. This is the counterexample that Paul gives to Timothy.

In verses 1-5, Paul lists certain character traits that seem fairly obvious if you have read Paul's other letters. But here, he seems to be casting a wider net than usual. He speaks of people who are selfish, greedy, arrogant, deceitful, brutal, "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." It's almost a caricature of what we would consider a "bad" person.

But one thing sets these people apart, something we wouldn't necessarily expect here, and it's the most important thing. We see it in verse 5: They will have the appearance of godliness but deny its power.

These people have the appearance of godliness. Godliness is both a correct belief about God and the committed practice of the life He commands us to live. Simply put, godliness is knowing God and doing what He tells us to do.

These people appear to know God and do what He says. This means that despite the harsh things Paul has just said about them, if we saw these people in church, we would find them impressive. They are people who call themselves Christians and even seem to be model Christians. They have the appearance of godliness.

But, Paul says, they are not driven by piety; they are driven by the selfish desires that have always motivated them.

That is why these people are particularly dangerous; that is why Paul says at the end of verse 5, "Keep away from such people."

These false disciples are dangerous because, since they appear so pious, they are trusted. But since they are driven by their desires rather than by God, they are not worthy of that trust.

Paul says in verse 6 that these men "slip into homes and take in gullible women burdened with sins—that is, these women had sinned in the past, could not escape the guilt they felt because of these sins, and as a result continued to be led astray by all kinds of desires; they are always learning but can never come to the knowledge of the truth."

This can also happen to men, of course, but given the power dynamics between men and women at the time, this type of woman would have been easy prey. (A good example of the type of woman Paul is talking about is the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. She was in exactly the same situation, except that it was Jesus she met at the well, and thank God for that.)

What do these men do? They ensnare these women—and again, it could be men too—in their nets. They convince them of a false gospel, which has all the appearance of godliness but none of the truth.

Paul says in verse 8 that these men are like Jannes and Jambres. Who are they? These names do not appear in the Old Testament, but Jannes and Jambres are the names given in Jewish tradition to the magicians who opposed Moses in Exodus 7. Today we use the name Napoleon to refer to a haughty character; Jannes and Jambres were a shortcut used by the Jews to represent opposition to the truth of God.

These men have minds twisted by sin; they oppose the truth in their actions, while speaking the truth aloud. Their folly will one day be obvious to all, but in the meantime, they are dangerous to themselves and others.

Paul's purpose in telling Timothy all this is not to frighten him. He is trying to do two things: first, he wants Timothy to watch over his church: to be on his guard, to keep his eyes open for signs of this type of person, because they are dangerous to themselves and especially to the church.

The life of the true disciple (vv. 10-13)

But the second thing Paul wants to do is to encourage Timothy in the true life of a disciple. When true godliness is at work in someone, the "power" of godliness will be seen in the way others are drawn to Christ through that person's life. And that is what we see in the following verses. V. 10:

10You, on the other hand, have closely followed my teaching, my conduct, my plans, my faith, my patience, my love, my perseverance, 11as well as the persecutions and sufferings I endured in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! And the Lord delivered me from them all.

When we read verse 10, it seems that Paul is feeling quite strong. He reminds Timothy of what Timothy saw when he followed him. He speaks of my teaching, my conduct, my plans, my faith, my patience, my love, my perseverance...

One might say that Paul is getting a little big-headed here, but he is not praising himself. He is doing two things. First, he is showing Timothy what constitutes the true strength of our faith (in contrast to what he says in verse 5, speaking of those who have the appearance of godliness but deny its power). Some will come boasting of the extraordinary—sometimes even supernatural—deeds they have done for the Lord. But it is not these visibly impressive things that make up the strength of godliness; it is very simple things: patience, love, perseverance in trials, a commitment to the truth, and conduct in accordance with that truth.

And then, by saying everything that Timothy was able to see in him, Paul draws Timothy's attention, not to Paul himself, but to the way Timothy has followed in his footsteps. In verse 10, he is saying, "Timothy, you have followed me closely, and you have learned well. You have grown well. You are conducting yourself well. You have a good purpose in life. You have grown in patience, in love, in perseverance." Paul is commending Timothy here, not himself.

Timothy followed in Paul's footsteps, and what's more, he saw how Paul suffered during his ministry. He reminds Timothy that true discipleship is costly and often humiliating. Verse 12:

12Moreover, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves.

For the disciple of Christ, suffering and persecution are part of the deal. As Jesus said, "A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20).

Why does Paul talk about persecution here? Because it is another clear indicator of true godliness, of the true life of a disciple.

I have used this illustration before, but I will say it again now.

This summer we were on vacation in the mountains, and we went swimming in rivers and lakes several times. Most of the time, it was Zadie (our seven-year-old daughter) who wanted to swim. The water was freezing, but she was determined to show what she could do.

And so she went in: she gritted her teeth and said, "Wow, it's cold!" but she went in anyway. She got in the water and had a lot of fun.

I wanted to go with her because I love to swim, I love the water. But I'm also sensitive to the cold, and the water was really cold. I wanted to go in the water with her... but I didn't want to that much. I went in up to my knees, and then I said, "Actually, I'm fine. I'm good here."

That's the dynamic we see when we are exposed to suffering or persecution for our faith—we see what our faith is made of. Paul and Timothy are fully committed to this life. They are determined to follow Christ. So they accept persecution, they accept suffering for Christ, they are willing to brave the cold waters, because they know what awaits them at the end, and it is infinitely better than what they would have if they did not suffer.

The people Paul described in verses 1-9 would never go that far. They would never accept persecution for what they claim to believe, because they don't fully believe it. J. Oswald Chambers says: "We go through a spiritual crisis when we are forced to go beyond the convictions we had previously adopted." When the Christian life becomes costly, a false disciple will drop the mask and leave. As Paul says in verse 9, their folly will be obvious to all.

The question is, how did Timothy, this young Greek man who came to faith in Christ, reach a maturity that enabled him not only to demonstrate faith, patience, and love, but to persevere in this character even in the midst of suffering?

The answer is that he followed Paul. He lived with Paul. He learned from Paul.

He followed him in holy character and in the difficulties that Paul endured.

The point here is that Timothy did not do this on his own. He learned to live the Christian life faithfully, in good times and bad, by watching Paul and following him.

Of course, not all Christians have this same opportunity. Here is a classic example: if a man were shipwrecked on a desert island with nothing but his Bible, could he still grow in his faith?

Of course he could—the apostle John did. In such extreme cases, God is faithful to help us grow in faith. But we must recognize that this is the exception rather than the norm.

Jesus' disciples learned to follow him...by following him. And they themselves took on disciples who followed them. Paul trained Timothy. Priscilla and Aquila trained Apollos.

The norm for Christian life is that we learn to live faithfully for Christ by observing and imitating others who live faithfully for Christ.

So there are two things we need to note. The first is fairly obvious, but it needs to be said anyway:

First, if we have a local church, we cannot afford to live apart from it.

Some people are like me—they struggle in social situations. Others have trouble opening up. Others have been hurt by the church in the past. There are many excuses one can find for staying away from a local church, and many people will do so; they will say, “I love Jesus, I love the Bible, but I don’t need the church, because God will guide me.”

That's not how it works. It's a dangerous thing to presume on God's grace and choose to remain isolated from the church He has commanded us to be attached to because we don't want to open up there. We are clearly told, “Do not neglect meeting together” in the letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 10:25).

If you have access to a local church—as we all do here—then the standard the Bible gives you for Christian living is to grow in Christ by living out your faith with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

If we have access to the local church, we cannot live apart from it. That is the first thing.

The second thing to note is that the stakes are enormous. In verses 1-9, Paul gives this long description of people who call themselves Christians but who are actually serving their appetite for pleasure. He says that these false believers are disqualified when it comes to faith.

And then he says to Timothy, "But that's not the case with you. You haven't lived like them. You haven't done what they've done."

What did Timothy do instead? He followed Paul. He learned from Paul. He grew in the Christian life by imitating Paul.

We may tend to think of an active discipleship as incidental to the Christian life: something we can do if we have time, but which is not strictly necessary.

It is true that we are not saved by our life of discipleship; we are saved by the grace of Christ alone. But we must see that the Christian life, after we are saved, is a life of discipleship. Always. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Only those who believe obey; and only those who obey believe.”

This life is not optional; it is what life with Christ looks like. We must invest ourselves in this life.

So we see the first means of discipleship in verses 10-13: we live as disciples by living our lives together, observing and imitating one another as we live faithfully. The first means of our discipleship is our life together.

The fuel of the disciple's life (vv. 14-17)

The second means of discipleship that Paul gives to Timothy is the most basic and the most important: it is the Word of God. V. 14:

14As for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, knowing from whom you learned it. 15From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Verses 16-17 are the clearest description in the entire Bible of what happened when the Bible was written. All Scripture, all 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are "inspired" by God—but that translation is too weak; literally, it says that all Scripture is "breathed out" or "breathed" by God. The words we have in the Bible are exactly what God wanted, while maintaining the style and personality of the person holding the pen.

I know it's easy to say that, and some of you will have questions about the Bible itself: Are there books missing from the Bible? Are there books here that shouldn't be here? How can we know that these particular books are truly inspired by God?

These are big questions, and good questions, and we have talked about them; a long time ago, in 2015, we did a workshop on these questions; and the first sessions of the second year of Sunday School were dedicated to this topic. You can find all of this on our website.

For now, I will simply say what we affirm as a church: the books contained in the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, the primary means by which God speaks to us today. We have very good reasons to believe this.

And since all Scripture is inspired by God, it is useful to us—it is sufficient: it is the fuel for our growth, so that the man of God may be trained and equipped for every good work.

There is no need for new "revelations"; there is no need for new words from God. He has said everything we need to hear in the Bible. But it is not as if God inspired the words of Scripture and then sat back and left us to figure it out for ourselves. The Scripture that God "breathed" into the biblical authors is useful to us because God still breathes.

Every time we sit down with an open Bible, asking God to help us understand it, integrate it, and live it out, the same Holy Spirit who inspired those words animates them in us and nourishes us.

It is an incredible truth that we get used to far too easily: every time we approach God's Word in faith, God himself speaks to us through that Word.

That is why the Bible is the center of everything we do as a church. The Bible is the Word of God, given so that we may hear God's voice, learn His will, and learn to love what He loves.

All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

But our emphasis on verses 16-17, while very good, often misses something; when we talk about these verses, we often forget the context.

The context of verses 16-17 is, of course, verses 14-15, where Paul tells Timothy to hold fast to what he has learned and to remember from whom he learned it.

Timothy was not sitting alone in a library studying the Bible. He was taught the Bible. In chapter 1, Paul thanks God for the way Timothy began in the faith: by listening to and observing his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. These two women exposed him to the Scriptures, and Paul later took up the baton.

That is how Timothy learned to know Scripture and to live Scripture. He did not do it alone. It was through faithful men and women who walked alongside him and helped him understand Scripture, who modeled Scripture for him, that he grew in his knowledge and love of God.

Application

It is not difficult to see how God is calling us to respond to what Paul says in this passage.

First, watch yourselves.

Paul wasn't afraid for Timothy, but God knew what He was doing when He inspired Paul to write these words. In verses 1-9, He gives us a clear warning against the dangers of not following Christ, of being "friends of pleasure rather than of God"—of what we can become when we pretend to be disciples of Christ but follow our own goals. And Paul also gives us indicators to look for in others, for he tells Timothy, "Avoid" such people. Obviously he is speaking to a pastor, and we want to be very careful before making such a decision (it has only happened a few times since we started this church), but we cannot miss his greater message: calling oneself a Christian while neglecting the true life of a disciple of Christ is dangerous for the church, and we must watch over ourselves to avoid such dangers.

Second: follow Christ together.

We tend to want to establish a whole program for what we call "discipleship," and programs can be useful. But the example of Paul and Timothy is so valuable because it shows us that a program will never do as much good as simply following Christ together. Timothy went where Paul went, he listened to what Paul said, he observed how Paul lived...and he did the same. Like a child learning to walk or talk. It's not easy, but it's not complicated either.

We sit down, open our Bibles, pray, read together, and discuss. And then we spend a lot of time together, to see what it looks like to live out the Word.

There are people around each of you—I'm talking to you—there are people around you who know Christ better than you do, who follow Christ better than you do, and who are more mature in their faith than you are. Find someone like that and ask them to read the Bible with you. Observe how they live and imitate them.

Singles, spend time with married people. Couples, spend time with singles. Parents, disciple your children. Make sure the gospel is omnipresent in your home. Talk about the gospel, memorize it together, show your children what it looks like when talking about the gospel is natural.

Those of you who are (a little) older, seek out your younger brothers and sisters too, because we learn as much from them as they learn from us. Paul said to Timothy in his first letter, in 1 Timothy 4:12: Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Timothy was the young one, but he was also the example.

You all have areas of maturity and knowledge and experience that those around you do not have, and you can—and should—help each other grow. We learn to follow Christ by following Christ, together.

And finally: whether you are together or alone, listen to God speaking to you through his Word.

Paul writes his last letter to Timothy, knowing that he will soon die. Soon, Timothy will no longer have his mentor.

But ultimately, Timothy doesn't need Paul; he needs Christ. Paul was a tool in God's hand, to train Timothy in the Word. And the Word of God, the testimony of Christ, brought to life by the power of the Holy Spirit—that is what truly transforms.

Don't follow anyone to such an extent that that person overshadows Jesus Christ. Dig deep into God's Word, when you are together and when you are alone. Pray that God will speak to you through His Word. Listen to what He says in His Word.

And when you hear Him, obey Him.

All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

We have everything we need to grow, right now.

Vision 1: Embody the Gospel (2 Corinthians 5.17-6.13)

Every Christian church has essentially the same mission; it is the mission Christ gave his disciples at the end of his ministry: to go into all nations and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything he has commanded.

But every church finds itself in a different context and is filled with different people, so it is important to spell out how we, as the church that we are in the center of Paris, must do this.

So as we have done in the past, today we are going to begin a three-week mini-series on the vision of our church. This is an important reminder for those of you who have been with us for a long time, and a little introduction to the church for those of you who are new.

Here then is the vision of our church: we will take one week for each point.

Église Connexion exists to:

1. Embody the gospel for the people of Paris;

2. Train disciples who make disciples;

3. Send Christians equipped to serve the Church of Christ in France and beyond.

Today, we are going to look at the first point—our desire to embody the Gospel for the people of Paris. And to talk about this point, we will be in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.

Ambassadors for the Gospel (5:17–6:2)

To understand where Paul is going in this passage, we need a bit of context.

The church in the city of Corinth was deeply troubled. Paul had planted it with Priscilla and Aquila; they spent eighteen months there, then went on to Ephesus (we see this in Acts 18). At some point, Paul learned that the church in Corinth had completely gone off track—false teachings, blatant and open sins… it was a disaster.

So he wrote them a letter. We don’t have that letter—it has been lost—but Paul mentions it in 1 Corinthians 5. Apparently, the church in Corinth didn’t understand his letter at all, and their problems only got worse. So he wrote another letter, which we have in our Bible under the title of 1 Corinthians. In this letter, Paul corrected many doctrinal errors and rebuked them quite harshly for their sin.

Good news, though: many in the church were convicted of their sin. They repented, they accepted the gospel Paul was preaching to them, and they got back on track.

But some members of the church still resisted Paul, refused to accept his exhortation, and refused to repent. So Paul wrote another letter, 2 Corinthians, both to encourage those who had repented and to defend his apostolic ministry against his opponents.

Yet he does not speak only for himself; he speaks on behalf of all those who served the church in Corinth with him—people like Priscilla and Aquila. It’s very important to see that he is not giving an isolated example of what he alone did, but is describing how “we,” those who served the church in Corinth, lived.

In other words: he is describing a collective model of behavior, not just the example of one man. And he speaks of himself and his companions as ambassadors for the gospel.

Up until now, Paul has spoken of the sufferings he and his companions endured for the Gospel, and especially of the reason they do it. In chapter 4, he says that because they know where they are going—because they know that their life with Christ is not temporary—they can be in the midst of the most brutal circumstances without losing hope.

And it is on this note that he begins to speak of what motivates him and his co-workers. Chapter 5, verse 17:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Paul tells us two essential things here.

First, he speaks about us. He says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” Sometimes it can be hard to believe that, or to understand what Paul means. But he says it in the verses we just read. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation—that is: a person who is now reconciled to God. We see this several times: in v. 18, in v. 19, and in v. 20. The goal of Christ’s work was to reconcile us to God. The old has passed away: formerly, we were not reconciled to God; now we are.

Second, Paul tells us how Christ did this; he tells us the Gospel. The essence of the Gospel is summed up in v. 21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth as a human being, fully God and fully man, and he is the only human being in history who “knew no sin.” We have all sinned and are naturally separated from God; Jesus, though he shared our human nature, never sinned. Though he was tempted as we are, he never gave in to temptation. He was and still is perfectly innocent, perfectly righteous, perfectly holy.

And yet, God made him who knew no sin to be sin. Christ took all the rebellion of all his people throughout human history and placed that sin on himself, to such a degree that it was as if Christ himself were the sin that made us guilty before God. Christ went to the cross, carrying that sin on his shoulders, and was punished—not only, or even primarily, by men, but by God. God poured out every drop of his wrath against our sin, and he poured it out on Christ.

That is half of the equation. The other half is found in these words: “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Just as Christ took our sin to the point of becoming our sin, he gives us his perfect life to the point that we become his righteousness.

This is how Christ has made us new creations; this is how he has reconciled us to God.

God cannot reconcile with sin. It’s like oil and water: sin and holiness cannot coexist. So how can God reconcile with sinful men and women? He did it by killing their sin in the person of Christ, and by giving them the sinless life Christ lived.

Think about what that means. I am a sinner—I feel, like Paul, that I am the worst of sinners. But God saved me, brought me to faith, and I placed my faith in Christ. I repented of my sin. So God killed my sin in advance when he poured his wrath out on Christ. In other words, two thousand years ago, God killed all the sins I have committed over the last forty-four years, and all the sins I will commit for the rest of my life. Two thousand years ago, God killed the sin I will commit tomorrow.

In the same way, God gave us in advance the righteousness of Christ, so that we might grow in righteousness. Two thousand years ago, Christ lived the perfect life that I will show to God at my death. I will stand before him, he will examine me, he will see the perfect life of Christ that has been given to me, and he will declare me innocent and righteous—innocent because my sin is erased, and righteous because Christ has given me his righteousness.

We must understand that this is done. It is finished. In your life, you will experience many sufferings and trials. But if you have placed your faith in Christ, you will never again have to fear being punished by God for your sin. He has already done it, when he punished Christ.

And he has placed Christ’s perfect life on you, so that God sees you as perfect, and not as guilty. You are guilty before God, and so am I. But Christ is not, and it is his life that we now wear.

That is the Gospel. That is the first thing Paul tells us.

The second thing is as surprising as the first (at least to me).

If God has created a way to reconcile people to himself, then people need to know about it.

Of course, God is God. He could easily make himself known to people in a vision, or simply cause the truth to appear miraculously in our minds. Sometimes he does that: he can proclaim the message of the Gospel himself.

But most of the time, that is not how he does it. Most of the time, he entrusts this responsibility to other people. That’s what Paul says in v. 18–20: God gave us the ministry of reconciliation; he entrusted to us the message of reconciliation; he made us ambassadors for Christ; it is through us that he makes his appeal.

This is crazy. It’s so risky. I know myself, and I know that 90% of the time, I don’t speak very well. I’ve prepared this message in advance, there’s no one else talking at the same time; that I can do. But if you’ve ever had a conversation with me, you know that’s not how I normally speak; in conversation, I don’t speak well. I go in circles, I stutter, I have trouble speaking spontaneously.

And apparently (we discover later in this letter, in chapter 11, verse 6), Paul had the same problem. He says that he is “unskilled in speaking.” He was a great writer, but not a great speaker.

Yet God chooses to make people like that—people like you and me—ambassadors of the Gospel, to entrust to us all the ministry of reconciliation. Why? Because it is when we minister in our weakness that the strength of Christ is displayed. It is always amazing when an awkward and imperfect conversation about the Gospel brings faith to someone else, because we can never say that this person came to Christ because I did such a great job. No, it is clearly God’s work.

So, as imperfect as we are, we make our appeal; we beg people on behalf of Christ, “Be reconciled to God.”

And that is what we see Paul doing at the beginning of chapter 6:

Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

We’ll come back to this appeal later, but this is Paul’s work as an apostle, it is Priscilla and Aquila’s work as servants of the gospel, and it is our work too. This is the mission Christ has given us: to call people to repentance and faith in Christ in order to be reconciled to God. To do that, we must share the good news of the Gospel.

Living Examples of the Gospel (6:3–10)

But one thing we constantly see in the Bible is that the proclamation of the good news rarely, if ever, comes by itself; it is accompanied by a living example of what that good news looks like. And that is where Paul moves next: he spends eight verses reminding the Corinthians how he and his companions live their lives. 6:3:

3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

In this passage, Paul gives two arguments why his opponents should listen to him. The first is in 5:20–21, which we saw before. He says: “Listen to what I say because this is what Christ says: God makes his appeal through us, and that appeal is to believe in what Christ has done for you. Listen to what I say because it is the truth.”

That should be enough. But Paul doesn’t stop there. The second argument Paul gives is the example he and his companions give in their lives. Their way of living, of serving, of suffering. His second argument is completely objective, empirical, and visible.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ changes us. He just said so. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

These are not just words. This is not a sentimental statement. It is literally true. If we are in Christ, we are no longer what we were.

I want to be careful here, because some of us might read what Paul says in these verses and think: “I’m not like that; so I must not be a Christian.”

That’s not what Paul is saying. Read Romans 7—Paul acknowledges that some changes in us are immediate and others take a lifetime; we must learn to observe everything Christ has commanded. It is not automatic. If you have not yet reached the level of maturity Paul describes here, don’t worry, neither have I.

But if we are in Christ, by definition, as new creations, there will be changes. And we will grow in those changes. Paul gives here the example of what mature and experienced Christians look like—or, to put it another way, what living examples of the Gospel look like.

He gives positive examples—endurance (v. 4), purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, love (v. 6), truthful speech, the power of God, and righteousness (v. 7), in all circumstances (v. 8). This is the part of the Christian life that others will look at and say: “I want to be like that.”

I don’t know if you’ve thought about this. Many people will find problems with Christian doctrine and ethics if they want to; those are the areas where people debate, where they try to find a flaw in what we believe in order to challenge it. That’s what Paul’s opponents in Corinth were doing.

But no one can credibly speak against Christian character. No one says: “I hate patient people. I hate kind people. I hate loving people. I hate honest people.” These are traits that are almost universally admired.

And that’s normal, because every human being is made in the image of God, and we are created to respond positively to his character.

But some people will stubbornly resist having such character in themselves, because even though it is attractive, it is also costly. That’s why Paul gives negative examples—or rather examples that most of us would consider negative.

It’s easy to be patient, kind, loving, and honest when everything is going well. But the true nature of our character is revealed when the world turns against us. And that’s what Paul says—not only is their character exemplary, but it is so in the most difficult situations: in suffering, hardship, calamities (v. 4), beatings, imprisonments, riots, hard work, sleepless nights, hunger (v. 5), dishonor and slander (v. 8).

How is that possible?

Actually, it’s very simple. What we do is always determined by what we desire. If what you desire is comfort, ease, and superficial happiness, then you will lose patience at the slightest obstacle to those goals. You will not love people who are unlovable. We can really judge the value of our character when it continues in the midst of difficult circumstances.

And the reason why the Christian’s character can continue to manifest and grow in the midst of trials is that for his people, Christ transforms every circumstance into an occasion for grace.

Paul says (at the end of v. 8):

We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

So in part, these things are literally true—Paul and his co-workers were often condemned (Paul himself was later executed in Rome), but they knew what awaited them at their death. They were poor, but their poverty was not an obstacle to enriching others spiritually. They were often sorrowful, but they had a joy in their Lord that did not disappear in their sadness, since it did not depend on their circumstances.

They really had very little, almost nothing—they left everything to follow Christ. But in reality, they possessed everything. Everything they needed, everything that truly matters, was theirs.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

If anyone is in Christ, a trial becomes a grace.

If anyone is in Christ, a failure becomes a ladder.

The Call of the Gospel (6:11–13)

And when Christ does this—when the grace of Christ allows their character to persist in every circumstance, and that can be seen—the call God gives us to make as ambassadors for Christ cannot be easily rejected. Paul says in v. 11:

11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13 In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.

Here is what he says to the unbelieving Corinthians who are listening to this letter. No matter what you may have heard from other sources, we are not weighing you down and we are not living in lies. Our heart is wide open. We are not holding you back, and the Gospel is not holding you back; what is holding you back is you.

So, just as we have opened our hearts to the Gospel and to you, open your hearts to us as well. We are the living proof that it is possible to live for Christ, in good times and bad—to be called liars and yet tell the truth, to be sorrowful and yet always rejoice, to have nothing and yet possess everything.

And if we can do it, you can do it, because it is not us who have done it—it is God who did it in us. And he can do it in you too.

At this point, the Corinthians have no credible arguments left against Paul and his companions. They can debate theology if they want, but they cannot credibly speak against Christians who are faithful.

And if what Paul says about his own character is true, is it not possible that what he says about the gospel is also true?

You see, God uses the Gospel to bring us to faith, but he does it in more than one way. Sometimes, people hear the Gospel and are entirely convinced by the Holy Spirit, right away. That happens, and it is wonderful.

Other times, though, people hear the Gospel and say: “Okaaaaaaay…” And they remain in doubt.

But over time, they see what their Christian friends’ lives look like, they see the practical application of the Gospel, and they begin to believe that what they once considered foolishness might actually be true. That too is the work of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot know which means the Holy Spirit will use. That’s why we must always have all our tools at hand.

Conclusion

And here are the tools Paul gives us here.

The first is the Gospel. We must do everything we can to know it as well as possible, we must learn to “speak Gospel fluently,” like our mother tongue. We must learn to be able to say, without even thinking: Be reconciled to God! For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The second tool he gives us is our life. Paul’s life and that of his companions legitimized the Gospel for the Corinthians. If the Gospel produces such a change in them, in the midst of all they are suffering, isn’t that something worth digging into, worth taking seriously?

But watch out: this example of the Gospel manifesting in our lives means something that will make many of us uncomfortable. It means that we must open ourselves up to people, give them access to ourselves and to our community, in such a way that they can see the Gospel lived out in various circumstances among us. When we do things together—going to church, participating in a community group, playing football, whatever—unbelievers should be included as much as possible. Because they need not only to hear the Gospel, but also to see what it looks like.

That takes a lot of time, it’s not easy, and it’s risky, because it means being vulnerable, being able to say what Paul says to the Corinthians: our heart is wide open. We don’t always want to open our hearts to others, because that would mean letting them have access to aspects of our lives that we prefer to keep to ourselves.

But that is what an ambassador of Christ looks like. It’s risky, but it’s incredibly freeing. There is nothing more freeing than having nothing to hide. People need to see the Gospel.

And when we do that, the last tool Paul gives us here becomes really striking: of course, it is the appeal. Paul says: “We have spoken freely to you… open your hearts also.”

We must not be afraid not only to announce the gospel, but also to say afterward: “I beg you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God! Please, believe in him. Accept him. Put your trust in him.” No appeal you will ever make will be more important than this one.

If we live this way, if we use all the tools God gives us, will it be effective every time? No, at least not in the sense we usually mean.

But every time God saves one of his own, every time someone comes to Christ in faith and then lives a life of discipleship, that visible presence of the Gospel, manifested in the lives of his people, will be there.

We want to be a church that embodies the Gospel for the people of our city. We want the people of Paris to hear the Gospel, see the Gospel, and accept the Gospel. This is our prayer, and God is faithful.

“But You…” (Psalm 102)

You may have heard this story before. Florence Chadwick was an American swimmer who made her greatest contribution to the sport in the 1950s. In 1950, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel from France to England in both directions. In 1952, she wished to swim the 41-kilometer route between Catalina Island and the California coast. Boats made the trip with her, in case she needed to be fished out of the water because of sharks, or if she got too tired. After 15 hours of swimming, a very thick fog rolled in. Florence began to doubt her ability to go much further; she told her mother, who was in one of the boats, that she didn't think she could make it. Her mother told her she was almost there; but Florence, exhausted and blinded by the fog, couldn't believe it. She asked to be lifted into the boat. It wasn't until she was in the boat that she learned that the coast was barely two kilometers away. Indeed, she was almost there, but with no end in sight, she couldn't hold on.

I often think of this story when studying the Bible. It can be really stimulating to discover theology—there are so many incredible concepts in the Bible that spark the imagination. And that can be enough to fuel your Christian life for a while. But you will always come to a point where you have to ask what difference all this fascinating theology makes for your life. When you’ve come up against a problem that needs solving, how will the doctrine of the Trinity, or the doctrine of unconditional election, or the doctrine of justification by faith alone, help you deal with the problem you’re facing?

The Bible is filled with lessons for dealing with real-world problems; but the lesson we learn in Psalm 102 is the one that has helped me the most, the one that has been the lesson I have come back to the most often in my Christian life.

What we need to think about today is how the great biblical truths about God can be a comfort for us in suffering. So we’ll look at the psalmist’s reaction to his suffering first, and then we’ll examine the truths he clings to that enable him to respond in that way.

1) The reaction to suffering: "But you..."

The beginning of this psalm describes the mentality of someone going through very difficult suffering.

It describes emotional suffering. His heart is stricken, and he is depressed—v. 4: My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. V. 8: He suffers insults from his enemies—v. 9: For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink.

He also describes physical suffering. He loses weight—v. 5-6: Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. 6 I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places. He can't sleep—v. 7: I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.

Like every sufferer, he's well aware of his own mortality and the fact that there's nothing he can do about it.

V. 3: For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.

V. 11: My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.

And the only explanation he gives is that God must be angry with him for a sin he has committed. V. 10: [I suffer all this] because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down. Interestingly, the psalmist gives no particular sin that might have inflamed God's wrath. Perhaps the psalmist is speaking less about the reality of his situation than about the feeling he has—and shares with almost anyone who believes in God and suffers without knowing why. The psalmist doesn't blame God—he never says that God is unjust in allowing this pain—but he simply acknowledges God's sovereignty over his suffering.

It is extreme suffering that is described: it causes mental depression, prevents sleep, causes weight loss, incites insults, makes one realize the limit of one's own days. The frankness of this psalm is astounding—sometimes we imagine that the Bible gives us an overly idealistic version of the world; we imagine that the Christian worldview is profoundly out of step with the reality of the world we live in. But this psalm should make us realize that the Bible doesn't ignore the reality of suffering at all—it tells us that the pain we may go through is real and vivid, and not to be ignored.

Most people react to suffering in the same way as the psalmist…and their reaction to suffering stops there. They suffer, they take medication, and they wait for it to pass, so that they can stop feeling the pain and get on with their lives. But the psalmist doesn't stop there. Just as we imagine him on his knees, head to the ground as he proclaims his lament, in verse 13 he looks up.

V. 11-12: My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.

If you suffer, you must be honest with God about your suffering...but you mustn't drop anchor there. The psalms in general and this psalm in particular teach us to be honest with God about our feelings and our pain...and then to look up and say, "BUT". The Bible doesn't tell us that we won't suffer; but it does say that there is always a "But". The worst mistake we can make in suffering is to forget to say: "But...".

But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.

In almost every psalm of lament or intercession, it happens the same way. The psalmist is honest with God about his worries...then he says, "But." And then he gives a reason why he can be encouraged, a grace that God gives him that enables him to combat his negative reaction to suffering. The Bible never tells us that negative reactions aren't appropriate, but it does tell us not to drop anchor there.

In Psalm 102, the psalmist gives us two "Buts", two truths that reassure and comfort him in his predicament.

2) Future Grace: God will establish his holy city

The word "Zion" appears over 150 times in the Bible, and essentially it means "fortification"-a strong place, a stable and secure dwelling. "Zion is the city of God, the city where God dwells. In the Old Testament, Zion was synonymous with Jerusalem, where God's temple was located. God's city was Jerusalem (Isaiah 40:9). In the New Testament, "Zion" took on an even deeper meaning-the eternal dwelling place of God, the city that God would establish as His dwelling place and that of His children (1 Peter 2:6, Hebrews 12:22, Revelation 14:1). "Zion" is therefore another name for what we call paradise, the holy city, the New Jerusalem where God will forever establish his kingdom on earth.

The psalmist's first comfort is found in the promise that God will establish his holy city, and that all God's children will be able to settle and establish  themselves there, and dwell there forever.

V. 13-14 : You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come. For your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.

V. 28 : The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.

For the psalmist, there was a real link between the city God was going to build for his people and his own well-being at the time. And this attitude runs counter to everything we know today. In our world, everything has to be immediate: we can recall as many promises as we like, but it doesn't change a thing-"That's all very well, but I'm still suffering!"

Indeed, attaching oneself to God requires a radical adjustment of our worldview and priorities. The child of God has his priorities not in what happens to him now, but in what will happen one day. Last week we saw that Jesus' vision was so fixed on the future that he was able to undergo the worst suffering imaginable. Hebrews 12:2: for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.. The amazing thing is that it wasn't weightless hope that kept him going, but the promise of even greater joy. The suffering of the cross was enormous; the joy to come was far greater still-so he was able to endure.

In the same way, if we have our eyes fixed on the grace to come, we too can endure. If Florence Chadwick could have seen the approaching coast, she might well have finished her journey. Likewise, if we keep our eyes on the grace that will one day come, we'll be able to finish ours-no matter how much suffering we go through. It doesn't lessen the pain, but it allows us to live our pain the right way, for God's glory—trusting in his wisdom and sovereignty.

The promise the psalmist gives us is that God will establish his holy city, where he will dwell forever, and where his children—that is, us—will be able to strengthen themselves and live in joy for all eternity. It's a promise that gives us real comfort in our suffering—if at least we have our eyes fixed on the glorious future that awaits us, and not on our present situation.

3) Present Grace: the knowledge of God's glory

If the psalmist gives us this grace to which we can turn in suffering, he gives us yet another: the reality of God's glory, which the nations of the world will see and praise. (This word "glory" means seeing and rejoicing in the beauty and greatness and majesty of God. When we see and rejoice in God's excellencies, He is glorified).

We can see why the promise of joy to come might comfort the psalmist. But when the psalmist refers to the other great truth that relieves him in his pain, it doesn't seem to be related to himself at all. Rather than saying all that God will do for him, he speaks of God himself.

11 My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. 12 But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.

15 Nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory. 16 For the LORD builds up Zion; he appears in his glory…

21 …that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise, 22 when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.

Rather than saying all that God will do for him, he speaks of God himself, as if God himself were the benefit that gave relief to the psalmist's suffering. But how is this possible? Why should the knowledge of God's power and eternity and glory be a comfort to the psalmist, what he looks up to when he's suffering?

To answer this question, we need to pause and reflect. If the psalmist finds comfort in the knowledge of God's glory, there must be a reason.

In fact, that reason can be found on every page of the Bible, from beginning to end. The Scriptures proclaim without reservation that the reason God does what He does is so that His creation can know Him, love Him and see His glory. First of all, everything God did in the Old Testament was aimed at this goal. All his law and his intervention on behalf of the people of Israel were designed to help them see God.

Isaiah 40:9:

Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah,“Behold your God!”

That's the point of what he was doing in the New Testament too. God sent Jesus Christ to take our place—to live a perfect life in our place, to pay the price for our sins in our place-so that we might be reconciled to God. He did this because he loved us—but even that love is not an end in itself. While God would be just in punishing us, the love he shows us demonstrates his great mercy and compassion—when we accept the love God has shown us in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we give him glory. God's love and Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us glorify God. So the main reason Christ died was not primarily to save and forgive us, but that through this act of divine salvation and forgiveness, we might see and know and give glory to God.

1 Peter 3.18:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…

2 Corinthians 4.6:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

This is the main reason why God does everything he does from the beginning of creation—and it's his plan for us too. God does everything so that the men and women he has created will see, love, rejoice and take pleasure in that glory. When we know God's glory, we fulfill our reason for being-as Isaiah 4:6-7 says:

…bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Now we're ready to return to our question. Why would the knowledge of God's power and eternity and glory be for the psalmist a relief, what he looks up to when he's in pain?

Because he has found his greatest good not in things he can lose—his health or his family or his work or his hobbies or his relationships—but in God himself. Everything he possesses could be taken from him, but God never changes-his existence is constant, his power inexhaustible, his glory always visible.

11 My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. 12 But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.

Verses 27-28: [Earth and heaven] will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.

And since he knows that God is the only being who doesn't change, he knows that God is the only reliable source of comfort. So even if it's hard, even if his suffering has reached a level that seems unbearable, he looks up to God, for he is sovereign; he is eternal; he is trustworthy.

Application

Now the main question here is, how do we learn to do this—to respond to suffering like the psalmist does? It can seem impossible: how does someone who is going through suffering so intense that they’re not sleeping, they’re not eating, they feel like their body is wasting away… How does this person respond sincerely, like the psalmist did, and find comfort in what they’re saying?

I’m going to suggest two very practical things, and then I’ll explain why they’re so important.

First of all—and it sounds ridiculously simple—if we want to learn to respond to pain like the psalmist does, read the Bible, and go to church. The church—the body of Christ—is the main means God has given us, through his Spirit, to let the Word of God take root in our hearts and change us.

When we come to church, what do we do? We sing songs that proclaim these truths about who God is. We listen to the Word of God that proclaims who God is. We comfort one another with these truths about who God is. We need to see these truths lived out and celebrated, and we need other people who can help us stand when we no longer have the strength to do it on our own.

Secondly: if we want to learn to respond to suffering like the psalmist does, we must develop the habit of praying like this when we’re not suffering.

If we look at the second half of this psalm—basically, at everything starting at v. 12—with very few exceptions, we can pray all of these things in any and every circumstance. These things are always true.

We have two couples in the church who are getting married in less than two weeks. Their wedding day will be, for them, a wonderful, joyful day—the beginning of their life together.

And on that day, they can stop for a moment, look out at the celebration happening around them, and then can say in all honesty: “But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations… Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.”

If we develop the habit of thinking like that all the time—in good moments and in completely boring, ordinary moments—we will be ready to think that way when the storms arrive.

It’s not a quick fix; it’s a long-term plan for peace.

We so often look for easy solutions to our problems—or we look for ways to pretend our problems don't exist. Real solutions—the ones that get to the root of the problem and uproot it—are rarely quick or easy. The Bible offers real solutions to our pain—not quick fixes or ways to live in denial. They're sometimes slow, often difficult—but they're real and definitive. Anchoring our relief in God's great plan for humanity and in God's glory is the only way to find real, lasting comfort here and now.

This is exactly what the psalmist does. Even if he has to suffer now, he knows that God will accomplish His purposes for His people, and he finds happiness in that knowledge. After honestly telling God of his immediate suffering, he looks up to God's plan for mankind—the establishment of his holy city, where all his children can grow strong—and to the greatest good there is-the glory of God himself. His suffering isn't necessarily over, but at least he can see the end of the tunnel...and so he can hold on.

A month after her failure in the English Channel, Florence Chadwick tried the route again. The fog rolled in as before, and she tired as before... But this second time, she made it to the end, because she knew that even if she couldn't see the coast clearly, it was there, and it wasn't as far as it seemed.

Likewise, if we keep our eyes firmly fixed on God's plan for his people, and on God himself, we'll be able to hold on until the end—because even if everything we have is taken away from us, our God and his will cannot be taken away from us. We can find comfort in this today, as we say with the psalmist:

...you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you (v. 27-28).