2 Corinthians 4:17–18

0:00 Well good evening church. It is good to be with you. As Greg said, our text this evening is in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 17 to 18. It's on page 966 in the Pew Bibles if you want to turn there. I love raising my boys. I love being the father of sons and over the nine years I've been doing this, I've come up with a definition of boyhood that I think fairly works. Boyhood, as I define it, is pure act. There's no thought. It's just action. I see many of you agree with this definition, right? It's amazing how many times I catch my sons in some, you know, boneheaded thing, and I stop them and I say, you know, son, what are you thinking? And they look at me, and it's clear from their eyes that this is the first moment they started thinking. They hadn't been thinking up until that moment. And so the goal, really, of fatherhood is to try to throw a wrench in between what a child sees and what he does with what he sees. It's like my whole goal. If my son is 20, 70, he's like, Dad, you threw wrenches in

1:03 between, you know, seeing and doing in my life. I'd be like, yes, I got it. So, well, this is what Paul is doing in our text tonight. And the gears that he's trying to throw the wrench into are the connection in all of our hearts between affliction and despair. When affliction hits our lives, we tend to just slide down into despair. And Paul is trying to throw a wrench into that and stop that machinery from working. But he's actually doing more than that. He's not just trying to stop the machinery. He wants to blow the whole machine up because he wants to show us ultimately that if we're Christians, affliction is given by God ultimately to bring us to glory. And it's to that idea that I want to look at this text with you tonight. So let's read the passage and dive in.

1:49 I'm going to start in verse 16. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. The things that are unseen are eternal.

2:21 The main idea I want to explore with you tonight, I'm going to take the first part of verse 16 and turn it into an imperative. My main idea is this, don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. I want to break that down to two points. Don't lose heart by comparing your affliction to the coming glory. By comparing your affliction to the coming glory. And point two, don't lose heart. by opening your eyes to the unseen. Look, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 is probably tied with Romans 8 as the most on-the-ground, helpful, gritty text to lead us through affliction, ultimately to joy.

2:58 And we need the power of the Spirit and the power of the Word to encourage our hearts in that tonight. So I pray that that will happen and that we will be lifted up to see His glory. Let's jump in. jump in first point don't lose heart by comparing your affliction to coming glory the the quick context is that paul is talking about the ministry of the new covenant and and ministers of the new covenant and if you look up at chapter 4 verse 1 you'll see by the mercy of god we do not lose heart same phrase is said again in verse 16 that's the point he's going for he's trying in chapter 4 to explain why you can be pressed but not crushed persecuted not abandoned struck down but not be destroyed and yet not lose heart. And so he's trying to explain how the apostles are coming along and doing this. He's trying to get the church to come along and see why we don't lose heart. And our verse tonight, he's given a bunch of reasons why, but our verse tonight is the ultimate reason of why we don't lose heart. So that's the context of what's going on. Verse 17 then. For this light, momentary affliction. And right off the bat, some of you are sitting here

4:04 and you're like, man, that is so encouraging. That is like a balm on my soul. I'm so thankful that that text says that. And there's others of you who hear those words, light, momentary affliction, and you say, man, it doesn't feel light. And it doesn't feel momentary. It almost feels callous that we could call affliction light and momentary. I mean, I spent the past five days I've been studying this text. I've been thinking through the suffering of our church and of the people I know in our church. I'm thinking about the tears of people over their unbelieving children who have left the faith. I think about the tears of people because of their unbelieving parents and siblings.

4:48 Of broken relationships, of the pain of infertility and the pain of miscarriages and the years of begging God for relief and the seeming return of the silence of God. Death of loved ones, strained marriages, that one sin that you just can't conquer, how can he call our suffering, our affliction, light and momentary? Well, a couple of things to think about there. First, he does call affliction, affliction. He doesn't say it's just a light momentary event. Paul is not a stoic. He's not some guy who thinks that he has transcended to some point where the good and the evil are just the flip side of the same coin. Evil is evil. Good is good. Affliction is affliction. Joy is joy. Your pain is pain.

5:34 He's not trying to diminish that. But what he is trying to do is he's trying to get other words, other descriptors, other adjectives, trying to give other truths to put affliction in its place, to not let it become so big and lie to us so much. He's trying to combat the lies of affliction in our lives with the light of eternity. Affliction, he says, is momentary and light, even if that is hard to believe. But you know, Paul has to say this, because if he doesn't say this, the poison of despair from the wound of affliction will destroy the church.

6:10 And Paul will not let the church be destroyed if he has anything to say about it. He must throw the wrench into the gears, and he must help us to realize the limited power of affliction in the Christian life. So let me try to say this as clearly as Paul. Christian, even though in affliction you are tempted to think that it masters everything, even though it lies to you, that it has the final say, even though grief falsely boasts that it is eternal, and sorrow cackles that you will never know what joy is again, these are all lies. Satan wants the knowledge of the glory of Christ to be small in your mind and the affliction to be so great that it robs you of hope.

6:48 That's his game. And Paul sizes up against it, points his finger in its face, and calls it out for what it is. Pain is not eternal. Affliction has a time limit. Despair has a gravestone with a predetermined date of death. Hopelessness will make its final bed in a coffin. If you are a Christian, your affliction does not define you or your life or your eternity. It's a light and momentary affliction. But it gets better. I'm going to keep saying that because this text just keeps getting better.

7:20 It gets better because he goes on and he contrasts this light momentary affliction with an eternal weight of glory. Do you see that? Light is contrasted with weight. Momentary is contrasted with eternal. Affliction contrasted with glory. Everything that was bad is contrasted with everything that is glorious to come. The point is simple. God will not leave one stone unturned. He will make all the wrongs right, all the pain into joy. Despair will not have an outpost at the edge of the new heavens and the new earth where it can run little raids in and take your soul down.

7:55 He will make everything right. He will wipe all the tears from our eyes. There is an eternal glory for the believer. But you know, it's better than that. Notice the next phrase that he says, the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So underneath those words, beyond all comparison, it's just two identical words. My Greek isn't good. I don't know what I'm talking about. But it's two identical words. And it just means excessive to excessive. Excessively accessing. It's an eternal weight of glory that is excessively excessive.

8:28 It's overwhelming. It's unending. It's kind of like a guy who, you know, is in a desert and he's parched. He's at the door of death. There's no water. And he comes across this wagon or something. And he gets into the wagon, and there's just this cup in the middle of the wagon. And he's like, oh, I just hope there's some water in that cup. And he picks up the cup, and the moment he picks up the cup, it just starts overflowing with water. It's just water and water and water and water and water. And so he just starts drinking. He's like, this is the greatest thing ever.

8:59 It's like this exceeding water coming from this cup. Well, it fills up the whole wagon, and suddenly it starts hitting the desert, and it's just transforming the entire desert into a jungle. There's now fruit and vegetables and food, and he's been saved, and it's excessive. It's over the top. The point that I'm trying to make is that Christ is not content by evening the playing field between your suffering and coming glory. He's not interested in it being the same. The glory is going to be incomprehensible. Paul, who is a pretty wordy fellow, seems to run out of things to say.

9:33 It's just beyond all comprehension. It's just that great. He will not, Christ will not give suffering the dignity. He is going to crush it under his feet. He's going to end it. He's going to give his people full joy at his hands, our pleasures, forevermore. But it gets better. I mean, it's just incredible. What do you do? It gets better. Notice the words that link these two things. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us.

10:06 Far from it be that the believer's suffering is merely something to be endured. The believer is to see that suffering is a part of the plan of God all along. Suffering doesn't get to say, yes, I had control and dominion in that guy's life for years. God will come right back and say, no, that was my hand. That was my plan. He is in control of our suffering. And he is using it to bring about the eternal weight of glory for believers.

10:37 Sin and death have no claim. God controls it all. And he will bring his people home. Look, if all this is true, this completely changes the way that Christians ought to think about our suffering. Not only can you square up against suffering and tell it that it is temporary and light compared to eternity. But you can also square up against it and tell it that at the end of all things, it's the means of God used to achieve the eternal weight of glory for your soul.

11:10 Paul has cut off all the power of affliction to destroy the believer. And this means a few things for us. First, Christian, square up the suffering. Remind yourself that it is light and momentary. Use this passage. Remind yourself that it is light and momentary. Remind yourself what it's for. It's preparing for you in the eternal weight of glory. in other words, strike back. Strike back at the lies that affliction brings to you. That's what Paul is trying to help you do. Combat the machinery of despair in your heart with the truth of this verse. You know, it does make us ask the question, how does that work? Like, how does my actual affliction tangibly prepare me for this eternal weight of glory? And, you know, honestly, I don't know in the particulars. I don't know how to help you in the particulars, but what we can say is that the cross and resurrection helps us see why that has to be the case.

12:04 Because at the cross, the greatest evil that ever occurred in the history of the world, the most damnable, heinous sin that ever occurred in the history of the world, the greatest affliction where the Son of God bears the wrath of God for the sins of man, from that great evil affliction that occurred, the greatest good in all of history comes, the coming of many sons of glory, eternity given. And if the greatest evil in God's providence can result in the greatest good, then it follows that your greatest affliction and pain can be swallowed up in that story by faith and become part of the eternal glory that is to come.

12:43 You have to, believer, you have to apply the gospel to your suffering. You have to see it in light of what Christ has done for you. You know, this means something for unbelievers too, though. Because this, quote-unquote, light momentary affliction is not preparing for you an eternal weight of glory. But it's a foretaste of eternal suffering because you have rebelled against the Holy God. But it doesn't have to be.

13:14 Just one chapter over, in chapter 5, verse 21, Paul will say, For our sake, God made Christ to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You can have your sins forgiven. You can have the hope of eternity showered upon you. You can find Christ to be everything. And you find it by faith. You should trust him. You should come to him. You should take life from his hand.

13:48 Well, hopefully all of this is really encouraging to you. It's been very encouraging to me. But practically, I want to ask the question, how do we grow in this? How do we sink this in to our hearts? And that brings me to my second point. Don't lose heart by opening your eyes to the unseen. Very briefly here, verse 18, as we look. I won't go into this deeply because Pastor Ryan did such a good job on this this morning. But notice he does not say, you know, it's preparing for us eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So we just sit back and just wait for it to happen. That's not what it says.

14:19 We need to look. You need to open your eyes. You need to start looking at the unseen. I got three things here I think that will help us as we finish up. First, all the pronouns in this entire section are we, us, we, us, we. This is corporate work. This is work intended to be done with one another and for one another. There are no Lone Ranger Christians. If you want to go at this alone, affliction and despair will take your life.

14:53 Get a part of church. Confess your sins to one another. Lean on one another. Pray for one another. Serve one another. Do all the one-anothers of Scripture. That, in doing that, you will begin to see the unseen. You will begin to see the glory. Number two, become a friend of the prayers of Scripture. the prayers of scripture fill the gap between the temporary and eternal the prayers of scripture fill the gap between heaven and earth between promise and fulfillment scripture honestly deals with our pain you could go to psalm 42 if you're struggling with despair why are you downcast oh my soul put your hope in god you could go to psalm 130 if you're struggling with the seen and the unseen in relation to your sin. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

15:48 But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. You could go to Psalm 10, when your prayers bounce off the ceiling. Why do you stand far off, O God? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? You could go to Lamentations 3, when you have suffered extreme loss, and all the hopes and the promises of God seem to have failed, and all your joys have turned to ash in your mouth. Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall. My soul continually remembers it and has bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.

16:24 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, O God. Become a friend of the prayers of Scripture. Pray them, learn them, memorize them, share them. They will help you see the unseen. Lastly, we're celebrating communion tonight. And it's such a sweet gift of God, isn't it? To take the end time feast, which is unseen, and to pull it into the here and now.

16:55 So that we get a taste of what is to come. We get to see for a moment here tonight what is unseen. And it encourages our hearts, it encourages us to reconcile with one another. Because we don't want to bring unreconciled hearts into the new kingdom. It encourages us to confess our sins. It encourages us to walk before his face. It encourages us to remember what he has done for us. Taste and see that the Lord is good. For great our sins and sore are our woes.

17:27 His grace much more aboundeth. His helping love no limit knows. Our utmost need it soundeth. Our shepherd good and true is he who will at last his Israel free from all her sin and sorrow. Let's pray. Oh God, how we need you. We need you to help us walk in this life. We need your help to see clearly. We need your help to trust you. And so Father, we pray that your spirit would fill our hearts to follow you and obey you and trust you and know that this is a light and momentary affliction, but what is coming is an eternal weight of glory.

18:07 Father, lift our eyes to see that truth and help us to walk in that truth all the days of our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.