Belief in the Resurrection

Introduction

Have you ever given up on something? Sure you have. We all have. In fact, if your half is your cup is half empty, you could track your life by a series of failures of things you’ve given up on. We all have that drawer or that room in our house that’s a museum of things that we’ve given up on. There may be a tennis racket and a guitar or a treadmill or other exercise equipment in that room. Some places in the country they have basements, and the entire basement floor is a museum of things that they’ve given up on. That’s the problem living in Florida. Our failures are right there in the ground floor. We can’t hide from them. This time of year, you may have given up on your diet.

But you know, sometimes giving up on something is a good thing. Some things need to be given up. You may have given up smoking or skydiving or rock climbing because it was too dangerous.

But there are some things that we just cannot. Cannot give up on.

From 2 Corinthians chapter 4, the text where the Apostle Paul would say numerous times, we do not lose heart. In common day vernacular, that would be we do not give up. Paul, in that context, and we’re going to look at that context a little bit more this morning, is talking about the challenges that he and others as a part of his ministry had faced. But he would say, despite those challenges, maybe challenges that in a different context would cause us to give up on a pursuit. But he would say there are reasons why it came to his work in the gospel, to his Christianity, to his faith in God, that he would say, We do not lose heart. Let’s talk about that a little bit this morning.

But you know it’s one thing to say, don’t give up. To maybe cheerlead the idea, please don’t give up. But it’s a whole nother thing for someone to say, here’s how you can continue. Here’s some tools that will help you to succeed. Something maybe to keep in your mind and in your heart that would cause you not to give up, not to lose heart. And that’s what we really want to talk about this morning, not just the concept and the tagline, we don’t give up, but here’s why you shouldn’t give up. Turn with me, we’re gonna be looking at 2 Corinthians 4 a little bit, but let’s start in the book of Colossians, chapter 3 this morning.

And I want to offer to you this morning that as a child of God, as a believing Christian, your belief in the resurrection, your belief in the resurrection is the key to you not giving up. It’s the fact that you believe that this life is not all there is. In fact, that this life is not even the most of all there is. But because you believe in a resurrection, because you believe that life will continue after your life here on this earth is over, that’s why you should not give up. And maybe that’s one of the greatest reasons and the greatest keys to your succession, your succeeding in the cause of Christ is because your belief in the resurrection. Look at Colossians chapter 3, and let’s begin in a reading in verse 1.

It says, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things in the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life, appears, you will also appear with him in glory. The apostle here is talking really about two resurrections. One is our resurrection from our death in sin. You’ve been raised with Christ. He said earlier in chapter 2 that they had been buried with him in baptism and raised. And so you’ve been raised from the watery grave of baptism to a new life, and so you seek those things which are above.

1. Because of the Resurrection, I Can Endure Suffering

And so Paul is saying, because we have a belief in the resurrection, the spiritual resurrection of the soul being dead in trespasses and sins and having been raised, and because we believe in the hope of a physical resurrection, that changes everything. Seek those things which are above, not those things which are on the earth. And so let’s talk about this belief in the resurrection and what it can do for us. Because, as the Apostle Paul, because I believe in the resurrection, because I believe I as a Christian have been raised from my death and sins, and because I believe as a Christian, I will be raised from the physical death in the grave, I can endure suffering. If I’m seeking those things which are above, then I can endure suffering.

Suffering is just a part of life, isn’t it? And for some of us, it’s just a big part of life. Suffering. Whether it takes the form of physical suffering, pain and anguish and disease that may riddle our bodies. Or whether it takes the form of mental or emotional suffering, of struggles that we might have to overcome difficulties and discouragements and depression, or whether that suffering is from an external source of others causing you pain and anguish and grief. Suffering is just here. And how do I endure that suffering? How do I keep from just throwing my hands up and saying, I give up the resurrection. Turn with me now back to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and see how Paul makes that point, that it is the resurrection, our belief in the resurrection, that is key to us overcoming difficulties and even suffering.

2 Corinthians 4, look at verse 16 beginning. Therefore, here’s our phrase, therefore we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day. Let’s pause there. Even though our outward man is perishing, the flesh is dying, Paul says. But that doesn’t cause me to give up. Now, Paul’s outward man is perishing, is a little different than our outward man perishing. You may think you can relate to that passage, and you can. You might say, as I’m getting older, I see the outward man is perishing. I’ve had surgeries. Are you like my parents? My dad, I still have his billful with his driver’s license and his Medicare card in it when my dad passed away. And one thing my dad had, I inherited my OCD from my dad.

My dad had a laminated sheet in his bill fold. And on the front it had all the surgeries he had had and their dates, and on the back was all the medication and how many milligrams he took of each. Can you relate to that? But suffering, because outward man is perishing. But in Paul’s situation, it was a little different. Paul wasn’t suffering from old age. Paul was suffering from physical persecution. His outward man was perishing because he had been beaten and stoned and left for dead. Regardless of how your outward man is perishing, Paul says, we don’t lose heart in light of that fact, that physical fact of life, because the inward man is being renewed day by day. Now, how can the inward man be renewed?

The inward man is tied to the outward man, isn’t he? The inward man usually goes where the outward man goes. And so if the outward man is perishing and declining, then the inward man is going to perish and decline. He’s going to tell us why or how the inward man can increase, though the outward man is perishing. And I believe he’s going to tell us the key is the resurrection. Keep reading. Verse 17, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment is working for us a far more and exceeding and eternal weight of glory. There’s the key, and there’s the resurrection. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen, that’s the outward man who is perishing, are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

For we know, keep reading, verse one of chapter 5. We know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this, this tent, this outward man, for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Paul says, we do not lose heart. Why? Because of the resurrection. We have a building from God. The inward man can be renewed because of that faith that we have.

Paul is not saying there is no suffering, although he says it’s a light affliction. We think to Paul, if anybody, light affliction. Paul in this same epistle would chronicle all his physical sufferings and persecutions and beatings and stonings, and we say, light affliction. It’s light in comparison to what the resurrection offers, the eternal weight of glory. What Paul is telling us, and listen closely, because this is key that what Paul is telling us is that because there’s heaven, this earth ain’t so bad. Because there’s heaven, I can endure suffering.

2. We Can Endure Temptation Because There Is a Resurrection

And sin is fun. If sin wasn’t enjoyable, there wouldn’t be so many people doing it. Let’s just be honest.

Sin is so tempting because there is pleasure to be found in that. But how do we overcome the numerous reasons that we have to give in to temptation and sin and enjoy those pleasures of sin? How do we overcome? Again, our perspective is key. Are you still there in 2 Corinthians chapter 5? Let’s skip a few verses and go to verse 9. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 9. Whether we make it our aim, whether present or absent, that is, alive or dead, in this body or in that glorified body, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we’re well known to God, and I also trust well known to your consciences. Paul says, our perspective of eternity will cause us to endure suffering or light affliction, but it also cause us to be morally, ethically, and spiritually the kind of people we ought to be, because there’s a resurrection. There is so much in Scripture, both old and New Testament, against this idea of instant self-gratification. The whole principle behind fasting was to do without something. To understand our dependence upon God. And we live in a culture that is driven, driven by instant satisfaction, instant gratification. And we’re all tempted by it. Let’s illustrate the culture that we live in and how we’ve been affected by it.

I’ll use myself. Maybe you’re immune to this. I’m not. I grow impatient with Amazon shipping. Isn’t that ridiculous? I grow impatient with how long it takes to pop microwave popcorn. Isn’t that silly? And I think about my grandparents having to get wood to build a fire to cook something. And I’m impatient that the microwave is taking so long to pop my popcorn or reheat my meal.

They kill the fatted calf.

It’s going to be a while before you eat.

They learned patience through their life. We, conversely, we learn impatience through our life. We’re used to things. We’re used to having it now. But Paul is saying the key in our perspective when it comes to the resurrection is to understand that our satisfaction is not now, but it’s then. And we must learn that patience. And we can endure that temptation because there is a resurrection. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. While he did our Bible reading from 1 Corinthians 15, you know the topic there is the resurrection. Our resurrection has its surety based upon his Jesus Christ resurrection. But I want to notice a passage that Paul really states from the negative, but I want to look at it from a little different perspective this morning.

Look at 1 Corinthians 15, verse 14 beginning. And if Christ, Paul is going to talk about what if Christ is not risen? What if there is no resurrection? What’s the fallout from that? What’s the logical conclusion if there is no resurrection? If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we’ve testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up, and if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, and you’re still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If, verse 19, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. Paul says that’s life without the resurrection, and it’s bleak and it’s dark. But let’s reimagine that passage from the positive, because there is a resurrection. That’s Paul’s whole argument. Our faith is not futile. Our preaching is not in vain. Christ has risen from the dead, and we’re not still in our sins. Because there’s a resurrection. And our hope is not in this life only. And so of all people, of all people, we are the most blessed and fortunate. Because there is a resurrection. And I can look to that. And I can look to what the Hebrew writer spoke of as Moses’ decision that he would forgo the passing pleasures of sin.

3. The Resurrection Should Cause Me to Help You

Because he looked for something better. And not only, let’s make this point. Not only will the resurrection help me to endure suffering, not only will the resurrection and my faith in it cause me to overcome temptation, but it should cause me to help you. Because I believe you will be raised as well. And I want to encourage us to look out from among our own selfish eyes and see others who may be suffering. And if we believe in the resurrection, we should seek to help them as well, to do whatever we can to be that lifeline. Let me tell you a story, a true story, about a man by the name of William Cowper. William Cowper was an 18th-century English poet and hymn writer. We have a he wrote several hymns.

I only know of one that’s in our book. There’s a fountain filled with blood, is written by William Cowper. He was a great poet and a great hymn writer. But William Cowper suffered from a lifelong depression. He was diagnosed in those days, they called it melancholy. And on more than one occasion, William Copper contemplated taking his own life. Something tragic had happened in William’s life, and he saw it as a sign to take his life. Though he had written beautiful hymns of praise to God, he was so despondent and depressed that he had decided to take his life. And so he asked his driver to take him to the lake. And so his driver dutifully hitched up the horse and buggy and they set off that night for the lake.

But the driver knew.

And so the driver got lost. And kept telling Mr. Cowper, it’s the fog. I can’t really see where I’m going. And they drove around for hours, lost. We put lost in quotation marks there because of the fog until Mr. Cowper fell asleep in the buggy. And the driver turned around and took him home. Had no problem in the dark and in the fog finding his way home. And apologized in the morning for the fog and being unable to find the lake that he’d been instructed to go to.

4. Because I Believe in the Resurrection, I Can See Clearly

There was the true sign. Because there’s a resurrection, I can endure my own suffering. I can overcome my own temptation, but I can also see that there’s hope in you. And I want to do whatever I can to help you to not lose heart. Because I believe in the resurrection, I can see clearly. Go back with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Paul had said that our suffering in this life is but a light affliction when compared to that resurrected eternal weight of glory. He had said that we can endure and overcome temptation and be well pleasing to him because of the resurrection. But now look what he says. Let’s back up to chapter 5, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 5, where he says, Now he who prepared us for this very thing, prepared us for the resurrection, is what he’s talking about.

He who’s prepared us for this very thing is God, who’s also given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are also confident, knowing that while we’re at home in the body, we’re absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Just as Paul had said in Colossians chapter 3, the belief in the resurrection changes our perspective. We don’t walk by sight. We’re not consumed by what we can see and experience in this life. We walk by faith. What Paul would say in this context are those unseen things.

How did he put it in Colossians chapter 3? Since you’ve been raised with Christ, seek those things which are above. We see and we seek those heavenly and spiritual things. And so we can see the unseen. And that becomes our focus. That becomes our drive and our incentive. And so no matter what happens here, I won’t give up. Because as we’ve said before, we’ve read the last chapter of the book. We know how this story ends. No matter what happens, what ugliness, what suffering, what temptation happens in the interim. I know how the story ends. I know that Christ is victorious. I know that I will be raised and given a new body where there’ll be no more outward decaying of the flesh, where there will be no more sin and temptation, where there will be nothing but God.

Conclusion

And this changes everything for me. Because I can see clearly what matters in my life. And I can see that there’s things that it’s all right that I give up on. I can see things in my life that it’s better that I give up on them. But I can see clearly that there’s one thing that I cannot give up on. And that’s my faith. And I will not give up on it. Because I believe in the resurrection. I want to encourage you to not lose heart. To believe in God and Christ Jesus. And because you believe that you’ll be raised up again, you’ll do whatever it takes to not lose heart. And that we’ll join hands and hearts together and help one another to do whatever we can to get through the darkness and the fog of discouragement and not give up, but to find our way home.

Would you begin that wonderful journey to the resurrection? Would you begin? Would you be raised from the dead this very day and seek those things which are above, knowing that when Christ appears, you will be seated with him in glory. Can we help you this morning? Help you in any spiritual way, any way that we can help you. Let it be known right now as together we stand and as we sing.