2 Corinthians 4:13-18 (Eternal Perspective, Jeff Kliewer)

His name, amen. Hetty Green lived from 1834 to 1960, and she was known as the world's biggest miser.

Beyond thrifty, she was a miser. In fact, she was probably unfairly labeled the witch of Wall Street.

She had amassed a wealth of $200 million, which in today's terms is probably more like $4 billion.

Nothing wrong with that, but she was so miserly that she never changed her outfit.

She always wore the same black dress from which she got the title of the witch of Wall Street because of her black dress.

She wouldn't change it, one pair of clothes. She would never use hot water, and she would not turn on the heat in her home.

In fact, there was a time when her son had a foot problem where I think he broke his leg, and she went to the free clinic of all places.

When she couldn't work out, they wouldn't give her the free service. She couldn't work out that deal. She stormed out of there and ended up not getting it treated.

As the legend goes, he actually had his foot amputated because she had so long stalled having to pay the bill yet worth $200 million.

I don't know if that part is true, but that's what some of the history books say. Whether the legend is true or not, the miserly accumulation of wealth lacks eternal perspective.

Guys, a lot of us here don't have $200 million, but it is possible for us to be miserly with what

God has given us. Most importantly, the time and the energy with which we're entrusted in this life, we contend to become worldly and how we distribute that.

By comparison to the witch of Wall Street, Hedy Green, we look back in time to Jonathan Edwards.

Edwards is well -known for having an eternal perspective. He's famous because he was instrumental in the

Great Awakening, the first Great Awakening in America. Edwards wrote the book or wrote the sermon,

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, which might be the most famous sermon ever written in terms of notoriety.

It's studied in high schools and colleges all around the world, but he didn't only speak of hell and the wrath of God, that's reserved for sinners.

He also spoke much and even more so about heaven. One of his great books is called Heaven, a

World of Love. What an amazing book that is. And the thesis of Heaven, a

World of Love, is this idea that in heaven, there is nothing but pure and sincere love for one another.

There's no more jealousy, there's no more hatred, there's no more looking over your shoulder or being self -conscious about how other people feel about you.

There is pure and genuine love. As Christians in heaven, according to Edwards, and I think he's right, we are continuing to grow.

At the moment we were glorified and brought into heaven, our sin nature was removed, but our progress in joy and appreciation for who

God is did not stop. It continues forever. So glorification becomes a process of becoming more and more awakened to the reality of who

God is. And good news, God is infinite. So there's no end to this growth in holiness and this joy that continues to increase for all eternity.

I love that teaching. One of Edwards' quotes from that book, everyone will be perfectly sincere.

All their expressions of love will come from the bottom of their hearts. Can you imagine heaven?

I think we need to think more about heaven. Edwards also says, every perceptive faculty shall be an inlet of delight.

Every part of us will have reason to delight in God. It will be a world of joy, of delight.

C .S. Lewis pointed out that there's an expression that people often use, that people become so heavenly minded they're of no earthly good.

But C .S. Lewis pointed out, if you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think about the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

So my main idea this morning is that gaining an eternal perspective to think about heaven, to become otherworldly, for your mind to even fixate on the things to come, it makes you less miserly with your time and your talent and your treasure.

And it turns you into a minister, a minister of the gospel. It changes how you use your time, not spending it on yourself, but poured out in love for others while we're still here.

So turn with me to 2 Corinthians 4. We pick up in this very encouraging section where Paul has taught us about the confidence that we have because of the new covenant, the unfading covenant, the permanence of it.

And the gospel light, the pure light that has enveloped us and changed us, opening our eyes to behold who

God is. And so we are persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.

As we get into verse 13, it's on that note of joy. Death is at work in us, but life in you.

Even though we have to suffer, do not lose heart, because God is accomplishing a purpose.

So we move into this next section, verse 13 and following. And Paul will turn our attention off of the earthly things to heavenly things.

Let's read it. 2 Corinthians 4, 13 and following. You'll wanna follow along.

And if you don't have a Bible, you can always grab one in the back. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written,

I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak.

Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

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, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Chapter 4, verse 13, since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written,

I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak. Faith ignites the tongues of misers like us, making us ministers.

We need to recognize that there has been a theme developing in 2 Corinthians about speaking the truth of the gospel.

We're not to be silent, we're to speak this gospel. So look back at chapter 2, verse 14, when

Paul, kind of giving an illustration from his own life, goes on a kind of a bunny trail.

He takes a side trail at verse 14, chapter 2, verse 14. He says, but thanks be to God who in Christ Jesus leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

That spreading of the fragrance is us speaking. Some people will hate what we have to say, other people will come alive by it.

But there's a speaking of this knowledge. Chapter 2, verse 17, it becomes explicit. He says, we are not like so many peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, what do we do?

We speak in Christ. I believed and therefore

I spoke. You see the theme continuing in chapter 3, verse 12, we are very bold.

Bold to do what? To declare the gospel. And he says it again in chapter 4, verse 2.

We have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

Chapter 4, verse 5, for what we proclaim is not ourselves.

So we come to verse 13 again, and the point is, according to what has been written,

I believed and so I spoke. What we believe in the heart comes out of our mouths in ministry to others.

The proclamation of who Jesus is. Now the quote here is from Psalm 116, and in the context,

David is writing about resurrection and rescue from death.

He says, the anguish of the grave, Psalm 116, verse 3, is overcome by God who delivers from death.

So faith prompts us to speak of the first fruits and guarantee of the resurrection.

In other words, Paul goes back and references David as an example of one who believed, and so he spoke.

He wrote Psalm 116. In the same way, Paul is an example for us by the same spirit of faith.

Because Paul believes that Jesus rose from the dead, he proclaims a risen savior. And that's how it applies to us.

A minister is one who believes that Jesus rose from the dead, and so he proclaims a risen savior.

This is the concept here. We also believe and so we also speak. Now verse 14, knowing that he who raised the

Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

The resurrection from the dead, the return of Christ to retrieve his bride from the four corners of the earth, from ashes and dust, to resurrect the dead and those who remain being caught up together to meet him in the air.

This hope of resurrection and the eternal life to come is what motivates us to minister.

As long as our minds are set on earthly things, we're distracted from what matters most.

But as we contemplate and gain an eternal perspective, we begin to minister to other people using our mouths to speak the gospel.

Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 14, and this, it says, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing.

Whether good or evil. This is the last verse of Ecclesiastes. So the author here,

Solomon, is summarizing and giving a very important application. Every deed that is done in the body will be brought into judgment by God, whether good or evil.

Now that is at once terrifying and reassuring. It's reassuring because we know that the blood of Jesus covers us from all unrighteousness and there will be no condemnation,

Romans 8 .1. Yet, the things that we do in the body continue to matter after death.

And here is a point of great misconception in the body of Christ. I think that most of us have the idea that when you die, everything is wiped away, you forget about the things of this life.

And the new world begins, as if this world never happened. That's not the teaching of scripture.

The scripture teaches that there's coming a judgment that will expose how what was done in the flesh affects the world to come.

These are not independent realities, but fit together within one overarching sovereign plan of God.

And this is very important. Because if we miss this, we begin to fall into distraction and meaninglessness in this life.

Life means so much. Life means so much.

Every decision, every careless word, Jesus said, will be brought into the light. Nothing will be forgotten.

The reason that our minds forget things that happen to us is because of the fall of Adam and Eve.

We hold on to many things, but there are noetic effects to sin. Our knowledge, the way our brains function, have changed because of the fall.

But this is gonna get into some deep theology that's important to follow. Edwards said, hardly anything will bring you more joy in heaven than to see other saints with greater reward than you.

Experiencing greater joys than you, given greater authority than you.

In the world to come, the heavenly reality that that is coming, what happened in this life will affect that life.

So one person will be more advanced in their walk with God, and more capable of enjoying the delights of heaven than another person.

And yet, the person who has less holiness or less advancement in knowledge will not look up at that person with envy and jealousy.

Because all of those things have been taken away at glorification. And the person who is farther along in heaven will not look down on someone because the farther along they are, the more humble they will be.

And the delight of one Christian for another Christian, the love between them, will actually delight in seeing other people thriving in their relationship with God.

Life means so much. You guys know that song by Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody. It's an awful song in a lot of ways, but it's compelling.

It's compelling for this reason. There's a line in it that says, nothing really matters.

Nothing really matters. And yet, in the verse, as it leads up to that, there's a murder that happens, somebody kills somebody.

And then he cries out to his mom, mom, I don't wanna die. Sometimes I wish I'd never been born at all.

And he says, life had just begun, and now I've gone and thrown it all away.

Why am I quoting Queen right now? There's a good reason. There's a good reason.

Because even though the author is following a world view that says nothing really matters, we're just evolved fish walking around.

There's something set deep in the heart of that author that says, that's not true.

Ecclesiastes 3 says that God has set eternity in our hearts. And that cry, the cry from the author,

I've gone and thrown it all away. I was given this one life, and now I flushed it down the toilet.

You know that the human being made in the image of God is made for a purpose.

And even those who deny it know that down deep. It's written on their hearts.

You see it in the lyrics of the song. So what does the scripture say to us?

Our perspective needs to be taken off of the things of this world and set to the things above.

Our citizenship is in heaven. It says in Philippians chapter three, their minds are on earthly things.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there. The apostle is turning our eyes to a heavenly perspective, to think about God and not just the things of this earth.

Peter is very big into this concept. First Peter chapter 1 verse 13 says, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Set your hope fully, what does that mean? It means to fixate on it, to think about the coming grace that will be revealed.

He had already said in chapter 1 verse 4, we have an inheritance that's imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

That's what made Abraham so full of faith. He was looking to a city whose architect and builder is

God. So he could leave behind the world that he knew, to look forward to that heavenly

Jerusalem, the heavenly Zion. Romans 8, 18, our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed.

Colossians 3, 2, fix your minds on the things that are in heaven. Ephesians 2, 7, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Second Corinthians 4 verse 14, where we left off before I started preaching on that. This resurrection from the dead needs to occupy our thoughts.

Because what we're doing in the flesh now matters for the things that are to come.

Verse 15, for it is all for your sake. So that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

Ministry is loving well. Ministry is loving well.

We've already said earlier in previous sermons that maturity is suffering well. A baby doesn't suffer very well.

When the littlest thing goes wrong, they cry and they cry out and ask for help.

And just wail about it. But a mature person endures suffering well, recognizing that God is working a purpose.

Ministry is loving well. Ministry is not for the preacher alone.

My job on Sunday morning is to love you well, to try with every fiber of my being to make plain to you the unfolding of God's words.

That's how I love you when I'm in the pulpit. But as we go from this place, you go forth and I go forth to love people.

That's what ministry is. All of us are ministers. Ministry is loving well.

So we see in verse 15, all of this is to the glory of God. We live for the glory of God.

That's the final application here. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

So where is God's glory most clearly seen? According to Ephesians 1, 6, all of his activity is for the praise of his glorious grace.

The pinnacle of God's glory, where he's most clearly seen, his glory is most clearly displayed, is in his grace towards people.

Titus tells us he's calling out a particular people to praise him. He's populating heaven with worshipers.

Until he comes, ministry is always about desiring grace to reach more and more people.

Now I've heard Christians say, I don't wanna see the church grow, cuz

I like it as it is, we're a close family. And I love that I know everybody here.

Unless you're new for the first time. And our church loves that we know one another. But there can never come a point where we say that grace stops here.

Do you hear what I'm saying? The text says that to the glory of God, grace extends to what?

Verse 15, more and more people, more and more people.

Why? That it would increase thanksgiving as more and more people are saved by grace through faith in Christ.

They become worshipers too. God is glorified in their worship just as he's glorified in ours.

So we must never stop preaching the gospel. We must continue to extend grace, and this is the heart of ministry.

To love people, to love people. Love the unbeliever well enough to tell them the truth.

After 1 billion years in heaven, you'll meet a believer that you met the first day you got there.

And he had gone his way in heaven in the crowds of the billions of people. And after a billion years, you'll run across him again.

And your sanctified brain will not be forgetful of what his name is.

And you'll remember what you were talking about a billion years ago. And you'll continue that conversation with joy.

And he will tell you more about the grace of God in his life during the short days he lived here.