The Love of Christ Compels Us
CoaH member Jonathan Simpson preaches from 2 Corinthians 4:1-18 and 5:11-15, read for us in Spanish. Discussion points: Paul expected suffering in life even while enjoying God’s goodness, the path to a fulfilling life is not through worldly success but through Jesus’s death, Paul lived with his and others’ eternal life with God in mind.
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Scripture reader: Good morning church. Our scripture reading today is taken from 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1 through 18 and chapter 5 verses 11 through 15. I'll be reading from the Spanish version and you can follow along in the English version. When I finish reading, I will say this is the word of the Lord and please respond with me by saying thanks be to God.
4:1-18: Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But 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. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 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.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
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.
5:11-15: Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Preacher: All right, good morning. All right. It's my pleasure to be bringing the word of God to you this morning. On the 13th of April 1888, a well-known businessman sat down to read the morning newspaper in his home in Paris. And as he was scanning through the obituaries, his eyes suddenly saw an entry that made his stomach drop. And it wasn't because the obituary announced the unexpected death of a family member or even a close friend. Now, what this man saw was an obituary announcing his own death. And it wasn't exactly positive. It read, the merchant of death is dead. The man who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before died yesterday. Yikes. You see, this man had built a business empire by inventing and selling dynamite. An explosive that at the time revolutionized construction and mining, but also contributed to the death of countless soldiers and unfortunate workers.
And on this morning in April 1888, because of a mistake that the newspaper made by confusing his brother's death with his own. He discovered that the public perception of his life, shall we, shall we say was less than favorable. Horrified by reading his own scathing obituary, he decided to amend his will and devote the majority of his fortune to establishing a set of prizes. These prizes were to be awarded to those who through their work conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The name of this benefactor, the Swedish inventor of dynamite who read his own obituary, was Doctor Alfred Nobel. And the prizes he established, the Nobel Prizes.
You see, Alfred Nobel had the unique experience of being able to read about how people would summarize his life, the character and influence of his life in one sentence after he died. And this gets me thinking, what would I want my obituary to say? How would I want people to honestly summarize the nature, the purpose, the, the influence of my life after I die, and I wasn't around to be offended by what they said. Or in other words, what am I living for? What is the main aim, purpose, mission of my life that I would want people to look back and say, that's what Jonathan was about.
You know, we've been going through this series recently, looking at how Jesus lived, but today we're gonna get, take a slight digression and look at how Paul lived because we're looking at this passage in 2 Corinthians 4 and 5, which is essentially what the apostles say, the apostle Paul would say if someone asked him what he was living for. This is one of my favorite passages of scripture in the New Testament, and I believe is one of the most powerful statements of how every believer's life ought to be shaped by the gospel message. And I don't want to have an experience, and I don't want you to have an experience like Alfred Nobel, where I look back at the end of my life and realize that I was living for the wrong thing the whole time.
But before we get into the text, let me give a little bit of context for this passage. Paul established the church in the city of Corinth on his second missionary journey. Now Corinth is a city in modern-day Greece, just about 50 kilometers west of the city of Athens. And he lived in the city, helping the church grow for about a year and a half before moving on. But not long after he left, the church began to seriously struggle with divisions caused by arrogance and idolatry and sexual immorality, the city being in the midst of, or the church being in the midst of the city that was notorious for these things. And then this prompted Paul to write a series of letters of rebuke and correction and encouragement to the church. Now the 1st and 3rd of these letters, there were 4 of them, the 1st and 3rd have been lost, but the 2nd and 4th letters are what we call today the books of 1st and 2nd Corinthians.
Now, the main reason that Paul wrote 2 Corinthians is because he had opponents within the church who were causing divisions and leading people astray. These false teachers were arguing that Paul's gospel must be illegitimate becau because Paul was being rejected and suffering too much to be a real apostle of the Messiah. They said he didn't have the wealth, the power, and the prestige that you would expect of a true teacher or rabbi. But Paul knows what he's living for. And he knows that rather than detracting from the gospel, the shape of his life actually serves to prove the legitimacy and power of the gospel. And so what we get in this passage through Paul defending his own life and ministry is a beautiful example of how the gospel radically redefines the purpose and aim of every believer's life. We first see Paul explain the glory of the gospel, and then we see 3 ways. 3 ways, 3 ways in which his life is a natural and logical outworking of the glorious gospel he proclaims.
And I'll highlight each of these three things as we walk through the passage, but first of all, and most importantly, let's look at Paul, let's look at how Paul explains the glory of the gospel that we believe. Chapter 4 verse 1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But 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. Paul here is talking about the ministry he received from God to preach the gospel to the Gentile nations, the non-Jewish nations. In chapter 3, he explained how the gospel or what he calls the new covenant, is far better than the old covenant, or the law that was given to Moses and the Israelites. But here Paul anticipates his opponents and especially the Jewish religious leaders saying, OK Paul, if your gospel is so much better than the law, Why, why are you being rejected so much? Surely you must have something wrong.
You know, maybe you've had this experience where you've shared the gospel with a friend or a family member. And rather than listening to you and accepting what you have to say, they openly reject it and even mock you for it. You know that really hurts. And the temptation in that, in that moment is to let doubt creep in and say, well, maybe I got it wrong. Maybe, maybe I should have said it differently. But Paul doesn't give in to that temptation to manipulate the gospel for it to be better received. He refuses to tamper with God's word because he's convinced that's the truth and he's gonna keep proclaiming the truth.
And then he continues in verse 3. He says, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. In other words, the reason Paul says that we are being rejected is not because we've got the gospel wrong. It's because the God of this world, Satan, is preventing believers from receiving it. You know this is something that we see consistently throughout the New Testament where it is God who has to first prepare someone's heart in order for them to receive the gospel as good news. Otherwise they just continue living in the lies that Satan tells them, and believing the gospel is a sham or it's irrelevant.
You know, think back to the parable of the sower that Jesus told. The sower could have thrown bags and bags of seed on that rocky ground, but no plants would have ever grown up. God first must prepare the soil of someone's heart before they receive Him, which by the way, is actually really a freeing thing for us to believe as we seek to share the gospel to others. But I want us to pay close attention here to the wording that Paul uses. He describes unbelievers as blind and believers as those who can see the light. And the light that they can see is the light of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
You know, if someone asks you to describe what the gospel is, then you might say it's good news. Or maybe that it's the message about how we can be saved from our sins and go to heaven after we die. Or maybe you'd be more specific and say that it's the message about how Jesus lived a perfect life, died the death that we deserved on our behalf, and then was raised on the 3rd day, resurrected to new life so that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life. And if you said any of those things, you'd be correct. Those are all perfectly valid ways to describe the gospel. But what we see here in verse 4, I would argue is the most fundamental one line description of what the gospel is. It is the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
You see, God's primary aim in the entire redemption narrative, and, and in fact in all of creation, is to reveal his glory, for it to be worshiped and enjoyed and marveled at. And the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the culmination and pinnacle of God revealing who he is. It's in Jesus that we most clearly and fully see God's love, his wisdom, his power, his holiness. Jesus is the image of God. The gospel is about Jesus.
Paul goes on and emphasizes this. Look at verse 5. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. And then comes one of my favorite verses in the Bible. I think this is one of the most beautiful descriptions of the glory of the gospel. Verse 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. Paul refers back to the creation story in Genesis one. When God says, let there be light. It is the beginning of the outpouring of God's glory into the universe. Where once there was darkness, where, where nothing could be seen, there is now light and the brightness of God's glory and can now be seen and enjoyed and marveled at in the things that he creates. But Paul is teaching here that God shining light into his creation was just a picture of an even greater creative act of God to come. The shining of His gospel light into the darkened hearts of His people through the Holy Spirit as he awakens them to see, to savor, and to marvel at his glory. And when God turns our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh and removes the veil from our eyes, we look up with renewed vision and see the fullness of God's glory in Jesus. And now, unlike unbelievers who are either apathetic or repelled by the sight or the thought of God, our hearts are filled with a love and a desire for God Himself.
Now, there's one point that I really want to highlight here that we have to really grasp in order to see the glory of God through the gospel message. And we can see it by looking back at the content of the message that Paul actually preached to the Corinthians. Look at 1 Corinthians 2:1-2. Paul says, and I, when I came to you brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why is Paul emphasizing the cross of Christ? Well, it's because the cross of Christ and the redemption it accomplishes is at the very heart of the gospel.
Let me explain this with an illustration. You know, a lot of the time, the idea of climbing a ladder is used to picture striving for success in this world. We've got to climb the corporate ladder to advance our careers. And I think a lot of the time it can feel like all of life feels like climbing an infinite ladder. You know, we all have things that we want to achieve, but they're always on a higher rung, and it takes a lot of effort and exertion to get to that point. Maybe we wanna have a successful career. Maybe we wanna have a happy, secure family and retire comfortably. Or maybe we just wish it could be easier to get by day to day. And then we have the fact that everyone is born onto this ladder of worldly success at different points. You know, someone from a successful, wealthy, well-connected family in America will start higher up on that ladder. But someone born into poverty in a third world country is going to be starting lower down that ladder. And I think each of us has a sense of where we might be on this ladder and where we might, might want to get to.
But now I want you to think about where Jesus would put Himself on this ladder. Would he be somewhere in the middle? Or would he be right at the top? I mean, after all, he is God, right? You know, I think Jesus Himself gives us the answer in Mark 10:45. He says, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus came to give his life as a ransom. He came to die. He's not at the top or somewhere in the middle of the letter. No, Jesus put the goal of his life way, way, way down the ladder. Past the marginalized, past the rejected, the weak, the failures, the sinners, those who had fallen a long way. Jesus is right at the bottom of the ladder of worldly success on the cross.
Isn't this so counterintuitively glorious? It's the complete polar opposite of what you would expect for a savior. I mean, it's even laughable to suggest that your idea of a successful life is being condemned to death on a cross. But yet it was God's ordained way to most clearly demonstrate the glory of who He is. It silences every boast of prideful people by showing that the way to a fulfilling life that everyone, this fulfilling life that everyone is climbing the ladder for is not by being the smartest or the most successful or the most ambitious. No, Jesus powerfully and gloriously demonstrated that the way to eternal life is through death. And specifically his death. Isn't that glorious? Isn't that refreshing? Isn't that good news for the marginalized? For the marginalized, the downcast, the burnt out, and the failures, the sinners. Those people would never have a chance of climbing up the ladder of worldly success that we so often exhaust ourselves trying to climb up. But anyone can go down. Provided they're willing to humble themselves, repent of their sin, and meet Jesus at the cross at the very bottom of the ladder.
It's in the cross that the glory of the gospel is most clearly displayed because we see the fullness of God's grace, His mercy, His wisdom, His power, His justice, and most of all His love. This is what formed the central foundation of Paul's life. He was utterly convinced of its truth and he was enraptured by the glory of God that he could now see through it. And may the same be true for us. But Paul now turns to explain how the glory of the gospel shapes his life, and we can see this in 3 ways.
And these 3 things are really the application for us today of how the gospel should fundamentally shape our lives. So first of all, Paul had an expectation of suffering, an expectation of suffering. Look at verse 7. He says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay. To show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. Remember that Paul's opponents were saying that he must not be a real apostle because he was suffering too much. Well, here Paul turns the argument completely against them and says that his constant suffering as an apostle of Christ actually serves to prove the legitimacy and power of the gospel. And this makes perfect sense. You know, if the gospel, if the glory of the gospel is centered on the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus, then it should only be expected that those who are seeking to follow Jesus and display the glory of the gospel in their lives would be suffering. I've heard people say before that we look most like Jesus when we suffer. And I find that hard to argue with.
Now that's not to say that we go out and seek suffering, we go out and seek Jesus. Nor is it downplaying the reality and hardship of the of the suffering that we face in this life. I mean, look at how Paul describes it. He says that he's persecuted, he says that he's afflicted in every way, perplexed, struck down. In fact, earlier in chapter one, Paul described the persecution that he and his companions were facing by saying that they were so utterly burdened beyond their strength that they despaired of life itself. The suffering of Paul as an apostle of Christ was extremely difficult. But through all of this, God demonstrated that he was powerfully carrying Paul. He wasn't crushed. Paul wasn't forsaken, he wasn't destroyed. Because he knew that God was powerfully preserving him. And there's a sense of joy that Paul had because his life was clearly demonstrating the glory of the gospel that he delighted in most of all, as every time he suffered, it was a picture of Jesus' death and then powerful resurrection. And the same is true for us in our suffering. You know, although we cannot just, we just cannot understand all the reasons for what we go through and it's so often so, so difficult, we can know that God will powerfully lead us through as we trust Him. And more than that, we can have joy in the fact that our suffering and endurance demonstrates the gospel to this world. So that's the first way that the gospel fundamentally shaped Paul's life. He had an expectation of suffering.
Now the second way that the gospel shaped Paul's life and how it should shape ours is that he had his eyes on eternity. Look at verse 16, he says, 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.
You know, when my siblings and I were younger, our family loved to go hiking. And, and we still do love to go hiking. It's just it's a bit difficult when you live in different cities and different countries. But New Zealand has some big mountains. And those hills are very good at making an energetic young kid who's running up the trail into a grumpy, slouched over complainer who refuses to take another step. You know, I'm sure my parents could tell you many of a story, a story of this happening, and I won't mention any names in particular, but you know who you are. But what they do when this inevitably happens to one of us is promise, promise us a reward for continuing a bit further. You know, there's amazing, there's an amazing view just around the corner or the top is just 5 minutes away or the best one that usually got us going. You can have some lollies - translation candy - if you go 10 more minutes. And usually just those promises of a reward would turn the kid who couldn't take another step into the most energetic of the group who was bounding up the trail. It's like a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere and just gave them this newfound energy.
And isn't this, isn't this something that we do all the time? We motivate ourselves through something difficult by focusing on the reward at the end. And it seems that the amount of motivation that we receive scales with the perceived value of the reward. You know, sometimes my dad would tease us and say, there's an ice cream shop at the top. In the middle of the wilderness in New Zealand, you know, that wasn't gonna get any of us moving very far. But what if the promised reward was unimaginably great? What if the reward, as Paul puts it, is an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison? You know, if we really believe that. What would that enable us to endure? For Paul, it caused a huge change in perspective. You know, a few chapters ago, he was describing his suffering as making him despair of life itself. And now he's calling it a light momentary affliction. And that's not because the horror of the suffering changed. It's because the reality of the eternal glory that he's, he's convinced he'll receive when he's resurrected with Jesus is great beyond anything that he could imagine.
You know, it's so easy to default to the mindset that this life is all there is. And it makes sense why. I mean, it's, it's what we touch and it's what we see and interact with every day. You know, it doesn't take, it doesn't take any faith to believe what's right in front of you. And especially if life is going well for us, if we're comfortable, then it's really easy to lose sight of eternity. But for the believer in Christ, this life is just the tiniest blip. In the infinite duration of eternal life. And even if the best, and even the best of the best of the things that we experience on this earth pale in comparison to the worst of what there is in eternity with Jesus. To put it bluntly, and excuse my language, but this life sucks compared to glory.
And again, that's not downplaying the great joys that God gives us and that we can experience in this life. It's just that the glory of the, the glory of the gospel promises us that life with Jesus in the new creation is just so much better. It's life free from all corruption and brokenness. Pain and crying. We'll have gloriously resurrected bodies that don't age. There'll only be rejoicing and love in our interactions with each other, and most of all, our eyes will be finally able to behold the glory of our risen savior. Paul knew that the gospel promised him a life of eternal glory beyond all comparison. And that caused him to set his eyes on eternity. And I think all of us would do well to let ourselves daydream a bit more about our eternal future.
But this raises a question. And I think this is one of the most insightful questions that really gets to the heart of what we ought to be living for, because if eternal life is so much better than this life, If it's as glorious as Paul is making it out to be, if being in our resurrected bodies with Jesus is bliss and joy beyond all comparison, then why are we still here? Why are we still on this earth? I mean, look at what Paul says in in 5, chapter 5 verse 8. He says, so we are starting in verse 6, so we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Paul would rather be at home with Jesus than living on this earth.
And it's not just Paul that desires this, I mean, look at what Jesus himself says in John chapter 17. Verse 24, when he's praying to the Father, he says, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Jesus himself desires that his people would be with him. So why doesn't God just beam his children up to heaven when, when they come to faith in Him? You know, it's not like he can't do that. He did it with Enoch and Elijah and and even Jesus himself when he ascended to heaven. So why are we still here?
Well, it's because of the third way that the glory of the gospel shaped Paul's life. You see, Paul was living missionally. He was living missionally. Look at what he says in 5:11. Therefore, in light of everything that we've just said and the glory of the gospel and knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. Think about this. What's the one eternal thing, the one thing that lasts forever, that's on this earth but will not be in heaven? It's the souls of all those who reject Jesus and the glory of His gospel. You see this little blip of life that we have here while on this earth is the only chance in all of eternity where we can interact with those who do not yet know Jesus to tell them about his glory and the need to repent and believe Him. Let me be bold, if you're a, if you are a follower of Christ, then you are on this earth to testify to the truth and glory of the gospel. That's the reason why God doesn't just beam you up to heaven.
Look again at what Jesus says in John 17:15, he says, I do not ask that you take them out of the world that is His disciples, but that you keep them from the evil one. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Jesus has sent us into the world to proclaim His gospel. Now, you might say, well, I'm not a missionary or an evangelist. And neither am I, at least not in my full-time job. But that doesn't excuse me to live however I want. And in fact, if I understand the glory of the gospel rightly, as Paul does, why would I want to live another way?
You know, if you've had a conversation with me in the past 2 months, then chances are that you've heard me talk about one topic in particular. Running I signed up to do the Boston Half Marathon in November, and I've been training for a while now. And I've never trained for a half marathon before, but I'm actually discovering that it's, it's really great. And some of you are probably cringing right now, but. But I've enjoyed getting up early and running on these beautiful fall mornings, and my body feels great and I'm fitter than ever, and it's, it's really fun to be able to see the training pay off and be setting new PRs in different distances.
But with all this, I've noticed something has happened. I've unwittingly turned into a running evangelist. I just find myself talking to people now about running, probably to the slight annoyance of my friends and family and maybe to some of you, sorry if you've been annoyed by me talking about this too much. And in fact, sometimes I'm, I'm annoyed with myself. I look back on conversations that I've had and I'm like, why did I talk about running so much to that person? They weren't even interested. But my point is that we talk about what we delight in. Sometimes even when we know that what we're talking about is hated by those we are talking to. But if, but if I'm so jazzed about telling people about running, which has the potential to make them just a little bit fitter or healthier. Then how much more should I be talking about the glory and beauty of Jesus, who gives eternal life to everyone who believes and follows Him.
Friends, it would be so much better for all of us to be at home with the Lord right now. But God has sent us into this world to proclaim the glory of the gospel. We're all missionaries away from our home. And while none of us are the apostle Paul, God has given us each our own circles of influence. You know, I'm sure that many of my colleagues and friends don't know another gospel believing Christian. And so I have this special opportunity to share Jesus with them as someone that they trust. And the same is true for all of us. God has uniquely placed each of us in our families, in our workplaces, in our friend networks. We each have an individual responsibility to live as missionaries amongst these people and tell them about the glory of the gospel.
But I also want to point out that we do this collectively. Notice that Paul says we persuade others, you know, he's doing it with other people. Telling people about Jesus is hard. It's scary. You will be rejected. But it's much easier to do that if we have a sense that we're doing it together. You know, we call ourselves city on a hill, and a five-year vision, this five-year vision that we're looking forward to 2030 with says that we are a community of faith that cannot be hidden, shining and sending forth the light of Christ, the light of the glory of Christ in Somerville and beyond for generations to come. That's what we're about and that's what we wanna be about more and more, but this won't happen if we don't each consider that we're here on this earth to live missionary. And so to wrap up, the glory of the gospel transformed Paul's life by giving him an expectation of suffering. By causing him to fix his eyes upon eternity. And by calling him to live missionally.
And he summarizes this beautifully in chapter 5 verses 14 to 15. He says, For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this. That one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. The love of Christ controlled Paul. He was convinced of the glory of the gospel and it had taken hold of his life and because of this, he was dead to self and free to live for God and his purposes.
You know, earlier I called it the ladder of worldly success. But in reality, it's the ladder of pride and living for yourself. At the end of your life, regardless of where you are on the ladder, if you've never humbled yourself and met Jesus on the cross at the bottom of the ladder. If you've never died with Jesus, you'll have a moment like Alfred Nobel and you'll realize that you were living your life for the wrong thing the whole time. You'll realize that you never went to Jesus to let him cleanse you from your sin, and you'll stand guilty before a holy God. Friends, don't let that be you.
But the beautiful thing is, is that for all of us who have gone to Jesus at the bottom of the ladder. We've died, we've died with Jesus to our sin and selfish ambition. And we've been raised with Christ, not that so, not so that we can live our lives as we want. You know that would make no sense. As Paul says, he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. It's still very much possible as a believer of Christ to be living your life for the wrong thing. But God has raised us up with Jesus and placed us each on the ladder wherever he saw fit. So that we can testify to the glory of His gospel to all those around us. And when we're faithfully completed our God-given task in this life, He'll take us to be with Him in a glo in in in eternal glory forever.
So what are you living for? What will your obituary say? What would they write on your gravestone? I know for me, I wanted to say Jonathan David Simpson. Controlled by the love of his savior. Captivated by the glory of the gospel, dead to self, alive to God, testified to the love of Jesus for the glory of God and the joy of many, now with his beloved Savior in eternal bliss. Is that what you want yours to say? Because I think the gospel is too glorious for it to say otherwise. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you that for all of us, those who have trusted you, you have opened our eyes to see the light of the glory of Jesus, because Lord, you are so glorious, you are so beautiful, you are so worthy. Thank you that you humbled yourself and put yourself at the bottom of the ladder below everyone else so that we could come to you and die to our selfish ambition and be raised to new life with you. Heavenly Father, I pray that if anyone is here today who has not gone to you, Jesus, that you would lay upon their hearts their need to to go to you at the bottom of the ladder. But for all of us who have died to ourselves, Lord, may we not realize at the end of our lives that we were living for the wrong thing. Would you give us each a real desire, Holy Spirit, would you light a fire in our hearts to just live for you, to proclaim your gospel to those around us, to view all of our lives as living on mission for you and delight in the task that you have given us to do. I pray that you would help us to do this by your grace and your mercy, Jesus. We pray all these things in your name, Amen.