Sermon Tone Analysis

*God’s future Glory*

 

Brothers and Sisters,

How often do we think about the future.

And how often do you talk about it with your friends or loved ones, with your husband perhaps, or your wife?

And how, do we think, about the future?

Of course we do talk about the future sometimes.

It might even seem like we are living in an age where all may be experts on the future…at least as far as we generally understand the word “future” to mean,

us as citizens of this earth, this earthly kingdom of the now and the here.

We think and talk about the future when we consider

            whether we have provided for old age;

                        for our children’s education

 

and when we have done this, we may think we have “the future” all worked out.

Off course this is important… but is that all there is to the “future.”

Paul, in our passage, seems to say that the real future lies beyond the time and space of this world,

and that it will be those who look forward to a future world, an up to now yet unseen world, who really have it all under control.

…………………………………………………………………*/longish pause/*

In preparation for this sermon, I spent some time talking to Leo about it,

and he related a story to me that I thought was a wonderful illustration of the strength of hope,

            hope as you see it in people of deep faith

and hope, as I believe Paul understands the word in his letters and teachings to the first Christians in Rome and elsewhere:

 

The story goes like this:

 

 

 

 

 

A young boy lay gravely ill in hospital.

Everyone, including the doctors, had given up on him and resigned themselves to the fact that he was going to die.

And then, after a visit from a school teacher, for no apparent reason, the boy started to recover.

The doctors thought it was a miracle, for they could find no medical explanation for his return to health.

Then they remembered that he had received the visit and wanting to understand what it was that had resulted in his recovery and exploring every avenue to get to the bottom of it all, as scientists do, the doctors contacted the teacher and asked her what it was that she had said or done to result in the boy’s healing.

But she said that she didn’t do anything she didn’t normally do; all I did, she said, was to teach the boy about adjectives and the way they work in language.

And so the doctors asked the boy personally what had happened in his life for him to get better.

This was his explanation: “When the teacher came to visit me and started teaching me about adjectives, I thought to myself that no one would teach anyone adjectives if they thought he was going to die, so I didn’t and I got better.”

You see, this boy had picked up on the vision of purpose that the teacher had and had made it his own….and

therefore he could look forward to living life to the fullest.

This boy had discovered hope, and not only that, he had believed in that which he was hoping for, that it would  happen – as Christians we can say…he had discovered faith!

When Paul writes to the suffering Christians in Rome, who are living in trying times, perilous times, he assures them of a future so glorious, that for all those who believe, their present sufferings by comparison, matter nothing.

And this is what this passage is all about,

            that glorious future that awaits the children of God,

                        that wonderful future that makes even this life, with its suffering, all worth living, because we may look forward to a life beyond this life,

            an excellent life in the Kingdom of God almighty at the feet of our Lord and               saviour Jesus Christ.

Let me ask again then: How often do you think and speak to others about this future, the future of the Kingdom and the glory of God?

Of course we speak do about this future at least sometimes.

Here in church, as we will again towards the end of our service, when we say the words of the Apostles creed, we refer to the future:

            we say, “we believe in “the resurrection of the body and life ever lasting.”

But when we leave here on a Sunday and travel towards Monday and Tuesday and all the other days until next Sunday, do we then still remember… and think and talk about this future?

Or does all our thoughts and energy return to shorter term future, the future as being the days that we will spend on this earth?

*Pause*

The context of Paul’s letter to the Romans is this:

Paul is probably in Corinth when he writes this letter, possibly in the Spring of the year of our Lord 57.

Paul was on his third missionary journey, on his way back to Jerusalem, and he is feeling disappointed that he has not been able to visit the young church in Jerusalem yet.

Ever since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, congregations have formed all over the empire, and in Rome, it is no different.

But these are early days for the young Church, and Paul is mindful that they need instruction and encouragement in their faith.

The Roman believers are being persecuted and are being avoided by many, even by once close friends, simply because even association with the Christian believers may result in persecution.

The Christians were in the minority, surrounded by the idol-worshipping Romans.

In all of this, the believers were trying to live their lives by the directions of the apostles, as their faith under the instruction of Jesus required it, but they were living in a world where personal freedom and rights far outweighed the doctrine of love and responsibility… the life that Christ asked his followers to exercise.

Homosexuality, for one, was rife (you can read all about it in Chapter one verse 24).

And also in Chapter one, from verse 28, Paul lists some characteristics of a fallen world the way he must have observed it… and in a way we today may still observe the current world.

Chapter 1 ….from verse 28:

            “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.

They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

That was the Rome Paul was writing to.

It is every man and every woman for himself or herself,….and

they are living…

            with no hope for any kind of future.

In fact, they are not even thinking about it.

What is quite remarkable, brothers and sisters, if one thinks about it, is that Rome then, did not look all that different to Sydney, or Johannesburg or New York today.

Sure there were no Mobile phones, or cars or busses, no electricity, but Rome was a vibrant city with a bustling trade and a city

that offered all the hedonistic temptations and pleasures that the modern world does even now.

((Pause)) Dare we do the exercise…?

Here we are, 2000 plus years later, how much of what was written about Rome and the Romans, remains true for Sydney and Sydneysiders, today?

And does that say something about our faith in God’s future glory?

The creation as Paul observes it, was (and we may add…”is”) indeed “groaning” … right up to the present time,

            and the Christians were not spared the suffering.

But Christians, believers, Paul says, may suffer differently:

            They suffer with the full knowledge of …hope!

Hope for a new heaven and a new earth,

            a new creation in which the joy and harmony will far outweigh the present day sufferings.

And not only are the believers suffering, the very creation is groaning in its fallen, sinful state…(verse 22 and 23: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly,” but… “as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

When Paul writes in verse 22 “the whole creation has been groaning,” he purposely puts it alongside  “but we ourselves” referring then to the Roman believers, the first Christians of that time…those who shared either directly or indirectly on the grounds of their faith in Jesus the Saviour, in receiving the Holy Spirit, first at Pentecost as related to us in Acts, and later, all who believe.

Why does Paul draw this distinction between the creation and the believers?

He does it brothers and sisters because he wants to demonstrate that everything that is, everything that ever has been, everything that has ever happened, the whole world and every person that he has made,

            is in God’s plan,

even those and that which right up to the present day in this fallen world, is suffering.

And we know it has been that way ever since the fall.

And if they wanted to revisit a record of this truth, all they had to do was read the Scriptures.

They may know it, if they want to.

They may of course also know it in their own sufferings as we may do, and  in the sufferings of the world... but the world’s suffering is even in Paul’s time already well documented in Scripture, just as the once wonderful Garden of Eden was well documented.

And by the grace of God, Paul has come to understand that the future hope has been and is being proclaimed in scripture, from the very beginning, as the story of God’s plan unfolds.

Paul, in this sense, becomes the instrument God uses to help write, so to speak the final chapters of the Gospel…and we are doubly blessed that we may have God’s whole word to show us that which will surely be.

So, if we know now that God’s word is accurate, as far as the beginning and unfolding of God’s plan is concerned, we may also know that God’s word is good as far as His promises go

            – and God promises throughout his word that we, His heirs, His Sons and daughters in the faith, will partake of His new heaven and His new earth.

As believers we can bank on this 100 persent!

But the pagan Romans and the unbelievers miss this glorious truth.

They are too caught up in the present world.

They have no hope for a future.

Their vision does not reach that far.

And amidst these circumstances, Paul, in the latter part of verse 22 and 23 of his letter to the Roman believers, spells out that they should hang in there,

            that a far better life, an everlasting life, awaits those who cling to the hope that                        they, by the grace of God, have in their hearts:

Why?