Fix Our EyesSeries: Truth, Judgment and Eternity

2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:10

We Will Have Trouble

Are we so obsessed with our troubles and hardships in this life, that we are getting hopelessly distracted from the truth?

I’m not underestimating the hardships and troubles we face, but I must encourage all of us, that we need to keep everything in its proper perspective.

In this life we will have trouble. Jesus said, Jn. 16:33 “I have told you these

things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Through Many Troubles

For Paul did say, in Acts 14:22 “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (ESV)

There’s a Bible promise most don’t claim?

Truth is, that if we are sons of God, we will go through trials, tribulations and hardships.

We will be tested and perfected in these times, and if we were not disciplined in this way, then we would be illegitimate children.

He. 12:6-8 ... the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Light and Momentary Troubles

Paul was a man who was familiar with suffering.

He was flogged and beaten often, persecuted, ill treated, stoned to death, shipwrecked, and under pressure from the Romans as well as from the Jews.

He knew what hardship was, yet his words to the Corinthians were, 2Co. 4:17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Paul put it in perspective, if we have to go through these hardships to enter the Kingdom of God, and live eternally, forever with Jesus in promised peace and security, then that far outweighs all that we have to go through.

Not Worth Comparing

Paul said, Ro. 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Jesus revealed to Paul something about what our eternal state will be like in Heaven (when we enter into our promised inheritance), and when he compared that reward to the struggles and stresses of this life, he found it not even worth comparing.

The glory of our reward in Heaven for holding onto faith in Christ, despite all our trials, tribulations and hardships, will be beyond what any of us could believe for or imagine.

Believe and Speak

Our text says: 2Co. 4:13-14 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.

What you believe about Christ, do you speak?

True Christians speak their faith continually. We have been saved to speak the Gospel.

Christianity is a faith that is transmitted to a dying world by Word and Deed.

Peter and John, when they were told to stop preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus, they said: Ac. 4:20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Fix Our Eyes

2Co. 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

This is a baffling statement for Scientists and humanists who only believe in the seen and observable world.

Something interesting though is that scientists are theorising of a eventual end of the universe called the big crunch, where the average density of the universe is enough to stop its expansion and begin contracting until it resumes a state similar to a pre-big bang.

Although I do not believe what these atheistic scientist are theorising, they are however Biblically accurate in that Paul said, “For what is seen is temporary”

Fix Our Eyes

Everything about this material world in which we live is temporary, it will pass away.

We are born and we die, a tree grows and then is chopped down, we start a meal and we finish a meal.

Nothing in this material world is permanent.

However the unseen world, where Christ abides, is eternal and He went to prepare a place for us.

And it is there, in the unseen world that we should fix our eyes, and live with that place in mind.

Eternal House

2Co. 5:1-3 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.

This is the glory of our faith in Christ as Saviour: if this tent, this physical tent in which we temporarily abide in perishes, we have an even greater body, a building from God, a house, a permanent residence, waiting in heaven.

This house which we will abide in will never perish and is not temporary but permanent. Should we not tell others about this wonderful salvation we have in Christ.

Eternal House

In this life of uncertainty, the only rock solid certainty that I can stake my life on is the Word of God and Christ as Saviour.

Do you know how many people stake their life on a text book, written by some hardened atheist who teaches some unscientific – unprovable or testable theory - that all life evolved out of a primordial soup some 4 billion years ago.

They will try to build a house upon a unstable temporary scientific speculation.

Heaven or Earth?

2Co. 5:4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. - 2Co. 5:8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

When we truly understand what we have in Christ, we long for our eternal abode, but while we live in the body we should live for fruitful service to the Lord and if we are removed from this body we must know that we are taken to be with the Lord.

Fruitful Labour

Ph. 1:21-25 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith.

This attitude of Paul’s gave him a martyrdom attitude and made him incredibly useful to God.

Guarantee of our Inheritance

2Co. 5:5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

The Holy Spirit, who we receive at salvation, is our deposit of our eternal lives in Heaven.

So if we walk for Christ by the Holy Spirit and pray, seek His face, turn from living a sinfully based life, study and read the Scriptures until they flow out of our mouths in our speech, then this deposit of the Holy Spirit will bear in us fruit that leads to Eternal Life.

Ep. 1:13-14 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession.

Fix Our Eyes by Faith

2Co. 5:7-8 We live by faith, not by sight.

I believe by faith - spiritual conviction - which I have received from the Holy Spirit when I was first saved that Jesus is Christ and Lord.

And it was by this faith alone, and an encounter with Christ that I was first saved.

Yet, after careful examination of the scientific reasons for belief in evolution by chance, as well as the unsubstantiated beliefs of many cults and religions around the world; I am convinced “by fact” that a Trinitarian God exists and I am convinced from documented evidence of the validity of Christ and His resurrection from the dead.

Goal of Our Faith

Our text continues, 2Co. 5:9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

Paul is telling us that pleasing God should be the goal of our faith.

We were created for the Lord’s pleasure, to please Him.

Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (KJV)

Judgment Seat of Christ

And here is our incentive to please God.

2Co. 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

If we fail to fully grasp this Scripture, that each one of us will receive what is due to him for the deeds done in the body, then as Christians we are living very deluded lives.

We should wake every morning with the revelation that we are going to be judged according to every deed we do that day.

We should live with one eye upon the Judgment seat of Christ and the other eye upon the lost state of the people of this world, then we will live in fruitful service to God.