2 Corinthians 4:13-18 – “An Equal And Opposite Reaction”

What goes up must come down. Where there is smoke there is fire. I never took physics in school, but it’s easy to see. For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. For every effect there is a cause, and with every cause there is an effect.

Except when it comes to Christians. For some reason, we are able to defy the laws of physics. God loves us, but we have a problem loving each other. God gives us spiritual gifts, amazing abilities, but we tend to hide those gifts, we keep our abilities to ourselves. God gives us His good news, the good news that Jesus died and rose again for us, the good news that Jesus is burying the dead and rotten parts of our lives, that Jesus is raising new and healthy parts of our lives. God teaches us this amazing truth…and we keep it hidden, we keep it to ourselves. We don’t dare tell someone about this truth. For God’s action, there is an equal and opposite INaction on our part.

But when we react to God’s action with our own inaction, we pay the price. Imagine trying to ignore the law that what goes up must come down. Imagine jumping off a cliff, pretending like the law of gravity doesn’t apply to us, that gravity is only for certain people, not everyone, and we can choose not to follow that law. Ignoring the cause of gravity will leave us bruised and battered. And ignoring the action of God in our lives will leave us spiritually weak. Our faith will be bruised. Our hope will be shook.

If we react to God’s action, if we respond to His work, if His cause produces an effect, our faith will grow strong, our hope will be secure. We may go through terrible pain, but somehow we stay strong. We may have every reason to doubt, and yet, we don’t. For all practical purposes, we should be done, and yet we just keep on serving the Lord.

This strength comes as a result, as the effect of the Holy Spirit working His power in our lives. We celebrated Pentecost last week, and this week we start to see the effects of the Holy Spirit working through human beings. Because of the Holy Spirit, human beings start to do things they never thought possible, we start to say things we never thought we’d say, and we say them to people we’d never have thought we would speak to.

We do this, because the Holy Spirit moves us to. We react to God’s action. Verse 13:

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”

Understand who is saying this. This is Paul. This is the guy who was an accomplice to murder. He wasn’t just the guy sitting in the back of the church. He was the guy burning down the church. He was as far away from speaking about Jesus as anyone we know, further away than any of us.

And then God acted, and then Paul reacted. Paul met Jesus on the road, and the Holy Spirit went to work, and nothing could stop Paul from speaking. The Holy Spirit led Paul to believe, therefore he spoke. How could he NOT speak? How could he NOT be affected? Some of us, maybe, try to answer that question. Yeah, sure, we have the Holy Spirit in us. Yeah, sure, we believe, or at least we say we believe, or at least we THINK we believe. But it doesn’t take a lot to stop us. Just a little look from someone who thinks we’re weird can shut us up tight. Even the fear that someone might think we’re weird, just our own imaginations can keep us from speaking to anyone about anything religious. Again, God has acted, and we’re doing everything we can to avoid reacting.

But once again, God will have His way, and the way He will affect us is by convincing us so strongly of the gospel, we won’t be able to help ourselves. Verse 13:

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.

We know two things. And when I say we know, we know. We know these things better than we know anything else. We know these truths better than we know our own name. We know these facts better than we know the love of a family member. We know, first, that Jesus used to be dead, and now He isn’t. We know that Jesus is alive and well and present right here in this room. We know, we are aware of His presence as much as anything. We know that Jesus is right next to us as much as we know that we’re sitting next to whomever we’re sitting next to. We know that Jesus speaks as surely as we hear a friend or family member speak to us. We know that His eye is glued to us, that He never glances away. And we know that His smile never leaves His face, that He sees us as His friends, because we know that He died for us. And that friendship can’t ever be broken, His love for us can’t ever be shaken. We know this. We know this.

And we know something else. We know that that same smiling, powerful, majestic Jesus is coming back for us. We know that He’s coming back in power and strength. We know that when He appears, that the battle is over. We know that just seeing Jesus will be enough for the powers of evil to lay down their weapons and scream in agony. And we know that when we see Jesus, that we will see each other, too. He will present us with you in His presence. Husbands and wives, moms and dads, sons and daughters, grandparents, great-grandparents, great, great ancestors, people that we’ve only ever known by reading their names on a gravestone. We will see them, and we will get to know them, because we know Jesus died and rose again and because we know that Jesus is coming again.

This, knowing these two things, that’s what keeps our mouths talking. This is why we keeping sharing the good news with people who don’t know, or who don’t get it. The Holy Spirit is cut through the confusion, He broke down the barriers until these facts have become the undoubted truth, until we know Jesus is alive, and we know He’s coming back, better than we know anything else.

Except, some of us don’t know this better than anything else yet, do we? This is not new information that I’m sharing, but it still doesn’t seem real, does it? We may know that Jesus died and rose again, but we don’t know the constant presence of Jesus near us and in us, talking and listening. Hours, even days can go by before we remember that He’s right near with us. We know that we’ll go to heaven someday, but that fact is in the future. It doesn’t really affect us right now. We know, but we don’t know. We’ve heard the good news, but we didn’t hear it.

But that’s okay, because the Holy Spirit isn’t finished working yet. God, through His Spirit, even right now, is working to make these facts so real, so presence, so overwhelmingly known to us that it will seem like we never knew these truths before. Through the Holy Spirit, the truth that Jesus lives becomes so real and so overwhelming that our days and hours and minutes are filled more and more with sense of awe and wonder. Through the Holy Spirit, the fact that heaven is just around the corner, that heaven is real and waiting, becomes as real as the dreariness of this world. We start to know. We know.

And look out, because then we’re going to react. We’re going to start talking to people about what we know. The Hoy Spirit is going to start working in the people around us. He’s going to be working through us to that they can know these truths, so that they can tell others. Verse 15:

All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

These truths were hard to believe, but we’re convinced they are real. The presence of Jesus was hard to experience, but we know that He’s close, we can feel Him in our spirits. Heaven is out of this world, and yet it seems so close, all because of the Holy Spirit.

And we’re so convinced of these truths, and we find such hope and strength in these truths, that we just have to let someone else know. With other Christians, we share our experiences. We tell them and they tell us how Jesus death and resurrection give us strength, and how heaven gives us hope. And with people who don’t believe, then we give examples. We listen for their hurts and weaknesses and fears. We notice their suffering. We sit with them through their tears. We recognize that they haven’t been convinced yet.

And we share with them that there have been times when we weren’t convinced, either, that Jesus was for real. We agree that sometimes heaven seems so far away. And then we tell them how we are being convinced, and so can they. We share how our doubts are being wiped away, and so can theirs. And through our words, the Holy Spirit persuades them, just like He persuades us, of the reality of Jesus resurrection, and the closeness of heaven.

Maybe some of us need some convincing. Maybe for some of us, we’re just not sure. We know the words, we just don’t experience the truth. You’ve heard the stories this evening, stories from people who are more and more convinced that Jesus is alive and well, that heaven is close. These stories are true, from real people that you know. And the Holy Spirit is convincing you, through your family. He’s persuading you of the truth.

Hang in there. Don’t give up. The doubts may seem so real, but they’re not. Jesus is real. Jesus is alive. Heaven is coming. Verse 16:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

Our eyes tell us that Christianity is getting smaller and weaker. But the Spirit convinces us that we are victors. Our eyes tell us that evil grows stronger. But the Spirit convinces us that evil has been defeated. Our eyes, our own eyes, grow weaker, we can’t see as well, but the Spirit tell us that there is more to see than what we see with our eyes. Even though our bodies grow weaker and our world sinks lower, yet, we’re growing stronger, we’re becoming more hopefully, we’re being renewed day by day. Verse 17:

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

This world used to seem so real, and Jesus seemed far away. This life now seemed like real life, and eternal life seemed so mysterious. But something has been happening. The Spirit has been working. And a switch is happening. This world, that used to seem so real, is becoming less real. This world is becoming more frail and light and wispy and ethereal. We look around at this world, and it seems more temporary, more fleeting. And the struggle and pain of this world, the burdens that seem so heavy, not are becoming passing problems, brief burdens. They are light and momentary troubles, because the Spirit is changing our perception.

And in turn, what seemed so light and airy is becoming so real and touchable. When we think of heaven, we don’t think of floating on clouds anymore. Now, because of the Spirit, heaven is becoming a place where we can really live and work and exist. Heaven is coming more clearly into focus, as this world becomes more transparent. Jesus becomes more solid and touchable, as this world becomes more flimsy and hazy.

So, verse 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.

The Holy Spirit is making verse 18 more true. A year from now, our eyes will see more of the unseen, and care less about the seen. A year from now, because of the Spirit, this will all seem more temporary, Jesus and heaven will be more permanent. And a year from now, we will be talking more with each other and with others about Jesus. We will be more convinced, and so we will talk more. Jesus will be more real, so we’ll speak about Him as more real. Heaven will be closer, so we will speak about it more urgently. We will believe deeper, understand more, and we will speak quicker, we will talk more often. From verse 13:

We will believe; therefore we will speak.