We're going to read together from James chapter 5, verses 1 to 12.
That's our scripture reading this morning.
And one of our members, Douglas, is going to come and read for us.
Douglas.
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver have corroded,
and their corrosion will be evidence against you
and will eat your flesh like fire.
You have laid up treasure in the last days.
Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields,
which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you,
and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence.
You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.
He does not resist you.
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth,
being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains.
You also be patient.
Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Do not grumble against one another, brothers,
so that you may not be judged.
Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
As an example of suffering and patience, brothers,
take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.
You have heard of the steadfastness of Job,
and you have seen the purpose of the Lord,
how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
But above all, my brothers,
do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath.
But let your yes be yes and your no be no,
so that you may not fall under condemnation.
Amen.
Thanks.
We're working our way through the epistle of James,
and we are in James chapter 5,
nearly the end, penultimate week in the book of James together.
James is the biological brother of Jesus Christ,
and he is writing to Jewish Christians,
which is very important for today.
Jewish Christians that have been dispersed from Jerusalem
all around the Mediterranean.
And James has the habit in this letter
of grabbing you by the scruff of the collar
and shaking you a little bit.
And so he does that in this passage
just like he did it last week.
And in James chapter 4, verse 13, last week's text,
he says at the very beginning,
come now.
And that little English word, two words,
is translated from a Greek word
that appears nowhere else in the New Testament
but right there in the letter of James.
And it's sort of a little bit,
slightly more aggressive way of calling on somebody to think.
And so it's like grabbing you by the scruff of the collar
and saying, think with me, think carefully.
And last week he said, think carefully.
Are you forgetting God in the way you make your daily plans,
in the way you plan your life?
Have you forgotten God in all things
in your day-to-day life?
So is the chorus of your life, the song of your life,
thy will be done, Lord, or my will be done,
in the way that you organize your day even?
Now, today, chapter 5, verse 1,
if you look at it, you'll see two little words,
come now, the same two words in English,
one word in Greek,
that shows up in no other place in the New Testament.
So this is James doing the same thing again.
He does it twice.
He grabs us by the scruff of the neck
and he shakes us a little bit
and he says, think with me.
And the issue today is that the tone changes completely,
whereas last week he grabbed us and he said,
come now, Christian brothers and sisters, church,
are you forgetting about God
in the way you make your plans in your day-to-day life?
But this week, the tone is very different
and you might have noticed, as Douglas read for us,
that that was not an easy passage to read.
And as soon as the text opens, he says,
come now, you rich, weep and howl
for the miseries that are about to come upon you.
So this is a judgment passage
and it's very different in tone
and the way it feels to last week's passage,
even though it's introduced with the same first word,
the same first heading,
so it's part of the parallel idea.
So there's some similar ideas there,
James is telling us,
but also something that's very different.
And this passage has been controversial
because it's troubling,
because it opens by saying,
come now, you rich, you wealthy,
weep and howl at the miseries that are coming to you.
And it's controversial
because it's been interpreted
in a lot of different ways.
And the big question today for interpretation
to really see what is God saying to us
through James here,
that you have to ask is,
who are the rich?
Who are the rich here?
So that's the question we have to answer
if we're gonna be able to understand verse seven,
be patient, brothers and sisters.
If you don't know who the rich are,
you don't know what he means even
by the command to be patient in your life,
in the Christian life.
So let's think about that.
That means that we can just do two
instead of three points today.
Verses one to six tell us about the world of the rich.
Who are the rich?
What's the world they're living in?
And then secondly, verses seven to 12
turn to the people of the church
and says, teaches us really about our mission
in the world of the rich.
Okay, so first let's look at verses one to six
and think about the rich.
Who are they?
And what kind of world is James talking about
that they live in?
Now, the instinct we have is to look at the word rich.
Come now, wail, weep, howl, you rich.
And think of merely the materially wealthy.
So just apply it universally.
That's what makes the passage so scary
because every person in this room probably
compared to the first century upper class person
is wealthier.
We are all wealthier in our possessions.
If you have a savings account, you are wealthier.
Then the first century wealthy.
And so that means that when you read,
come now, you rich, weep and howl,
James would most certainly be including
probably all of us in that.
And saying to us, prepare for the miseries
that are coming upon you.
So is he saying, for being rich,
you are going to be judged?
And sometimes it has been read like that
as if he's talking even to Christians
who have a savings account, who have money,
and bringing a word of judgment.
So I want to say today that that's not who he's talking about.
He's talking about something far more specific than that.
And the way that you can get at this,
we can't, I won't spend the time to do this this morning,
but if you went through every little word,
every little phrase in verses one to six,
you would go back to the Old Testament
and find that James is quoting or alluding
to one of the prophets in every single clause
that he uses in verse one to six.
So just a couple examples of that.
In verses one to six, verse one, he says,
weep and howl.
That's a phrase that comes from the Septuagint,
the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
And we find that exact phrase in the Old Testament
21 times in the prophets.
And it's nowhere else in the New Testament,
but right here.
Or a host of examples here.
The day of slaughter, he says.
He talks about the day of slaughter.
And that language shows up only in the Bible
in Obadiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah.
So clearly James has the Old Testament open before him.
And he's reading the prophets and quoting from them
in order to write this passage.
He talks about the Lord of hosts or the Lord of armies.
Isaiah quotes the Lord of hosts, that language,
18 times in just the prophecy of Isaiah alone, right?
And so you've got this real prophetic register
coming out here in James.
And he's clearly trying to basically take the language
of the prophets and preach it to the first century.
And so he sounds like Amos.
He sounds like Micah.
He sounds like Isaiah.
And that helps us to understand who he's talking to
because he's speaking into a context that's very similar,
using language that's very similar
as the Old Testament prophets.
And the Old Testament prophets also condemn the rich,
the wealthy.
But who were they talking about most of the time?
And who they were talking about most of the time
were people within the covenant community of Israel
who had gotten wealthy and had gotten rich.
How?
By making all their money through the religious system
that God had provided in the Levitical code.
By inciting a temple tax against the people.
The priests are who the prophets are talking about.
The priests of the Old Covenant system
and saying you better weep and howl you rich
because you have been given a job by God
to represent the people to God
and bring God to the people.
And yet you have turned the temple
and just into a money-making system.
And you have oppressed the righteous,
the people of God.
That's who I think James is talking to here.
Why?
Because remember,
James is talking to Jewish exiles from Jerusalem,
Jewish Christians who have been dispersed.
And how are they dispersed?
They were dispersed by the persecutions
of the Pharisees and the scribes and the priests
right after the crucifixion and the resurrection.
And so now he's turning at the end of this book
to those persecutors
who had pushed the Jewish Christians out of Jerusalem
and saying to them,
you have turned what God has given you,
to a religion of grace,
into a religion of legalism.
And you've used it to create systems of injustice
where you're oppressing God's people
and stealing from them and hoarding wealth
and doing all sorts of things like that.
Now here's the diagnosis,
the charges I should say.
Let me just point out to you
a few of the charges that he gives.
Look at the one in verse 3.
In verse 3,
the charge is,
your gold and silver have corroded.
And that will be evidence against you
in the last day.
Now the problem with that
is that gold cannot corrode.
Gold does not rust.
Gold cannot be tarnished.
That's why it's gold.
It's the best, you know,
because it doesn't corrode.
So what does he mean?
Well, what does he mean?
It's a metaphor.
Whenever you take your wealth,
your money, your stuff,
and you put it in a treasury,
in a bank,
in a cave in the first century,
and you hide it,
and it just sits there,
and you accumulate,
and you don't use the gold
to do good by anybody,
to restore acts of injustice with justice.
You don't care about the poor.
You don't,
he's talking to priests
and to people who have hoarded
all this money and saying,
your gold is corroding,
meaning you're not moving it.
You're not using it for anything.
You're not doing good
by the people of God with it.
So it's just sitting there.
So the first charge is that of hoarding.
The second charge he gives them is veiled,
and it's in verse four,
and it's hard to see at first,
and I think this is why this passage
is usually preached,
what I would suggest is the wrong way,
which is to say,
this is just about being rich.
No, verse four,
look down at verse four with me.
Behold, the wages of the laborers
who mowed your fields,
which you kept back by fraud,
are crying out against you.
The cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears
of the Lord of hosts.
He's talking about priests
and scribes and Sadducees
who have done what?
Yeah, it probably is the case
that they're not paying
their day labors enough money.
That's probably involved,
but this is spiritual language.
You know, this sounds so much
like Jesus saying,
you have suppressed
the harvesters of my field.
What is that harvest?
That's a spiritual harvest,
meaning he's talking
to the religious elite,
the religious establishment of the day,
who have stood directly
against the Jesus movement.
And they are suppressing
the work of ministry,
the work of the gospel
all around the Mediterranean.
That's who he's speaking against.
And so this sounds so much
like Jesus in Matthew 23.
Matthew 23 is a whole chapter
of Jesus turning
to the religious establishment,
the elite of the day,
and saying,
you have turned the temple
into a place of hoarding wealth.
Just listen to some of the language
from Jesus
and how much James echoes
this exact same thing here.
Jesus says,
woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites.
You clean the outside
of the cup and the plate,
but inside you are full
of greed and self-indulgence.
And in verse five,
James comes and says,
you are full of self-indulgence.
It's almost as if he's quoting
directly from Jesus
as he talks to the scribes
and the Pharisees.
Woe to you,
Jesus writes,
says,
blind guides who say,
if anyone swears by the temple,
it is nothing.
But if anyone swears
by the gold of the temple,
he is bound by his oath.
Verse 12 says,
brothers and sisters,
do not make oaths.
And I don't have time
this morning
to explain that whole system,
but the scribes
and the Pharisees
would require Israelites
to make oaths before them
to give them
a certain amount of money
over time.
And so sometimes people
look at this passage
and say,
verse 12,
why is he all of a sudden
talking about oaths
and how you use your words?
It's because in the system
of oppression
by the religious establishment,
they would get you
to make an oath
that would put you into debt,
ultimately putting you
in prison one day
if you didn't pay it.
And he's saying,
don't ever make an oath
because these oaths
that are being used
are being used
against the church,
against ministry.
That's why verse 12 is there
and we could say
so much more about that.
But you get the picture
and the ultimate indictment
in this passage
is verse 6.
Verse 6,
it's a devastating pronouncement
against the scribes
and the Sadducees
and the Pharisees
and the religious elite.
And you look down
at verse 6,
you have condemned
and murdered
the righteous person.
Now the translator
smooth over the Greek here
a little bit.
He doesn't say
you have condemned
the righteous person exactly.
That does work,
but it very literally says
you have condemned
the righteous one.
And the righteous one
is a title
that was being used
already in the first century
for who?
For Jesus Christ.
You condemned
and you murdered
the righteous one.
What is he saying?
He's talking about the cross
and he's saying
you scribes,
you Pharisees,
you Sadducees,
you priests,
you condemned
Jesus himself
and brought him
before the Roman tribunal
and had him murdered.
You see how much
who he's talking to,
how clear it is
and what he's doing
is he's associating
the first century church
with Jesus himself
and saying
now as you follow Jesus
and are oppressed
by the religious elite,
turning the system
of grace God has given
into a system
of hoarding wealth,
you too are like Jesus,
like the righteous one,
receiving that oppression
as you're scattered
all throughout
the Mediterranean
still trying to do ministry.
All right,
you say
I'm not a first century scribe,
I'm not a first century priest,
I'm not a first century
member of the religious establishment,
how in the world
does this matter to me?
And here's how,
this passage is a warning
to everybody,
really a call to everybody
because the human heart,
the human heart
always drifts
towards legalism.
And the way that this has happened
in the first century
and throughout the time
between the Old Testament
and the New Testament
is that the priest
and the scribes
and the Sadducees
have drifted
towards legalism.
And so this is a warning
for us all.
Here's how it works.
First,
it starts with hypocrisy
in our lives.
And hypocrisy is when
you are devoted to God
on the outside,
but your heart
is very far away
from the Lord
on the inside.
And then hypocrisy
becomes legalism.
And what is legalism?
Legalism is when
you use God's laws
to earn God's favor.
And you say to God,
you stop believing
really in a God of love
and instead you take
His laws
and try to earn
merit His favor.
And then here's where
it really becomes insidious
and this is what happened
in the first century
in the intertestamental period
and this is what
he's talking about here.
When you create
a system of legalism,
a management system,
you have now
a management system
to commit acts
of injustice,
to hoard wealth,
to not pay your day
laborers,
but you justify
those actions
by your religious behavior.
So in other words,
if your standing
before God
is based entirely
on your performance,
you can always find
a ritual
to balance the ledger.
So you can commit
acts of injustice
against the poor
on a Monday,
but you can tithe
mint and dill
and cumin
on a Tuesday
and balance the ledger.
You can not pay
your day laborers
on a Wednesday
and you can come
on Thursday
to the right feast
and sit at the right spot
and balance the ledger.
You see what legalism does?
Legalism allows
for injustice
because it creates
a system of mere religion
that allows you
to really just
to get away
with anything.
And that's why
in the Old Testament
the Lord said,
God said,
I don't even desire
your sacrifices.
No,
I don't even desire
the Levitical system.
What do I desire?
That you would walk humbly,
that you would show mercy.
And that's exactly
the issue.
It's so dangerous.
It's so dangerous
for anybody
because the human heart
always drifts
towards legalism
and legalism
can create a system
of great injustice.
And so the real diagnosis
here in the first six verses
is what's the same
as last week.
That's why the passages
are connected.
Last week,
Christians,
we can forget about God
in our day-to-day lives
and start making our plans
and drift away from the Lord.
But what is he saying here?
He's saying,
you religious person,
you will be tempted
towards legalism
the more you forget
that God is a God of love,
a God of mercy.
And the more you forget
about that,
the more you forget
verse three,
verse three he mentions,
you have stored up
your treasures
in the last days.
What is he doing there?
He's bringing
the religious elite
of his day,
the legalist,
the person of mere religion
and performance,
to remember
that Christ is coming again.
And he's saying,
you've forgotten about that.
You've forgotten
that Christ is coming again.
In other words,
you've forgotten
that there's more
to life than this life.
And so you're hoarding up wealth
and you're creating
a system of injustice
just to get rich.
And it's because
you're not thinking
about the fact
that this life
is so short
and eternity is coming.
So don't store up
treasures for today.
Instead,
just like Jesus said,
store up treasures
for eternity.
See,
you're making this life
all about this life.
And that's what
the legalist forgets
and that's the real warning
to the rich.
Now that means,
secondly and finally,
that when he turns
in verses 7 to 12
to write to Christians,
to write to the church,
he's talking to us
about a very particular
type of context.
And so secondly,
what is our mission
as Christians
according to verse 7 and 12
in the context,
the world of the rich?
And here's what it is.
The world of the rich,
which will be different
for us than it was
for the first century
in this idea,
this idea of the rich,
is really just to say
that all Christians
at all times
live in a time
where ministry
will often involve losing.
Where there will always be
oppression against
the Christian ministry.
At different levels,
at different times,
to different degrees.
Whether it's the religious elite
in a time of Christendom
or establishment,
or whether it's something
entirely different from that,
far away from that
in the time that we live in now,
there will always be
struggle in ministry
and you will always feel like
you are losing quite often.
And so we look up today
and we say,
you know,
I've wanted to see
this relationship healed
and it hasn't healed.
I've wanted to see
the church grow
and it hasn't grown,
we might say.
I've wanted to see this
and that in ministry
and it's just not happened.
The time of the rich,
quote unquote,
in this passage,
it's just the sense
that there is,
we're never going to live
in a time
where we don't feel like
to some degree
we're losing
in the midst of ministry.
Therefore,
verse 7,
what does James,
what does God tell us
to do here through James?
Now here's what he tells us.
Here's what he doesn't tell us.
He doesn't tell us,
therefore,
go and organize a protest
against the establishment.
He doesn't tell us
to say,
well,
you need to read
more critical theorists
and understand
that you're just a victim.
He doesn't tell us that.
Instead,
what does he tell us?
He says,
something so simple,
so much harder
than protest.
And that's,
be patient
and wait
for the coming
of the Lord.
Be patient.
The more you feel
like you are engaged
in ministry
in this life
and it's not going well,
be patient
and wait
for the day
of the Lord.
So just like he pointed
to eschatology
to the rich
and said,
what is eschatology?
Eschatology is
just remembering
that the Lord
is coming again,
that this life
is not all there is.
And he said
to the rich,
to the religious elite,
to the priest,
you've forgotten
that you are living
in the latter days
and that there's
a next life coming
when Jesus returns.
So he turns to us
and says,
be patient
and the way you do that
is by remembering
Jesus Christ
really is coming again.
And that's the way
you can actually grow
in patience
in this life.
Now he gives you
three pictures
to understand that
very quickly,
three brief pictures
and that's always helpful
when the Bible
provides the illustrations
so the preacher
doesn't have to
come up with any.
What does he say?
He points you
to the farmer
in verse 7b.
He says,
see how the farmer
waits for the precious
fruit of the earth
being patient about it
until the land
receives the early
and the late rains.
Now what is he saying?
He's saying
the farmer goes out,
it's very simple,
and sows the seed
but then the farmer
has to sit back
and say,
I can't make
the rains come.
And so what's his point
about what it looks like
in the Christian life
to be patient here
is that patient endurance
is the discipline
of doing
your
faithful work,
your ministry,
whatever ministry
God has given you
and saying,
I don't have the power
to control the outcomes.
I can sow
but God has to bring
in the harvest.
And only God
can decide
if he will.
And so we can sow
in our city
and see that the city
is not experiencing
revival.
And what do we do?
Like the farmer,
we have to say,
I've sowed the seed
and I have to be patient
and wait.
Only the Lord
can bring the harvest.
I have to wait
for the coming of the Lord.
That's the first way
that we can be patient.
The second way
he points us to
is in verse 10,
the prophets there.
He says that
as an example
of suffering
and patience,
brothers and sisters,
take the prophets
who spoke
in the name of the Lord.
Now we really know
that he was bringing
the prophets in
in verses 1 to 6
because he literally says
look at the prophets
as an example.
That only helps us
see how verse 1 and 6
really is a prophetic
indictment
against the rich.
But what is he saying
to us about patience here?
He's saying,
well,
it's hard to know
because he doesn't
really say
that they did anything.
He says,
look at the prophets.
They were so patient
they spoke in the name
of the Lord.
And you say,
well,
what made them patient?
What made them steadfast?
And that's it.
They spoke in the name
of the Lord.
So it was nothing special
about them.
It was that they
simply understood
that they had been given
a message
in the name of the Lord.
And so,
in other words,
he's saying,
the more and more
you realize
that you have something
better than gold,
more,
what does the Bible say,
more precious than gold,
the gospel itself,
you can go out
in the name of the Lord
and sow the gospel
and say,
I have the ability
to simply wait.
I believe in the gospel.
I believe in the power
of the gospel.
I don't need anything else.
I can be patient
as I sow the gospel,
just like the prophets
were when they didn't see
any ministry fruit
for almost their entire ministries
in the Old Testament.
And then the third
and final
when he gives us
is from Job.
He says,
look at Job
and you say,
well,
what about Job?
You've heard the steadfastness
of Job.
You've seen the purpose
of the Lord.
Like the prophets,
you look at Job
and you say,
how in the world
was Job patient?
Job,
so ministry for us
often feels like this.
And if you have
an active ministry today,
I would imagine
you may feel like this,
that you take
two steps forward,
three steps backwards.
You feel like
you've made progress
in sharing the gospel
with a friend.
You feel like
you've opened up
a pathway
to a new ministry
and then nobody comes.
You know,
you take two steps forward,
three steps backwards.
It feels like that
all the time.
And he says,
well,
look at Job.
Job had a big step
forward in life.
He was so blessed,
but then ten steps backwards,
absolute miserable life.
He lost everything.
But then you say,
how was he patient?
Well,
remember how Job
was patient?
Well,
he cried out to God
and when I read Job,
I think,
I don't think you're
allowed to say that.
Job,
I don't think you're
allowed to say
those kinds of things
to God.
He poured out
his heart to God
in ways that feels
pretty irreverent
quite often.
And you see
what patience is?
It's all about
the direction.
So you might feel
ministry frustration
in the context
of opposition.
And he's saying,
look at Job.
Job was frustrated,
but what did he do?
He poured it out
to God.
He went Godward
with it.
Honest prayer.
Patience is expressed
in three ways
in this passage.
How is it expressed
in three ways?
Number one,
seeing the gospel
as more precious
than gold material
possessions in this life.
Number two,
sowing the gospel
like seeds
into the city
and saying,
I cannot bring about
the harvest,
only God can.
I have to be patient.
I have to wait.
And number three,
taking your ministry
frustrations
to God
in utter honesty
and saying,
Lord,
I wish more was happening.
I wish more
was going on here.
I wish revival
would bring about,
but it's just not.
And that's what it means
to be patient.
This word,
patience,
that gets used here,
Greek word,
makrothumia,
and makro means long,
and thumos means blaze
or fire,
a burning fire.
So the word patience
in Greek
is literally
a long fire,
a long burning fire.
And the reason
it's the word patience
is because it's saying
that when you're
a long burning fire,
you're slowly coming up.
It means that,
you know,
you don't fly off
the handle very easily.
You're able to receive blows.
You don't,
you're getting the weight
of oppression.
You're getting ministry
opposition in your life
because you are
doing the work
of the gospel,
but it takes you
a long time
to really get angry
about it.
And he says,
that's the word
that he uses for patience.
So patience is really
just this ability
to endure
when it's not going well
and to have
your gratification
delayed.
Delayed for when
as we close?
Delayed for what?
Delayed
for the coming
of the Lord.
What does he say?
Be patient
until the coming
of the Lord.
How do you grow in patience?
How do you grow in patience,
not in patience?
How do you grow in patience?
And he tells us,
he says,
you wait for the coming
of the Lord.
In other words,
he's saying,
you've got to have
an eschatology.
You've got to think
about the second coming
of Jesus Christ.
You've got to think
about the one
who is to come
and say,
that is what I'm
working towards.
And no matter
what it feels like
in this life,
this life is so brief
relative to,
teach me to number
my days, Lord.
Our days are so brief
compared to what is
to come when he returns.
And so he's calling us
at the end of this sermon
and the end of this passage
to have an eschatology.
Remember what he said
to the rich?
He said,
you have stored up
your treasures
for the last days.
You've made your life
all about hoarding gold
in a cave
and that is your decision.
And he turns to you
and he says,
instead,
store up your treasures
for eternity.
Think about the days
that are to come.
Keep going.
Be patient.
Wait for the Lord.
Work for the good
of the land
that is yet to come.
That's the real call
and invitation
of the passage.
Another preacher
pointed me
to an illustration
this week
that this preacher
said was from C.S. Lewis.
I then desperately
tried to find this
in C.S. Lewis
and used my C.S. Lewis library
to find it
and could not find it.
Then I went to AI
to say,
is this anywhere
in C.S. Lewis?
And AI seems to say,
no.
But it doesn't matter
because it's a good illustration.
So it's not C.S. Lewis,
I don't think,
but it would come
with more authority
if it was him.
But somebody talks about,
just imagine
a man who's 100 years old.
We recently saw that
in the news
with David Attenborough,
a man who's 100 years old.
And imagine this man
thinking about his own death
and there are really
two errors you can make
as you prepare for death
and think about your own death
when you're 100 years old.
The first error
is you get up in the morning
and say,
why should I plan
for anything today?
I could die today.
I'm 100 years old after all.
Why go see a film?
Why meet a friend for lunch?
I might die today.
I'm 100.
And so this error
is that you're so fixated
on the end of life
that you cannot live
in the present at all.
That would be one error.
The other error
is equally serious
but very different.
And here's the error.
The 100-year-old man
who has not even thought
about his death one time,
therefore he has not made a will.
He has begun,
finally,
the book he's always wanted to write,
he started it at 100 years old
and it's going to be
a 10-year writing project.
He's never seriously reckoned
with the fact
that his life
is so close to the end.
So he acts
as though death
is not coming.
He plans
as though time
is unlimited.
And the writer,
maybe C.S. Lewis,
says,
perhaps the gravest failure
is because he will be caught
completely unprepared
for the thing
that is most certain,
his death.
Now,
in the same way,
what an individual's death
is to that individual,
the second coming
of Jesus Christ
is to every human being.
And this is what that means.
The second coming
is the guaranteed certainty
by which you must live today.
It's more certain than death.
The second coming
of Jesus Christ,
the eschatology of Christianity,
is that which is most certain
that has got to organize
what you do today,
today.
And that means
that on the one hand,
this has the power
to be patient
but not sit around
and do nothing.
Right?
Believing that the Lord
is coming
and that you can,
you can pursue resources
for eternity
helps you with this idea
of a holy recklessness.
And what is that?
It's,
it's to say,
really,
money matters
to some degree
in this life
but not ultimately
and so I can give it away.
A holy recklessness
with my stuff.
You know,
having an eschatology
that all that really matters
is what will happen
when Christ comes again
makes today matter so much
because you can say,
because I'm living for then,
I don't need to hoard,
I don't need to hold on
to anything,
I don't need to commit injustice
against anybody else
and use them
like the rich did.
Instead,
I can invest
in what is to come
because that's what really matters.
A holy recklessness,
an ability in ministry
to take risks.
Do you take risks
in your personal ministry
because you have
an eschatology
that says,
I know what's going to happen
to me when Jesus comes again.
I can take risks,
I'm okay.
On the other hand,
and the final thing,
is that it does not produce
a carelessness about this life.
The man,
the woman who has
the will made out,
who knows what is to come,
therefore still acts,
still invents,
still goes out into the world
with passion
and longing to do good.
Why?
Because they know
how the story's going to end.
So patience,
ministry blaze,
we might say,
to use that word
through me,
from the word patience,
is cultivated
by contemplating
and beholding
the second coming
of Jesus Christ.
That's what this passage teaches.
And so,
I end with this.
How can you?
For you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich,
though he was rich,
yet for your sake
he became poor,
so that by his poverty
you might become rich.
How can you?
The righteous one
has gone before you.
The one who is most rich
in blessing,
the one who came down
from heaven,
who put away
his heavenly life,
his wealth,
he has gone before you
with such patience.
How do you become patient
in this life?
How do you,
how do you really serve
the Lord with passion,
looking at the second coming,
not sitting on your hands
in the midst
of ministry opposition?
You've got to behold him.
You've got to behold
the righteous one.
You've got to look
at the one who is so patient
towards you
at the cross,
who gave away his wealth
in every sense of the word
to embrace utter poverty
so that you might become rich.
What is real wealth?
It is finding your identity
in him,
finding your meaning in him,
living your life for him.
And so on that basis,
if you're standing before God
is not earned,
it's given by him,
that means today
you can know
that you do not maintain
your relationship
with him by performance.
You can afford to go out
and to lose things.
You can afford to go to ministry
and to lose
because Christ will come again.
Let us pray.
Father,
we ask that you would give us
an eschatology,
a vision of the end
that would inform
the way we live today.
And we pray,
Lord,
that we would learn patience,
the patience of Jesus,
the righteous one,
and the patience of the farmer
and the patience of Job
and the patience of the prophets.
And that as we look out and say,
Lord,
why haven't you brought revival
to our city?
Why haven't our neighbors
come to faith?
Why haven't these things happened
in the way we long for?
We would know,
we would know
that you are the one
who actually brings in the harvest
and we would learn.
Lord,
so give us a vision
for the second coming today.
Even as we sing now,
help us to contemplate that reality,
what that means,
the enormity of the fact
that life is eternal
and that Christ will come again
and help us to be drawn
towards the gospel
because of it.
We pray in Christ's name.
Amen.