Resurrection and Renewal - 2 Corinthians 4:13-18

This is a talk that I gave to a retirement village on Wednesday. I didn't feel great about the talk, mostly because of the speed I put it together. I feel like I didn't really let me text talk to me first before I spoke on it's great truths. I do believe what I said, but I feel like I didn't really mull over the text for myself between reading and giving it. I do hope it was still used as an encouragement. The passage really could have been used better for the settings I was giving the talk.

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Have you ever heard the question “Where is God?”. It can be a common question and the person asking it may have different agendas. They may be responding to some sort of suffering and wondering why didn’t God act. Or they could be asking a location question, like where on a map might God be.
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There was this Benedict monk (Bede Griffiths) who died in the 1990s. He would ask people in various cultures “Where is God?” He found that those in the East, the Hindus and Buddhists would point to themselves, to their heart, whereas those in the West, Muslims, Jews and Christians would point to the heavens to say God is there.
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And today, like a true Anglican in sorting out theological disputes, I want to say our passage says God is both. We can point both to our heart and to the sky above. God is external and promises us a whole new resurrection, but as Christians God is also inside and is offering us internal renewal.
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‌Paul writes this letter, Second Corinthians not form a comfortable position, but one of hardship. One commentary sums up this whole letter as “Power in Weakness” (Hughes, R. K. (2006). 2 Corinthians: power in weakness. Crossway Books). Just before this section, Paul explained that he was

​squeezed but not squashed;
bewildered but not befuddled;
pursued but not abandoned;
knocked down but not knocked out. (Hughes, R. K. (2006))

Resurrection, External

‌Despite all his experience, Paul did not lose hope, he remained steadfast because he had hope in the external reality of the resurrection. In verse 14 he says

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 to himself. (2 Corinthians 4:14 NIV)

Resurrection wasn’t a popular idea back in Paul’s days. The Greek poet Aeschylus declared, “there is death once and for all and there is no resurrection.” The Roman Marcus Aurelius held that at death all that is left is “dust, ashes, bones and stench.” (Hughes, R. K. (2006))
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And today our society hasn’t really changed. It thinks that this life is all that there is. We are all told to save up enough money for retirement so we can live it up well till in the end. We do not have the categories of getting a resurrected body after we die, our society is too distracted by the present life to think about the next. But as Paul says, we know God raised Jesus from the dead, He will also raise us up with Jesus.
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It is a gloriously almost unbelievable event in our historical timeline that Jesus didn’t stay dead. The shock ways from this anomaly, this one-off event, is still felt today. There was a guy who was killed and walked out of the grave. And what is crazy is that before that happened He Himself said this was going to happen and hundreds of years before Him other people said this was going to happen. God was laying out breadcrumbs in the past which all led to an empty tomb and a resurrected Jesus.
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A certain as it is true that Jesus rose from the grave, we too can be certain that those who are in Christ will also rise with him. This future hope is what allowed Paul to endure all his trials and sufferings in life. Paul did not lose heart because of his suture orientation in our passage.
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Renewed, Internal

‌Because of this hope in the resurrection Paul and us are not to lose heart. verse 16

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV)

‌I don’t know if you feel like what Paul has described. Outwardly wasting away. I’m not sure what you feel about your current predicament. It may feel like it is all going to death, but we need eyes to see, that inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
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If you are going through a tough time, know that this affliction will pass. Believe it. Don’t lose heart.
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Paul was no stranger to difficulties, he had danger from people, had been whipped and shipwrecked and here after saying we are being renewed each day he says

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2 Corinthians 4:17 NIV)

‌We all have troubles. The Book of Job says

Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward. (Job 5:7 NIV)

‌To have troubles is to be part of the human condition. But Paul says there is an eternal glory that awaits us and all of that outweighs our momentary troubles.
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Kent Huges says:

When the apostle suffered affliction, he did not focus his thoughts on how heavy the affliction was but on how heavy the glory would be because of the affliction. If we, in the midst of our affliction, will see it as it is, we will find our voices again and sing songs in the night.

‌What is worthy is not the seen but the unseen. The externals of life is passing and changing, but there is something internal that abides, that lasts. We can in our suffering hold on to hope because there is something beyond this transient world, something that is glorious and eternal. We are being changed, day by day into the image of Jesus, even if we can’t see the physical difference.
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We need to constantly remind ourselves about this hope. The last verse is

‌​So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV)

‌There are a series of juxtapositions that help assure us that even in external suffering, internally we are being renewed. That despite the temporary world that we see, there is an eternal reality that we can not see.
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John Piper says of Paul

the decaying of his body was not meaningless. The pain and pressure and frustration and affliction were not happening in vain. They were not vanishing into a black hole of pointless suffering. Instead, this affliction was “producing for [him] an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.”
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The unseen thing that Paul looked at to renew his inner man was the immense weight of glory that was being prepared for him not just after, but through and by, the wasting away of his body.… When he is hurting, he fixes his eyes not on how heavy the hurt is, but on how heavy the glory will be because of the hurt (Piper, J. Future Grace cited in Hafemann, S. J. (2000). 2 Corinthians. Zondervan Publishing House.)

‌‌What God has done for us in the past is the foundation of our faith. We look back for our confidence in the future. There is an eternal glory awaiting us. And so this future hope affects how we live now. Our troubles are only momentary, although we can forget that.

General Wellington commanded the victorious forces at the great battle of Waterloo that effectively ended the Napoleonic Wars. The story has been told that when the battle was over, Wellington sent the great news of his victory to England. A series of stations, one within sight of the next, had been established to send code messages between England and the continent. The message to be sent was “Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.” Meanwhile a fog set in and interrupted the message sending. As a result, people only saw news of “Wellington defeated—” Later, the fog cleared and the full message continued, which was quite different from the outcome that the people originally thought had happened! (Michael P. Green. (2000). 1500 illustrations for biblical preaching. Baker Books.)

The same is true today.
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We may feel like we have only received half the message, that our bodies are wasting away, but the good news is that there is an eternal reality awaiting us. The resurrection spells victory for all who are in Christ Jesus.
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May we have a future resurrected hope that the grave is empty. And while we await that great day, know that God is with us, renewing us, even in affliction. Do not lose heart, but live like Christ, because the one who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus. Jesus defeated death at Calvary.