Inoculation for the Long Haul | 1 Corinthians 15:54-58 | James Robson

Let's pray together, shall we? Gracious, loving

God, as we've heard your word read and now we

pause for a few minutes just to hear what you

have to say to us through that word. As we unpack

it together, may you speak to our hearts and

our minds. Encourage us, for we pray in Jesus'

name. Amen. Imagine yourself five or ten or fifty

years from now. You know your own vulnerabilities.

What is the situation that's most likely to knock

you off your perch? To stop you walking with

the Lord? To stop you in your own ministry and

your Christian life? Just a moment. You know

your vulnerabilities. It's different for different

people. Just a moment to think about that. For

some, it might be that sense of exhaustion. All

those efforts for the Lord, and there seems to

be so little fruit. Or perhaps just the exhaustion

of so many demands, so many plates needing to

be spun. It might be discouragement. You've poured

your life into somebody or to people, and you've

watched them wander away or make some dreadful

decisions and mistakes. It might be feelings

of isolation. There's no one else around you

in the parish or the church that you're in who

shares that same zeal and passion. It might be

frustration. There's so many roadblocks. It might

be relational challenges. Those you minister

with or to and all that comes from that. It might

be that you've invested so much, you've moved

on, and someone comes after you and the whole

thing unravels. You think, what was the point?

For me, early in my pastoral ministry, after

I'd been ordained, it was the crisis of seeing

Christians, people who'd drunk in the rain of

God's Word day by day, week by week, over many

years, behaving so bad they couldn't make sense

of it. Today is an incredibly special day. It's

a new thing, a commissioning service all together

like this. And it's, I hope in one sense, a really

joyful day. This is what you're going out to

do. We're commissioning you, notwithstanding

Thomas's point about baptism, to go and serve.

This is why you're here. But of course, it's

also a sad day. It'll be coming soon, I know.

Sadness of farewells, goodbyes, and we'll miss

the friendship and fellowship. You know, I think,

James, why on earth on this day have you chosen

such a downbeat way to start? I might change

my mind if you say it was a really bad idea.

In a few weeks' time, I'm heading to Namagongo.

I don't terribly enjoy injections. But before

I've gone to Namagongo, I've had some injections

for typhoid and polio and hepatitis. Unfortunately,

I'm exempt from yellow fever. To get ready for

then, now. To be ready for that moment, now.

And as I've been preparing and praying, reflecting

on this, I've come back to this wonderful little

verse at the end of 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 15:58

15, verse 58. Do you remember the scene? Corinthians

letter as a whole Paul's planted this church

he started this church he's invested his life

in it but there are all kinds of issues and problems

that have been going on in the church family

and this particular chapter chapter 15 he's focused

very much on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus

Jesus has been raised And so he continued. Do

you notice he starts in verse 58. Therefore,

in the light of all I've been saying to you,

says Paul, in the light of all I've been saying

to you. And then he continues with this lovely

little phrase. I think it's in our versions here.

My dear or dearly loved. Really, Paul? They were

a wretched lot, weren't they? Do you notice how

his heart, even for those who cause pain, is

about love? Never, never lose sight of love for

the people that we're serving. Never instrumentalise

people. And then he continues. Stand firm. Let

nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully

to the work of the Lord. Because you know that

your labour in the Lord is not in vain. In Ecclesiastes,

you may remember, everything is sometimes described

as vanity. It's foggy vapour. It's hevel. It's

futile. It's temporary. It's transient. It's

pointless. Something like that. The translation

is not easy to capture. In Mark 15, Christ has

been raised from the dead. So there's a whole

bunch of things through this chapter that are

no longer in vain. In verse 2. the corinthian

faith is not in vain christ has been raised from

the dead god's grace to paul is not in vain verse

10 christ has been raised from the dead verse

14 paul's preaching is not in vain christ has

been raised from the dead and then verse 58 our

labor in the lord is not in vain christ has been

raised from the dead extraordinary our labour

in the Lord our work done in union with him our

labour in the Lord not even death can erase Christ

has been raised from the dead what is this labour

in the Lord do you remember in Romans 16 Paul

does this great big shout out for a bunch of

people including a number of prominent women

There's Trophina and Trophosa. They're those

who've worked hard in the Lord. They've laboured

in the Lord. Or in Greek Persis, who laboured

much in the Lord. This speaks of the effort,

the investment in the cause of the gospel and

making Christ known. But alongside that effort,

you can see the work of the Lord in this verse.

Because it's not just the labour in the Lord,

it's also work of the Lord. This is a singular

work. It's not work that each individual person

does. This is this one work that we collectively

are invested in, giving our lives to, serving

in. this work of the Lord to make Christ known

and you can see that this work of gospel ministry

of building the church up and seeing it grow

from later on in chapter 16 verse 10 when Timothy

is himself described as carrying on the work

of the Lord and the message renders it like this

nothing you do for him is a waste of time or

effort nothing The New Living Translation, nothing

you do for the Lord is ever useless. Although

the force here is about the gospel ministry that

continues, the same logic actually applies to

all of our lives, our painting, our sport, our

business, our music, whatever it might be. That's

not the focus here, but the logic is exactly

the same. Everything endures. Because Christ

has been raised, nothing that you or I do for

him is ever futile, is ever in vain. Let's go

back to that scenario as you slumped on the sofa

in 5, 10 or 15 years' time. You're tempted to

think, was it all worth it? Is it all worth it?

Is it worthwhile? Or is it just futile, a waste

of time in vain? And the Apostle Paul, the Lord

says, absolutely not. Not even death. Nothing

can make that worthless. Because it is work in

the Lord, in union with him, and that endures

for all eternity. We don't know how exactly in

some cases, but we know that it does. And so,

see how Paul finishes? Stand firm then. Sit tight.

Don't drift off. Don't wander off. As so many

do, sadly. Sit tight. Stand firm. Let nothing

move you. Don't get knocked off your perch. Don't

get swept to one side. Don't drift off into either

things that take you away from the Lord or take

you away from the ministries entrusted with you.

Instead, give yourselves fully. to the work of

the Lord, says Paul. Why? Because our labour

in him is not in vain, it's not futile, it's

not wasted. So I hope this is maybe more palatable

than inoculation, but may the Lord write those

words on our heart. Nothing that you're doing

is wasted, whatever people may say. Amen.