Oppression and Patient Endurance

We're going to read together from James chapter 5, verses 1 to 12.

James 5:1–12

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,

James 5 · chapter mention

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,

James 4:13

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 accumulate,

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?

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.