He Will Come

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

This fall, we're studying the book of Second

Corinthians. Second Corinthians is a heartfelt

and practical book calling us back to the life

of the cross. We, like the Corinthians, so often

pursue glory, admire eloquence, shun suffering,

hide hurt, and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel

of Jesus tells us that resurrection comes after

a cross. that comfort comes after being crushed,

that the way up is the way down, that the way

to glory is through suffering, that His strength

is made perfect in our weakness. We'd love to

meet you and we hope you'll consider coming and

joining with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m.

in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find

us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Facebook,

Instagram, and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

sermon. God bless. Let me pray. Lord, thank you

for our time together. Thank you for worship

and just the joy that it is to be your people.

Lord, thank you for the young and the old alike

that you call to yourself and that we together

are bound together to one another because we

are yours. Brothers and sisters, made brothers

and sisters, not by blood, but that which is

thicker than blood, the waters of baptism. the

reality of belonging to You, having Your mark

placed upon us. God, I pray, I thank You for

this text that we've been in, 2 Corinthians,

and I pray Your blessing upon our time in it,

our last time in it now, in this hour. Bless

us, Lord. Give us a greater and deeper faith

in You, a greater desire to put sin away and

to live in the reality that You have come and

that You will come again. I praise You in Your

name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Okay, so one of the Christmas

time traditions in the Rowan household is to

make a gingerbread house and to absolutely cover

it with candy. Lots of candy. And so, you know,

we did this this past week and I will say we

had lots of candy. I mean... many large cups

full of candy. And we had all kinds of different

candy. Gummy bears, gummy trees, red and green

trees, little gumdrops. If there's a theme, it's

true. We are a gummy family. You know, I feel

like you have hard candy families and gummy candy

families. We're a gummy candy family. But we

did have some hard candies too. We had those

little spiraled, you know, red and white. peppermints

we had a lot of those and we had neko wafers

that could kind of you can make you can make

a really nice gingerbread roof out of neko wafers

pro tip y 'all um we had little you know like

little skittle drops that you could like decorate

with um lots of candy and lots of icing to stick

the candy to said gingerbread house right And

children, you who are still present here with

us, the adults might not know the answer to this

question, okay? So you might need to help us

out with this. What do you do with candy? What

do you do? What do you do? Yeah, okay. It's clear.

What you do with candy is you eat it. That's

exactly right. So here's, of course, what happens

is that when we get it all out and we place it

on our dining room table, The inclination is

to go, let's eat it all. Take it in in the moment.

There's a problem with this though. If you are

the attentive gingerbread house maker, there's

a problem with this because you kind of, the

candy's for the decorating. You're not gonna

actually achieve the whole goal. If you eat all

the candy, I know I sound like a Scrooge, but

that's what it's there for. What you're there

to do can't be done if all you do is live in

the moment. Grab and take. Live as though what's

in front of you is all there is and who knows

what's going to happen in the future so you might

as well eat it all. There is rather a level of

discipline, which is one of the fruits of the

spirit, children. A gingerbread house decorating.

There's another problem, of course, to that approach,

and that is that you get sick, which isn't very

pleasant. This is going to seem like a transition,

but I'll hopefully bring this back around. In

Christian theology, there's the understanding

that God is both transcendent and imminent. God

is both overall, beyond us, Outside of our understanding,

His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not

our thoughts. He is the Creator, and we are the

created. Think of Psalm 113. Who is like the

Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks

down on the heavens and the earth? Transcendence,

1 Kings chapter 8. But will God indeed dwell

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest

heaven cannot contain you. How much less this

house that I have built. Transcendence. Or think

of our Lord Jesus' own words in John chapter

John 8 · chapter mention

8. He said to them, you are from below, I am

from above. You are of this world, I'm not of

this world. The transcendent reality of God.

the God who exists beyond us and over us, outside

of our understanding. But also Christianity,

Christian theology would say that God is not

just transcendent, but he's just an immanent

reality to God. Jeremiah chapter 23, can a man

Jeremiah 23 · chapter mention

hide himself in secret places so that I cannot

see him, declares the Lord. Do I not fill, it

doesn't just say heaven, but it says heaven and

earth. God present. Psalm 139, where shall I

go from your spirit or where shall I flee from

your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're

there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell

in the uttermost parts of the sea, even your

hand shall lead me and your right hand hold me.

Eminence, God present to us. Paul says to the

Athenians in Acts chapter 17, in him we live

Acts 17 · chapter mention

We exist, you might think. But it also says,

we move. In Him we move. We have our being, the

reality of God present with us, allowing even

our movement. And of course, in 1 Corinthians

chapter three, you'll remember that Paul says

that we are the very temple of God. God making

His holy habitation within us. And then if you

think of the beginning of John chapter one, or

in the beginning of John in chapter one, which

we always read together on Christmas Eve, the

word became flesh and dwelt among us. Transcendence

and imminence. God not only takes on flesh as

one of us in his incarnation, but he also says

he's actually with us always. That's what he

says at the end of Matthew when he's about to

ascend heaven, I'm with you always. Spirit abiding

with us so that what is said of the temple of

old, God's descent upon the temple in the holy

cloud, what's said about Mount Sinai of old,

the descent of God there to give the law, said

to be true of us. His law is now written on our

hearts. We are very, the very reality of God

within us. Emmanuel, God with us, transcendence

and eminence. God both beyond us and yet with

us. God beyond us and within us. To give what

is certainly not a complete analogy, children,

you might think of it as Parents are above you.

They're outside of you. And yet you are so intimately

connected to them. You are theirs. They're present

with you in your life. Maybe you've heard this.

I hope you've heard this. But over the last few

centuries, the world has increasingly moved,

sort of ceaselessly moved towards seeing the

world as purely what is imminent. sort of exists

around us is what is. This time, some have called

the secular age, which is to say, you think back

on Descartes, he says, I think therefore I am.

I is what is real. What is here is what is the

real world. The world is all there is. God is,

as some have said recently, the great delusion.

And so we block out the transcendent. In fact,

what happens is actually the world becomes the

transcendent, that which gives us our meaning

and our purpose. We've rejected the divine transcendence,

said we've grabbed on to the eminence not of

God being present, but the world being present,

the physical world being present. Our life is

all that there is. Of course, as As we've sought

to find our meaning in this, it's done a rather

poor job. Cornelius van Til, a theologian in

the last century, he said, sinners hate the idea

of a clearly identifiable authority over them.

Something that's beyond them, that transcends

outside of them and yet can still speak into

their life. They do not want to meet God. They

would gladly make themselves believe that there

is no clearly discernible, identifiable revelation

of their Creator and Judge anywhere to be found

in the world. And that's sort of just the waters

we swim in. God is not close. He's not beyond

us. Find your meaning in the here and in the

now. I want you to think of what happens when

we do this. So if you open up your Bibles to

2 Corinthians chapter 13, or your Bible app,

2 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

or grab one of those Bibles in the pew in front

of you. What I want you to do first, I'm gonna

give you a moment to turn there. One of the big

emphases of this last section of 2 Corinthians

is Paul's coming to the Corinthians. But he begins

that really in the end of chapter... 12. So if

you look at chapter 12 verse 20, this is what

he says, of the impurity, sexual immorality,

and sensuality that they have practiced. Okay,

so here's what's happening, right? Paul is distant

from them. And the fact of Paul's distance from

them, actually the Corinthians are acting not

just as though Paul is distant, but though as

God is entirely distant, right? And here's what

happens. So they quarrel and they're angry towards

one another and they're hostile. That's some

of the language that's used. uh which what happens

is that they're buying into this idea that they

must win they must win the argument they're angry

at others must win the day they're hostile towards

each other their quarreling has led to a point

where they say i must win this because so often

winning is what gives us our our meaning in life

you've got to win in the here and now and if

you don't man fire gets going It says they're

jealous over others. They want what others have.

Because, of course, what you have now, your possessions

now, is what gives you meaning in this sort of

secular age. If the world is all there is, then

what you have is what defines you. They're jealous

over the life of others and want to grab onto

it. They slander because you going down often

means that I get to go up. And I need to establish

myself in this world now, because now is all

there is. They gossip. Why do people gossip?

They just kind of get a feeling of, I'm in the

know. I am in the know. There's this sort of

reality of you get some kind of earthly high

and buzz and you've got to do that because In

our age, and the temptation was then, it's all

about the now. This world is all there is. You

better get it while the getting is good. They

live a life of sexual immorality and sensuality,

because again, you might as well take in all

of the sensual pleasure while it's there for

the taking. This world is all there is. Live

it up. Enjoy while you can. You see, this eminent

frame that this world and what is right before

us now is the reference for meaning, says that

this is all there is. Take it while you can.

Take the argument while you can. Take the special

knowledge while you can. Take the sensual pleasure

while you can. Be jealous of those who have when

you don't. Because having now is what gives you

life meaning. Which is to say, eat the candy.

The candy now. If you look down in verse two

of chapter 13, you see Paul say this, I warned

those who sinned before. and all the others,

and I warn them now while absent." And if he

actually, if you went back up, he says to verse

21 of chapter 12, I fear that when I come again,

my God may humble me before you and I may have

to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier

and have not repented of their impurity and all

the rest. And if you think back to the sins of

the Corinthian church and First Corinthians,

you see the same dynamic at play of living in

this imminent frame, this secular age of God

is so distant, let's take it now. They not only

practice sexual immorality and sensuality, which

is a big theme in First Corinthians, but they

also take one another to court because they've

got to win. You've got to win the argument. You've

got to establish yourself. Or you think of 1

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 10 and chapter 11. And the

big thing that is happening, one of the big dynamics

that's happening over the Lord's Supper, you

know, this table of communion is a table of disunion

because a bunch of the people were coming first,

particularly the well -to -do, and they were

eating it all. Seems like such a strange thing,

right, to us. But isn't that exactly what you

would do if all that you're living for is the

here and now? Take it all. Take it all. Right?

Come and grab it. Don't leave anything for anyone

else. You've got to establish yourself now. And

of course, what has this rejection of God done

in our world? Right? In the world that we live

in now that says, God is a delusion. It is simply

the physical reality now that is on offer for

you for your meaning. What has secularism done

for our world, this secular age? Do we live in

a world where people are eager to listen to others'

opinions, to learn from those who disagree with

us? Or do we live in a world where quarreling

and slander seems to be pretty much the norm?

Is our world a place where jealousy runs rampant,

or there is great contentment? Do we look upon

the lives others have and think, I'm going to

rejoice with them? Or do we think, if only I

had, then I would be happy? Has the rejection

of the divine and the belief that this world

is all there is made sexual immorality and sensuality

Something that we hold with joy as a gift, but

not our identity or has it become our identity?

I mean, is it even a question? We talk about

sexual identity all the time. It's become the

thing that defines us because something of this

world has to define you. It has to give you meaning.

The rejection of the idea that the divine is

what gives us our authority and our meaning.

Made an image of God, we've got to grab onto

it. We've got to grab onto it in the here and

in the now. Again, think of our political discourse.

Is our political discourse not filled, I mean

filled with anger and slander and hostility?

Be honest, is your heart not filled with anger

and hostility and slander towards those who you

disagree with? One of the marks of our age, this

secular age, as some call it, is the idea of

exclusive humanism. That the world becoming better

is up to us. You know your heart, you're like,

oh dear. But this is partly why political discourse

is as it is. because if it's up to us, then we

have to figure out how it works best. And my

vision of how it must work best has to be the

one that wins if that's all the hope that we

have. And if you disagree with it, you are not

just disagreeing with me, but you are disagreeing

with the good life and therefore you must be

evil. You must be squelched, squashed, put down.

Do you see this? What Paul is warning the Corinthians,

how he is warning them not to live as though

God will not come back, as though He will not

come back, is in some ways the big warning that

we need, right? This idea that, ah, God is either

so distant as though He is irrelevant or He just

doesn't exist at all. Oh, you're so far off.

We could care less what you think we will live

as we want to now So often what we do But here's

the thing and this is part of what Paul is saying

is Paul's coming back He's it's almost as though

Paul in this chapter is actually living the Advent

life After his first coming actually, it's first

and second coming. He went he visited them another

time and before he comes again And he's inviting

us to actually into this Advent life with God.

God has come and he will return. Which is to

say, God will not be mocked. God will not be

mocked. Or as verse three says, he's not weak

in dealing with you, but he's powerful among

you. His reality is sure. He is present, he knows.

Maybe you could say he sees. He's the God who

is imminent to us. His eminence is part of His

reality, transcendent, and yet in Him we live

and move and have our being. He's as high as

the heavens are above the earth. He's so far

beyond us, and yet He makes us home, present

to us. So Paul gives some advice. He gives some

practical things that they might be on on their

guard. He says a few things to them. And I want

to just kind of walk through a couple things

he says to them. One thing that he says sort

of to help them be ready for his coming is test

yourself. Test yourself. Examine yourself. Look

at verse five. I forget which one of you children

read this for us, but all of you did a really

great job. Very clear enunciation. Verse five,

examine yourselves to see whether you are in

the faith. Examine yourselves, test yourselves.

It means very clear, examine yourself. Are you

in the faith? Test yourself. Take some time to

examine your life. I invite you, I implore you,

take some time. Sit down and examine your life.

Test your life. We often talk about this during

Lent. It's this penitential time focused on this

question of this looking forward to the cross

and the resurrection, but also we sit in this

question of why did God need to come and why

did he need to die? And how awful is our sin

that God Himself would have to die for it? But

now, examine yourself. Part of the dynamic of

looking forward to the coming of Jesus, and we

got this in our Isaiah passage, the day of the

Lord is both a very wonderful thing in the scriptures,

but it is also a day of fear. It is a day of

joy and it is a day of fear because it is a day

of both blessing and a day of judgment. So examine

yourself. Take inventory of your life. Take inventory

of your speech and of your heart, your actions,

your speech marked by hostility and anger. Are

you prone to gossip? Something that is often

condemned in scripture. Do you savor being in

the know, having special knowledge? Does your

heart relish the downfall of those you disagree

with? I think of how you, maybe one way to do

this to examine yourself is how do you engage

with the political news about you? Can you not

wait to hear how some opponent had some other

controversy surrounding them? They are on the

Epstein file list, right? Oh, I hope they are.

Like what's going on in our hearts? Examine yourself.

Are you prone to jealousy? Does your heart sit?

in the thought of what others have or what they

get to do and whatever. Do you scroll through

the feed seeing the joy of others and just ache

that it is not yours? Are you inclined to take

the sexual and the sensual pleasures on offer

now while it is before you? When it's not yours

to have? Are you addicted to what you see on

the screen or the flavors you can have in your

mouth? Do you dream about the next meal constantly?

Mind and your heart fixed on the sensual. Examine

yourselves, test yourself. These are all inclinations

of this imminent frame, this idea that we must

have now. As the getting is good, take it. Paul

goes on from verse five there in 13. Let me read

this for you. Or do you not realize this about

yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless

indeed you fail to meet the test? Right, he's

speaking to a Christian church. I'm I employ

you now where the sisters test yourselves unless

you fail to meet the test Ask examine Are you

walking in the way of the Lord finding his his

law your delight Keeps going he is not weak in

dealing with you, but it's powerful among you

For he was crucified in weakness, but lives in

the power of God. For we are weak in him, but

in dealing with you, we live with him by the

power of God." Do you see what he's inviting

you to do is to test yourself. Are you living

simply for what is before you now? The delights

of this world or what power you can have now

or how others can be put down? Test is Jesus

Christ in you, he asks. That's sort of the first

advice he gives. The second is sort of similar,

but I think it's a little bit different too.

And the second I want to say is the truth will

out. Jesus says it like this in Luke chapter

Luke 12 · chapter mention

12, nothing is covered up that will not be revealed

or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever

you have said in the dark shall be heard in the

light and what you've whispered in private rooms

shall be proclaimed in the housetops Nothing

is hidden that will not be revealed So as you

test yourself it's good things the Lord says

he says to us you cannot hide Don't think you're

fooling anybody or Paul says it In verse 8, for

we cannot do anything against the truth. We can't.

But only for the truth. The truth is going to

be what comes out. He's saying that he himself

cannot do anything but the truth. Sorry, he's

not saying that he himself cannot just live in

the truth, but that all of what we do will be

brought out. The truth will always come out.

The truth will always win. And Paul's saying

in some ways that there's a very practical reality

to this, that the truth will always win. And

part of this is do not, today, do not harden

your hearts, right? We heard from Psalm 95. Don't

harden your hearts because the Lord knows your

heart. The Lord knows your motivations. The Lord

knows what you say in private, he says. It's

gonna be brought out. Are you just grabbing onto

this world? Because in the coming of... Christ,

all things will be brought to light. His light

will shine in the darkness. And some of that

we will say, praise the Lord. And some of that

we will say, I wanted to keep that in the darkness.

Right? It's a day of both joy and a day both

for fear. Truth will out. Maybe some of you have

heard this, but when speaking of the world to

come, both the new heavens and the new earth

and the judgment that will be given to those

who do not walk in the way of the Lord. C .S.

Lewis sort of famously says, you always get what

you want. Always get what you want. Children,

how many of you have read the book, The Magician's

Nephew, or heard that book? Okay. Yeah. How many

else have read The Magician's Nephew? Wonderful.

If you haven't, I would be happy to give you

a copy of it. But near the end of that story,

do you remember Diggory flies on Fledge whose

previous name was Strawberry, which I love. It's

a great name for a horse. But he flies on the

horse up to the walled garden and he gets the

fruit, the apple. But who also gets the fruit?

Witch. That's right, the witch. And Aslan says

to Diggory about the witch taking also the fruit.

He says, child, that is why All the rest are

now a horror to her. That is what happens to

those who pluck and eat fruits the wrong time

and in the wrong way. Oh, the fruit is good,

but they loathe it ever after. She's won her

heart's desire. She has unwavering strength and

endless days like a goddess, but length of days

with an evil heart is only length of misery.

And already she begins to know it. All get what

they want. They do not always like it. Which

is to say, if you live in this dynamic of the

thing that gives you meaning and the hope that

you have is only in what is right before you,

that's all you'll get. If you don't want Jesus

now, you don't get Jesus then. You get what you

want. The truth will always out. Test yourself.

Paul really practically says, understand that

you will get what you want and the truth will

be revealed. We can't do anything against the

truth. Light will always shine in the darkness

and the dark things will be exposed. Test yourself.

But there is more that he says. And I want to

say this that he actually ends with a very hopeful

note. in a couple chapters that are pretty hard.

And I think this is really lovely because my

guess is that when we list out, when we examine

ourselves, when we test ourselves, when we list

out how we live without the reality of God, when

we list out these things that He lists out for

the Corinthian church like gossip and slander

and hostility and sensuality and all these things,

when we really examine ourselves, and we are

honest with ourselves, and maybe there's a little

bit of sense of, oh, the truth will out. I better

be really honest, which is what I'm encouraging

you to do. My guess is that you're like, yes,

I live this secular life. I live in this reality.

I better take while the taking is good. I mean,

I see myself in this list. And I think, my guess

is that if you're actually honest, you'll see

yourself in this list. But I also want to suggest

to you that Paul knows that that is for our good.

It's for our good that our examination leads

us to go, oh, my word. Oh, my word, I have been

taking. I've been seeking to find my meaning

and my pleasure and my delight and my joy. Not

in the Lord, but in the things of this life and

the things of this world. He knows that it's

for your good because actually when you come

to that place and acknowledge that is when you

actually begin to turn to Him and to find that

in Him there's a new life on offer. There's true

forgiveness and true peace and a different way

of being in the world is really on offer to you

as you come to an honest place. Your rejection

of him and you're grabbing onto the things of

this world. That is where you find hope So let

me tell you this story then I'm gonna begin to

wrap this up So we don't just eat eat a lot of

candy around Christmas in our house. What are

other times when we eat a lot of candy Halloween

yes East. Yep Easter. We eat a lot of chocolate

only Yeah, but Halloween is one of those ones

where especially if you live where we live, which

is, you know, just a few blocks down on Green

Street, it gets packed. Right. I mean, there's

a lot of candy being given out and the temptation

when you have it is to do what? Eat it. Right.

Thank you. It's to eat it. And I did ask Melissa

if I could share this with you. But one of the

stories, there's a story in our family that goes

around. And we tell it somewhat often, Melyce

mostly tells it because it is her story. It's

a very important story. And it's a very instructive

story. And I'm telling it to you all because

it is very instructive. And I think this is part

of what Paul is saying. When Melyce was a sweet

little girl of age 10 -ish, she and her brothers

went trick or treating around their neighborhood

and then over into another adjoining neighborhood.

And they got lots of candy. And of course, what

do you do when you have candy? Yeah, you eat

it. And the temptation, right, was to say, oh,

I got this. I better eat it now. The joy is before

me now. Whatever my pleasure is before me now,

my meaning is before me now. Well, what happens

when you eat all the candy? It's gone. Thank

you. That's one thing you get home and you're

like, well, I don't have any candy. But you know

what? The candy comes up. That's what happens.

You get sick. And that is exactly what Paul is

warning them about. That's not the way to live.

It's not. There's a proper time to enjoy the

things of this world. There's a proper time for

these things. The proper way to enjoy them is

in light of the Lord. The fact that He's given

them to you. He gives them to you in proper times

to be used in proper ways. So in the midst of

all this warning, as Paul's ending this letter,

he also ends with this, verse 11. Finally, brothers,

rejoice. Aim for, it's just amazing. That's how

he ends after all this. It's like, I'm coming

back. You better get your stuff together. Finally,

brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration. Comfort

one another, agree with one another, live in

peace, and the God of love and peace will be

with you. Right? What is the answer? What's the

answer to all this quarreling and strife and

hostility and grabbing? God will be with you.

And as He is with you, as you live in this reality

of God among you, you can aim for restoration.

You can live at peace with one another. The very

things they weren't doing were on offer for them.

And they are on offer for us also. It's because

God is with us that we have hope. So finally

He sends us out with the very words actually

that so often you are sent out with into this

world. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the

love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

be with you because He knows that is your hope.

That God is not absent, but He is with you as

you go out into this world that is saying, grab,

grab, grab, make meaning out of what you have

now. Brothers and sisters, that is the hope that

we have. grace of Lord Jesus Christ, the love

of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

with us. Amen. Lord, thank you for your word

to us this morning. God, thank you that you love

us and that you call us to repentance and you

correct our ways. But Lord, thank you for this

great truth that you are with us and it's because

you are with us that we have hope. We have new

life. We're going to have to find our meaning

and what we can grab and hold on to. and know

in this life, but in you and in you alone. Move

among us, Lord, in this way. Draw us ever into

the great hope of your advent, your coming among

us. In Jesus' name, amen. You can find us online

at SecondCityChurch .org and on Instagram, Facebook,

and YouTube. Thanks again for listening. God

bless.