SEEING THE UNSEEN
My wife and I like catching up with some news on T.V.
after dinner. These days the News is so polarized and saturated with political
basis. Tired of all that, my wife suggested we watch PBS, so we switched the
channel and watched a breathtaking nature documentary.
It was about teeming life in Ecuador's Amazon
rainforest captured by a network of more than fifty remotely operated cameras. They
covered the dark rainforest floor up to a tangled canopy 300 feet in the
air. The crew captured the lives of exotic creatures and discovered these
animals' incredible tricks to survive in the extreme jungle climate.
For the next hour, my wife and I feasted on the hidden
beauty of the Rainforest. We observed the incredible sights of pygmy marmosets,
boisterous howler monkeys, solitary pumas, mesmerizing leaf-cutter ants, a
colony of bats, and stunning sunset and sunrise views.
We were particularly fascinated by seeing butterflies
feast on the tears of an ever-patient turtle. These animals have a surprising
symbiotic relationship. The salty moisture around a turtle's eyes and nose
contains a large amount of sodium that butterflies crave.[1] Amazing facts!
For us to enjoy the unseen world of the Amazon
Rainforest, someone needed to capture it with powerful cameras and document it.
Even then, unless we deliberately switched to that channel, we couldn't have
discovered that incredible beauty. In the end, it was worth watching.
Similarly, the Bible contains some exceptional beauty
to be found. God's prophets and servants saw those startling truths and
documented them for us to believe, experience, live by, and share with others.
In a way, the unseen world is more accurate and eternal than the quickly fading
world we see. The Apostle Paul encouraged the Corinthian believers to See the
Unseen, to help them in their struggles and find purpose. What does it take to See
the Unseen?
I.
What gives believers the courage to continue preaching the Gospel of Good News?
(13-14)
In verse twelve, Paul relates how they faced death all
day long as it resulted in eternal life for the Corinthian believers. Then he
explains what enabled them to preach the Gospel continually. Vs. 13-14, "But
we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had
when he said, "I believed in God, so I spoke." We know that God, who
raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself
together with you."
Upon his conversion, the apostle Paul began preaching
Jesus Christ boldly throughout the region. In Iconium, a great number of both
Jews and Greeks became believers. Some Jews who rejected the message poisoned
the minds of the Gentiles against Paul.
The crowds stoned Paul and dragged him out of town,
thinking he was dead. But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and
went back into the town. Subsequently, Paul received flogging and had
near-death experiences, but nothing deterred him from preaching.
What made Paul and the disciples so resilient in
preaching the Gospel? Paul quotes David, who kept trusting God despite
hardships. Psalm 116: 8-10, "He has saved me from death, my eyes from
tears, my feet from stumbling. And so, I walk in the Lord's presence as I live
here on earth! I believed in you, so I said, "I am deeply troubled, Lord."
Even when they would have died preaching the Gospel,
Paul and the disciples knew that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also
raise them with Jesus and present them to himself together with us." Even
today, our faith in God and His promises give us the courage to keep preaching
the Good News. Paul writes in Hebrews about how to live a life of faith in this
world.
Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded
by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every
weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And
let us run with endurance the race God has set before us."
II.
What strengthens us to never give up despite struggles
and hardships in our lives? (15-16)
Vs. 15-16, "All of this is for your benefit. And
as God's grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving,
and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being
renewed every day."
Paul and the early disciples faced death every day,
yet they were willing to pay that price if it meant salvation for those they preached to. What
strengthened them never to give up?
God's
grace in and through them saved people everywhere. The more people got saved,
the greater their gratitude for God. In the end, not Paul or the disciples but
God receive all the glory.
The realization that God's grace
changed people strengthened them never to give up. Even when their bodies gave
up outwardly, their spirits were renewed daily. Paul started his ministry as a
young zealous Pharisee. When he encountered Jesus, he knew how much he was to
suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Paul recounts all the struggles he endured
in his letters.
When writing the second letter to
the Corinthians, Paul was a well-worn missionary on his third missionary
Journey. His body might have shown signs of wear and tear when he said, "Though
our bodies are dying; in ESV, it reads, "though our outer self is wasting
away."
What Paul went through was the
natural process of aging. Similarly, our physical body is in the process of
aging and will eventually die. No one escapes natural aging. But those in any
Christian ministry or leadership age even faster. In the recent Inter-Faith
clergy meeting, I shared that it will be six years as a shepherd of Hope Church
in December.
One clergy commented, Yeh, we see your hair has become
gray. Let's accept the aging process boldly and graciously. Due to the media,
there is much emphasis on staying young and beautiful. We are pressured to keep
up with the looks of celebrities. True beauty is not what we see outwardly but
a man's or woman's inward character, which must be searched and admired.
III
Seeing the Unseen (17-18)
In the last two verses of the passage, apostle Paul
draws our attention to an awesome invisible reality. Though our bodies don't
grow younger, our spirits are renewed daily. Wow! Vs. 17-18, "For our
present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a
glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the
troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.
For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will
last forever."
More than any other disciple, Paul endured unbearable
suffering and persecutions, yet he viewed them as light or small, lasting only
for a brief moment. On the contrary, the glory they produce outweighs them all
and lasts forever. That insight gave him a different perspective.
He stopped focusing on what he saw and instead looked at
what could not be seen. Not only Paul, but we have great examples in the Bible
of those who saw the unseen. Hebrews 11 contains many such heroes and heroines
of faith. Abraham confidently looked forward to a city with eternal
foundations, a city designed and built by God.
Moses refused to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin
and instead chose to suffer with his fellow brothers, for he was looking ahead
for a great reward. What kept him going was that he kept his eyes on the
invisible one. Who is the unseen one that Paul was referring to?
Hebrews 12:2, "We do this by keeping our eyes on
Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy
awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in
the place of honor beside God's throne." What does it take to see the
unseen?
It takes faith. Though our eyes have never seen Jesus,
we put our faith in Him. "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for
will actually happen; It gives us assurance about things we cannot see."
Do you believe in Jesus, the unseen one? That will radically change your life.
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