Sermon Outline

1. We Wait Patiently as We Suffer and Groan
2. We Wait Patiently as We Hope in the Coming Glory
3. We Wait Patiently and Eagerly for the Glory to Be Revealed

Introduction

As a father and a grandfather I’ve watched a lot of youth sports. And it’s a joy to watch your kids and grandkids play sports - mostly! When they are six years old and playing baseball, at one level it’s humorous. But at another level you are inwardly groaning. Why? Because you know the beauty and glory of the game when it’s played well and this isn’t it.

But inwardly you have a hope which helps you to patiently wait. It’s a hope that as they grow and develop they and their teammates will get better and more skilled and begin to play the game really well. Watching my granddaughters when they first started playing volleyball, if any of the girls got the ball over on a serve it was a very good chance their team was going to get a point because it was rare for it to be returned. But after a few seasons they were playing at an amazing proficiency and watching the volleys that went on was enjoyable and exciting.

We are in Romans chapter eight ascending to the mountain top of the entire book. And in our passage this morning we read that we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly.. Waiting is a big part of the Christian life. We wait for things in this life and we wait for things in the coming age. And what we learn from our text today is that we are to wait eagerly for the revealing of the glory of God—both to us and in us!. This future glory is one that is beyond anything that we can imagine and is worth any suffering that we endure in this life. So the question arises how should we live in this age while waiting for the next? Let’s pray and then look at that.

I. We Wait as We Suffer and Groan

The way that we live in this age in light of the next is that we wait patiently. We tell our children to wait patiently and they must learn that, but we must also do that as well. Our first point is about waiting patiently as we suffer and groan in this present time. But we do not suffer without hope and that is our second point. We wait patiently for what Titus describes as our blessed hope. Our third point has to do with what we are waiting for—the glory that is to be revealed to and in us as God’s people.

Now before we get to the first point, it’s good to ask the question of “who is this sermon for?” Is it primarily for the older saints. Well it is true with our text, as it is with all of God’s word - that regardless of age or season of life this passage has application for all of us. You may be 12 or 22 with much to look forward to. And I don’t want to discourage your youthful excitement for your future in this life. This life is a blessing. It’s where God has us right now. But regardless of age we all should be living fully in this age with our feet firmly planted in the next.

Regardless of age this truth of God’s coming glory must have a significant place in our lives. We must be rooted in this future glory of God. It is what we were saved for. Yes we must fully be immersed in this life and faithfully, wholeheartedly be given to the responsibilities and ministries that God has given us. But we must never lose sight of our heavenly calling. Our blessed hope when properly understood gives us a persevering faith in this life. We ought to live our lives today based on where we will be for all eternity. O may we not live our lives as those who only see as far as the view of this life. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 15…

1 Corinthians 15:19 (ESV) — If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

May we live here and now rooted in the glory that is described in 2 Corinthians 4, “an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison.”

But first we must talk about suffering, which is our first point. Paul says in verse eighteen which is I believe the key verse of the passage: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. What is the suffering that Paul is talking about here? Well I think it is first of all, suffering for Christ, suffering for being a Christian. In verse seventeen the verse preceding our text Paul states that since we are children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. The Christian life involves suffering for being a follower of Christ.

In many nations around the world this is a very direct, intense and sometimes violent persecution and suffering for identifying with Jesus Christ. And this is historically true. In every generation Christians have suffered for Christ sometimes even with their own lives. Paul speaks of this suffering at the end of chapter eight of Romans:

Romans 8:36 (ESV) — As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

In our culture persecution often takes the form of a more subtle discrimination or ridicule that comes with following the Lord. But however suffering comes to us whether it be subtle or more direct we must embrace it knowing that in it we share in the fellowship of Christ’s suffering.

Philippians 3:10 (ESV) — that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

It seems as this word suffering that Paul states in verse eighteen also includes the suffering of living in a fallen world. This type of suffering is referred to in verses twenty to twenty-three of our passage as groaning. These verses state that we and the whole creation groan as we wait for our redemption in Christ. Someone described this as the “sighing of creation”. Creation, beautiful and amazing as it is, still groans for the restoration of all things. In verse 21 it describes creation’s bondage to corruption. Think of earthquakes and tornados and invasive species, locusts and floods. The earth groans and so do we.

This word groan in the Greek is pretty much what it is in English. It includes deep sighing, grief and groaning. There are many ways that we groan in this age. We wake up in the morning and realize that the temptation to sin in an area which we thought had been put to death is crouching at our door. Or maybe you have a nagging health issue or even more challenging maybe it’s a major health issue that seems to take most of your energy in dealing with. Maybe you struggle with loneliness or depression or anxiety.

There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which has come upon the creature by the fall of man.

• Matthew Henry

We groan when confronted with the curse that came upon Adam in Genesis three: the thorns and thistles of life. Stuff happens in a fallen world! A friend or family member passes away suddenly. We groan. Relationships blessed as they may be, come with thorns and thistles. We groan. We work hard at a project at work/church and it never goes anywhere. We groan. Even our Savior sighed deeply in his spirit because of the unbelief of man. We groan when we’re young, we groan in mid-life and we groan as we get older.

In a somewhat parallel passage in 2 Corinthians 4 Paul tells us that the outer self is wasting away. The earth groans, our bodies groan, our souls groan. This is not to deny the joy and peace and purpose we experience by being in Christ. But it is to accept that we live in a fallen world and that Christians are not immune to its effects. We are not immune to suffering or groaning. When it comes to living in a fallen world one Christian writer asked the question: “Are you groaning or complaining?”

There is a difference. Complaining leads to bitterness, sinful anger and ungratefulness to God. Groaning can be accompanied with a lament or pouring one’s heart out to God (or a friend) in our despair. But it does not charge God or lay the blame of the curse of sin and its effects on him. In its wrestling with God, lamenting ends up resting in the Lord. We groan but we groan as we patiently wait for our full redemption. We live in an age of futility, of vanity as is stated in Ecclesiastes. But we await an age of glory!

We should seek through common grace and divine grace the alleviation of suffering in areas where this is possible. But even when these means of grace don’t sufficiently help us we know that we still have a future and a hope. In I Thessalonians 4 Paul tells us that we shouldn’t grieve as others do who have no hope. In a very similar way we shouldn’t groan like those who groan and have no hope. Our groaning should lead us to cling to Christ and the hope we have in him which is our next point.

II. We Wait Patiently as We Hope in the Coming Glory

In our three points we have three really big words: Groaning, Hope and Glory. Each word is worthy of its own message. This is very true with the word hope. If you want a good word study go to Bible Gateway and put in the word hope and then look at all the different verses that stress the importance of this word. Christians should live in the joy and strength of waiting for our blessed hope.

Hope is what helps us weather the groaning that accompanies living in a fallen world. It is tied to the gospel message and is an anchor of our soul that should continually be a source of joy and endurance. Phil Sasser used to say concerning a physical ailment - “it’s nothing that a good resurrection can’t take care of”. That should be our attitude towards all groaning. Our hope in Christ is a reminder that this world is not all there is to life. Christians who live in countries where there is much persecution often have a much better grasp on the grace that comes though having a biblical hope. They suffer much in this life and therefore yearn for a better homeland-the one that awaits them.

Now biblical hope is not the same as our culture’s definition of hope. The Merriam- Webster definition of hope is “to want something to happen or be true”. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope. I hope the Phillies win the World Series, I hope it doesn’t rain this weekend. Worldly hope is an optimistic wish.

Biblical hope is different and has been defined as a confident expectation that is rooted in God’s faithful and trustworthy promises. Hope patiently trusts God that what he has promised will come to pass. I Thessalonians 5 sums this up nicely when it states: “ He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” That is why we can have a confident expectation for the future - because God is faithful and he will surely bring to pass what he has promised.

Our passage in Romans eight tells us what is included in our hope. It also speaks to how we should hope. In verses 19-25…

• The glory that is to be revealed to us and in us.
• The revealing of the sons of God
• Our adoption as sons of God.
• The (full) redemption of our bodies.
• These are not the only things involved in the Christian’s blessed hope but they are what our text specifies.
• These will be discussed more in our third point but I want to have them down here so that we don’t have some generic or vague idea when it comes to biblical hope. It includes very specific things. We don’t know all of what it includes and even what we know we only see in a mirror dimly. But what we can see and know is very encouraging.

C. S. Lewis wrote that there are five broad categories of our blessed hope. 1. Be with Christ. 2. Be like Christ. 3. We shall have glory. 4. We shall be fed or feasted. 5. Official position in the universe. What we must keep in mind is that all that comes to us in the coming age is centered in and because of the person and work of Christ. Christ died and was raised for our justification and for our place in glory.

1 Peter 1:13 (ESV) — Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

What does our text tell us about how we are to hope?

• With eager longing.
• With eager waiting.
• With patient waiting.

We are to wait neither so eagerly that we lose our patience nor so patiently that we lose our expectation, but eagerly and patiently together. A patient eagerness and an eager patience.

• John Stott

When we are rooted in a biblical hope our lives will be full of joy and strength and fortitude and perseverance even in the midst of groaning. We know what awaits us and it is glorious! We know that there is a new day coming! Paul prays this prayer for the Christians he wrote to in Rome

Romans 15:13 (ESV) — May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Biblical hope is like a life preserver that we have on in the torrents of life. It keeps us afloat. it keeps our head above water even in the midst of a flood. Sometimes it may seem like we are being swept downstream but our hope keeps us looking up and preserves us.

Our hope is very much tied to our inheritance in Christ. If it’s possible that some of you will receive a sizable inheritance when your parents or grandparents pass away. But if that’s true you probably choose not to think about that. One because it will take their death for you to receive it. And secondly it’s possible that by the time they pass it will have been spent down considerably. But with our eternal inheritance, Christ has already died and has been raised and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in glory.

1 Peter 1:4–5 (ESV) — to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We can have assurance that our eternal inheritance will be there waiting for us when we go to be with the Lord. He will surely do it.

III. We Wait Patiently and Eagerly for the Glory to Be Revealed

In our last point we will discuss more of what our hope is in. It is in the glory that is to be revealed to us. The ESV and many other translations phrase it that way but other translations state it as “the glory that is to be revealed in us.” The Amplified Bible uses both (to and in) I think that is a good way to look at it for a number of reasons. .

First the Greek word can be translated to or into including the idea of penetration that is this glory is in us (upon).. Secondly and even more importantly I think theologically both are true. The most important thing about the coming glory of God is that it is the glory of God in Christ that will be revealed to us when he comes again.

Matthew 24:30 (ESV) — Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Titus 2:13 (ESV) — waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

When Christ comes again or if we pass away before then - either way we will behold the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ and it will be astounding - to us. At this point of our existence we can’t fully imagine it and we couldn’t handle it. 2 Corinthians tells us that our suffering is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. The glory of Christ will be of an extraordinary degree, or a surpassing quality, far, far,far above what we could think or imagine.

I mentioned that all three of my points had big words. None bigger than this word glory. John Piper said it’s impossible to define God’s glory. That’s because it’s an eternal glory and is so beyond what we know or have any comprehension. But Piper does go on to make an attempt at least defining it (not convey it).

• The public display of the infinite beauty and worth of God.
• The beauty of God’s manifold perfections.
• It is an attempt to put into words what God is like in his magnificence and purity.
• In general God's glory is the perfect harmony of all his attributes into one infinitely beautiful being. John Piper

But back to Piper’s statement about it being impossible to define or describe the glory of God. Can an earthworm describe the beauty of the sun shining on a spring day or the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon or a sunset over the ocean? No because it has no reference point. It’s beyond it. All it knows is what it knows and it doesn’t know all the beauty of the world around it. In Christ we have come to know a bit of God’s glory and it is wonderful but only a bit. We see in a mirror dimly.

Job 26:14 (ESV) — Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

We have only seen a whisper of God’s glory and not just in physical terms such as the creation but in the absolute power and beauty and majesty and splendor and awesomeness that make up the glory of God. And this is what awaits us in the new heavens and new earth when Christ comes again in his glory. The glory of the only begotten Son of God.

But this is not all that our text is telling us about the glory of God. It is the “main thing” of the main thing. For when we are in the immediate presence of the glory of God in Christ nothing else will matter. (Peter; Joshua-how much more presence of the holy, immoral living God) It is the main thing but it is not the only thing. Our text also tells us of the glory of God to be revealed in us as sons of God. The Cambridge Bible commentary states that this glory is unto us or upon us. That it is to be revealed as ours and laid as a crown upon us. Christ in us is the hope of glory. In Colossians 3 we are told:

Colossians 3:4 (ESV) — When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Look at verse nineteen: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. In this verse and those following there is this great anticipation of the coming glory that we will have as sons of God. Verse 21 the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God… 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. All of creation is waiting for us to sit down with Christ on his throne. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 6 that we will judge the world as well as angels. (Now concerning Sons of God)

2 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV) — and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

But in Romans 8 Paul is emphasizing sons of God. That most likely has to do with the fact that in that culture sons were heirs. So in that sense Paul is saying that all children of God both male and female are sons of God and heirs with Christ. And on “that day” there will be an “uncovering” or revealing of the glory that God’s people have in Christ. I John 3 tells us.

1 John 3:1–3 (ESV) — See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

We do not know what we will be when Christ comes again but we do know from our text that it will be glorious beyond all comprehension. All of creation we are told awaits it, this revealing of the sons of God. We will share in Christ’s glory. It will be his glory not ours but we will share in it. This God of glory dwells within us. This reigning with Christ is part of our blessed inheritance and hope that will come to us in the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ

Closing

So how should we then live in light of this coming inheritance, this coming glory that awaits us. Let us go back to our key verse which is verse 18. Paul begins it by saying that he considers the suffering of this present time not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed. This word consider is a word that Paul uses frequently in his writings. It has the meaning of taking inventory, of assessing the bottom line. It’s the mental act of reckoning.

One lexicon describes it as the believer’s deliberate act of counting divine realities as present fact. That is how we are to live. We are to live in the good of this truth. That we are heirs of God and that there awaits for us a glorious future in the new heavens and new earth. This truth should motivate all that we do. If we are to be sons of the king in the next life we should act like that now. It is a high and holy and blessed calling to be one of the sons and heirs of God. Do not despise it or neglect it.

For Paul the coming glory was a present reality for him. Is it for us? If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus you believe in an eternal future with God. That is a gospel truth.

But is it a truth that you think of and are motivated by? And if not how can we change? There is a phrase many of us have heard, “he’s so heavenly minded he’s no earthly good”. I’m not advocating that. We must be fully present here on planet earth - present in our callings as believers. Our Savior when he lived on the earth was fully present in his family, among his disciples and friends and among those he ministered to. So must we.

But I am advocating being more heavenly minded than we currently are (new heavens and earth where we will reign with Christ)) Let us allow this text to help define what that means. What our text tells us is that this eternal weight of glory that awaits us involves us as children of God, sons and daughters of God occupying a place in the coming kingdom of God that is significant and beyond all comprehension. This truth should affect not only our thinking of the future but our living today. So how can we grow in being more aware of the future glory?

• Pray to the Father. Ephesians 1:16-19
• Be enamored with the Son. Hebrews 1:3a
• Be filled with the Spirit. I Peter 4:14
• Grow in beholding the glory of God: 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
• Long for it, yearn for it. Think about it. Romans 8:19, 23
• Do not exchange the glory of the immortal God for the corrupted glories of this world. Romans 1:23
• Tap into the spiritual disciplines.