Friday 9 August
John Graham was our speaker for the final evening at New Horizon 2024. John grew up in Portadown and is the Associate Minister of Hill Street Presbyterian Church. After graduating from Queens University, and Cornhill, Belfast, he worked for a Christian Charity before entering full time training for the Presbyterian Ministry at Union Theological College.
Someone asked me, “Why does the gospel matter?” In that moment I thought that the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, His person and His work matter most when we are confronted with the one reality we do not want to face – death. Our family came face to face with death when my mum pasted away in 2016. When someone asked why does the gospel matter, I started to talk about mum. In the face of death, she trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the greatest treasure we can know and it is in Christ. People usually get really excited about treasure.
Whenever we find somewhere that does a really good Sirloin steak, we may go to this restaurant. We will spoil ourselves and get the onion rings. The steak comes out and it is powerful. It is so tender. For weeks afterwards we will tell people about it. It is the best steak in the land.
Treasure. We get really excited about treasure. But often as Christians we can be indifferent about Jesus. Indifferent about His extraordinary and life change power. In Matthew Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like treasure in a field. This man sells all he has in order to obtain it. It is worth selling everything to get.
Christ was the man who healed, who walked on water, who restored sight to the blind and offered eternal life to people. Imagine if word got out that there was a man here who could do all these things. Everyone would try to see him. And yet this is what we have in Christ, the one who makes dead people live.
This truly is the greatest news in all of the world. He came into the world. He lived and He died in our place and He rose from the dead! When we know forgiveness of sin and we are adopted into God’s family, then surely we should recognise that we have great treasure, extraordinary treasure. Sometimes we forget to tell our faces.
Jesus Christ died and He rose again from the dead and He is here to give us good news. Maybe you haven’t yet experienced the good news of Jesus for yourself. If you are not a Christian, take Mark’s gospel and pour yourself a cup of tea and read it and ask yourself who is this man Jesus Christ? Ask yourself should I follow Him? You will see extraordinary things.
If you are a Christian here tonight, here is my challenge. Are you convinced that Christ is your greatest treasure? If so, why are we not bolder and unashamed that this is the greatest news that the world has ever heard and it is the news that our broken world needs above all else.
The people around us need Christ. And so in the language of Peter, why are we not more excited about proclaiming the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His glorious light?
Why do you get more excited about football than you do about Jesus? If He has saved you. If He has granted you forgiveness, shouldn’t we talk to our children about that? Parents if Christ is the greatest treasure, what does worship look like on a Sunday? Is going to church together the number one priority for you?
For some reason we have made our faith something “private”. If we are saved, surely we want to talk about Him? Surely we want to talk about what the Holy Spirit is doing in our life. Out of the heart, the words of the mouth come. If our task as Christian people is to raise up disciples and if we are passionate about this treasure that is Jesus, how about sending the best people to disciple our children. Not to use it like a child minding service but investing the best in our children.
Recognising this treasure, radically re-shapes everything in our lives.
In 2 Corinthians 4 Paul writes to a church in the midst of a hostile culture. He is trying to encourage this church. He knows it is difficult to show the treasure of Christ. Into the midst of difficult circumstances, pressure and pain, Paul writes this letter to the Corinthians and says twice, “Do not lose heart…” (v1 and v16)
We need to understand the “therefore”… Paul is going to throw the theological kitchen sink at this church in this passage. As we go from here the call has to be “don’t lose heart.”
As we look at Christ in different ways we look at the beauty of the diamond from lots of different angles. So why should you not lose heart?
Because we have extraordinary truth
Sometimes we forget this. You are equipped with truth. Lay it out plainly. Let the people see Christ. Proclaim His word. Don’t compromise it. Show people Jesus. v5 there are no tricks or smoke and mirrors, this is just the truth of Christ and who he is. Through this message he makes spiritually dead people live.
Because we have an extraordinary surgeon
As we share this truth, we are servants of the divine surgeon. We will get demoralised if we think it relies on us. Instead, Paul says, as you reach out with the gospel, God performs spiritual eye surgery. He removes the spiritual cataracts.
Our job is the love people and tell them about Jesus and show people Christ. As we do that, God will open blind eyes and save them.
Because we have extraordinary grace
Because you are a container of dust
We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are paper cups. We are dusty clay jars. Life isnt’ about us. It is about Him. It is about the one who has saved us. We are the container. He is the treasure. Our call is to simply get out of the way. We are not crystal white porcelain with a gold rim. We are just ordinary jars of clay.
You need to know that you are not extraordinary – you are ordinary. But you have an extraordinary treasure in Jesus Christ, living within you in the power of the Holy Spirit. The people who show us Christ in the most clear way are the people who have died to self.
I think of one friend. He is a man that whenever you talk to him, he brings you to Christ. You might be talking about cricket and he gets you to Christ. Less of ourselves and more of Christ.
Most of you know the story of Jim Elliot. But how many of you know the name of his older brother? Burt Elliot and his wife went to Peru and stayed there for 63 years. They planted 170 churches. Have we ever heard of them? Here’s what he said, “My brother Jim and I took different paths, he was a great meteor streaking through the sky but I was a faint star. No one lined up with their telescopes to watch my life.” In the kingdom of God there is a great need for meteors but also for the faint faithful stars.
Suffering and sickness and death is coming our way. That should not be a surprise for us. Christ calls us to take up our cross. Don’t be surprised. Your body will age. Pain will come. We are the dying living. That is remarkable. We are being renewed day after day.
We will get sick and we will go to the grave and we will be forgotten and that’s okay but Paul is not finished. We do not lose heart …
Because we have an extraordinary future.
You have been united with Christ and because Jesus has risen, we too will rise. We have a future worth getting excited about. We are afflicted but we are not crushed. We are struck down but we are not destroyed.
For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. This is only a momentary struggle compared to the eternity with Christ.
Fear no evil for I will be with you Ps 23
Let not your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me. John 14
Christ is calling us to Himself. In the struggles we are facing, we need to know that the future is bright. One day He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Therefore we do not lose heart.
When we think about this great treasure in us can people see it?
Or do the weeds of our sin cover it? Or in the busyness of our lives do we push the treasure to one side? Maybe we push Christ to back of the stage and we take the spotlight.
Maybe we don’t treasure Christ anymore. What we once valued seems less valuable now.
Can I appeal to us all here tonight to return to Christ? To come to the one who binds up our wounds. He came for you and me. He left His father’s throne, living and dying in our place on the cross of calvary so that we may have life. He offers it to us. He extends the invitation. He says, “Come to me.”
As we see His love for us, our call is to treasure Him. To recognise that He is our greatest treasure and to take this treasure to those around who us who are hungry and thirsty. Why don’t we go and make disciples? And if we are tempted to lose heart, let’s go to 2 Corinthians 4 and be encouraged again.
Satan tries to convince us that God is finished. Look around this tent tonight. Does it look like Christ is finished. The living God is at work. He is saving souls from every tribe and every nation. Jesus Christ is building His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
My invitation to you tonight Psalm 34:3 Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. Let us take the treasure of Christ and take it to those around us. He alone is worthy of our praise.