WHAT MOTIVATES US?

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: II CORINTHIANS 5:10-15



INTRODUCTION:


  1. I recall years ago when we were living down in Norfolk, Virginia, my wife and I visited a man (I think he lived in Portsmouth). I purchased many excellent books from this fellow, and while getting acquainted with him, I asked him how he had acquired such a good library and why he was getting rid of it.
  2. He told me a sad story. He grew up in the First Baptist Church of Hempstead and went off to Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, Pa. He thought God was calling him to preach but eventually realized it was his mother that had called him, and not God.
  3. So he dropped out of Bible college, married a RC girl, and has been backsliding ever since. Now he seldom attends church and he watches Robert Schuller on TV.
  4. I said all that to say this: many people serve God for the wrong motives – perhaps to please their parents, or husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend, etc.
  5. I have seen many men marry Christian girls and right after the wedding they stop coming to church.
  6. Let me ask you this question today, what is your motive for serving God?
  7. You will recall that Paul has been talking about the ministry (cf. 3:6; 4:1). This theme continues throughout chapters 5 and 6 (cf. 5:20a).
  8. As I have been emphasizing, every Christian has some ministry. We need to get busy fulfilling the ministry God has given us. I was joking with some members recently that we should make a new law around here: all members must drive vans. (Actually there is a church parking lot near my home that is always filled with vans.)
  9. But while we would never make such a rule, isn’t driving people back and forth to church a great ministry?
  10. I would like to speak today on motivation, i.e. what motivates us to serve God.
  1. THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST MOTIVATES US
    1. Our motives will be judged at the judgment seat (literally the bema seat) of Christ (5:10). This was the place where the ruler would sit on his throne and judge the citizens (cf. Matt.27:19; Acts 18:12; 25:10).
    2. It was also the place where the awards were given out to the winners at the annual Olympic games.
    3. The judgment seat of Christ should not be confused with the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev.20:11-15).
    4. Paul says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ…" (5:10). One motive for living right and serving the Lord with gladness is that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (cf. Rom.14:10-12).
    5. The judgment seat of Christ will reveal our lives of service for Christ exactly as they have been. God will cut through all of the pretense and sham and get right to our character and our motives.
    6. Oftentimes Christians get confused over this teaching and mistakenly believe that their sins will be dragged up at the judgment seat – "whether it be good or bad" (II Cor.5:10).
    7. This is the only time this word is translated "bad" in the NT. Usually it is translated "evil" (cf. Luke 16:25). Oftentimes it means "moral evil," but not all the time. In both Luke 16:25 and II Cor.5:10, the word means "worthless" or "useless."
    8. Although sins that we have committed after we are saved do affect our service for God, the Bible does not teach that our sins will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ.
    9. That judgment took place nearly 2,000 years ago, when the Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins in His body on the cross. He fully paid the debt that our sins deserved, and God will never bring those sins into judgment again (John 5:24; Rom.8:1).
    10. The judgment seat of Christ has to do with our service for the Lord. Salvation is based upon our faith but rewards our based upon our service (cf. I Cor.3:12-15; I John 2:28; II John 8).

II. THE TERROR OF THE LORD MOTIVATES US (5:11)

    1. In Corinth, as in all other places, Paul had to contend with false teachers. And they are around today too as I pointed out Sunday night in my warning about the charismatics.
    2. It is obvious that the charismatics know nothing about the fear of God. How could they continue with their unscriptural practices, false teachings, worldliness, immorality, ecumenicalism, etc. if they truly understood the fear of God or the holiness of God?
    3. Just like today, there were those in Corinth who were "handling the word of God deceitfully" (II Cor.4:2). They challenged Paul’s integrity (II Cor.4:5).
    4. Therefore, Paul "persuaded men" (5:11) about the truth of the Gospel and the sincerity of the preacher. This truth was "made manifest in (their) consciences" (5:11b).
    5. Paul’s adversaries were interested in outward show, but not in true spirituality – "which glory in appearance and not in heart" (5:12b).
    6. Apparently Paul’s critics accused him of being "beside himself" (5:13). You will recall what Festus said to Paul, "Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad" (Acts 26:24).
    7. But Paul responded by saying, "I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness" (Acts 26:25).
    8. And to his critics in Corinth, Paul stated by saying whether he was beside himself, it is to God: or whether he was sober, it was for their cause. In other words, his motives were unselfish.
    9. If Paul was "beside himself" he was in good company because they said the same thing about our Lord (Mark 3:21).
    10. People in Chicago called D.L. Moody "Crazy Moody" because he quit his good-paying job to run a Sunday School.
  1. THE LOVE OF CHRIST MOTIVATES US (5:14,15).
    1. Paul is speaking here of the great love Christ had for us by dying on the cross for our sins (5:14,15; cf. Rom.5:6-8).
    2. Some people think Paul is saying our love for Christ constrains us or compels us but it is actually His love for us that keeps us going.
    3. "We love Him, because He first loved us" (I John 4:19).
    4. Christ died for a specific purpose – that those He died for "should not henceforth live unto themselves…" (5:15).
    5. Whenever you meet people who are only living for themselves, mark it down – they do not appreciate what Christ did for them on the cross.
    6. Let’s not live for ourselves. Let’s live our lives for God, remembering that we will all have to give an account some day.

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