Introduction of Guest Preacher

On Sunday evening, we welcomed guest preacher Boston Chabzola to our church in Mt Pleasant, who preached a sermon from 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 titled “Courage As You Live, Hope as Death Draws Near.”

Boston Chabzola is a pastoral resident at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI. And Chabzola is affiliated with the Malawi Reformation Network, and its vision to establish healthy, Bible-believing Reformed Churches in Malawi in the years ahead. The ultimate goal is that a new denomination would be started in Malawi that would be faithful to the Scriptures, true to the Reformed Faith, and obedient to the Great Commission.

Courage As You Live, Hope as Death Draws Near

Chabzola’s sermon worked through a section of 2 Corinthians, in which Paul is comforting the Corinthian church according to the comfort he himself had received from Christ in his sufferings as an apostle. In particular, Paul attested to the hope of resurrection life after death.

Chabzola pointed out from the text that every human being knows of their own mortality. They groan. They suffer. The reality of eventual death is virtually inevitable. “Your present state does not give you any choice but to hope or long for something better.” So suffering has the ultimate affect of forcing us to become more attentive to heaven and matters of eternal significance. And for those who have faith in Christ, and who have received the gift of the Spirit, there is confidence that the future will not be hopeless.

Instead, the Christian can look forward to death, not with fear, but with confidence and hope. Death will not be the end of progress and joy, but is the means God will use to bring us into something greater. As Chabzola said, “For the believer, death is like sleeping in the hands of Jesus and waking up in the presence of the Father.” We can have courage as as death draws near, and we can live with true hope.