LIVING FOR MOVING DAY
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on January 3, 2021 under 2021 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; January 3, 2021 from 2 Corinthians 5:1-8
Theme: We can have confidence during present trials for the cause of Christ because of the future resurrection of the body unto glory.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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In 2 Corinthians 5:1-8, the apostle Paul wrote;
For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:1-8).
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When Paul wrote these words, he had been writing to the Corinthian believers about the glories and privileges of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in this world. As an apostle, Paul had rejoiced greatly in that privilege. So also did his co-laborers in the ministry. It was also the privilege of the Corinthian believers; and is also our privilege today.
But it’s a privilege that involves a cost. As Paul explained in his letter, there were great pressures and burdens placed upon him in his work of proclaiming the gospel in an unbelieving world. There were times when he felt pressed-in on every side; perplexed as to which way to turn; persecuted and attacked; and even struck-down almost to the point of death. What’s more—along with all that was involved in his ministry—he also faced the many burdens and trials that you and I deal with every day. He said that he carried the wonderful, life-transforming, soul-saving gospel of Jesus Christ around as if in an earthen vessel—his frail human form—a mere clay jar that could easily be shattered. But this only served all the more to show forth the greatness of the power at work in him—the power of the very same Jesus that he proclaimed.
Paul ministered the gospel without knowing for sure what the immediate future held for him upon this earth. But as this passage shows us, he wasn’t afraid. In fact, he was “always confident”. He knew that if his ‘earthly house’—that is that frail human body of his—was destroyed, he nevertheless had a dwelling place that is eternal. He looked ahead confidently to the promise of the resurrection at the day of Jesus’ return—knowing that if he was alive when Jesus came back, then his frail body would be transformed into glory in an instant; or that if his body was broken down and in the grave when Jesus returned, then it would be raised unto glorious eternal life.
So then, that’s the confidence that Paul wrote about in this passage in 2 Corinthians 5. These words—and the glorious expectation that they describe—have been the encouragement of many of Jesus’ followers throughout the centuries to remain faithful to Him in the midst of times of trial like Paul’s. Those Christians also may have been pressed-in for their faith, perplexed, persecuted and struck-down. Many, indeed, have even laid down their lives for Jesus willingly and gladly. If you have ever taken the time to read the stories of the persecution of our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the history of the church—from the earliest times of the horrific persecutions in the second and third centuries of the Roman empire, all the way up to the brutal persecutions under totalitarianism in the present day, and throughout all the centuries between—you encounter stories of astonishing courage and faithfulness on the part of God’s people. They were willing—even confident—to lay down their lives for the Lord Jesus and for His gospel, because they trusted in the promise of a resurrection unto glory.
It’s that very same expectation that is being declared to us in this morning’s passage.
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Now; this passage speaks of what God’s plan is for His people in the future. And in order to appreciate what it says and understand it as we should, we need to take some time to consider the Bible’s teaching about what God promises to us—as believers—with regard to our destiny in Christ.
The Bible teaches us that there are five distinct stages to the existence of every redeemed woman and man in the plan of God. The first stage is one that took place before we were ever born—in eternity past. The Bible teaches us that we existed in the eternal purpose of God’s love and plan and purpose before He created us and brought us into this world. At the time, we had not yet been brought into actual physical existence. The world itself, in fact, did not yet exist. But we nevertheless truly existed in the loving purpose and redemptive plan of God—just as much so as if we were literally born and alive on this earth. As King David prayed in Psalm 139:16;
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them (Psalm 139:16).
Imagine that, dear brothers and sisters in Christ! We were real entities in the heart of God before we were conceived by our parents. David was not speaking here of any false idea of a ‘past-life’. Rather, he was simply affirming that, in the plan and purpose of God, we existed to Him—and were loved by Him—before we ever were. The Lord Jesus—who is the ‘Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’, as it tells us in Revelation 13:8—was even predestined to die on the cross for us, before the world ever was, in order to redeem us for the later time after we were born. As God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before you were formed in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5a).
The second stage of our existence before God as a redeemed person is the one that occurred between the time you and I were born and that we were saved by faith. It commenced as soon as we were conceived by our parents and were brought physically into this world. According to God’s eternal purpose and love for us—at the right time—we began to be formed in the womb, and came out crying, and joined the crowd as a member of the human family. But we were born sinners. We inherited a sin nature from our first parents Adam and Eve; and we went on to sin according to the nature that they passed on to us. The apostle Paul spoke of this stage of our existence when he wrote;
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (Ephesians 2:1-3).
This second stage may have lasted for only a few years—or it may have lasted for most of our lives up until just recently. But during the second stage of our existence, before we believed on Jesus, we lived in alienation from the God who loved us and made us for Himself. Praise God though that, for us, that stage came to an end when we placed our faith in Jesus!
The third stage of our existence before God as a redeemed person, then, is the one that came about after we heard the gospel and believed on Jesus. That’s when Jesus—the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world—became our personal Savior. By God’s grace, we placed a conscious trust in the cross of Jesus and became ‘born again’. The guilt of all of our sins became washed away by the blood of Jesus, and we were declared righteous in God’s sight. We became new creatures. I love what the apostle Paul had to say about this stage;
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We’re living in this third stage right now, dear brother or sister! Praise God for it!
But we who are, right now, living a redeemed life in the flesh on this earth have not yet come to the final two stages of our existence. The fourth stage is what theologians have often called the ‘intermediate state’. It will begin on the day when our body dies and is placed into the grave. At that time, our already-redeemed, already-glorified spirit will live on and will go immediately into the presence of our precious Savior. Do you remember what Jesus told the dying thief on the cross who believed on Him? He said,
“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43).
Our body will rest in the ground and return to the dust—awaiting the day of resurrection. But our spirit will enter into the conscious and blissful presence of Jesus. And what a day that will be! What joy we will have when we see the face of our Savior, and enjoy His presence in glory! That’s the next stage to come in our story as redeemed people. The death of our body will be simply a matter of moving from stage three on to stage four.
But even that is not the final stage of our existence as redeemed saints. As wonderful as that fourth stage is—as much as we will enjoy blissful fellowship with Jesus our Savior in it—it’s not even our most wondrous stage of all. The fifth and final stage happens some time in the future; when the Lord Jesus returns to this earth, and brings your and my redeemed and glorified spirits with Him, and raises our body in glory.
In that fifth stage, our spirit—which, by the grace of God through faith in Jesus, is already redeemed right now—will then be permanently united to our resurrected and glorified body. We will share in the full glory of Jesus Himself—the glory that He Himself enjoys right now in His own resurrected and glorified body at the right hand of His Father. You and I won’t have a different body at that time—any more than the Lord Jesus was raised in a different body at His resurrection. It will be the present body that we possess right now—but resurrected in a glory like that of Jesus! You and I should never despise these bodies of ours—no matter how imperfect it may seem right now. These frail bodies may give us trouble and struggles; but they are eternal creations—already spiritually bound together to Jesus Himself; and destined, like His own body, to be raised in inexpressible glory. As the apostle Paul put it in 1 Thessalonians 4;
But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).
The Bible teaches us that we, as Jesus’ redeemed people, will live in that fifth and final stage of our story as a glorified spirit in a glorified body—united together in perfection—dwelling forever in the new heaven and the new earth in the presence of our Lord. Who can even begin to imagine it all! What an astonishing future God has for you and me!
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So then, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; those are the five stages of our existence as redeemed people: (1) our existence in God’s eternal love before we were conceived, (2) our sinful state after we were born, (3) our new life in Christ after we believed, (4) our intermediate state after our bodies die and our spirits go into the presence of Jesus, and (5) our resurrection at Jesus’ return—when our glorified bodies and spirits will be brought together, and when we will enjoy perfect fellowship with Jesus in the new heavens and the new earth forever and ever.
It’s very important that you and I understand all of the five stages of our existence before God. We really cannot live for Jesus in the way God wants us to unless we do. And it’s also key to understanding the passage before us in 2 Corinthians 5:1-8. The things that Paul spoke of in it have to do with the last three of those five stages—how it is for us right now in these frail bodies, where our spirits will be when these bodies lay in the grave, and what will happen to our bodies and our spirits when Jesus returns.
Having a full understanding of God’s plan for us in the next stages of our existence helps to give us confidence in the times of trial that we may undergo in the stage we’re in right now. As this passage shows us, we can have confidence in present trials for the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ because of the future resurrection of our bodies unto glory.
Let’s look briefly at this passage. First, we see that it tells us that …
1. WE HAVE A GLORIOUS DWELLING PLACE IN STORE.
Paul wrote, in verse 1, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Do you notice how he spoke of this current body that we’re in? He called it an ‘earthly house’. But he also called it something else that shows how temporal it is. He called it a ‘tent’. A tent isn’t a permanent thing. It’s only meant to stand for a brief while. When the tent pegs are pulled up—which is very easy to do—then the whole thing comes tumbling down. And that’s what these weak frail bodies of ours are—in this current stage we’re in. They are only temporary dwellings. They are only tents. They weren’t meant to last forever in their current condition. They are easily destroyed. You and I feel that frailty every day.
But do you notice that Paul also spoke of another dwelling place? He called that one ‘a building from God’. In the original language, the word that he used for ‘building’ is a different word than he used for ‘earthly house’. The word ‘building’ speaks of a strong, stable, well-founded, permanent structure—the opposite of a tent. That ‘building’ is not of the same form as the one that we inherited from our parents. That ‘building’ yet to come is one is “from God”. It is not “made with hands”. It is made fit to be “eternal in the heavens”.
Paul is not saying that we will receive an entirely different body in that fifth state of our existence—that is, when Jesus returns. Rather, he is saying that the body that we are now in will be so glorified when it is raised again that it will be of a completely different nature than our bodies in their present state. It will be like the body of our Lord. Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 15:42-49;
The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man (1 Corinthians 15:42b-49).
Now; Paul said, “if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed …” He spoke with a measure of uncertainty—not an uncertainty about the promise of future glory, but rather of the whole question of whether or not “this tent” of his would be destroyed. Paul, in his lifetime—looked for and hoped in the return of the Lord. And if that happened in his lifetime, his body would not die. It would be transformed by the Lord into glory. He would simply bypass stage four altogether, and would go from stage three directly into stage five. There will be some in the human family for whom that will happen. It may be that we ourselves are living in that privileged time, and that it will happen to us. But in any case—whether by dying in a natural way, or by being put to death for his faith (as Paul eventually was), or by being transformed at the Lord’s return—either way, Paul was confident. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he had a building from God. He had an eternal dwelling place in store.
That’s our confidence too. And what’s more …
2. WE HAVE A LONGING TO BE THERE.
In verse 2, Paul wrote, “For in this [that is, in this weak and frail state of our bodies in this current 'third stage' of our existence] we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven …” Our bodies, in this current stage of our existence, are prone to injury, or exhaustion, or sickness, or even death. They make us ‘groan’.
But that groaning only intensifies our longing. The fact that we ‘groan’ right now is testimony to us that there is something better yet to come. The fact that our bellies grumble is testimony that there is such a real thing as food; and the fact that our bodies groan is testimony that there is a real glorified condition for which we yearn. As Paul put it in Romans 8;
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance (Romans 8:18-25).
Every groan of our body, dear brothers and sisters, should be a reminder to us of future glory. How we long for it! It’s not that we long to be ‘bodiless’ spirits—homeless ghosts that roam around somewhere in the ether without a dwelling. Our full glorification means that we are eternally glorified like Jesus—both in spirit and in flesh. As Paul went on to say in verses 3-4, we groan with a desire to be eternally ‘clothed’, “if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life” (vv. 3-4).
We never need to fear the death of this body. In our fourth stage of existence, we go immediately into the happy presence of our Lord. And that is only an ‘intermediate stage’—as we await the great ‘moving day’ when we will be raised in glory; so that we can say with Paul;
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:54b-57).
Paul had absolute confidence in this eternal dwelling—this ‘building from God’. So can we. And this is because …
3. WE HAVE A GUARANTEE THAT WE’LL BE THERE.
In verse 5, Paul wrote, “Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” The Holy Spirit—whom He has placed in us to indwell us as soon as we have believed on Jesus and are redeemed by Him—is Himself a living ‘deposit’ on our eternal home. The Holy Spirit’s act of indwelling us is a seal that secures us for our eternal dwelling yet to come.
The apostle Paul put it this way in Ephesians 1:13-14;
In Him [that is, in Jesus] you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).
The Holy Spirit in us is a seal to God that we are His and are destined for eternal glory. And the Spirit is also an assurance to us of that destiny! As Paul wrote in Romans 8:11;
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:11).
And all of this means, dear brothers and sisters, that …
4. WE HAVE CONFIDENCE BECAUSE OF OUR FUTURE.
As Paul wrote in verses 6-8, “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
It’s not that we should ever want to lay our bodies aside before our time. But all of this means that when our time from God finally comes, we don’t have to fear going from the third stage into the fourth stage—to lay this frail body aside for a while and go into the presence of our Lord. And this is because we know that the fourth stage leads to the fifth stage—and to the resurrection of our body unto eternal glory. As Paul once put it to the Philippian believers, while he was in prison for the faith;
For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:19-21).
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Now; everything that I have shared with you this morning is the glorious expectation of those who have placed their faith in Jesus—who have believed on His cross and who have trusted in Him for their salvation. If you have not yet done that—if you have not yet believed on Jesus for redemption and have turned from your sins—then these promises are not for you. You are still in the second stage only. You remain under the judgment of God for your sins, and you do not yet have the hope of eternal life.
But you can have it today—even right now. Place your faith in Jesus and begin to follow Him. And then, by the grace of God, you will have gone from the second stage to stage three—Redemption! And then, when this earthly body of yours dies, you’ll move to stage four; and then, at Jesus’ return, into stage five. I hope you will place your trust in Jesus today.
Then, you can say with us—and with Paul—“If my earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, I’m not afraid. I’m confident! I have a permanent, glorious, heavenly dwelling place from God! And I can’t wait for ‘moving day’!”
EA
