6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight— 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."
II Corinthians 5:1-10
Good Morning Beloved,
Welcome to worship. we're so glad you're here.
Beloved, if we don’t face death with joy, and with anticipation, rather than the pain
and suffering physically, that’s often associated with it, then we
have come to idolize this passing world. We have allowed ourselves to settle for
fading joys, content with sinful surroundings, accepting and almost cherishing our human depravity, and overestimating our earthly
relationships.
The reality of our faith is most clearly manifest in the face of death. The apostle Paul
had the kind of faith. The kind of faith that was strong in life, and strong in death. Paul
finished well. He died with patience, he died with hope, he died with
joy, he died with eagerness. Paul faced death triumphantly.
In II Corinthians 4:18, Paul says, "while we look not at the
things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the
things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen
are eternal."
I believe it would be fairly safe to say that most of us here do not want to die. Am I right? I don’t believe
that Paul wanted to die either, however Paul clearly indicates his willingness to die. Furthermore, he speaks very positively about
what happens on the other side of death. In doing so, Paul left behind for us, a tremendous witness to the integrity of his faith, and his complete confidence in the truth of God’s Word.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Gracious and loving Lord, we are so thankful, so grateful for Your Word, Your truth for us today. Thank You for those who have prompted to gather with us, both near and far, to receive this astonishing, powerful message of great hope, and of great promise. O' Lord, how gracious and merciful You
are to us, Your children, who are so unworthy, undeserving. Yet, in Your wondrous love, You have prepared us for glory. How amazing a love is this!
Help us, Lord, that we would long to live until Your return, and escape the suffering that precedes death. Keep us here, if it be Your will, for the sake of others, as long as there is work to be accomplished on this earth, for Your kingdom. Create in us, in our hearts, a passion for our work to be finished here, that our labor might bear fruit, and be not in vain, all for Your increase and Your glory.
We pray that You would deliver us from the evils of the flesh. Father, we especially pray for those who are not spiritually ready to die; those who do not know Christ, those who are without the hope of eternal life, whose sins are not yet forgiven, may today be the day, they would fall down before You, repent of their sin, ask Your forgiveness. May they humbly receive Your sacrifice today, and the precious gift of salvation O' Lord.
In Your precious and Holy name
Amen
Today's Message: The Eyes of Faith
In Philippians 1:21, Paul teaches us that, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Such encouraging words from a man who was always living on the brink of death.
Open with me your Bibles to the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians. It is such an incredible honor and great privilege to be able to teach this rich, encouraging portion of Scripture to all of you.
Allow me to read this rich portion of Scripture, II Corinthians 5:1-10, as you follow along with me.
"For we know that if
the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building
from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For
indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we
do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal
will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
Therefore, being always of good courage, and 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 of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one
may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has
done, whether good or bad."
The body is am extremely impressive piece of workmanship. The very outworkings are quite astonishing, observing the wisdom and majesty of God, in the beauty that is in the face, in the faculty of speech, how God has strategically placed the eyes and ears upon the head. However, with time it is soon tarnished and with age, this incredible beauty swiftly fades. By trade, Paul was a tent-maker, and he takes a lesson of his frailty from what was among his hands, instructing each of us to do the same.
In the words of Psalmist David, who so beautifully expressed, in Pslam 139:14, "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well."
There is a lot to this passage, far more than Paul talking about
what happens after we die, though that is very clearly there. So without
trying to unravel the arguments he is presenting, in order to convince the
Corinthian church that his apostleship is valid, that his motives are pure
and in line with Christ, I'll be focusing on what he
says in regard to what happens after we die.
As a footnote, I'd like to make mention, that Paul had not had to deal with all of these issues in the places where he
taught them the gospel and established churches, we would not be blessed with this marvelous epistle and foundational information! As I'm sure many of you know, most of the letters of Paul which wrote, were written to
deal with problems within the church! Though, I’m not certain, if Paul knew it at the
time, but God was using the struggles of the early church to supply us
with a wealth of Scriptural instruction in the New Testament.
And
here, while attempting to defend his apostleship to the church that
he had started, we are so richly blessed, to learn some wonderful insights about what happens after we
die. The Bible actually has quite a lot to say about this. The Old Testament, reveals it in shadows and prophetic language.
Allow me to read to you Psalm 16, there's no need to turn there, I'll just quickly read it to you. Psalm 16:9-11.
"Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."
At the end of Psalm 23, "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
And in Isaiah 25:8, "He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken."
However, when Jesus speaks in the New Testament, in Luke 20:34-37, there is a clear and distinct word from His mouth regarding it.
"Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
In John 5:24-29, he says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment."
And, the apostle Paul says in I Thessalonians 4:13-18, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep 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 not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. "
I Corinthians 15 is an entire chapter concerning death and resurrection hope. Beloved, this is central to our Christian faith.
Allow me to quickly read to you the rest of II Corinthians 5, verses 11 through 21, though it is quite tempting, we'll not be delving into this portion of this theologically packed Scripture, I want to encourage you, however, to note the connection between when Jesus and ourselves, when it comes to what occurs after we die.
"Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation."
What Paul says here is all about what it means that we are saved by God’s
amazing gift of Jesus, what Jesus has done for us in his death, how we
who experience the power of the gospel come into a living relationship
with God through Jesus, and on it goes. None of these things are seen
with the eyes of flesh. Not even one! All we see in the flesh is a crucified
carpenter’s son!
Without God revealing who Jesus is and what He is doing
for us in his death and what happens to Him there and what happens to
us there… were if not for this revelation, we would remain blind! God has to sit us down and tell
it to us! He has put in place teachers, like the apostle Paul, who He directly
reveals this message to and we hear it from them.
Yet, beloved, we are given a choice, and we either believe it
and are saved so that after we die, we enter glory forever in eternal
life, or we do not believe it and are lost so the when we die we enter
eternal condemnation for our sins that we have committed here on earth. It’s that simple.
Open the eyes of faith and behold the Lamb of
God! Recognize the work of God in Jesus death for you. God, the Father, made Him who
knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Behold what you can’t see with the eyes of flesh.
Look at what has yet to be see and walk by faith, into eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ, trusting Him fully and completely! Turn from temporal pleasures and sins of this fading world, that destroy you in repentance and look upon the love of God in Christ and fix your eyes of hope upon Jesus!
Will you join me in faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and your only hope for Salvation? Will you embrace His death for you, in baptism and be raised, just as Jesus was raised, to walk in newness of life?
Look at what you can’t see! Walk by faith and not by sight! Set your hopes high above this world, and keep your faith fixed upon the invisible God.
What knowledge do you possess concerning life and life after death? What is it that you are certain of?
Beloved, I possess the knowledge and the promise that we have a building from God. The "house not made with hands", which is our resurrected body, a glorious body custom-made, suited for eternity. I possess the title to it and await it by faith.
If Jesus Christ is your Savior and Lord, a perfect body awaits you also...
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen