DEATH AND OUR ETERNAL DWELLINGS
2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-8
S-1299
Turn to 2 Corinthians 5.
The last two weeks we saw in 2 Corinthians 4 how God delights to put Himself on display in our lives. In Paragraphs 1 and 3 by the words we speak. In paragraphs 2 and 4 by how we handle the trials and troubles which come into out lives. READ 2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-18.
That passage leads into our text for today.
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-10. (5:1-8 this week; 5:9-10 next week.)
We have seen so many deaths on social media that it doesn’t shock us much anymore–desensitized to it.
We read report that hundreds of thousands are killed on the battlefield. Now civilians and hospitals are targeted.
See that a great earthquake devastates Southern California, and we turn on to YouTube videos.
Notice black crepe paper on neighborhood door and pause a moment, but in an anonymous city with neighbors we don’t know we pass on.
But death is suddenly no longer in the next city or next block or next house; it comes into our own circle of friends or our family and that which seemed ordinary suddenly becomes extraordinary.
I remember doing a funeral on a rainy day in East Texas. The rain had come in buckets. I was standing at the head of the casket when the wooden shoring over the saturated ground gave way and my legs began sliding into the grave. I grabbed the casket and missed; but the funeral director caught my arm and held me out. But not before I looked long and hard into the open ground–and knew one day I myself would be there.
Most people are not able to discuss the possibility of their own death, although they may think about death and dying often.
Have you ever had a cemetery plot salesman stop at your door?
They are trained to handle the objections that people give for not wanting to buy a cemetery plot: “If they say that they need some time to discuss it, just ask them how long it’s been since they had a serious talk in the family about death. Their answer to that question will prove that although death is one of the inescapable realities of our existence most people never discuss it.”
I believe that statement is correct. People think about their death, but they never discuss it.
DEATH IS INEVITABLE.
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1.
“If” really is “when.”
Dramatic increase in Life span. We may delay death, but we are still going to die.
1850 – 39 years. There was no old age. No retirement…No Sun City Pom-pom girls.
1900 – 47 years. Why age 65 for SS? Kaiser Wilhelm setting up social security system. Said”65!” No one will live that long.
1985 – 76 years.
God has given men a definite maximum to their years. Psalm 90:9-12 records that a man is given 70 to 80 years.
But, Death is inevitable.
“HEBREWS 9:27: It’s appointed to all once to die; and after that comes judgment.”
One exception to death is the RAPTURE. When Christ returns, Christians who are alive will be changed to His likeness and given eternal bodies.
Now let me illustrate this: Turn to Luke 12, please.
I hear a common refrain at funerals. I hear it again and again. The oft repeated words go something like this: “You don’t know, do you?” Stand at grave side, “Well, you don’t know, do you?”
READ LUKE 12:13-21.
So often we look at this story as a story on stewardship or covetousness. It seems to me that the more significant message is the one that says, “You don’t know, do you?”
This is the message for the man in the story. You have everything else in order. You know how to farm. You know how to manage. You have your business affairs in order. God’s blessing and your hard work have brought you great riches. You have taken care of many things. But, you fool, tonight your life is required of you. Are you ready? The implication is that he was not.
Reminds me of an article in last month’s Golf Digest about the man who made he first hole in one at the age of 68. He had tried all his life and finally made one. He was naturally excited. Went the very next tee and prepared to tee off, rolled his eyes, and said, “Oh No.” And he was dead.
“You never really know, do you?”
I once buried 4 year old boy with brain aneurism: “Daddy, my head hurts.”
I buried a 19 year old who committed suicide. “Who would suspect it? You don’t know, do you?”
I buried a college age young man who died in head on collision. You don’t know, do you?
I buried a mom in her mid thirties mom who collapsed and dies while she is playing in the park with her children. You don’t know, do you?
I have often buried older people: “We knew she was ill, but we just didn’t expect it now. You don’t know, do you?
If you are a Christian, don’t fear death, THE ETERNAL HOUSE IS BETTER THAN THE EARTHLY TENT.
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-4.
PAUL USES TWO METAPHORS HERE.
1. The TENT and the HOUSE
The TENT is a picture of our earthly bodies. A tent is a weak and temporary structure.
When we die we move into a permanent HOUSE. You ask what it will be like? God says that in it we will never be weary, never have pain, never be thirsty or hungry; you will never sin, and we will see God face to face and yet be unafraid (Rev 7:14-17).
2. NAKED and CLOTHED
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5:2-4.
Let me explain what Paul means by being naked.
While the Greek world tended to look upon the body as a tomb for the soul and death as an escape, the Jews thought of their bodies as clothing for the person. The body was what made contact and communication with others possible. To them the death of the body deprived them of everything which meant being a person; it was being unclothed or naked.
Paul is saying, “When I die, I don’t want to be naked and without a body. I want to be CLOTHED with immortality.I want to be able to communicate with my environment.
HOW DID HE KNOW WE WOULD BE FAR BETTER?
Well, Paul had once been there.
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 12:2-4.
Paul says, “If I was in the body I didn’t know it, and if I was out of it I didn’t miss it.” So our dear friends over yonder do not miss their bodies; they are perfectly intelligent and perfectly happy; they are really people even if out of the body.
This explains why death holds no terrors for the Christian.
Writing to the church at Philippi from a prison and facing the possibility of execution, he spoke of physical death not just as a possibility but as being preferable “For me a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” READ PHILIPPIANS 1:21-23.
One meaning of this Greek word is “to take down one’s tent and move on.”
All of Paul’s discussions of life and death are permeated with the idea that for the Christian, death is not the end but a new beginning.
WE DON’T GET MULTIPLE LIVES. WE ONLY GET ONE.
The New Age Cult has led our country to embrace the idea of REINCARNATION at record pace. The essence of this teaching is that we come back again and again to earth for many lives. This allows us to avoid the reality of dying and facing God in Judgment for our behavior.
Patton: “I have been to this battlefield before. Carthaginians.”
Sylvester Stylone believes that in a previous life he was a monkey in Central America. Jack Gracie: “If that is true, that is as powerful piece of evidence to prove evolution.”
HIGHWAY MAN
Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson,Kris Kristopherson, Johnny Cash
“I was a highway man, along the coach roads I did ride – with sword and pistol by my side. Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade – Many a soldier shed his blood upon my blade. The master called me in the Spring of ’25 – But, I am still alive.
“I was a sailor, I was born upon the tide – with the sea I did abide. I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico. I went aloft and unfurled the mainsail in a blow- and when the yard broke off they said that I got killed. But, I am livin’ still.
“I was a dam builder – across a river deep and wide where steel and water did collide – A place called on the wild Colorado. I slipped and fell onto the concrete below. They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound –but I am still around
“I’ll always be around, around, and around, and around, and around.
“I fly a starship across the universe divide – and when I reach the other side, I’ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can. Perhaps I may become a highway man again. Or I may simply be a single drop of rain. But I will remain.
“I’ll be back again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.”
Only problem. It is not true. It is a very appealing, deceptive lie.
READ 2 TIMOTHY 4:1-3: “The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons . . . They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from eating meat.”
Why? Might be a friend or relative. Interesting parallel between New Age Growth and increase of number of Vegetarians in America.
It is appointed unto men once to die and after that comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)
Multiple lives and deaths do not exist. READ REVELATION 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:4, 8. There are really only two. Avoid the second death at all costs.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? AND WHEN?
CHART: THE INTERMEDIATE STATE OF MAN BETWEEN DEATH AND RESURRECTION
1. This chart shows the state of a person–body, soul, and spirit–between the moment of DEATH and the resurrection of his body.
2. First locate on the chart the word LIFE. Then follow the sequences shown on the chart:
a) At death, the bodies of all believers and unbelievers alike go to the grave.
b) At death, the spirits of believers go to paradise, in the presence of Christ.
c) At death the spirits of unbelievers go to hades, which is the waiting place of torment.
3. At the RAPTURE, the bodies of believers will be resurrected from the graves and joined with their spirits and souls (1 Thess 4:16), and so shall they be with the Lord forever (v. 17). This is the first resurrection.
4. At the GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT the bodies and spirits of all unbelievers will be resurrected from the graves and hades, respectively (second resurrection). Every unbeliever will be judged. Lake of Fire is second death.
WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT ONE DAY WE WILL BE WITH THE LORD.
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5:5-8.
How do we know? No Christian has to consult a fortune-teller, a Ouiji board, a spiritist, or a deck of cards to find out what the future holds or what lies on the other side of death.
1. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR GUARANTEE
We can be sure because the Spirit lives within us. The Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer’s body is the “down payment” that guarantees the future inheritance, including a glorified body.
The Comforter will never leave Paul, for Christ said so: “…Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20)>
2. WE HAVE A RESURRECTED CHRIST WHO PAUL MET ON THE DAMASCUS ROAD.
He had met Jesus Christ face to face, and the assurance that one day the tabernacle would be changed for a home was contained in the promise of the Lord.
People often say, “We do not know anything about heaven. Nobody has ever come back to tell us what it is like.” But they are overlooking something. Our Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven, and He says, “In My Father’s house are many mansions (or abiding places).”
3. “WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT.
Faith in resurrected Christ.
Commitment to Christ is not a feeling or emotion. It is a choice of our will.
Make a decision to come to Christ.
You don’t know do you?
Let me read you the statement of our absolute confidence 2 TIMOTHY 1:12: “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.”
PAUL YONGI CHO is pastor of largest church in the world. I went to Seoul, Korea about ten years ago and watched 18,000 people crowd onto 5 acres to worship again and again every hour and a half come beginning at 6:30 am and continuing all day long.
In 1978 his primary school aged son, Samuel, and several of his friends stopped by a fry vendor on the way home from school. In Korea fried silkworm is a fine and delicious treat. But this afternoon, the farmer who had brought the catch into town had put them into an empty bag which had contained a strong insecticide.
Cho was speaking to a men’s meeting downtown when his wife’s emergency telephone call had come.
Cho found his wife frantic and helpless. Samuel was lying asleep on his father’s bed, and by now he could not be awakened. Before dropping into such a deep sleep he had said to his mother, “Tell Daddy to pray for me.” Then rolling his head on his pillow he added, “But I’m pretty sure I’m going to heaven tonight.”
Cho dialed the neighborhood doctor. “Well, it’s no use, Pastor. Eight boys have died tonight already. There is not anything we can do for Samuel now. If he is in that sleep like you say, then it’s too late; he will go in peace.”
Go in peace? Samuel was his son who had loved him and patted him with his baby hands. “No, Lord, not Samuel! Not yet!”
Then crawling to the middle of the bed Cho began to pray. “Father, I will not let my boy go!”
For two hours, Cho prayed for Samuel’s life and confessed his sins.
When Cho opened his eyes again, Samuel appeared to have no life left in him. No one could rouse him or communicate with him in any way.
He went on praising God past midnight, still sitting cross-legged on the bed.
After a while he got off the bed, stood facing the boy and in a thundering voice commanded, “Samuel!” He clapped his hands together in a loud, jolting manner. “Samuel! in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
The boy sprang to his feet!
Cho bolted backwards in fear.
Samuel crumpled and fell halfway across the bed, vomiting upon the sheets.
His mother bent to bathe his face, but she was almost afraid to touch him too soon.
Samuel spoke and gestured with his hand. “Say hello to Jesus, Papa.”
He said it again. “Say hello to Jesus. He’s right there.” The boy pointed.
Going along with his son’s strange talking, Cho bowed politely toward the space where the boy had indicated and said softly, “Hello, Jesus.”
“Didn’t you see us coming down the hallway? Didn’t you see us, Papa? Jesus carried me in His arms like this.” Both voice and gestures were weak but the parents could make out his words perfectly.
“Jesus was carrying me next to His chest to a beautiful place.” He stretched out the word along with his hand.
“It was bright, brighter than anything I’ve ever seen. All the colors of the world are dull next to those colors He showed me.
“And music! Mama, you’d love it too. It was the most beautiful music my ears have ever heard. I couldn’t recognize the tune, be we kept getting closer and closer to it.”
“Then Jesus said to me, ‘We have to go back.'”
“‘No,’ I said. ‘Yes, we have to go back. Your father won’t let you go.'”
“And He was bringing me in here to the bedroom. Didn’t you see us coming down the hall?”
“You were calling me, and you commanded me to get up. That’s when Jesus let go of me. There He is-oh, He’s not there. He must have gone back, I guess.”
LET’S PRAY.