Our Heavenly Home

Our Heavenly Home

2 Corinthians 5: 1 – 10

Introduction

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head?  You keep singing it over and over in your mind, or maybe even singing it out loud?  Even if it is a good song, it can drive you crazy if you can’t get it out of your mind.

That happened to me this weekend.  All weekend long, I have been singing one of the songs our staff “quartet” sang at the Valentine’s Day Banquet Friday night…This World Is not My Home.

Of course, when I got the word that David Campbell had died this morning, and knowing that was the last song David sang in pubic, I now think that was probably the Providence of God.  God was using that song in my head to prepare me for this day and to remind me of our Heavenly home.

Here are the words we sang with David on Friday night:

This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through,

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue;

The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door,

And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

Just over in Gloryland we’ll live eternally,

The saints on every hand are shouting victory;

Their songs of sweetest praise drift back from Heaven’s shore,

And I can’t feel at home in the world anymore.

(Chorus) O Lord, you know, I have no friend like you,

If Heaven’s not my home, then Lord what will I do?

The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door,

And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

2 Corinthians 5: 1 – 10...  1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

This Scripture falls in the context of Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth.  In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul wrote about how important it is for Christians to stand up under trial and persecution.  Many believers were being ridiculed for their faith in Jesus, and others were losing out on new jobs or even promotions in their old jobs because of their faith.  There were financial and social risks involved in being a follower of Jesus.  There were even some areas where Christians were physically beaten or killed because of their faith.  And Paul writes to us telling us that we can find comfort in knowing that suffering is part of following a Crucified Lord.  Do you hear the comfort in that statement?  It is comforting because it emphasizes how we are not really “at home” as long as we live physical, earthly lives.  Our home is in heaven, in the presence of God himself.

               

Tent (v. 1).

The first thing that occurs to me in verse one, is the way Paul obviously uses the image of a “tent” to communicate something temporary.  The earthly tent is something that can be “destroyed.”  It will not and cannot last forever.

Paul used the image of a “tent” to refer to the human body.  Your body will not and cannot last forever.  There are physical limitations to our life on earth.  Some people live to be over 100 years old, while other people live just short lives.  But no one can live on earth forever.

The second thing that occurs to me is how this relates to Paul on a personal level.  In several places in the New Testament, Paul boasted about how he never preached the Gospel for money.  He earned his living working a secular career, so that no one would accuse him of benefiting financially from the spread of the Gospel.  And Acts 18: 3 tells us that Paul’s career was as a tentmaker.  He made his living making tents for people to use and live in.  He is being realistic about his own career path.  He works diligently, day in and day out, to build something that will not and cannot stand the test of time.  Maybe there is another sermon in this…No matter how hard you work, your career will not and cannot last forever.

It also occurs to me that Paul had a thoroughly Jewish upbringing.  He knew the Scriptures that we know as the Old Testament.  He had learned from his earliest memories of childhood how God had rescued the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt.  God led them across the Red Sea into the desert where they lived for forty years…in tents.  Do you know what another word for tent is in the Bible?  “Tabernacle.”

In ancient Judaism, there was an annual event known as the Feast of the Tabernacles.  Jewish people from all over Palestine and the known world would return to Jerusalem to worship God and remember what God had done to deliver them to the Promised Land.  The whole landscape of Jerusalem would be populated by travelers living in tents to remember how their ancestors had once lived.

Paul knew this well.  Paul perhaps had even participated in the Feast of Tabernacles and had lived in a tent with his family as a child.  Paul had probably made tents and sold them to families who were traveling to Jerusalem for the Feast.

Paul knew that living in a tent was one option for a family traveling.  Paul knew that the Hebrew people had lived in tents for forty years in the desert.  But Paul also knew that tents are only temporary.

In fact, during the forty years in the desert, God instructed Moses to build a special “tent” that would be the place for the people to worship God.  Worship had to be in a tent as long as the people were on the move.  A Temple was not possible.  Temples cannot be taken down and packed away to carry to the next stop along the road. 

I believe Paul is teaching us that as long as we are on this earth, our dwelling places will always be temporary…Tents.  This fits very well with the teachings of Jesus to his disciples.  When Jesus called the first twelve disciples, he issued a very simple call: “Come.  Follow me.”  The Christian life is a life of being on the move…Following Jesus…Going where Jesus goes…Doing what Jesus does.  And since we are on the move, we need to live in temporary shelters.

House (v. 1).

Verse one contains instructions that we have temporary residence on this earth, but it also contains a promise.  If the earthly tent is destroyed, then we have an eternal house in heaven.  This house is secure, because it was not built by human hands.

In John 1: 14, we read a wonderful verse describing the Incarnation of Jesus.  John began by telling us that the Word was present with God from the foundations of the earth.  The Word was present and active in the act of Creation.  Then verse 14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

The NIV interprets this verse by using the phrase “made his dwelling.”  However, in Greek this is just one word.  Literally, it says Jesus “tabernacled” among us.  Now remember that a tabernacle is a tent.  So, another way to interpret this is to say, “The Word became flesh and ‘pitched his tent’ among us.”

Incarnation means that Jesus became one of us.  Jesus became flesh.  Jesus lived in a tent, just like you and me.  Jesus had a temporary body of flesh and blood.  This temporary body went to the cross where Jesus literally and physically died.  But that was not the end of the story.

John 14: 2: “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

This is what Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 5.  There is a place in heaven that is secure.  This place in heaven is not temporary; it is eternal.  It is not a tent; it is a house.  It was not built by a human tentmaker; it was prepared by God himself.

Body (v. 2 – 4).

Paul tells us that it is natural for us to want to leave this earthly, temporary body and groan for our eternal, secure home in heaven.  But, here is the difference between what we believe as Christians and what other people believe.  Wherever we reside, we will have a body.  As Christians, we do not believe in a disembodied state of being.  When we die, we will not become ghosts or spirits.  We don’t even become a part of God or a part of the heavens.  We will have a bodily existence.

The body is a very important part of our theology.  First, Jesus was Incarnated in the “flesh.”  Jesus had a body.  He had emotions and felt pain.  Then, after the crucifixion, Jesus rose again in the body.  He walked around, his disciples saw him and touched him.  Jesus even ate breakfast while the disciples were watching.  He had a body.  Then, forty days after the resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven…In the body.  And Jesus promises us that when he returns to earth, he will return in the body.  In the same way, he promises us that when we live with him in heaven, we will be given new bodies.

Have you ever wondered why Christian theology places so much emphasis on the human body?  It is because of relationship.  A body makes it possible for us to have a relationship with others.  Because I have a body, there is a clearly defined place where my person stops and your person begins.  There is a boundary that separates.  You and I are not the same.  But at the same time, our bodies define who we are.  Body is the way we know each other and the way we are known by others.  Knowing is the basis of relationship.  This is why I believe the Bible teaches that we will know and be known by others when we are in heaven.  Body makes relationship possible.

Conclusion: Holy Spirit (v. 5).

And now Paul tells us this is what we were created for.  We could certainly make a case for relationship with others as our purpose.  But here, I believe Paul is telling us that we were created for heaven.  One day, we will fully realize our God-given purpose, by shedding this earthly tent and moving into a secure, eternal house in relationship with God and relationship with others.

But how can we know if we are going to heaven?  The Holy Spirit is the “deposit guaranteeing what is to come.”

This is a wonderful biblical image of what God has planned for us.  The Holy Spirit is a deposit.  There are two interesting ways this Greek word “deposit” was used in secular Greek.  First, it was used in legal contracts, for example the sale of land.  If a man signed a contract to purchase land from another, he would often place a deposit or “earnest money” on the land to guarantee that he would fulfill his end of the bargain.  Second, it was also used to describe an “engagement ring.”  When a man intended to marry a woman, he would give her an engagement ring to guarantee that he would fulfill his commitment to marry her.

So, how can we know if we are going to heaven?  Paul says that God gave us an engagement ring when he gave us the Holy Spirit.  This is your assurance that God has built a permanent house for you.  This is your guarantee of heaven…God inside you.