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By Pastor Glenn Pease
Carl Sagen is one of the leading minds in our world in the realm of astronomy.
He has played a major role in the space expeditions to the planets.
He is responsible for a record which was on board the Voyager's one and two.
It is now wondering between the stars, and it will tell any aliens who intercept the space craft about earth.
I was impressed in reading his book Broca's Brain to find him in a very subtle way giving thanks to God for the kind of universe He has given us.
He writes, "For myself, I like a universe that includes much that is unknown, and at the same time much that is knowable.
A universe in which everything is known would be static and dull--a universe that is unknowable is no fit place for a thinking being.
The ideal universe for us is very much like the universe we inhabit.
And I would guess that this is not really much of a coincidence."
He is saying, God gives us plenty, but keeps plenty hidden also, so we have the joy of endless discovery.
This is true also for the unseen realm called the intermediate state.
What happens to us between the death of our body and the resurrection of our body?
This period is called the intermediate state.
God has revealed some fascinating facts about it, but has also concealed so much that it is a mystery that makes men curious, and sends them searching the Bible for every hint that opens up some light on the subject.
Here in II Cor. 5 Paul tells us some very interesting things about the intermediate state.
It seems strange that Paul wrote more about heaven to the earthy and sensual materialists of Corinth than to anyone else.
Paul knew that the only way to get people to overcome their earthiness was to get them to set their affections on things above.
Heavenly minded people do more to change the earth for the better than those who affections are only earth centered.
John Wesley proved this in eighteenth century England.
You think we live in a decaying society now, but the books and plays of that day were so immoral, and language so foul, they would be considered offensive even in our day of declining morality.
Prostitution was sky high, and the way they had of disposing of the fruit of their sin was even worse than the abortion scandal of our time.
They just gave birth to their babies and then let them die.
74.5% of the babies in 18th century England died before the age of five.
The rich brought their way out of every sin and crime, and the poor were hung at a rate of 10 to 15 a day for 160 different offenses.
The church did nothing for it too was corrupt.
Then came Wesley, a man with heaven on his mind.
He preached it and taught it, and people began to change their ways.
Justice and morality were restored.
Babies started to live again, and the death rate fell from 74.5 to 31.8%.
People's health began to improve, more flowers were planted, and the whole earthly scene was changed, because people were challenged to become heavenly minded.
The prayer, Thy will be done as it is in heaven, can only be answered when people know more about heaven.
It is not possible to be so heavenly minded you are no earthly good, for if you really are heavenly minded you will do earth a lot of good.
It is important that we know all we can about heaven, for it becomes a key factor in what we do on earth.
This was certainly the case with Paul.
Note, first of all--
I. PAUL'S ASSURANCE.
Paul begins this chapter, "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."
Paul was fully assured that the death of his body was a loss of a tent and a gain of a building.
It is not much of a threat to tell the homeless, I will destroy your tent, if by so doing you made them eligible to live in a mansion.
No wonder Paul was not afraid to die, for he said it was far better to die and be with the Lord.
Paul knew he had a better body awaiting him.
This body of time is but our temporary dwelling, and Paul calls it a tent.
It is as if this life was but a nomad journey, but our body, after we die, is a permanent residence, where we settle down for good.
Paul was a great pioneer.
He lived in tents often as he traveled the world, but no man wants to do this forever.
Even Paul longed for the day he could settle down and have a permanent address he could call home.
He knew this was what God had waiting for him when his tent was no longer fit to house his spirit.
Paul was not putting his body down by calling it a tent.
He was just emphasizing that by comparison his earthy body was no big deal in light of the body God had made for him in heaven.
The comparison is between a tent and a building.
Take your pick, Paul would say in our day-a night in the campground or a night at the Ramada Inn.
This life is roughing it.
The life to come is luxury at its best.
Having this kind of assurance makes it easier to face death, and to except the death of loved ones.
It is better than trading in your tent for a pop up camper, or even a luxury hard top, or motor home.
It is trading in your tent for your own permanent Holiday Inn.
Paul was not frightened by that kind of trade, but looked forward to it with anticipation.
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day's march nearer home.
It is surprising how many of God's people have lived in literal tents.
All of the great people of God for centuries lived in tents.
There are many references to this in the Old Testament.
In Heb.
11:9-10 we read of Abraham, "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country.
He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God."
This life has been, for most of God's people, a tent life.
It has been temporary, and not settled and secure.
They have always looked for their security to the place God has built for their permanent residence.
It has been called the city, the mansion, the house, the building, the room, or the body.
God has built them all for His people, and designed them to fit the personally and uniqueness of each of His children.
In the light of this assurance, the presence body is seen as tent-life.
John Oxenham wrote-
Fold up the tent!
The sun is in the West
This house was only lent
For my apprenticement
And God knows best.
Fold up the tent!
It's slack ropes all undone.
It's pole all broken, and it's canvas rent,
It's work is done.
Paul made tents, and slept in them for many a night.
He knew it was not the top of the line dwelling.
He did not fear that men would destroy his body, for that would only propel him into the building God had waiting to house him, and he knew it would be far better.
This robs death of its sting, when you have this kind of assurance.
If I see my house burning down, I will not be devastated if I have been assured I can immediately move into a mansion prepared for just such an emergency.
Loss of something is not so tragic if the loss is more than compensated for by what is superior to the loss.
If I lossed a hundred dollars, but am given a thousand dollars to compensate, I will not morn the hundred dollar loss.
That is how Paul saw death, and, the thus, he was facing it with assurance rather than anxiety.
Paul would have loved the story of the three pigs, for it illustrates his faith.
The wolf, like Satan, can huff and puff and blow our weak house down, but that is not our last resort.
The brick house awaits us, which is beyond his strength.
It was this assurance that enabled Paul to close chapter four of this epistle with these words of encouragement, "Therefore we do not lose heart.
Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light momentary troubles are achieving for us and eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
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