2 Cor 5:1-5 Eternal/Temporal

Eternal/Temporal

2 Corinthians 5:1-5

Temporary and eternal. Covid is temporary…the way of life before Covid is temporary too. The eternal is yet to be.

Do we give up? or Do we live?

Main Idea: Through the indwelling Spirit, we long for the eternal while living in the temporal.

Refresh 2 Cor. 4:16-18

Continuity and discontinuity.

Followers of Christ long for the eternal while living in the temporal.

1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God,

we know present active indicative- understand and experience.

Who does we represent? followers of Christ…those who are trusting in Christ alone for salvation.

Paul confesses his own hope in a way that it includes all Christians. The individual and corporate are simultaneous in this hope fixed on God’s work in Christ. (Seifrid 225)

Look at similar language of Jesus and the clarity He brings.

John 14:1–6 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God,

tent vulnerable and temporary…Illus: Mexico, wind, heat, sand, pigs

Job 4:19 ESV

19 how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.

the tent that is our earthy home is destroyed…torn down, demolished…death.

we have a building from God, God is the origin.

a house not made with hands, not touched with hands

eternal in the heavens. forever location. Illus: not Build me a cabin in the corner of glory land.

We must be careful not to impose our human experience on the indescribable eternal that the Lord Jesus is preparing for us.

...the phrase “in the heavens” does not refer to Christians simply “going to heaven” after death. Rather, he speaks of a body fit for the future, the new heavens and new earth. Cf. 1 Cor 15:50. (Guthrie 278-279)

1 Corinthians 15:47–50 ESV

47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

How are our minds shifted from focusing on the temporal to the eternal?

Through the indwelling Spirit, we long for the eternal while living in the temporal.

read the v. 2-5, then begin with v. 5.

2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

prepared—accomplished, produced

God’s work not the result of or in response to our works.

who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. down payment, pledge, promise

Because of the work of the Spirit...

2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

The reason Paul groaned longingly for his resurrection body is God himself and God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. (Hughes 106)

groan -sigh, murmur, pray in audibly…Illus: grandfather praying.

groan tied to longing…straining toward what is ahead. craning the neck.

Romans 8:18–25 ESV

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

What are we waiting/longing for?

longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

combines metaphors building and clothing…put on—put on an outer garment. putting on like clothes our heavenly dwelling, house not made with hands, a building from God. Not moving out of one to another.

Salvation, according to the apostle, lies in being clothed with Christ. (Seifrid 227)

Paul teaches that Christ will take our physical bodies that are subject to disability, deterioration, and death and make them like his glorious body (Phil. 3:21). Hence, Paul’s aversion to an undressed soul should be interpreted within the framework of his desire for an immediate transformation of his physical body. Nevertheless, when death does occur, he will always be with the Lord. Thus he writes elsewhere, “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Rom. 14:8). In short, Paul does not teach that the soul sleeps until the day of resurrection; upon death, the believer is forever with the Lord. (Kistemaker 172)

4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened (weighed down)

—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. explain the connection of further clothed and swallowed up.

Death is not avoided or erased…death is conquered.

1 Corinthians 15:51–57 ESV

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Transition…(Jesus is the way the truth and the life…victory is only through Christ.

So What?

Am I longing for the eternal while living in the temporal?

This is not an expression of dissatisfaction with our present existence, a yearning for death to bring to an end this present life (we do not wish to be unclothed, verse 4). Rather it is the profound longing to be ‘overcoated’ with all the blessings God has for us in the new age. (Barnett 99)

Romans 8:11 ESV

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Knowing through the indwelling Spirit that we have victory in Christ, the hope of resurrection, and knowing that He give life to our mortal bodies now. The same power who raised Jesus from the dead lives in us.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Ongoing work now toward completion at the day of Jesus Christ when death is swallowed in victory. What the Lord starts, He finishes.

We experience the power and presence of God now, through the Spirit, and thus anticipate the consummation of God’s power and presence at the end of the age, through the resurrection. (Guthrie 284)

We live in the temporary, confident of and longing for the eternal through the Holy Spirit.

2 things I am certain of...

Covid 19 will come to an end.

Christ has conquered death and will bring everything to completion at his coming. .

Prayer

Offering--

Sending

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