“There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home…there’s no place like home.” That is all that Dorothy had to say in order to return to her home in Kansas. (Well she also had to close her eyes and click her glass slippers together as well.) If you are familiar with the movie The Wizard of Oz you know that within moments of repeating the phrase, “There’s no place like home,” Dorothy was back in her own bed with her family and friends standing around her. As she awakened from her dream those words were still on her lips. And even though no one believed Dorothy’s story about the Land of Oz the movie ends with her saying, “There’s no place like home!”
“There’s no place like home.” Perhaps because of the movie that phrase has become a part of our American culture. We all know the feelings connected to it. After a hard day at work or a difficult day at school we may think to ourselves how good it is to be home. Even if we are returning from an enjoyable vacation we still like getting back to our own space and our own bed. Even if things aren’t always perfect at home we still often say, “There’s no place like home.”
As children of God through Christ we can take the feelings that Dorothy expressed in The Wizard of Oz about going home, and the feelings that we have experienced in connection with our earthly homes, and multiply them many times over in connection with our heavenly home. Since we will be in God’s presence and we will also be free from sin forever we have many reasons to say, “There’s no place like home,” in connection with our eternal house in heaven.
To confirm that belief in our hearts we direct our attention to 2 Corinthians 5:1-9. (Read text.) The Holy Spirit breathed these words into the Apostle Paul to remind the Corinthian Christians that they had an eternal house with the LORD. May God the Holy Spirit now comfort us with that same conviction and confirm in us that same faith. The Word of God before us directs our thoughts to the fact that:
“WE HAVE AN ETERNAL HOUSE IN HEAVEN”
I. We long to be living there
II. We can be confident of getting there
III. We live for the owner until we arrive there
The resurrection of the dead and the eternal house that belongs to believers seems to have been a source of confusion for the Christians at Corinth. In his first letter to them the Apostle Paul clearly explained the bodily resurrection and the victory believers have over death through Jesus. But apparently there was still some lingering confusion among the Corinthians about the resurrection and about the eternal destination of believers. So Paul addressed these awesome truths again. He explained that a believer has an eternal house in heaven. And he acknowledged the facts that at this time we long to be living there, we can be confident of getting there, and we live for God until we arrive there.
I.
“There’s no place like home.” For Dorothy those words marked the end of her long journey to get home. Remember that was the whole reason she took her trip down the yellow brick road to see the wizard. And really for Dorothy the whole movie centered on her deep desire to get back home.
In the verses that I just read the Apostle Paul described the longing believers have to get home to their eternal house in heaven. Looking back to the thoughts that led to his statements will help us understand them better. The closing verses of 2 Corinthians 4 shed some light on the deep desire believers have to join their Lord in heaven. The Apostle Paul declared, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17 18) Those verses mark a transition from the suffering believers face in this life to the glory that will be theirs in eternal life.
With that thought in the background the Apostle Paul begins his explanation of the believer’s unseen eternal home. “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.” One of the first questions that confronts us in these verses is the explanation of the word “tent.” Was the Apostle Paul using the word “tent” as a way to describe the literal buildings in which people live? Or was he referring to life in general as we know it? Or was Paul picturing our bodies as “tents?” I suppose we could make the case for more than one of those definitions. Both the houses that we call home and the body our soul calls home are like tents. They are temporary dwellings for us. And we know from God’s Word that all life as it now exists will like a tent be taken down and rolled up forever.
In light of those facts we rejoice that God has given us an eternal house for our body and soul. Jesus explained in 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.” 2 Peter 3:13 tells us, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” The Apostle Paul also assured us in his letter to the Philippians that one day Jesus will change our bodies so that they become a permanent home for our soul. He wrote, “by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:21)
But since we aren’t in our eternal house yet we can only long for it and look forward to getting there. The Apostle Paul went on to write, “Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling…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.” Yes, we want to go to our eternal house. But we know that during our time of living in temporary dwellings for body and soul God is leading us to our eternal house in heaven. So for now we can only long to be living there.
A few years ago I came across a letter that a Christian wrote to his physical body about his longing to be in the eternal glory of heaven. It expresses some of the things that all of us face during our time of grace as we wait patiently for the Lord to take us to our eternal house. “You and I have been together for a long time in a most intimate and valuable relationship. Now you have grown old. Your hearing and strength are failing. Your resistance to cold is diminishing. You cannot climb and run as you once did. In a word, you are running down. In a short time you will cease to breathe and your heart will stop beating. When you can go no further, you will be returned to the substance of which you were made, and I shall continue on in that life where you are not needed. A Power greater than you and I started us on this journey together. Now I recognize that you are aware of the fact that your journey is nearing its end, while my journey has scarcely begun. I know this to be true, for while you are feeble, I have never been more alive. Our separation, therefore, cannot be one of sadness, but will be one of joy. You are weary and want to stop. I am longing to alight from this slowing vehicle and go on without you. Death will mean that your desire to stop is granted, and my longing is satisfied.” How true and perceptive that letter is when addressed to our mortal body! These “tents” in which our soul lives wear out as we journey home to our eternal house in heaven. And so we frequently groan as we long to be home with Jesus.
II.
For a moment I want you to think back to the closing scenes of The Wizard of Oz. The hot air balloon that Dorothy thought could take her home has just taken off without her. She says to the Tin Man, The Scarecrow, and The Lion, “Oh, now I’ll never get home!” But then Glinda the good witch appears and tells Dorothy that she has always had the power to return to Kansas. Glinda points to Dorothy’s slippers. The Scarecrow expresses his amazement by saying, “But that’s so easy!” And after her famous “Toto too?” line Dorothy says, “Oh, dear – that’s too wonderful to be true!” She can’t believe it is really that easy for her to get back home.
Judging from his first and his second letter to the Corinthians it seems as though what Paul’s readers needed the most concerning the resurrection was confidence. They needed assurance that what God promised was really going to happen. They had concerns and confusion about getting to their heavenly house. Paul assured them that it was all God’s grace and power that prepared their eternal home, led them to that home, and guaranteed their arrival. You and I need that same confidence as we continue our journey. We find the same confidence in the LORD. 2 Timothy 4:18 reminds us, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
If you have ever traveled with young children you know how frequently they ask the question, “Are we there yet?,” or “How much longer?” You also know how wonderful it is to finally reach your destination and to be able to say, “We’re here! We have reached our destination.”
Our friends and loved ones who have died in the faith have heard God say, “We’re here! Welcome home!” But we must wait for that day. And yet we wait with confidence because God guarantees our arrival. The verses of our text continue, “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. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” Twice the Apostle uses the word, “confident.” That is what God wants us to be. He assures that we will arrive at our eternal house because he will take us safely there.
When we are traveling and we plan to stay in a motel it is usually a wise idea to guarantee the room for “late arrival.” Basically we pay for the room in advance on a credit card. Then at whatever time we arrive we know there will be a room for us. God guarantees our arrival at our heavenly home by paying the price in advance. He sent his Son as the sacrifice and substitute for sinners. He paid the wages of sin through his death. So now he can guarantee a place for us in heaven.
Perhaps we express the same disbelief Dorothy expressed in The Wizard of Oz when it comes to our confidence in reaching our home with the Lord. It seems too easy on one hand and it may be hard to believe on the other. But God reassures us that he will take us home. He even puts the Holy Spirit in us to guarantee our arrival. May the Lord lead us to repent of our unbelief and our doubting of his power to guarantee our arrival at our eternal house in heaven. And may he then turn us back to his powerful promises that assure us we have an eternal home and that he will take us there some day.
III.
Part of the story line in The Wizard of Oz is the change that took place in Dorothy regarding her attitude about her home and her life with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. She told Glinda what she learned in her time in Oz. “Well, I -- I think that it -- that it wasn’t enough just to want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em -- and it’s that – if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?” What Dorothy discovered is that what was important in her life was those she loved not where she lived.
Ultimately believers come to know that same truth in connection with our relationship with God. Being with him is what is important. And whether we are still in the tent of this world or in the eternal house of heaven what matters is knowing God and having a relationship with him through his Son, Jesus. That leads us back to the last verse in this portion of Scripture that we are considering. “9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” Whether we are still in this temporary body or in our eternal house in heaven we make it our goal to please God in all that we say and do.
But do we live each day of our life for the owner of our eternal house? Sadly, we are often so engrossed with the things of this temporary world that we live like this is all that there is. And with sinful thoughts, words, and actions we don’t live like those who belong in God’s eternal house. When cursing and swearing come from our lips we don’t sound like those who are on their way to an eternal house in heaven. The times we don’t honor God’s representatives on earth we aren’t pleasing him. Hate filled thoughts toward others and hurtful words and actions toward others betray the owner of our eternal house. Being greedy and covetous reveals how little we really value what God has prepared for us.
So what’s the answer to our failure to please God and to live for him before he takes us to heaven? The simple answer is repentance and sorrow over our sins. And through the cross of Christ the simple answer is a renewed commitment to please God while we are in the tent of our earthly body. Words like the one before us from 2 Corinthians will uplift and encourage us to live for the owner of our eternal house until we get there. “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.”
For one last time today I want you to think back to Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Do you remember her final words in the movie. She said, “Home! And this is my room -- and you’re all here! And I’m not going to leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all! And -- Oh, Auntie Em – there’s no place like home!”
Indeed, friends in Christ, there is no place like home. Not our homes in this temporary world. But our eternal house in heaven. That one we are never, ever going to leave. May the Holy Spirit impress that truth on hearts and minds. Yes, we have an eternal house in heaven! For now we long to be living there and we even groan while we wait. But we can be confident of getting there because God has put the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. And friends, while we wait we live for the owner of our eternal house until we arrive there. With you I look forward to the time when God will say to us all, “Welcome home. Welcome to your eternal house.” Then we will say together forever, “There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home…there’s no place like home!” Amen.
