GKJ (Glorious King Jesus)
Apex, NC
January 2, 2011
Now webcast via Ustream
Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:1-21
Message
At the start of each New Year, there is a façade of newness. People make resolutions to try to change their ways, in order to experience somewhat of a new feeling in their lives. The Government compiled some statistics on the most common New Year's Resolutions --
- Lose Weight
- Get out of Debt
- Save Money
- Find a better Job
- Get in Shape (e.g. Get a Gym Membership)
- Go back to School
- Drink less
- Stop smoking
- Decrease Stress (in Life and at Work)
- Go on a Vacation
- Help others somehow (volunteering?)
(USA Government Website, http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml)
Many of these changes can be positive, but also note how many are focused on material ends. Though these changes only result in a very fleeting feeling of newness, things as a whole tend to be just about the same as it was the year before. Even more, most of these resolutions go unfulfilled, as many people forget exactly what they resolved a week later! So much for new beginnings!
Indeed, the only reality of true 'Newness' is provided by our Savior. In this life, we can share in Newness of life through faith in Jesus and the acceptance of His Sacrifice for our sins. In the coming life, we have the promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth. What makes this promised place so new?
Last week, as you may remember, we discussed the significance of who Jesus was, as highlighted by the gifts of the wise men from afar. The Gold was just a shadow in showing that Jesus is our King of kings!
What type of Kingdom does Jesus have?
- A Kingdom of Peace: He will wipe away every tear.
- A Kingdom of Newness and Restoration: He makes all things new.
- An Everlasting Kingdom: His reign is NOW as well as will be Restored in full. The end has already been written -- we know that He wins!
This New Heaven and New Earth will have no sin, no separation from God, no suffering, no evil. It is truly a place of rest and joy, where we can be in the presence of God in fellowship with thousands upon thousands of redeemed sinners.
Before we discuss the bulk of the message and our text today, let's pray.
Opening Prayer
Basic Outline:
- Newness will be experienced in full through Jesus alone
- Newness can be experienced now through Internal Transformation through Jesus alone
- Will you experience Newness through Jesus?
Main Text: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul encourages the believers at the Corinth assembly to focus on the unseen, as well as to have an eternal perspective. We are to focus on the LINE and not the POINT. Even though we go through struggles here in this life in various ways, Paul encourages us:
2 Corinthians 4:17 - "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory"
First, we see from our main text:
I. Newness will be experienced in full through Jesus alone.
(1) In verse 1, we have various images: House, Tent, Building
Earthly House -> Tent
Human body - what we are clothed by here on earth
Tent - temporary
Just as the 'Tent' or Tabernacle in the Old Testament was a temporary set-up, our earthly bodies are the same way. We have a body fit for this earth, but what God has for us is a more permanent body, which Paul refers to as a 'glorified body' in 1 Corinthians 15. This body is described as 'not made with hands' and 'eternal.' We see just a glimpse of the intelligence and majesty of God through the Creation at hand, but those who are reconciled to Him by Jesus have the privilege of seeing much greater in the age to come.
(2-3) But for now, we long to see this eternal body without ailment.
There seems to be a type of pill for everything. Some need those pills to continue life or to live life normally, and we know that our bodies are frail in some measure.
Here, we have so many problems, limitations, and shortcomings. We undergo pains, trials, sicknesses, you name it. However, if we have trusted in Christ for reconciliation to God, we have much to look forward to without the pains, trials, and sicknesses. John records this in Revelation --
Revelation 21:4-5
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
The Bible proclaims that things are cursed in this realm and in various ways due to the effect of sin. Heaven is in a very real sense a restored 'pre-Curse' Eden.
In verses 2-3, we see Paul mentioning that we are eager to be free from mortal limitations, and that we will be 'clothed' in this new body. His hope is that we will be prepared for the Judgment. Paul is also not suicidal in this passage. He does not look to losing this life of mortality on his own terms -- it's normal for people to want to look forward to something in hope.
Illustration: Kenny Chesney recorded a song in 2008 entitled, "Everybody Wants to go to Heaven" -- the lyrics of one of the refrains reads,
"Everybody wanna go to Heaven
It beats the other place
there ain't no doubt.
Everybody wanna go to Heaven
but nobody wanna go now."
(Chesney)
Yes, this is quite superficial, but the typical cultural view of Heaven is that it's a place where everyone deserves to go, and where everyone definitely wants to end up, regardless of route taken.
Perhaps a better view of life is from another Country artist, Carrie Underwood:
"This is my temporary Home
It's not where I belong.
Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through.
This was just a stop,on the way to where I'm going.
I'm not afraid because I know... this was
My temporary home."
(Underwood)
Yet there is a possibility of not entering into Heaven, and Paul makes that clear. While he is mainly addressing believers at the assembly in Corinth, he has stated that there is the possibility of not being clothed with a new body, and from verse 5, God does the preparing, with the Holy Spirit in our lives as a sign of our inheritance.
As Paul continues in verses 6-9, while we are here in this temporary body, we are absent from the Lord, and though we long to be able to see our future inheritance and life in Heaven, we must seek to honor Him in whatever season of life, whether it is here or in Heaven. Verse 10 highlights that everything we do in this life will be judged in the end.
Judgment seat of Christ vs. Great White Throne - Where will we be judged?
From here, we should examine the next point --
II. Newness can be experienced through Internal Transformation through Jesus alone
Let's read verses 17-21 of this chapter, as Paul continues to describe the process by which we can experience Newness, both now and ultimately --
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Imputed Righteousness:
He took on our sin.
We can take on His righteousness.
If we have been clothed in Christ through faith, God sees us as He sees His Son -- pure, spotless, and without blemish. Jesus was our pure and perfect sacrifice, and He was our agent of reconciliation.
Illustration: Poisonous cups (Need: two or three cups, food coloring)
Will we live with lives filled with sin (poison) that lead to destruction, or will we take the pure sinless cup that Jesus offers us? (Explanation: Romans 5 - we were 'enemies of God', we can be reconciled through Christ)
…and this promise is not just to the Jewish people -- Paul mentions to the Ephesian church --
Ephesians 2:12-13
12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
We all are able to partake in the blessing of being brought back to peace with God. Jesus died to reconcile us back to His Father.
In the book, "Heaven is for Real," Colton Burpo recounts Jesus telling him during his out-of-body experience, "Well, Jesus told me he died on the cross so we could go see his Dad" (Burpo 111). It's a very simple message. Yet it is extremely weighty. Paul mentions in verse 10 that we will all give an account of our lives before the Lord. He continues to describe the weightiness in verse 11a --
11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;
So far, we have seen that true Newness will be brought about by Jesus, and that authentic Newness can be experienced even now through Jesus alone, so I ask the question -- Will you experience Newness through Jesus, even today?
III. Will you experience Newness through Jesus?
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
He died so that you can have life through Him. We need to follow Him and experience this Newness of life, and even more, we need to live our lives in an honoring way before Him.
So in commemoration of this new year, we have a blank at the end of your outline sheet marked 'Resolution'. We will take a few minutes to pray silently, and this is time between you and the Lord to make goals or set resolutions that you can faithfully accomplish, either for the year, or even for the moment. What do you need to do to grow spiritually? What can you do to follow Jesus? What does He want you to be? It could be general, or it could be specific, but it is between you and the Lord.
If you can't think of anything, pray through it this week, and most importantly, if you haven't committed your life to Jesus, do that even now! So we will take time to pray, and after a few minutes, I will close in corporate prayer -- and as we close, remember that true and meaningful Newness comes through Jesus Christ, and that the Newness to come is full and complete. Things here are fleeting, so as we live our lives, let's keep our ultimate focus on the eternal and put down an investment in God's Kingdom.
(2-3 minutes of individual prayer)
Closing Prayer
Bibliography
Burpo, Todd, with Lynn Vincent. Heaven is for Real. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2010).
Chesney, Kenny. Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven. Written by Jim Collins and Marty Dodson. © 2008, Blue Chair Records, LLC / BNA Records.
Top New Year's Resolutions. United States Government Webpage. http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml
Underwood, Carrie. Temporary Home. Written by Carrie Underwood, Luke Laird, and Zac Maloy. © 2009, 19 Recordings Limited, under exclusive license to Arista Nashville.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
