HoHum:
The Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, has an exhibit of unique epitaphs. Give a few. Near Uniontown, Pennsylvania there’s a gravestone that reads, “Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake. He stepped on the gas instead of the brake.” Boot Hill Cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona, has an epitaph that reads: “Here lies Lester Moore; Four slugs from a .44; No Les, no Moore.” There’s a minister’s tombstone that reads: “Gone to another meeting.” Sympathize with that! A New England tombstone carries this epitaph of a woman who evidently was a big talker: “Beneath this sod lies Arabella Young, who on the 26th of May began to hold her tongue.” My all time favorite is one from a cemetery near Wetumpka, Alaabama: “Solomon Peas. Peas is not here, only the Pod. Peas shelled out and went home to God.”
WBTU:
We smile and laugh at those epitaphs, but death is a serious matter. Two extremes in this matter- one is that death is never mentioned and the other is that death is an obsession. My family believes that death is an obsession with me. Goth- makeup and clothing styles are a bit much.
Both extremes, never want to talk about death or the constant obsession, are indications that the fear of death still holds people in its grip. The writer of Hebrews describes the human family as “those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Hebrews 2:15.
Paul has already talked with the Corinthians Christians about death in 1 Corinthians 15. The Holy Spirit there says that death is the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). Paul goes on to talk about the resurrection- first the resurrection of Jesus and then the resurrection of everyone else on Resurrection Day. Talks about the resurrected body because this seemed to be a difficult doctrine for the Corinthians. Now in 2 Corinthians 5 Paul discusses the status of everyone who has died in Christ until the Resurrection Day. Much like the Thessalonians they evidently had some mistaken ideas about the dead in Christ right now.
Thesis: 3 principles from 2 Corinthians 5 will help us to face death with confidence
I. Our present existence is increasingly difficult
The longer we live in this world, the less attraction it has. Twice in this passage Paul compares our lives to a tent. I love camping. I love spending time outdoors and spending time with people I love away from the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. Even so, the older I get the more difficult camping becomes. Sleep is important to me and I have a hard time sleeping while camping. My CPap machine helped some but still hard to get comfortable in a tent. Imagine living permanently in a tent. Two words describe living in a tent.
1. Insecure. A tent is a poor fortress. We can’t bolt the door against intruders. Raccoons at night easily wreak havoc. If we have every spent the night in a tent in a storm with lightning and wind, we know that it can collapse easily. As a tentmaker, Paul had knowledge about tents. When he compared this life to a tent, he knew it is not secure. This life is uncertain. It can be destroyed in a second. We try to develop security through insurance and the accumulation of goods and support networks, but living in a tent is so insecure and uncertain. David said, “There is only a step between me and death” (1 Samuel 20:3).
2. Uncomfortable- Started with just a sleeping bag, now I have graduated to a blow up mattress. Even with that, when it is humid and the mosquitoes are biting, the more difficult sleep becomes. As I lie there in the darkness and the hours tick away, there is always somebody who says, “This is the life, isn’t it?” “Oh yes, this is what camping is all about.” The longer I toss and turn the more uncomfortable it gets. After 4 or 5 days, everything smells like socks and I am so tired that I can sleep standing up (which might work better?).
Spiritually, the longer we serve the Lord, the sweeter He grows. But physically speaking, the longer we’re in this world the more uncomfortable it is. “For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened...” 2 Corinthians 5:4, NIV. Some of us know what it means to groan- I see it and hear about it every day from the patients and their families. So important to have the Lord in the years of our miserable lives. The Lord in our hearts and the love of brothers and sisters...
Even so,“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on... They will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them.”” Revelation 14:13. Rest- no more suffering
II. Understand what happens when we die
Information is a good antidote for fear. God’s word reveals that death initiates a series of events.
A. There is the departure of the spirit from the body. One day this tent is going to be destroyed, and my spirit will depart this body. When the hand is removed from a glove, the form of the hand remains in the limp glove, but the substance that gave it life is gone. And when one dies, the body retains the form, but the spirit that animated it has departed.
B. After the departure from the body comes the immediate presence with the Lord. Vs. 8. There is no intermediate stage where we go to be purged of our sins. As a Christian, all of our sins were taken care of at the cross. When Christians die, they go immediately to be with the Father. Ok, but what is it like in Hades before resurrection day? Could go to Luke 16 and talk about the rich man and Lazarus but here is the part as Christians we need to hold onto: When Lazarus died, he was immediately comforted at Abraham’s side (Luke 16:22, 25). At death Christians saying, “I see Jesus,” “I see angels,” “I see my loved ones”, “I see the Lord.”
C. A new glorified body. Vs. 3- We will not be found naked. This nakedness describes something that is lacking. Even there (Hades) for the Christian there is more. We are not going to spend eternity as disembodied spirits floating around. God is going to clothe us with new bodies, glorified bodies, but that will not happen until Jesus Christ returns and our bodies are resurrected. When we die, our spirits go immediately to be with God. We are alert, we retain our personalities, and we’ll be joyful, but our eternal existence is not complete until the resurrection of our bodies. “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep (no soul sleep- resting from our labors, death), but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52, NIV.
D. Then comes the judgment. Vs. 10. The judgment for those outside of Christ will be a judgment on their sin. The judgment for those in Christ will be to determine rewards in heaven. My judgement as a Christian will not be for my sin, but for my work, my life, my witness for Christ. That’s the reason Vs. 9 says, “We make it our goal to please Him.”
““Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:1-3, NIV.
III. Be Confident in Our Salvation
Paul was confident. “We have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven,” he said (vs. 1). We know this because “God... has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” 2 Corinthians 5:5, NIV. When my family goes on a trip, Crystal makes reservations in hotels beforehand. When we arrive, we know we have a room because we have a guarantee from the hotel. We have a receipt to prove it. We know we have a room in heaven too. Jesus Christ has already paid the way with the cross. He has given us the Holy Spirit living within us as a deposit, guaranteeing of what is to come.
Vs. 6, 7- We can’t see Heaven physically. We can’t prove that it exists. But we are confident by faith in Jesus Christ that it is so. We are so confident, in fact, that we “would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8, NIV.
Many are not confident of salvation. I hope I go to heaven when I die. How can I be sure? 2 vs
1. “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9, NIV.
2. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:16, NIV.
Many have done this but are still unsure. They say, “I’ve sinned since the time I gave my life to the Lord. I don’t feel confident anymore.” Haven’t we all. We need to repent and this repentance needs to be expressed, but please understand that Christ died for all of our sins on the cross (Colossians 2:13-14). When we accepted him as Savior, He adopted us into His family.
So what?
Derrick Johnson of the Regeneration singing group told a story about his daughter, Debbie. When Debbie was 4 years old, she got lost in a crowded supermarket. After an anxious search, she was found only one aisle over from her mother, but she was petrified. For a long time after that, she was terrified of crowds. Shortly thereafter they had a devotional about heaven one night, and the girl said, “Daddy, will there be many people in Heaven?” “Yes, there will be a lot of people in Heaven,” he said. “So many that we can’t even count them, the Bible says.” “How will I ever find you and Mommy when I get to Heaven?” she asked. He knew that was a childish question, be he wanted to give her a good answer. “I’ll tell you what- when you get to Heaven you just wait for us right inside the gate, and we’ll all meet there as a family.” “Daddy,” she said, “is there more than one gate in Heaven?” He remembered that Revelation said that there are four walls and there are three gates in every wall. He said, “Yes, there are 12.” She said, “Which gate?” He said, “I tell you what, when you get to Heaven, you ask somebody which way is east. Then you just walk and walk until you come to the eastern wall, and then you find the middle gate in the eastern wall. Let’s all meet as a family just inside the middle eastern gate.” That seemed to satisfy her, so he kissed her good-night. Then he said, “Now remember, we’re going to meet just inside-” “The middle eastern gate,” she answered. This became a tradition. What a day that will be! Don’t miss it for the world.
