Introduction

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Every year our family goes camping after Christmas … with a bunch of old friends.  There’s about 15 adults and 30 kids.  And there’s a particular moment on that holiday that I really look forward to.  Now MOST people look forward to Christmas Day … but THAT day is busy for me.  I have work in the morning … then we open presents … then go to my parents’ house for Christmas lunch … then drive down the coast to Deb’s parents.  We THEN open MORE presents on Boxing Day … followed by Christmas lunch with Deb’s family  The day after THAT … we fight the South Coast traffic … getting to the campground at Lake Tabourie … where we spend 2 hours setting up our campsite in the hot sun.

Now as busy as it sounds … I actually enjoy ALL of that.  To begin with … it IS Christmas.  But ALL those things help lead to the moment I’m REALLY looking forward to.  And that’s sitting down with a cold drink after everything is set up.  And the reason I look forward to THAT particular moment … is because I THEN officially have nothing to do for a week and a half … except laze on the beach.

Now we ALL have things we look forward to in life.  Whether it be a holiday … catching up with family or friends … a new movie coming out … or perhaps just a nice dinner … we ALL have joys in our life.  And there will be things we DO … in preparation for that joyful occasion.

Now as Christians … we have ‘the event to end all events’ to look forward to.  We have the holiday to end all holidays ahead of us.  How crippling it must be for atheists to think that one moment … and the next you’re gone.  The only way to manage the terror of that … is to stick your head in the sand and not think about it.  One of the biggest joys of being a Christian … is Jesus has told us EXACTLY what lies ahead for us.  And it is glorious.

And this ‘holiday to end all holidays’ shapes our whole life as Christians.  Well … at least it should.  Sadly too many Christians spend more time preparing for retirement than they do for eternity.  Too many Christians LIVE just like the atheists do.  And that’s why we need this passage today.  For in this passage … the Apostle Paul spells out for us exactly what happens to us when we die.  That alone makes this passage arguably the most interesting passage in 2 Corinthians.  And that’s saying something … because this series has been awesome … has it not.

But the REAL beauty of this passage is not that it’s intellectually interesting.  It’s that it spells out the incredible glory that awaits us on the other side of this life.  What that means is … this passage should be EVERYTHING to us.  What a privilege … to KNOW what’s going to happen in the future.  And that privilege should shape our lives in this world.  And that’s our goal for today.  To see how our future glory … is to shape our present life.

And I’ve got 3 points to help us unpack this today.  We’re going to begin by looking at (i) What happens in the future … v. 1-8.  We’ll then see (ii) How this impacts our present … v. 9.  Then we’ll conclude by looking at (iii) Why our future impacts our present … v. 10.  And spoiler alert … v. 10 has a kick to it.  Now because this passage is SO interesting … I thought I’d open it up for questions at the end.  But until then … let’s dive in … and look at this glorious future … and how it impacts our present.

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What happens in the future (v. 1-8)

 

And our passage begins with the word ‘for’ … which means it’s explaining last week’s passage.  So if you were blessed enough to be here last week … you would have heard Scott explain that we Christians are ‘hard pressed’, ‘perplexed’, ‘persecuted’ and ‘struck down’ … v. 8-9.  The Christian life is not a beach holiday.  It is ‘taking up your cross’ … which is a metaphor for suffering.  So HOW does Paul handle all this suffering?  He fixes his eyes NOT on this life … but on the life to come:

2 Corinthians 4:17 (NIV) For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

In TODAY’S passage … Paul then zooms in … to show us WHAT this eternal glory will be like:

2 Corinthians 5:1-3 (NIV) For 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. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.

Yet another complicated passage.  Thanks Paul.  Well let me try and simplify it a bit for us.  But we’re STILL going to need our thinking caps on for a minute or two.  So Paul is referring here to 3 different states of being.  And if we can get our heads around these 3 states of being … then Paul’s message about our future becomes clearer.  So …

State number 1 is our ‘earthly tent’ … which is referring to our bodies in this life.  And the reason Paul refers to it as a ‘tent’ is because it’s flimsy.  After our beach holiday every year we go up to CMS Summer School … where we stay at the Ross’s house.  Thank you Team Ross.  And a few years ago … a friend asked me one morning ‘how did you go in the weather last night’?  I said ‘what weather?’  He said ‘the wind and the rain.  It gave our tent a real beating’.  I said ‘we’re not camping.  We’re in a house.  We didn’t even notice it’.  Tents are flimsy … as are our ‘earthly tents’.  They are decaying … and will one day be destroyed.  That’s ‘state of being’ number 1.

State number 3 … I’ll come back to number 2 in a moment … is our ‘building from God’.  This is what theologians refer to as our resurrection body.  This is a body that will NOT decay and die.  It is perfectly fit for eternity.  When Jesus rose on Easter Sunday … he had his resurrection body.  That’s why the disciples didn’t recognise him straight away.  He was different in some way.  He could still eat.  But he could also miraculously appear in a locked room.  Yet though he looked different … the disciples still recognised him as Jesus … after he spoke with them for a time.  So that’s state number 3.

State number 2 is what Paul refers to as being ‘naked’ … v. 3 … or ‘unclothed’ … v. 4.  You see when we die … our soul is ripped from our body.  It’s a very nasty and unnatural process.  It was never meant to be a part of God’s good creation.  But because of mankind’s sin … death entered our world in Gen 3.  And WHEN our soul is ripped from our body … our body stays here on this earth to decay … either in the ground … or in a crematorium … while our soul goes to be with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:8 (NIV) We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

So THAT’S the 3 states.  The process is this.  If you’re a Christian when you die … your soul goes to hang out with God … in a spirit realm somewhere.  This is why some claim heaven is floating around on clouds.  We will be in a spirit-like state … or what theologians call ‘the intermediate state’ … the state BETWEEN 1 and 3.  Now we don’t know where this spirit realm is … nor do we know what it’s like.  All we know is that God is there.  So it’s better than THIS place.  Non-Christians we believe … are held someplace else … awaiting judgment.  That’s all we know about them.

But for Christians … we get to hang out with Jesus in State number 2 … while we await Judgment Day.  In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 … we’re told that WHEN Jesus returns … on Judgment Day … he will bring WITH him the souls of those Christians who have died.  Those souls will then be reunited with our earthly bodies … somehow.  Even though our earthly tents may have decayed or been cremated millennia earlier … God will work it out somehow … and give us BACK State number 1.

Then the believers who are still alive when Jesus returns … along with the believers who died … but have now got their earthly tents BACK … will be ‘caught up together […] to meet the Lord in the air’ … 1 Thess 4:17.  At that point we’re clothed with our resurrection body … state number 3.  The word ‘clothed’ in v. 2 and 3 is more accurately translated ‘clothed over’.  It’s like putting an outer garment on over an undergarment.  So we’ll still recognise each other … but we’ll be different.  And it’s at THAT point that the New heavens and the New earth will appear … and we get to live in paradise forever.

What this means is … Christians have nothing to fear about death.  It’s OK to fear dying.  Like if I have a choice out of being eaten alive by bears … or a quiet heart-attack in my sleep … I’ll take the latter … thank you very much.  But with the exception of DYING … Christians know exactly what’s going to happen to us … and we know it’s going to be glorious.  The second after we close our eyes in death … we will open them … with the Lord.  Christians have nothing to fear about death … because we know death can only make us better.

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How this impacts our present (v. 9)

 

So … that’s our glorious future.  Paul then tells us HOW this glorious future is to impact our present:

2 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV) So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

And the REASON we make it our goal to please him … is because that future … is all of grace.  Now do you understand what grace is?  Grace is (i) being given something, (ii) that you don’t deserve, (iii) by someone who is not obliged to give it.  Let me explain:

An employee … who has put in a hard week’s work … deserves to be paid.  A wage is not grace.

How about a naughty child … who’s been a REAL rat bag all arvo.  Though that child probably deserves bread and water for dinner … the parent gives the child a nice dinner.  But a parent is OBLIGED to feed and love their child … are they not?  So it’s KIND of like grace.

But REAL grace … imagine a horrible neighbour … who is always playing their music loud … always having parties late into the night … always letting their dog poo on your lawn.  Yet if you ever have guests over … they call the police to complain about the noise.  Yet when they get sick … you cook them a meal … mow their lawn … and walk their dog.  Grace is (i) being given something, (ii) you don’t deserve, (iii) by someone who has no obligation to give it.

And that’s what heaven is.  You and I don’t deserve the good place.  We deserve the bad place … because of our sin.  Remember … sin is committing treason against the one person we are infinitely obliged to obey.  And we’ve all done that.  We’ve all said ‘no … I’m NOT going to live my life the way you want me to God.  I’m going to do it MY way’.  And for THAT … we deserve the bad place.

But on top of that … God is under NO obligation to give us paradise.  Yet he chose to … even though it cost him the death of his only beloved Son.  The only reason you and I are allowed into heaven … is because Jesus took the punishment for our sin himself … on the cross.

NOW … what is the right response to such a gift?  If someone gives you something of infinite value … that comes at infinite cost to them … even though they’re under zero obligation to do so … how are we to respond?  Do we continue to commit high treason against them?  No:

2 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV) So we make it our goal to please him

That’s what the Christian life should be.  Believers making sure everything we do … say … and THINK … pleases God.  Not to EARN salvation.  We’ve already got that.  It’s to show our thanks.

So HOW do we make sure everything we do, say and think pleases God.  Well … we first need to find out WHAT pleases God:

Ephesians 5:10 (NIV) find out what pleases the Lord

1. And the Bible says gossip does NOT please the Lord.  But words of encouragement do.

2. Drunkenness does not please the Lord.  But speaking wise words to others does.

3. Pride does not please the Lord.  But turning our thoughts to others does.

4. Sexual immorality does not please the Lord … in any of its forms; porn … sex before marriage … lustful thoughts … adultery.  But pure … God honouring relationships does please Him.

This is to be our goal:

1. Greed does not please the Lord.  But generosity does.

2. Factions do not please the Lord.  But living in peace with one another does.

3. Bitterness and resentment do not please the Lord.  But mercy and forgiveness do.

4. Selfishness does not please the Lord.  But loving service of others does.

If our future is the infinite gift of heaven … purchased at infinite cost to God … when he has zero obligation to do so … then our present … is making it our goal to please him.

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Why the future impacts our present (v. 10)

 

If only Paul had stopped there.  If only he’d said ‘we make it our goal to please God … because it is right and fitting to please the one who has given us everything.’  That all makes sense.  But he doesn’t stop there.  He goes on to give us one of the most difficult verses in the Bible.  ‘For …’.  OK … this is a second reason why we please God:

2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Now this verse picks up something I glossed over in point 1.  In point 1 I laid out the PROCESS of what happens when Jesus comes back.  He brings the dead souls with him.  The dead souls are reunited with their bodies.  Then the resurrected Christians … along with the Christians who are still alive at Jesus’ return … are ‘caught up together … to meet the Lord in the air’.  What I glossed over … was judgment.  Before the New heavens and the New earth come down:

2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV) … we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Now let me point out THREE important things about this verse:

1. We must ALL appear before the judgment seat.  Both Christians and non-Christians.

2. We will receive what is due us.  It will be completely fair and impartial.

3. What is DUE us … is based on the THINGS we’ve done.

‘Now wait a minute … wait a minute Brendan.  You JUST SAID … in point 2 … that heaven is an undeserved gift.  And we KNOW it’s an undeserved gift because you tell us every week’.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

So how can Ephesians 2:9 say it’s NOT by works … then 2 Cor 5:10 say it IS our works?  It is salvation by grace … or salvation by works?  I told you v. 10 had a kick to it.  And the answer is … ‘yes’.  Let me explain.

Remember … grace is (i) being given a gift, (ii) you don’t deserve, (iii) by a person who has no obligation to give it.  When those 3 points sink into a person’s heart … it changes them.  You simply cannot help but be changed by something like that.  In the story of Ebenezer Scrooge … the ghost that changes him the most … is the Ghost of Christmas present.  The reason being that they show him one of his relatives.  In the book I think it’s his nephew.  In the Bill Murray movie it’s his brother.  Yet in BOTH cases … the relative says nice things about Scrooge … behind his back … when Scrooge has been nothing but nasty to THEM … behind their back.  That’s grace.  It’s being given a gift … of compliments in the case of Scrooge … even though he doesn’t deserve it … from a person who is not obliged to give it … because he’s not there to hear it.  And it changes him.

And so the person who does the GOOD things … while in the body … are those who have received God’s grace.  Even though Christians still sin … our understanding of what Jesus did for us some 2000 years ago makes us want to repent of our sin … and try and do better.  Those who do GOOD … are those who are already IN the kingdom.  And so when Paul says we receive what it due us for what we’ve DONE … those works are not payment FOR salvation … their proof OF salvation.

It's like that time when 2 prostitutes come to see King Solomon.  One of them says we live together … and both had babies just a few weeks ago.  I woke up this morning to find my baby dead.  But when I looked closer … I realised it wasn’t my baby.  My housemate had accidentally smothered HER baby during the night … and she swapped it with mine while I was asleep.  And the other woman said ‘no … the live baby is mine’.  And do you remember what Solomon said?  Cut the baby in half … and give half to each woman.  And the first woman said ‘no … just let her have the baby’ … while the second woman said ‘yes … let’s cut it in half’.  And Solomon gave the baby to the first woman.  Now … why did Solomon say to cut the baby in half?  He wasn’t looking for who deserved the baby.  He was looking for who the baby already belonged to.

And THAT’S what’s going to happen on Judgment Day.  Even though we’ve ALL sinned … God isn’t going to be looking at our sin.  That’s already been paid for by Jesus’ death.  He’ll be looking at our good works.  And those GOOD works … we’re told … will determine what kind of reward we will get in heaven.  In Matthew 25 for example … Jesus tells us those who have been the MOST faithful with their ‘talents’ here on earth … will be given greater rewards in heaven.  We don’t know what that means … but I suspect people like Moses, Elijah or David will be closer to the front.  The rest of us … won’t care … because we’ll be in heaven.

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Conclusion

 

But THAT … is our glorious future brothers and sisters.  As soon as we die … we’re with the Lord … awaiting our resurrection bodies … fit for eternity with God.  Even Judgement Day … which we ALL have to face … is going to be glorious.  Because instead of a DVD of our sin being played on the big screen … it will be a DVD of our good woks … with Jesus saying ‘well done … good and faithful servant.  Come and receive your reward’.  That’s our future … that we don’t deserve … locked in by someone with no obligation to give it.  So what do we do in the meantime?

2 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV) … we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.