2 Corinthians 5:1-10 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
“An Eternal House”
Build on the Rock Summer Series 15 September 9, 2018
Fifteen weeks ago we began this summer worship series by listening to Christ’s encouragement to build on the rock. We looked at the way he encouraged his disciples to hear God’s Word and to put it into practice—that this was like building on a solid foundation of rock rather than building on sand. And in the weeks since, we have spoken about many different buildings. We’ve talked about buildings that were begun but never finished, we’ve talked about buildings that people could think about building. We’ve talked about the temple being built in Jerusalem twice. And we’ve even talked about buildings in a more figurative sense, buildings like that of the Christian Church. Throughout our whole summer worship series, the lessons that we have learned have been connected to each other, to the good news of Jesus Christ, and very directly to the last lesson we are discussing as part of that series, a lesson about eternity. It is hopefully obvious, but worth pointing out anyway, that all of the physical buildings we have spoken about as part of this series have been destroyed. You can’t travel around the world to find the foundation of the Tower of Babel. You can’t go to Jerusalem to see the Temple, even though you can find there some very ancient remnants of the area that surrounded the Temple. Buildings like these have long since been torn down and destroyed. Sure, we can go many places in the world and view buildings with long histories and incredible significance, but the fact is that we live in a world where things simply do not last forever. Buildings that last a long time do so because they are maintained and treated carefully to extend their lives. And even with that sort of effort and care, they will eventually be gone. While that is true of the physical buildings, we have also spoken about what we might call spiritual buildings. And God’s promise to us is that these buildings last forever. The foremost example of this, of course, is the building we spoke about last week, a spiritual house built up of living stones. As God calls people to faith in Jesus as their Savior, he forms them into this spiritual house. We are connected to Christians throughout the world and throughout history because of what God has done for us. This week’s lesson, the final one of our summer series, comes from Paul’s second letter to the Christians in the city of Corinth, and it invites us to remember that this spiritual house lasts forever. So we can look at our own individual lives, or we can look collectively at the Christians around us, and we can be comforted to know that God builds us an eternal house. One of the lessons that we learn from these words of God is that we need the eternal house that God builds. Saying it a different way, what we have now is not permanent. That is an easy truth to say. It is an easy truth to agree with, but it is not always an easy truth to really take to heart. Paul begins this section by writing, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed…” He compares our earthly existence to living in a tent. Tents are temporary. We use them on vacation or for a getaway. We use them for a short time. And then we return to our houses and the firm walls and comforts that they offer to us. That is this life. It is not permanent. It is a tent, and it will be destroyed. The Corinthians to whom Paul first wrote these words probably had a different perspective on this than we do. They were actively being persecuted. They were facing physical consequences for being Christians. People like Paul who brought God’s Word to them were routinely beaten and abused. I can only imagine that when Paul wrote to them about their earthly tents being destroyed that they might have thought about these hardships. They could easily agree that at any point their earthly lives could be threatened. But we don’t always think that way, do we? Persecution of that sort doesn’t happen to us, it happens to people far away and out of our sight. Even death comes to us in our loved ones in a different way than it once did. That is not to say that death has changed, but our experience of it has. At many, perhaps most, times in history, people dealt with death among their extended families and in their neighborhoods in a much more close and visible way. Perhaps a grandmother or grandfather would be living in the same
house with children and grandchildren at the time of death and without hospitals or care facilities to which to turn. We may experience death differently, but one thing about it has not changed: death comes to everyone at some point. Our earthly tent, our earthly life, will some day be destroyed. “Meanwhile we groan…” Paul says. We suffer. We deal with life in a world that is no longer perfect the way God created it, but has been ruined by sin. But this is the only world we know. We don’t often stop to think, do we, about the fact that all of this will pass away? We don’t often stop to think, do we, that our own lives will come to an end and could at any time? These are the stakes that we are facing. This is the reality of our situation. What we have now is not permanent. But the good news, the amazing news, is that what awaits us is better by far. Throughout this section of Scripture Paul speaks about the groaning and the desire for something permanent. When we allow ourselves to fairly assess our situation, we have to admit that things now are not the way that they should be, and we have to admit that we are part of the problem. We suffer, at least in part, because of the things that we do, the sins we commit. Our relationships are not perfect because we are not perfect. Much of what happens to us we deserve. Really, in most cases, we deserve much worse than what we actually receive. But this section begins with the very promise of God: “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.” Our eternal house needs to be built by God, because none of us could build it for ourselves. We have failed completely to live up to the standard which God demands. We deserve to be destroyed and to be punished for what we have done, but God stepped in. He sent his Son. In love Jesus went to the cross and bore the punishment for our sins in order to build us an eternal house with him. He ascended into heaven according to his own words in order to prepare a place for us and then to bring us to be with him. And how we ought to long for that time! Paul says, “We… would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” It is our ultimate goal as Christians to reach that eternal home. It is really an understatement for Paul to say “we prefer.” Of course we would prefer that. The Bible describes heaven for us by saying that it is without pain or crying or sadness of any sort. It is not even worth comparing to the earthly life we live now. We really can’t even imagine what an eternal house like that looks like. But it is our home, and it is with our Lord. And because that is our eternal future, it changes our lives now. It gives us purpose. Paul puts it this way, “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” In other words, because of what God has done for us, we want to live our earthly lives, as fleeting and temporary as they are, out of thankfulness to him. We do that by loving others and by serving them. We do that by listening to God in his Word and putting what he says into practice in our lives and in our relationships. Paul closes this section by pointing out that all of us will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Maybe those words even sounded surprising to you as we read them: “so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” It almost sounds like Paul is contradicting what he says in other places that we are saved by grace alone and only because of what Jesus has done for us. He’s not saying anything different here. He is simply pointing out that when we live our lives in thankfulness to God, we are doing those things that he truly considers to be good. When those actions are considered at the judgment seat, God is really seeing what we have done through Christ, not what we have been responsible for on our own. All the bad that we have truly done has been washed away by Jesus so that God doesn’t see that in us at all. This last building of our summer series is the last building that we will ever need. In so many ways it is beyond our understanding, but it is ours through Jesus Christ our Savior. And because it is ours, we will always want to praise and thank him. We have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven.
The Text: 2 Corinthians 5:1–10 (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. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 6 Therefore
we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For 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. 10 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.