Longing For Home
2 Cor 5:1-9
1 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. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed 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 with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 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.
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 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.
NIV
Longing For Home
(2 Cor. 5:1-10)
Intro:
A. I would like to ask you to think for a moment about one second after you die. That moment immediately following your death is something many people don’t consider while they are alive. But Paul pushes the Christians in Corinth to think about such things. (READ 2 Cor. 4:16-18; 5:6-7)
B. Living by faith is far more than a simple phrase or song that we sing. It is more than a platitude or cliché. Paul wants us to live this life in such a way that we look forward to what follows. So I ask you to think about that moment right after you die. What do you see?
C. I have spoken at many funerals. The people that from my understanding lived a life in connection with the blood of Jesus Christ and now are clothed with a new indestructible body, a house made by God not by man. Yet, I have no real control over their eternal outcome. I can’t preach anyone into heaven any easier than I could preach someone into hell. But today I want to share a funeral sermon, not for someone who has died, but for us who are alive. I want us to long for home and encourage us to live this life with confidence that heaven is what we will see the moment after this life has come to an end.
I. Death Is A Reality
A. READ 2 Cor. 5:1-4. What every person needs to understand is that death is a reality and it’s unpredictable for most people. Paul speaks of our physical body in two metaphors – a tent and clothing. As Paul teaches us in this section, we were not created to simply be a physical being. You were created to be a spiritual being.
B. Think back to the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was a moveable tent that housed the Ark of the Covenant. As God led the people through the wilderness, a pillar of cloud or fire was used to tell them when it was time to stay or move.
C. When the people were commanded to move the Tabernacle, they would take it down and move. It was treated with respect. It was treated as a house of God, but it was only temporary. It was not intended to be a permanent home, yet it housed the essence of God on earth. It may be this image that Paul was thinking as he described our human bodies as an earthly tent. This body that you and I have will one day be dismantled or destroyed. It will cease.
D. If today I was to stand before your family and friends and deliver your eulogy, what would be said concerning your spiritual life? Would I be limited to talk only about your relationship with other people, family members, your job, or your achievements? When I am called upon to speak at a funeral, the aspect I desire to talk about most is the person’s spiritual life. Where will you be the moment after you die?
II. The New Body
A. The Bible does not describe in any great detail what a spiritual body would look like. It can’t, because we can only see the physical. Yet, Paul speaks in such confidence that he says, “We have building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands, eternal in the heavens.” He goes on to say that as Christians we “long to put on our heavenly dwelling.”
B. Paul is not morbid in his teaching. Paul is not looking forward to dying. He is simply stating that this body that we now have pales in comparison to the one will be given.
C. Paul wants us to know that God has something greater in store for his children than the pains found in this human body. As Christians we have something to look forward to. We long for and desire to be with God for we know that being with the Lord is better than fighting the
sin that so easily entangles us. Our new body, our heavenly dwelling will swallow up this mortal one and in it we will have true life.
D. Listen to vs 5. God has prepared us for this new clothing, this new home. To prove it, He has place his Holy Spirit inside Christians as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. We have a little bit of that spiritual body already with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
III. Longing For Home
A. That is why Paul would say what I read at the beginning (READ vs 6-7). There is truth that in this human form we lack some of the depth of relationship we have with God. Paul simply states, “We live by faith and not by sight.” Let me rephrase that to make sure we understand what Paul is teaching. We live in this flesh, in this temporary tent, by faith believing in a heaven that none of us has seen.
B. I love life. I love the blessings that I understand and see. I love that I have a wife that loves me in spite of my failings. I have children who still want to be around me even after they have grown and moved out of the house. I have a church family who has walked beside me in my bad days and celebrated with me in my good days. But all of that is only a glimpse of the joy that will come when I open my eyes that moment after this body ends and see my Jesus face to face.
C. Home is where family gathers and celebrates the fact that we are family. But I have to tell you, I long for my heavenly home. I long for the place where sin will no longer tempt me, where pain, sorrow, grief and death no longer exist. I long to see into the holy of holies, the throne of God and worship the one I adore. I’m ready to go home. God may take me today or not for years to come, but I am ready to go home.
Conclusion:
A. Where will you be the moment after this body dies? That is the only real question that matters. At your funeral, someone will stand before a group of people and share thoughts about your life. No matter what is said, a judgment will have already taken place and this tabernacle will be dismantled and new dwelling, a permanent one, will be yours.
B. READ 2 Cor. 5:8-9. Paul does not want you to be concerned or worried about your death, so he gives us this section to help us learn about it and how living this life affects the hereafter. Are you ready to go home? Have you given your life to Jesus who gave his life for you? There is nothing better than to have your sins washed away and the gift of God’s Holy Spirit given to you as your guarantee that you are going home.
Because of Jesus,
Jeffrey Dillinger, minister