Sunday Sermon
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Sunday evening service - 8th July 2007
Intro: 2Cor5v1: 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. NKJV
Context: Chap4v16-18 light and momentary troubles
- mean little in light of the eternal glory. Fix our eye on
the unseen and eternal. Chap5v1-5 is the whole paragraph.
Thrust of the verse: we are going to die! But we need not
fear death.
Our bodies are dying but the kingdom is growing! We have
something better than a tent! We
know we have something better than a tent.
We know there is eternal life.
Death is not the end.
Death is only the taking down of the tent.
Eternal life is the raising of a superstructure!!
A building / Eternal / divine (not built by hands)
We are dying. That is the general principle. Nothing
changes there. The miracle of eternal youth has still
not been found.
But for the believer death is just a gateway into a better
life.
This is for you! You are in the process of slowly dying
physically! Nothing can change that. “he not busy being
born, is busy dying.” bob Dylan. From “Its’ alright ma
I’m only bleeding”
So that is the thrust of the verse - we are going to die but
we need not fear death! Why? Because we know something and
we have something!
We know: We have knowledge.
We know what happens when destruction comes!
Thus we have the real answers to the deep questions of life
- what happens when I die? We know!
So what do we know?
1) We know that our bodies are just
tents for our spirits.
Or to put it another way, our bodies are the vehicles in
which we drive!
Thus, our bodies are not the real self.
When you look in the mirror you see the body - the face -
but you do not see the real person!
Our bodies are not the essential truth about who we are!
Thus, if you lose your arm in an accident. You have only
lost a part of the body. The real you is still fully there!
We can view our bodies at the moment as the tool through
which our spirits live!
Our bodies are the homes in which our spirit lives, but our
homes at the moment are not solid - they are tents. “our
earthly house, this tent”
So we know that our bodies are just tents.
Do you know that?
If you are an unbeliever - your body is but a tent
for your spirit!
Are you relying upon a tent to keep you safe and well for
ever!
As a believer do you know that?
Don’t then be surprised at the failings of our tents
-
which leads us onto the second thing that we know.
2) we know that our tents will be
destroyed!
Even in our own day of modern sophisticated tents - we know
they are not made to be lived in as permanent homes.
Just had some open air concerts with people staying in
tents, that have not even lasted the weekend!
The word for “Destroyed” in the
Greek, is the word for taking down a tent! We know that our
tents, will one day be taken down!
Maybe for some - a bit at a time, through old age. Maybe for
others, just in an instant!
But the reality is, our tents will be taken down! Our bodies
will die!
But note: it is just our bodies! We will not die! The
real you will not die!
We are living in a shocking age of war. Only recently
more young fit men have died in Iraq!
Death may seem a long way off. But who knows? Are you
ready?
You can only be ready if you have something in death!
3) Which leads us onto the 3rd
thing that we know! We know what we have!
For the Christian what we know about death can only be
described by what we have.
Because for the believer there really is no such thing
as death!
The tent is collapsed but the person inside the tent
is very much alive!
So what do we have?
We have an absolutely astonishing, amazing, fantastic “building”.
No longer a tent that can be collapsed at any moment but a
structure that will never be destroyed!
Why is it so absolutely fantastic?
A) it is from God.
God is going to replace our tents, with a building.
This is why we need not fear death. God has it all under
control!
Even at a human level it is great fun to go camping, but
then there is nothing like getting back home to your
warm, solid, secure house!
We are camping at the moment but we are looking forward to
going home!
B) it is eternal in the heavens.
This new building is one that is built to last.
Death is not the end, eternity is the end!
Nothing in our tent world is built to last! Even the
strongest tent will be blown away someday! The mighty
will fall and time will be no more!
For the believer there is an eternal home in the heavens
just waiting!
C) it is supernatural (not
built by hands).
It is a house not made with hands!
This reminds us of Dan 2 - the stone cut out without hands!
“And the stone that struck the image
became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
dan2v35
This new building is in fact the Kingdom of God! The kingdom
that cannot be shaken (Heb 12 v 28).
And this is what we have ! Gods kingdom is
our kingdom! Eternal, immovable, unshakable,
ever growing and living!