Made for Eternity
2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10
As you know, this is the first time I have preached since my dear wife, Linda, died. Do you mind if I say what we are all thinking? She died too soon! In different eras, 53 would have been a long life, but not in our day. The life expectancy for Linda’s group is somewhere around 80 years of age. Linda was special. There will be no telling, this side of eternity, just how many lives she touched. In many ways, she was just coming into her prime, gaining the kind of confidence that frees one to minister far more effectively than had been previously possible. Why did her life have to end so soon?
Well, her life didn’t end. Linda was not made for 53 years, she was made for eternity! There is so very much about this difficult life that we live that does not make sense. We can expend a lot of energy trying to answer questions that are unanswerable this side of eternity. So, let’s concentrate on those things that we can know, in fact, our text today will make many things quite clear, though some things will remain a mystery. We will find comfort in what we are told, I am absolutely certain, though comfort in the loss of loved ones is not the primary reason this passage was written.
This morning, we will begin our time in 2 Corinthians 4, the passage I chose as my text a little over two weeks into our trial. On that February, 2007 Sunday, we looked at the whole chapter. This morning, we will only look at the last three verses, beginning with verse 16, but then we will continue on into the 5th chapter and read through verse 10. There is much, much more to be known from our text than we will be able to consider, but I think you will see why the Lord led me to this passage for our instruction, our comfort, and for the purpose of challenging us this morning. By the way, I keep saying “our comfort,” because I know you are grieving with me. You cannot know how grateful I am for your company. Would you please stand as we read 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10?
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened – not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5 He Who has prepared us for this very thing is God, Who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Before we get into this text, I would like to say that the larger context found in these two chapters speaks of the importance of the gospel, with regard to understanding it so that we can be saved, and with regard to the strong compulsion we should feel to share it with the lost. We will talk more about that at the end of the message. We will begin our look at today’s text with the last three verses of 2 Corinthians 4 where we will learn the importance for believers to:
I. Commit to seeing the unseen
How sad it must be for those who believe that this life is all there is! It may be that some of you here today believe that we are born, we live whatever years we are given, and we die. End of story. I am so sorry if that is what you believe, and I say that genuinely, not to patronize you. It may be convenient in the salad days of life to believe that this life is all there is to one’s existence. But, what of the days when life begins to ebb away, or a debilitating disease reduces the quality of life to a barely tolerable level?
Those of us who follow Jesus see beyond this brief and difficult existence. Or, do we? Even though I characterized this existence as brief and difficult, we do have quite a few conveniences, and to be honest, when life is good, it is really good. That is one reason that suffering is not such a bad thing. Suffering tends to get our focus back on the eternal. Let’s look again at 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Paul was not a dualist. He was not saying that this earth is evil and the realm of the spiritual is good. He was contrasting the inevitable suffering that committed followers of Jesus will experience in this life with the eternal glory they will experience as soon as this life is done. All people, whether believers or not, experience suffering, and of course, we all die. But the future is bright for believers. Why so little focus on eternity, then?
For starters, suffering is delayed as long as possible. We are often able to insulate ourselves from trouble in our day, and while none of us would invite trouble, it is a shame that our lives of relative ease keep us from contemplating the eternal. Suffering can be a blessing if and when it interrupts our “live in the moment” mentality and moves us toward the eternal perspective that will lead us to establish the right priorities in life. The reality is that even though the outer self, or the body, is decaying, the inner man, the part that relates to God, is being renewed every day. Colossians 3:10 puts it this way: “(We) have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.” In other words, when the new self is being renewed, which happens when we have an eternal perspective, we become more like Jesus.
We have already acknowledged that suffering can help us with our focus, but whether we are suffering or not, we must commit to seeing the unseen. Isn’t that what we are told in our text? Someone once said, “The power to persevere comes from gazing intently at what you cannot see.” Paul said, the things that are seen, all that this world has to offer, is transient. It is short-lived. It will pass away. But the things that are unseen, well, those things are eternal. Those are the things that really matter. That is why we need to commit to seeing the unseen. When our commitment is firmly established, we will recognize that:
II. Death, for the believer, allows real life to begin
I am not in the best of health these days. Caring for my dear wife for 13 months took its toll on my health. I am working hard to get my body back into shape, which means walking as many days as I can and eating right. That is why I want to ask you kind souls who have said you would like to have me over to your home for dinner to please not make dessert! As much as I would love hamburgers and fries, I am doing my best to eat fish and broccoli.
But you know what? I am going to die. Even if my body became the model for old preachers, it is going to wear out eventually. While that could be depressing, if I know that I was made for eternity and that death allows real life to begin, it could be downright exciting to contemplate the next stage! Let’s look to our text, again. We will just read through 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 and make a few comments as we go – we will not take much time here, although this is a difficult passage and we could spend weeks on these verses! If we did spend several weeks on this text and looked at dozens and dozens of verses that correlate with this passage, we would certainly find some measure of understanding of the topic Paul addresses here, but our efforts would not yield the clarity we desire about all that happens when a believer dies. Let’s focus on what we can know, beginning in verse 1:
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
Paul is contrasting our temporary body with our resurrected body, the body we will receive at the end of this age when Christ comes back to judge the world. That body will last us for all eternity. No wonder this earthly body is compared to a tent, a temporary shelter, and our resurrected body is compared to a house, a far more stable structure, one that is, in fact, eternal. Scripture is clear that we receive our resurrected bodies at the end of this age.
Verse 2 is a cry for the end of this age to come so that real life can begin. Verse 3 is quite a challenge. It is possible that Paul could be saying we do not want to be disembodied spirits, so even though we prefer heaven to this world, it would really be great to be alive when Christ returns. It is more likely he is saying that in the resurrected body, we will never again be naked, like Adam and Eve found themselves to be after sinning against God. In other words, nakedness is more a condition of the heart than of the body. Paul then goes on in verse 4 to say that as long as we are in this body, we will groan with anticipation of the resurrected body that will be perfect in every way and free from the stain of sin and decay that we currently experience. How do we know this body is in store for us? Verse 5 tells those who have trusted Jesus that the Holy Spirit, living inside of them, is the guarantee of this perfect and sinless body.
So, if we receive our resurrected bodies at the end of the age, what then of those who go to be with the Lord before the end of the age? Do those who have already died have an intermediate body of some sort, or are they simply spirits, waiting for their resurrected bodies? We are not told in Scripture, exactly. We can make educated guesses based on what we infer from other passages of Scripture, but it is unwise to be too dogmatic about your position. Why does God not make this any clearer? I am not sure, but verses 6-8 help us to get past any frustration that may arise from a lack of specific knowledge about what state we are in between our death and the resurrection of our bodies.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Isn’t that awesome? To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord! So much for purgatory! So much for soul sleep! And even though we may not know as much as we would like to about our state between death and the resurrection at the end of the age, I can promise you this, our loved ones who have gone before are not disappointed. No one is in heaven saying, “Oh, man, I am bummed – I really would like my resurrection body right now!” No, being with the Lord is infinitely better than being away from Him, no matter how good it is here.
Maybe one of the reasons we fail to desire heaven in the manner described here is that we have such a low view of heaven. We think of heaven in earthly terms – “When I get to heaven, I am going to eat all the ice cream I want and not gain a pound.” That may be true, but it will certainly not be the big deal about heaven – Jesus will be the center of our attention and affection! So, our focus on the eternal demands and deserves far more attention than most of us give. John Calvin went so far as to say, “Let us consider this settled, that no one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await the day of his death and final resurrection.” Unbelievers would be scandalized by such a statement, and many believers would recoil from it, also. Perhaps we would not say it quite like Calvin did, but we can certainly go as far as Scripture goes, and God tells us He wants us to commit to seeing the unseen. He also wants us to know with our whole hearts that death, for the believer, is simply the beginning of real life. Where does such knowledge lead? To our final point:
III. An eternal perspective will lead the Christ-follower to the sensible decision to prepare for meeting Jesus
I have to tell you, 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 is a comfort to anyone that has lost a loved one who was a follower of Jesus. In fact, I suppose the greatest comfort I have these days is thinking about Linda in heaven with Jesus and with all those who love Him perfectly, now. You and I walk by faith – Linda and your loved ones can see Jesus, so they no longer have any need for faith. We who are still here, on the other hand, must walk by faith. And we should also recognize that while we derive comfort from the Scripture we have just read, comfort is not the primary reason God wrote it for us. He wanted us to prepare for the day when we will meet Him. Look at verses 9 and 10:
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
An understanding of our future with the Lord should change the way we live. We are given two motivations for living our lives in a manner that pleases Him. The first is an appeal to an intrinsic motivation – verse 9 begins with “So.” Because of our glorious future, our hearts ought to be filled with a desire to please the one Who has done so much for us. But, there is an extrinsic motivation given, as well. Every person alive will be judged perfectly and absolutely based on what he or she has done, whether good things or bad things. I am certain that our motives will come into play as well as our works.
There are two judgments that will occur – most likely these will occur at the end of the age, not when one passes from this life to the next. One judgment is for believers and the other is for unbelievers. The judgment spoken of in verse 10 is known as the Judgment Seat of Christ – in fact, that is what it is called. This is the judgment for those who have trusted Jesus’ death on the cross as payment for their sins. Even though all our secrets are revealed at this time, it is not a judgment of condemnation. Romans 8:1 tells us there is no condemnation for the believer. Our eternal destiny is secure if we belong to Him. More is said about this judgment in Romans 14:10-12 and 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
For the unbeliever, the Great White Throne Judgment awaits, as described in Revelation 20:11-15. All who are present at this judgment are found guilty and are cast into the lake of fire, away from God’s presence for eternity. Believers will not be at this judgment, thank God, but it should, nonetheless, serve as a motivation for us.
You will recall at the beginning of the message that I spoke of the context surrounding the passage we looked at today. Paul recognized the connection between what we believe in this life and where we will spend life after death. He understood that those who failed to believe that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty of their sin would, indeed, have to face the severe judgment of God for their sin. That is why he spent the whole section before our text in chapter 4 and the rest of chapter 5 after our text talking about the importance of the gospel. Paul was persuaded that judgment of the worst kind awaits those who fail to believe in Jesus. That is why he was willing to beg others to be reconciled to God through Jesus. We ought to have the same passion to share the message of Christ with the world.
It is that message that we will focus on as we come to the Lord’s Table, as we do every month on the first Sunday. Would the elders please come forward to prepare for communion?
2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10
As you know, this is the first time I have preached since my dear wife, Linda, died. Do you mind if I say what we are all thinking? She died too soon! In different eras, 53 would have been a long life, but not in our day. The life expectancy for Linda’s group is somewhere around 80 years of age. Linda was special. There will be no telling, this side of eternity, just how many lives she touched. In many ways, she was just coming into her prime, gaining the kind of confidence that frees one to minister far more effectively than had been previously possible. Why did her life have to end so soon?
Well, her life didn’t end. Linda was not made for 53 years, she was made for eternity! There is so very much about this difficult life that we live that does not make sense. We can expend a lot of energy trying to answer questions that are unanswerable this side of eternity. So, let’s concentrate on those things that we can know, in fact, our text today will make many things quite clear, though some things will remain a mystery. We will find comfort in what we are told, I am absolutely certain, though comfort in the loss of loved ones is not the primary reason this passage was written.
This morning, we will begin our time in 2 Corinthians 4, the passage I chose as my text a little over two weeks into our trial. On that February, 2007 Sunday, we looked at the whole chapter. This morning, we will only look at the last three verses, beginning with verse 16, but then we will continue on into the 5th chapter and read through verse 10. There is much, much more to be known from our text than we will be able to consider, but I think you will see why the Lord led me to this passage for our instruction, our comfort, and for the purpose of challenging us this morning. By the way, I keep saying “our comfort,” because I know you are grieving with me. You cannot know how grateful I am for your company. Would you please stand as we read 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10?
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened – not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5 He Who has prepared us for this very thing is God, Who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Before we get into this text, I would like to say that the larger context found in these two chapters speaks of the importance of the gospel, with regard to understanding it so that we can be saved, and with regard to the strong compulsion we should feel to share it with the lost. We will talk more about that at the end of the message. We will begin our look at today’s text with the last three verses of 2 Corinthians 4 where we will learn the importance for believers to:
I. Commit to seeing the unseen
How sad it must be for those who believe that this life is all there is! It may be that some of you here today believe that we are born, we live whatever years we are given, and we die. End of story. I am so sorry if that is what you believe, and I say that genuinely, not to patronize you. It may be convenient in the salad days of life to believe that this life is all there is to one’s existence. But, what of the days when life begins to ebb away, or a debilitating disease reduces the quality of life to a barely tolerable level?
Those of us who follow Jesus see beyond this brief and difficult existence. Or, do we? Even though I characterized this existence as brief and difficult, we do have quite a few conveniences, and to be honest, when life is good, it is really good. That is one reason that suffering is not such a bad thing. Suffering tends to get our focus back on the eternal. Let’s look again at 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Paul was not a dualist. He was not saying that this earth is evil and the realm of the spiritual is good. He was contrasting the inevitable suffering that committed followers of Jesus will experience in this life with the eternal glory they will experience as soon as this life is done. All people, whether believers or not, experience suffering, and of course, we all die. But the future is bright for believers. Why so little focus on eternity, then?
For starters, suffering is delayed as long as possible. We are often able to insulate ourselves from trouble in our day, and while none of us would invite trouble, it is a shame that our lives of relative ease keep us from contemplating the eternal. Suffering can be a blessing if and when it interrupts our “live in the moment” mentality and moves us toward the eternal perspective that will lead us to establish the right priorities in life. The reality is that even though the outer self, or the body, is decaying, the inner man, the part that relates to God, is being renewed every day. Colossians 3:10 puts it this way: “(We) have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.” In other words, when the new self is being renewed, which happens when we have an eternal perspective, we become more like Jesus.
We have already acknowledged that suffering can help us with our focus, but whether we are suffering or not, we must commit to seeing the unseen. Isn’t that what we are told in our text? Someone once said, “The power to persevere comes from gazing intently at what you cannot see.” Paul said, the things that are seen, all that this world has to offer, is transient. It is short-lived. It will pass away. But the things that are unseen, well, those things are eternal. Those are the things that really matter. That is why we need to commit to seeing the unseen. When our commitment is firmly established, we will recognize that:
II. Death, for the believer, allows real life to begin
I am not in the best of health these days. Caring for my dear wife for 13 months took its toll on my health. I am working hard to get my body back into shape, which means walking as many days as I can and eating right. That is why I want to ask you kind souls who have said you would like to have me over to your home for dinner to please not make dessert! As much as I would love hamburgers and fries, I am doing my best to eat fish and broccoli.
But you know what? I am going to die. Even if my body became the model for old preachers, it is going to wear out eventually. While that could be depressing, if I know that I was made for eternity and that death allows real life to begin, it could be downright exciting to contemplate the next stage! Let’s look to our text, again. We will just read through 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 and make a few comments as we go – we will not take much time here, although this is a difficult passage and we could spend weeks on these verses! If we did spend several weeks on this text and looked at dozens and dozens of verses that correlate with this passage, we would certainly find some measure of understanding of the topic Paul addresses here, but our efforts would not yield the clarity we desire about all that happens when a believer dies. Let’s focus on what we can know, beginning in verse 1:
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
Paul is contrasting our temporary body with our resurrected body, the body we will receive at the end of this age when Christ comes back to judge the world. That body will last us for all eternity. No wonder this earthly body is compared to a tent, a temporary shelter, and our resurrected body is compared to a house, a far more stable structure, one that is, in fact, eternal. Scripture is clear that we receive our resurrected bodies at the end of this age.
Verse 2 is a cry for the end of this age to come so that real life can begin. Verse 3 is quite a challenge. It is possible that Paul could be saying we do not want to be disembodied spirits, so even though we prefer heaven to this world, it would really be great to be alive when Christ returns. It is more likely he is saying that in the resurrected body, we will never again be naked, like Adam and Eve found themselves to be after sinning against God. In other words, nakedness is more a condition of the heart than of the body. Paul then goes on in verse 4 to say that as long as we are in this body, we will groan with anticipation of the resurrected body that will be perfect in every way and free from the stain of sin and decay that we currently experience. How do we know this body is in store for us? Verse 5 tells those who have trusted Jesus that the Holy Spirit, living inside of them, is the guarantee of this perfect and sinless body.
So, if we receive our resurrected bodies at the end of the age, what then of those who go to be with the Lord before the end of the age? Do those who have already died have an intermediate body of some sort, or are they simply spirits, waiting for their resurrected bodies? We are not told in Scripture, exactly. We can make educated guesses based on what we infer from other passages of Scripture, but it is unwise to be too dogmatic about your position. Why does God not make this any clearer? I am not sure, but verses 6-8 help us to get past any frustration that may arise from a lack of specific knowledge about what state we are in between our death and the resurrection of our bodies.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Isn’t that awesome? To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord! So much for purgatory! So much for soul sleep! And even though we may not know as much as we would like to about our state between death and the resurrection at the end of the age, I can promise you this, our loved ones who have gone before are not disappointed. No one is in heaven saying, “Oh, man, I am bummed – I really would like my resurrection body right now!” No, being with the Lord is infinitely better than being away from Him, no matter how good it is here.
Maybe one of the reasons we fail to desire heaven in the manner described here is that we have such a low view of heaven. We think of heaven in earthly terms – “When I get to heaven, I am going to eat all the ice cream I want and not gain a pound.” That may be true, but it will certainly not be the big deal about heaven – Jesus will be the center of our attention and affection! So, our focus on the eternal demands and deserves far more attention than most of us give. John Calvin went so far as to say, “Let us consider this settled, that no one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await the day of his death and final resurrection.” Unbelievers would be scandalized by such a statement, and many believers would recoil from it, also. Perhaps we would not say it quite like Calvin did, but we can certainly go as far as Scripture goes, and God tells us He wants us to commit to seeing the unseen. He also wants us to know with our whole hearts that death, for the believer, is simply the beginning of real life. Where does such knowledge lead? To our final point:
III. An eternal perspective will lead the Christ-follower to the sensible decision to prepare for meeting Jesus
I have to tell you, 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 is a comfort to anyone that has lost a loved one who was a follower of Jesus. In fact, I suppose the greatest comfort I have these days is thinking about Linda in heaven with Jesus and with all those who love Him perfectly, now. You and I walk by faith – Linda and your loved ones can see Jesus, so they no longer have any need for faith. We who are still here, on the other hand, must walk by faith. And we should also recognize that while we derive comfort from the Scripture we have just read, comfort is not the primary reason God wrote it for us. He wanted us to prepare for the day when we will meet Him. Look at verses 9 and 10:
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
An understanding of our future with the Lord should change the way we live. We are given two motivations for living our lives in a manner that pleases Him. The first is an appeal to an intrinsic motivation – verse 9 begins with “So.” Because of our glorious future, our hearts ought to be filled with a desire to please the one Who has done so much for us. But, there is an extrinsic motivation given, as well. Every person alive will be judged perfectly and absolutely based on what he or she has done, whether good things or bad things. I am certain that our motives will come into play as well as our works.
There are two judgments that will occur – most likely these will occur at the end of the age, not when one passes from this life to the next. One judgment is for believers and the other is for unbelievers. The judgment spoken of in verse 10 is known as the Judgment Seat of Christ – in fact, that is what it is called. This is the judgment for those who have trusted Jesus’ death on the cross as payment for their sins. Even though all our secrets are revealed at this time, it is not a judgment of condemnation. Romans 8:1 tells us there is no condemnation for the believer. Our eternal destiny is secure if we belong to Him. More is said about this judgment in Romans 14:10-12 and 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
For the unbeliever, the Great White Throne Judgment awaits, as described in Revelation 20:11-15. All who are present at this judgment are found guilty and are cast into the lake of fire, away from God’s presence for eternity. Believers will not be at this judgment, thank God, but it should, nonetheless, serve as a motivation for us.
You will recall at the beginning of the message that I spoke of the context surrounding the passage we looked at today. Paul recognized the connection between what we believe in this life and where we will spend life after death. He understood that those who failed to believe that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty of their sin would, indeed, have to face the severe judgment of God for their sin. That is why he spent the whole section before our text in chapter 4 and the rest of chapter 5 after our text talking about the importance of the gospel. Paul was persuaded that judgment of the worst kind awaits those who fail to believe in Jesus. That is why he was willing to beg others to be reconciled to God through Jesus. We ought to have the same passion to share the message of Christ with the world.
It is that message that we will focus on as we come to the Lord’s Table, as we do every month on the first Sunday. Would the elders please come forward to prepare for communion?
6 comments:
Great encouragement for those of us who have lost loved ones in the Lord, but also for ALL of us who are living and who are "wasting away". Suffering is seen in a different light, and for a purpose. I loved the explanation for the question of our bodies upon death, "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." How comforting! Thank you for sharing your sermon for those of us who can't hear it "live"!
Wonderful message today, Brad! It was great to have you back and in your element. I think that your message touched many of us, including me. We love and appreciate you so much, more than I think you can ever know! We continue to lift you up in prayer!
thanks for posting this - it helped at college home fellowship, where we are discussing the sermons!
Brad,
How blessed I am to be in your flock at GCC! I just thanked God for you- amazed at the strength and confidence in your voice and real message that can come from one who has been in such sorrow these last weeks. Oh, your sermon was such a testimony of the power of the Holy Spirit in your life and testimony. You truly have a God-given gift to preach the Word and how God was working through you this morning! There was no question in my mind that it was Him who was speaking. There is no other way you could deliver such an honest message, bearing your heart for Linda, otherwise! It was awesome to have you back in the pulpit. You are our family and it is wonderful to have you back as our teacher under the authority of the Teacher.
We love you. And once again, you blessed us!
Oh, and just a tidbit. I love to share how I grew from the message.. small, but neat. I'm embarrassed to say I never really thought about it more, but I was never quite sure why, in 1Cor.13, love was the greatest of these... I just sort of took that as truth at face value. Never thought about it being the only one that we'd "need" and still have use for in eternity! Awesome thought! Thanks.
Oh, how we plead with God to continue to hold you up and make you feel whole again. I know you know you are complete in Him, but I pray for you as He brings your mind, body and spirit into that confidence together.
Love in Christ,
Keisha
Another perspective
What about you have the loved ones died without ever knowing or hearing about Jesus?
They are made by God for eternity too. But they are cast in the eternal lake of fire.
There is a verse in Revelation say that God would judge everyone's heart and deeds. How about those criminals? Are they doomed in eternal death?
Will good Christians in eternal joy and eternal bliss of heaven (God too) be content that there are fellow creatures in the hell?
While it is comforting that the loved one is with the Lord now, wouldn't it be double/triple sorrow for those who have loved ones in hell?
"Death allows for believers begin a real life... We are so glad that we have eternal on the other side."
I think I belong to the believer's category. But I see my eternal on the other side not so glad now.
With a different kind of grief and lots of bitterness.
Hong
this message is for the previous comment from Hong -
Please do not be bitter - have the faith that Pastor Brad talks about here in his blog. After reading what you wrote - I prayed for you and will continue to do so. Trust in God - He is our only hope.
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