The Suffering No.5 Home & Away

Let's read from God's Word in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning at verse 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, this great passage, verse 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. Meanwhile, we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will be found not found naked. For while we're 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.

Now it is God who has made us for the very purpose, and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore, we are always confident to know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.

We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

And I'd like you to have your Bibles open to that passage that Richard read from, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It's a solemn thing for a preacher to say that the passage that we have to consider this morning is the Word of God for us to respond to. In other words, what we're saying is this, not as a result of our own thinking, but because of the teaching of the Bible, that God has elected for the medium of preaching as being the way in which he applies his Word, therefore speaks out his voice today. Not the only way, but the general way.

So the words to which I call your attention are very special words, because they are God's words for you at this particular point. And within these verses that we're going to look at, there is both an explanation and also a stimulus. They will explicate and they will stimulate.

Explicate in this sense. I find it very hard sometimes to understand if, for example, you went to West Africa, known amongst missionary people as the white man's grave, how if you turn the clock back 100 years, men and indeed women could have the strength of character to go to a mosquito-ridden and therefore malaria-infected part of the world with the possibility that their lives would be shortened and against incredible odds proclaim the gospel. If you go amongst the cemeteries in that part of Africa, not only do you find the tombstones erected in honor of those valiant pioneer missionaries, but you'll also find smaller tombstones indicative of children that never lived more than two or three weeks, three or four months.

The fruit of the marriage of the missionaries and as often the parents died, so likewise the children. The problem is how did these people get the sort of courage to risk their lives and how come that they have the audacity to jeopardize the well-being of their children by setting off to such far-reaching places and live so dangerously? How is it that a man can look in the jaws of death and laugh at it? Oh death, where is your stink? Oh grave, where is your victory? How can a man wait for the result of some trial? Dashar left a letter to some of his friends and said, I'm actually in a state of uncertainty. I rather hope that I might be said to be guilty so that they'll kill me.

On the other hand, it might be better that I get a verdict that allows me to be released because to stay with you would be better for you, but if it's just a question of personal choice then I'd rather die. The Apostle Paul, in this particular passage, gives you an explanation and also a stimulus. He explains how he and many of the missionary descendants that were to follow the example that he set was able to cope with the great problems that confronted him and them in the advance of the gospel.

And he'll also give you a stimulus as to how you can go on in your life and as you move towards its close, cope with the greatest challenge of all, the challenge of death. Says the Apostle, 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. In other words, what he is saying to you, what he said to the missionaries of last century, what he illustrated in his own example and lifestyle was this.

He considered that this pilgrimage through which we make our way in this world is not the most important thing. Though the outward man, verse 16 of the previous chapter, may decay and waste away, the most important thing is the soul and its nourishment and the gospel which when introduced to others will save the soul and therefore grant to them in its consequence eternal life. How was the Apostle Paul able to cope? He was able to do so because of what he knew in terms of, shall I suggest, three theologies.

He understood, hear me, the theology of the rucksack. He understood the theology of permanence and impermanence. He also understood the theology of preference.

What do I mean? Well, you've often seen in the airport or in maybe Victoria Station groups of young people and those not so young who've got a rucksack on their back and maybe strapped onto the rucksack too is a small tent. And you know that they're going to go off on a journey maybe to Scotland, maybe to Europe, and they will be there for a while. They presumably cannot afford hotel fees and so they use their tent.

And for the next week or month or several months as the case may be, theirs will be the life of the Bedouin, the life of the pilgrim. Now, says the Apostle, having not only his own experience in mind but the teaching of our beloved Lord, our life on earth is to be seen as though we are those who live in a tent. And the pilgrimage that we engage in will not last forever.

And the problems that confront us during this stay are not the most important things. Says the Apostle, speaking of his body, it is an earthly tent. Now, Paul knew a good deal about tents, didn't he? Because he was a tent maker.

Maybe it wasn't that that triggered off his thinking to start with, though I believe it was part of the background behind this passage. Maybe he also had in mind the thought of our beloved Lord Jesus, because when God came on earth, we're reading John's Gospel in chapter 1, when the Son became incarnate, he dwelt in a body almost like a man inhabits a tent. The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us and it is the language of the tent.

It is, if you like, the language of impermanence. Our Lord Jesus came on earth to reveal himself, to reveal the Father through his ministry, and he was only here on an impermanent basis. So, you could say that our beloved Lord was a pilgrim passing through this world.

And that is the case for Christian people. We are pilgrims passing through. Our Lord, on one occasion, and Paul doubtless had this in mind, you read of this in Mark chapter 15 and right at the end of that particular passage of Scripture, you read that our Lord was accused one day of saying, destroy this temple and I will build it again.

And what he was referring to, and he was completely misunderstood by his enemies, was not the temple at Jerusalem, but his own body. And he was saying that if this body is destroyed, then it will be built, it will be reborn, it will be raised. And you know that at the end of our life, when the tent seemed to collapse at Calvary, on the third day it was raised.

He was raised in the power of an endless life. Now, the Apostle Paul makes it very clear that there is a connection between you and the Lord Jesus, assuming you have trusted him as your Savior, which can never be broken, it can never be violated. So the person who is passing through this world has as a most important aspect of their responsibility to realize the salvation that Jesus offers, which will deal primarily with their soul, even though not primarily with their body.

So you see the logic in what Paul has to say in the 16th verse of that fourth chapter, therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. The theology of the rucksack, a recognition that the life that you live is just like the rambler who opts to live in a tent for a short time. But then it's not just the theology of the rucksack, it's the theology of permanence versus impermanence.

The earthly tent we live in is destroyed, says the Apostle. In contradistinction, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. This is almost the estate agent's guide to the galaxy in the way the optional building is described.

By God, eternal, in heaven, not built by human hands. If you had the option of dwelling in a tent and dwelling permanently in a building which had all the mod cons, then the probability is that you would opt for the latter rather than for the former. If you were told that you just had to endure the former for a little while, and the way that you lived would actually in some way affect the benefits that you would have ultimately in living in this grander, more stable dwelling, then you would live very carefully during the time that you were in your tent.

And this is again what the Apostle Paul is demonstrating. The theology of the rucksack, the theology of impermanence, and the theology of preference. We know that if this earthly tent collapses, and the Apostle does know about tents collapsing, he knows that you can get to a point with your tent when tear and repair, the sequence no longer is reasonable.

There comes a point when the tent is no good. But we know that when our earthly tent is demolished, not to be erected again in its same constituency, we have a more permanent dwelling, made by God, eternal in the heavens. Therefore, here is his argument.

Though outwardly our tent is gradually decaying, inwardly, as we prepare ourselves for moving from this world into the next world, we are knowing a spiritual renewal. Look, the Israelites were better positioned than ourselves to understand the Apostle Paul here. For they had in their history a classic example of what he was trying to say.

You see those Old Testament Hebrews, when they came out of Egypt, they did live the camp life, didn't they? I mean, they had their portable dwellings. They lived in their tents. In one sense, they were very much like the founder of the Hebrew nation, Abraham.

Because you read of Abraham in Hebrews and chapter 11, by faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Abraham lived in a tent. He never really was fully domiciled, not even in the land of promise that God gave to him. And when the Hebrews were making their way through the Sinai, at a different part in their history, they lived in the impermanent dwellings, looking forward to the time when they would enter into the promised land, flowing with milk and honey, and when the tabernacle, the impermanent dwelling of God, would be replaced by the temple, the permanent dwelling.

When the Sinai Peninsula yielded to the blessings of the Holy Land. Now don't you see that at the back of the apostle's mind there is all this history? There's Abraham, there are the Israelites, there's his own knowledge as a tent maker of the point that comes in the use of a tent when it has to be put on one side and another has to be acquired. Now if you believe that what lies beyond is far more wonderful than what you are experiencing or can possibly experience now, then you will give a great deal of attention in the way that you live your life now, so that when you pass through into heaven, you will do so to receive the just reward that belongs to those who have been faithful servants of Jesus Christ.

I'm not referring to your salvation. The apostle Paul here in this teaching is not referring to salvation. He is referring to the Christian, the pilgrim going through this world in a tent-like fashion who has his eye on what it's going to be like in the beyond and is working not for his salvation, that is the gift of God.

He is working for well done, you good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord. More of that in a moment. The apostle in the second verse merges two terms.

The terms are groaning and longing. The longing refers to his desire to leave this world because what is beyond is far more wonderful. The groaning is, well, it has to do with the particular difficulties that came his way and come your way and my way when you discover that your earthly tent, your earthly tabernacle is not really adequate for you.

Again, you see, in that 16th verse of the previous chapter, the apostles made it quite clear. His outward body, it's wasting away. He's not using purple language here.

He tells us in the eighth verse of that chapter, we're hard-pressed on every side. We're crushed. We are persecuted.

We are struck down. We're always carrying in our body the death of Jesus. These are real terms.

This man is giving you an accurate description of what he's going through. Now, a plague on those who feel that you can cope with the dissolution of the body, the decaying of the body, and just brush it on one side as though it doesn't matter. It does matter.

It did hurt when those stones were flung at Paul. He was offended by the insults that were rained on him. When he hovered on a piece of driftwood, wondering if the next billowing wave would drag him to a watery grave.

Of course, it had an impact upon him. And there were times when he groaned to be away from this and the limits of this world and the problems of being absent from the Lord. You see, there is a sense in which the salvation that the Lord Jesus brought to us will one day be shared by the inanimate world.

The apostle says in Romans chapter 8, stay with me and you'll understand why I'm introducing this thought at this point. I consider, verse 18, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed, for the creation was subject to frustration.

Verse 22, we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we await our full redemption. You are looking at a person who is saved.

I may not look much to you on the external, and I don't say that with a sense of trying to be jocular. I've got little estimate of myself. But you are looking at someone for whom Jesus died, someone who has entered into a little of salvation.

But there's a grand consummation to my salvation. My body deteriorates as the years go by. The eyes get worse.

The speed of movement is not as quick as perhaps it was in one's teenage days. That is even a more serious situation for some of our older friends. If our salvation is all that we experience now, with great respect to God, it is somewhat limited.

But you see, there is a fuller realisation of that salvation. The body which is decaying is yet to be redeemed. Now, says the apostle, I groan for that day.

Not just in the sense of wanting to get away from all the pressures of life, though he had every reason so to argue, but because he is so captivated by the Lord Jesus that he wants to be in his immediate presence. He wants to know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with no distinctions in terms of him being absent from home. Because you see, home for the Christian is where God is.

And in this world at the moment, we are not at home. And if you are feeling comfortable always in this world, then I think John Calvin would have been as rough with you about that comment as he was when he suggested that those who don't look forward to heaven, he doubts their full understanding of the Christian faith. So here is the apostle, and he's got this groaning.

There are the circumstances which are so pressurising, and then there is that great longing. And sometimes the longing, it's subsumed into a groaning, and the groaning into a longing. And the Christian lives with this sort of tension.

There's a dear lady who was part of our Taft family for many years and went home to be with the Lord. I love her dearly because she became my secretary. And for many years she was so faithful to me and for long years in different capacities to the church.

She herself was always concerned about getting across the concept to other people of the wonder of heaven, living for the day when her frail earthly life, her frail tent, for if she was a small person, would collapse and she might go to be with the Lord. But she used to say to me, you know, I wish you could pinpoint prophetically when he's coming back again. You see, I'm hanging in as long as I can because I want to be there when he arrives.

And you know, I guess that goes for all of us, to be there on this earth when Jesus comes and then just in a flash, the mortal to be swallowed up in immortality, the corruptible to be swallowed up in corruption. But the prospects are increasingly for the Apostle Paul and maybe for us, though I think that perhaps we've got more going for us because it seems to me as though we are living under the shadow of the return or the hope of the soon return of our Lord. The Apostle is wondering, and he's very honest just now, what is it going to be like when he sheds this earthly tent and he goes to be with the Lord before Jesus returns to raise his body? And he writes this tantalizing verse of scripture which has bemused a lot of theologians in trying to understand.

For while we are in the tent, verse 4, 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. But the Apostle Paul, he did not live on earth to see the day of the return of Christ, and he went to be with the Lord, having left his earthly remains, so to speak, here on this earth. What happens to a person at the point of death before the Lord returns? There are some who say, well, they move into sort of nothingness.

For a while everything is suspended, and I think there are some scriptures that perhaps could be led to give that thought credibility. But it seems to me the overwhelming consensus of scripture is that such people do go immediately into the presence of the Lord in their unclothed condition, so to speak. It's not heaven in all its consummation that they enjoy.

Heaven is yet to be. It is, however, the presence of the Lord where consciously they enjoy his company, and the way that I read Romans, if I have that, read Revelation, if I have it right, they also are engaged in prayer. But their final consummation will come on the day when the Lord returns.

Those who are here in a moment, they are changed. Their body becomes like his glorious body, and the saints of those who've gone on into the eternal presence of God, they return and their bodies glorified, are raised, and the soul is repatriated with the body, and then we move into that eternal age, heaven coming down on earth, that limitless period when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea, when there'll be no more crying, there'll be no more heartache, there'll be no more shame, there will be no more hunger. All these things, says the apostle Paul, is what is in store for the Christian.

And he says, when I consider that, over against my present lot, despite all the difficulties, we know, I know, and I continue to press on, that if my earthly tent is destroyed, ultimately, however it's worked out, I am moving into something that is far more wonderful. I have not seen, he has not heard the things which God hath in store for those that love him. Now look at verse five.

You see, it's for this purpose, ideally, that you and I have been made. It is God who has made us for this purpose, for which purpose? To be glorified with his Son. Don't you realize that as far as the Christian is concerned, there is a relationship with Jesus that cannot be broken.

All the principalities and powers, the forces on earth, the forces on hell, all combined together, cannot rob me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. Once in him, I'm in him forever. And though my earthly body still remains, awaits its consummation, my spirit is at this very moment joined with Jesus.

And there is no force that can separate me and the Lord Jesus Christ, not because of my tenacity, but because of his fidelity. And this is one of the greatest truths that needs to be written into the consciences and the hearts of each one of us. Far more intimate, far more wonderful than marriage even at its highest and best, than any other form of human relationship.

Once you are in Christ Jesus, you are irresolvably his. It is God who has made us for this purpose. We have his word to tell us this, but never does the Apostle Paul allow that the word of God alone is the only evidence of our Christian position.

He has given us the spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. When our beloved Lord was taken into glory, what did he do? He sent his spirit amongst us, his spirit, the spirit of Jesus. For when the Holy Spirit comes, he comes representing the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the Apostle makes it very clear again in that great chapter of the Roman epistle, that when the spirit takes up residence in our hearts and lives, he ministers God, so to speak, to us. The spirit himself with our spirit, verse 16 of Romans 8, testifies that we are children of God. Take the 15th verse.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you receive the spirit of sonship, and by him we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit. You see, the spirit within me is my guarantee that I am connected to the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus.

As he was raised, so I will be raised. How do I know that? Because there is a bit of Jesus in me, and the Lord Jesus cannot die. Thou wilt not leave thy soul in hell, his soul in hell, nor wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.

The church for whom Jesus died has become part of our Lord Jesus. We are his body. It was more likely that Jesus would not be raised from the dead than what it is likely that you and I would not continue after the dissolution of our earthly tent and go into his immediate presence.

Our salvation is sure as the resurrection of Jesus, affirmed in his word. And when you have the spirit within your heart, you know that this is true. This is the qualitative distinction between the Christian and the non-Christian.

The Christian knows, there is that assurance. I never say he never has doubt at the secondary level, but he does know that his destination is sealed in the blood of Jesus. Jesus will not be in heaven and leave us behind.

We're confident of this, says Paul, verse 6. Confident knowing as long as we're at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. And it's because he knows that he's away from the Lord. And playing away, wanting to be at home, that he goes on in the seventh verse to say, during this part of our existence, this side of eternity, we live by faith, not by sight.

So you see, when the apostle Paul hazards his life, taking the gospel of Christ, and there are those who are his contemporaries perhaps from yesterday who come along and say, Paul, don't you regret this man? I mean, bless my soul, you could have been the successor of Gamaliel. You could have been the professor of theology. You were the star on the firmament of young Jewish theologians.

You could have had Judaism at your feet. And look at you, Paul. Look at your body.

You're an emaciated man. And they could have said exactly the same of John Calvin as with his chronic asthma and his deteriorating condition in Geneva. He faced what at the human level seemed to be a premature death.

Paul and Calvin and all the others would say, no, you've got it wrong. We live by faith, not by sight. You think that because of the advance in your position, that the prestige of your job and your lifestyle and so forth, that you are advantaged over me, over us, not a bit.

We should shed tears for you and for your short-sightedness, you who believe that somehow your Bedouin-style tent, which is in effect your life right now, is going to live forever. It cannot service your soul forever. When that is demolished, what will your situation be? Now, the Christian does play away.

He doesn't play at home. You know, had Sheffield Wednesday played at Hillsborough, the cup final, and not at Wembley, they would have won. I mean, that's perfectly obvious for all those who understand football and the brilliance of the people from Sheffield and the way they play.

They were playing away. And it's not easy to play away. I'd rather preach at home than preach away.

I really would. How do you live when you're away from home in the context of this passage? You live as though Jesus was still there. Verse nine, we make it our goal to please him.

When, Paul? Whether we are at home in the body or away from it. Whether we are in eternity, in terms of having passed from this world into the presence of the redeemed who are before God at this moment. Or whether we're living our lives in the Roman Empire.

We target this. This is our goal, to please him. For what reason, Paul? Ah, he says, because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

You see, as I come back full circle, because the logic here is quite brilliant, I can say that. It's not my logic, it's Paul's logic. It's not Paul's logic, it's the teaching of the Scriptures.

This passage has got nothing to do with your salvation, not directly. You see, it's not your salvation that is at stake. The apostle is constantly using the plural pronoun we.

We, we, we. He's referring to his readers as well as to himself. He's referring to the Christian community.

Now, you've got the picture in the mind? You're a rucksack Christian. You've got your tent. And the day will come when you will never again put that tent up, because you won't have the strength so to do.

The day will come when you're no longer in this world. You're standing before your God. The earthly tent has collapsed.

As the apostle is dogmatic that he knows about the earthly tent, so is equally dogmatic we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. For what reason? Well, to see how during your uneven earthly pilgrimage, you lived your life. You see, this judgment that you and I will face, not I repeat the judgment because of our sins.

Those have been forgiven through the shed blood of Christ. This judgment that you and I will be brought before is not unlike any, is not like any court in, in the United Kingdom. You see, the court sits to, to, to judge demerit, and it will put someone on probation or it will send them to jail, as the case may be.

But this court sits to judge merit and demerit. What you have done and what you didn't do, there were things that you could do for Jesus Christ. And, and doing things for Jesus Christ is only possible during your tent-like existence this side of eternity.

Are you understanding me? Therefore, it is impossible, it is, it is important rather, that you get the philosophy of the apostle Paul and make it your own. What is it that directed Paul's lifestyle? Well, he had in mind one day standing before the judgment seat of Christ and wanting to have done all that he could to honor the Lord Jesus, to continue the work that the Savior commenced on this earth. In other words, Paul wanted the well done.

And I tell you, I want the well done. I couldn't really care, at least only at a secondary level, what other people think. I do want the well done from him.

And my problem is, is I'm honest, always living my life from the background of the rucksack theology. And that's your problem too. Listen to what I said right at the beginning, and I'm coming to an end.

And now I'm beginning to realize why I lost my notes early on, because this has gone in a completely different way than I expected. I said right at the beginning, this is God's word for somebody, maybe many people in this audience this morning. You are in danger.

You are in danger of not living your life according to the tenth theology. You are in danger of getting a price tank completely messed up. Messed up.

Living for the now, which is bound ultimately to be taken from your grasp. Living as though you would continue forever here, which is an utter impossibility, but is a fallacy embraced by the majority of people in England. Here is God's corrective to you.

Follow through what the apostle is here saying. Teaching very simply, at most points, only one complex thing that he has to say. If you know that your earthly tent is going to be destroyed, and that there is something beyond that is far marvelous, but the enjoyment of what is beyond depends to some degree on your faithfulness this side, then isn't it logical to make the necessary correctives at this moment, so that you will receive a well done, good and faithful servant from the hands of the Lord? That will mean for some of you, give me two more minutes, that will mean for some of you, getting back to the practice of reading the Bible day by day, it will mean for some of you, have you got the guts to run with this, which sometimes I wish you wouldn't come, rather than to hear and not to act.

Now that's a terrible statement to make, and you know the love that there is in my heart, but I get so worried when people hear and don't respond. It will mean for some, the reordering of your life in terms of your time. You will want to be an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ, not just the occupant of a pew on a Sunday, however meritorious in one sense that might be.

It will affect the way that you handle your money, it will affect the way that you handle your relationships, it will affect even whether you come to an annual general meeting of a church or not, or whether you just tip your cap to the concept of the local church, but you're really not stuck in, you're really not involved. You see, you've only a limited time, months, years, only a limited time to earn this well done. When your tent collapses, whether my understanding is right and immediately going to the presence of God, or whether there's a sort of cosmic weight into which you go, a sort of suspension for a while, and then your existence is returned to you, so to speak, in one sense that doesn't matter.

The moment will come when you stand before the presence of the Lord Jesus, and it's only just now, and then, that you can earn the well done and live the theology of the rucksack, the theology of permanence, the theology of preference. May God have made something of what I shared this morning meaningful to you to the extent that you will respond.