WWUTT 1671 Absent from the Body and Home With the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:5-9)

You have heard it said, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Where does that come from? Well, it's in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. But as long as we are in these bodies, let us live to Christ when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Paul’s Introduction to 2 Corinthians 5 and the Hope of Eternal Dwelling

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 2 Corinthians chapter 5, picking up where we left off last week. But I'm going to start out here reading verses 1 -11 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth.

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, in as much as we, having put it on, will not be found naked.

For indeed, while we are in this tent we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

Christ Preparing a Place in John 14

Therefore being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

So then, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we have been made manifest to God, and I hope that we have been made manifest also in your consciences. So picking up where we left off last week, that puts us in verse 5.

Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge, prepared us for what purpose? But to live eternally with him in the heavens, in a house that is eternal, not made with hands, not like this earthly tent in which we dwell, which is wasting away, but the mortal will soon put on immortality.

We cannot dwell with God until the mortal puts on the immortal, and then we will live forever with him. We will live in a house that has been prepared for us by God. He who prepared us for this very purpose is God.

Now, one of the things that I drew your attention to last week as we were talking about these things were the words of Christ that he gave to his disciples in the upper room. Let me go to that passage in John chapter 14, beginning in verse 1.

I think I only spoke of this last week, but didn't actually read the passage. So here we are, John 14 in verse 1. Jesus, again, is telling his disciples what things that they can look forward to, the hope that they should have in their hearts.

Though he is about to be taken away and be arrested, crucified, and he's going to rise again, even after that resurrection, he won't be with them for long. Acts chapter 1 tells us that Jesus was with his disciples between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven for 40 days.

Okay, so even he's not going to be with them in the same way that he was with them before. Once he's resurrected from the grave, his stay with them will be temporary. And even then, he came to and fro from heaven.

He wasn't dwelling on earth as he did before his crucifixion. Anyway, so Jesus is attempting to encourage their hearts here. And he says in verse 1, do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

In my father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.

Now, as I said last week, Jesus is using wedding language here, just as a groom would go and prepare a place for he and his bride. So Jesus is going to prepare a place for he and his bride. The bride is the church.

So when Christ returns, he'll return as a groom to receive his bride. And then all of the church will be gathered together with him. And so we will forever be with the Lord, as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

So Jesus goes on here in this discourse here in the upper room. He says in verse 4, and you know the way where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way?

And Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but through me. The way to this eternal life, this eternal dwelling that we have with God is through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So you see, there are a couple of times in just the first three verses, John 14 verses 1 through 3. Jesus says to his disciples, I am preparing a place for you. So we read in verse 5, now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave to us the spirit as a pledge.

So the Holy Spirit has been given to us as the promise, the sealing of this inheritance that we're going to receive from God, the promise of eternal life that we have, the preparing of a place for us.

God has given us his spirit as a pledge that we know these things are going to be fulfilled, that we will be with God forever in glory for we are with God. Even now, God is with us, dwelling within us, our bodies that are temples unto the Lord.

Now, a temple is certainly a much more permanent structure, right? This is not a temporary tent like what Paul is talking about here in 2 Corinthians 5. So if the Holy Spirit dwells within us and we are temples unto the living God, then there is something permanent there, though we may feel like in these bodies, or rather I should say, though these bodies are indeed temporary, the body in which we dwell will not last.

It will age, decay, and die, and then decay some more until Christ returns and he raises our bodies to be transformed to be like his glorious body, like the new body that he has risen from the grave. Same body that went into the grave, but also risen a different body, because the body that he now has will never die again.

It's not a spiritual body in the sense that it was spiritually manifest. It wasn't his physical body that was raised. It was his physical body that was raised. And so because his body was raised from the dead, we know that our bodies will be raised from the dead, that our resurrection is not just going to be a spiritual resurrection, but there will be a physical resurrection.

Our bodies will be raised to be like his glorious body. So there is something in the sense that we dwell in this mortal body temporarily, but even this mortal body will be transformed to be made immortal.

And the promise that we have of this immortality that is to come is the Holy Spirit that dwells us, that we may know we are temples unto the Lord, not like tents, but like temples. So in Ephesians 1, Paul talks there about the sealing of the Holy Spirit that we have been given.

Verse 13, this is Ephesians 1, 13. In him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

That's a powerful couple of verses right there. Let me go through that again. So in verse 13, in him, in Christ, you also, after listening to the word of truth, what's the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed.

So you heard the gospel said to you and you believed it. Therefore, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise were sealed for that day. So having heard the gospel and believed it, something permanent took place.

The sealing of the Holy Spirit is a guarantee for us that having heard the gospel and put faith in Jesus Christ, we are promised eternity. God has given it to us. No one can take it away. And the sealing of that promise is the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

The Holy Spirit given as a pledge of our inheritance. God has promised it to us. He will give it to us, just as Jesus said to his disciples in the upper room, I'm going to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place and I will return and receive you to myself.

So we have the sealing of the Holy Spirit upon us as a pledge of our inheritance that we will receive in glory unto the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory. So we come back to 2 Corinthians 5 5.

He who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave to us the spirit as a pledge. We have the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ, and the spirit is the sealing of that promise until the day that we receive these eternal bodies that are prepared for us, a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Walking by Faith in the Present Body

Therefore, verse 6, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. This is a neat turn of phrase that Paul is offering for us here, because he says at first, while we're at home in the body, we're away from the Lord.

What's he going to say later on? When we are at home with the Lord, if we're away from the body, it is to be at home with the Lord. So he sets it up one way, delivers in the next. OK, so we're always of good courage.

Why are we of good courage? Because we have the spirit as a pledge from God, the promise of eternal life that is to come. Therefore, we are of good courage. Whatever happens to us in these bodies, we do not despair, though we know our body is aging and it will die.

Or if we're in some tragic accident and our lives are snatched away from us like that, or we're persecuted by somebody who puts us to death, whatever it is that might be the cause of our death, age, a sudden accident or persecution, murder, death.

We don't lose heart. We're not in despair. We don't fear that day in the sense that like, oh, my life is just lost and then it's gone. No, we are of good courage because we know our lives are in God's hands.

And we know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Verse seven, for we walk by faith and not by sight. How do we know that we're absent from the Lord? Because we're walking by faith right now.

We do not see. For who hopes for what he sees, as Paul says to the Romans, so we cannot see God. We have faith in God. Jesus said to Thomas, blessed are they who believe and have not seen. Yeah, that's all of us.

The apostles got to see there were over 500 brothers who witnessed Christ alive between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. They got to see they believed because they saw there were many others who saw and did not believe.

But we are those who have not seen and do believe. And we have come into this faith and this belief by the power of the Holy Spirit of God that transformed our hearts from unbelieving hearts to believing hearts, from unrighteous to righteous, from darkness to light, from an enemy of God to a friend of God.

All of these things have happened by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit of God, who is upon our hearts that we may continue to walk in the way of God as long as we are in these bodies. And because of the confidence that we have, the ministry of the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, we are of good courage, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.

While we are in these bodies, while we're in these tents, right, these temporary dwelling places, we walk by faith and not by sight. It's not that our eyes have seen and so we believe. No, it is because the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us.

And so we believe. Now, in verse eight, we are of good courage. We're always of good courage. Verse six, we are of good courage. Verse eight, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

So where do we get that phrase that we like to use as Christians to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord? Well, here it is right here. Second Corinthians five versus six through eight.

We prefer to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. But as long as we are in these bodies, we're going to continue to live in them as unto the Lord because the Lord dwells with us. Even when we're in these bodies, the Holy Spirit that has been given to us as a seal, a pledge of the promise that God has given to us.

Longing for Heaven and Living as Citizens of the Kingdom

Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. Our ambition, our desire is to live in these bodies in such a way that we are pleasing unto the Lord. Now, I said something to you.

This was a few lessons ago. I can't remember when this was. Was it last week sometime? And a lot has happened in recent days. It's difficult for me to keep all my days straight. But I know I said to you at some point that these things that we're reading about here in Second Corinthians four and five, as we've been going through these two particular chapters, these things should excite you.

You should be excited to think about the things of heaven, the eternal life that is promised to you. Does death make you despair? I mean, there is a certain sense in which I dread my death for a couple of reasons.

Number one, because I don't know what that's going to be like. You know, first of all, how am I going to die? Am I going to die? And in some sort of fiery death, is it going to be an absolutely miserable death?

I'm not really looking forward to that. Secondly, though, what is that transition going to be like? What's it going to feel like? When our souls leave our bodies and go to be with God, the fact that that has never been told to us, no one's ever died in that way and come back and talked about it.

Oh, yeah, there are people that claim to have these near-death experiences, but no one really knows. Those things vary so much that who can really say they've truly died and crossed over and come back?

Nobody has. For as it says in the book of Hebrews, it's appointed to a man to die once. And after that comes judgment. Anybody who's had a death and then come back to life has not really died, because once you're dead, you're dead.

OK, yeah, there there may have been people whose hearts have stopped. They flatlined on the table and they were resuscitated and brought back. But they were not truly dead, because when a person is dead, they are dead.

They don't come back. So I dread my death, not knowing how I'm going to die and not knowing what that process is going to be like. You know, John Bunyan wrote about the death of Christian in The Pilgrim's Progress, and he likened it to essentially drowning.

That's terrifying to me. I don't I don't anticipate that at all. So anyway, that's there's a couple of reasons. Well, first, that's really just one reason. It's a point A and a point B. But that's one reason I dread my death is because I don't know what it's going to be like.

How I'm going to die, what's going to happen when I'm crossing over to the other side. Second reason why I dread my death, because I have a lot of people here on Earth that I love, especially my family, my wife and my kids.

I would hate to die and leave them behind without anybody to take care of them. Now, I'm part of a great church family. I know there will be people who will take care of them. But, you know, I mean, as a dad, as a husband and a father who's the head of his household, I don't want to entrust the care of my family to somebody else.

I want to do it. I want to sanctify my wife. I want to raise up my children in the training and the discipline of the Lord. So because I don't know what my death is going to be like and I don't want to leave my loved ones behind, that's a couple of reasons why I dread my death.

God willing, Christ will come back and I won't have to die and leave my family behind. We all get to go together at the same time. But but anyway, all that said, though, there are a couple of things that I dread about my death.

The point that I'm making is this. There's nothing on this earth that I'm clinging to that makes me hesitate going and being with my Lord. Christ comes calling. I'm going. I cannot wait to be away from this world, to be away from the sin and temptations of my flesh that I still battle with on a daily basis.

All the evil that is going on in the world. I can't wait to be away from these things and be present with God forever. I can pray with John in Revelation 22. Lord Jesus, come quickly. And I mean that prayer.

Come now, God. I want to be in heaven forever with God because there is nothing that I am clinging to in this world, which is why living with God forever in glory excites me. If if that doesn't excite you, then perhaps there's something in this world you're clinging to a little too tightly.

Maybe there are maybe there are certain pleasures of this world you're still hoping to attain. God, maybe I could just have a little bit of this first and then I'll be ready to go home. Well, then your heart is not really with God in glory.

Your heart is still here in this world. Do not be. So fixated on your flesh or the temptations of this world that there are things that make you hesitate about going to heaven. Can't I just stay here a little bit longer?

No, not a second longer. Let's go be with God in glory when God willing. It is our time to go. It is not for any of us to take that into our own hands. God is the one who has determined the number of our days.

We cannot add or subtract one day from from what God has determined, according to what we read in Job chapter 14. But hey, when Christ comes calling, I'm going home. Won't you come with me? Put your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ long for heaven.

And as long as we are in these bodies, let us live for the Lord, as Paul says here in verse nine. Therefore, we have also as our ambition, whether at home or absent, whether at home with the Lord or absent, which means still present in these bodies, we want to be pleasing to him.

So let us live in these bodies now as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, pursuing righteousness and heavenly things, not the things that are on earth, but the things that are of Christ. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word.

Thank you for this reassuring word, the reminder that we have of the eternal life that is promised us in Christ Jesus. So may we live for that life now, not in the flesh, not in the passions of the flesh, not for the things of this world, but for the things of Christ.

Following what is said in Hebrews 12 one, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, we lay aside every weight and the sin, which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Bring us into your presence. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. We pray in your name.

Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt .com.