Today’s Message is from 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:15. This passage is about the resurrection from the dead. (A lot of passages in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, are about the resurrection of the dead.) From our point of view, anyway, nothing is more important. Yet it is our nature to focus on what is going on around us instead of what will happen to us in the distant (for some of us, not so distant future for others) future. God has given us certain promises. We have the choice of believing them and living according to them and receiving what he has promised, or not believing them and receiving what he has also promised to those who reject his grace and mercy.

⁶He will repay each one according to his works: ⁷eternal life to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸but wrath and indignation to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth, but are obeying unrighteousness; ⁹affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; ¹⁰but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. ¹¹There is no favoritism with God. (Romans~2:6-11)

¹⁶Therefore we do not give up; even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. ¹⁸So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

^5:1For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ²And, in fact, we groan in this one, longing to put on our house from heaven, ³since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴Indeed, we who are in this tent groan, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

⁶Therefore, though we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— ⁷for we walk by faith, not by sight— ⁸yet we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him. ¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.

¹¹Knowing, then, the fear of the Lord, we persuade people. We are completely open before God, and I hope we are completely open to your consciences as well. ¹²We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in the outward appearance rather than in the heart. ¹³For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we have a sound mind, it is for you. ¹⁴For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: if One died for all, then all died. ¹⁵And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised. (2 Corinthians~4:16-5:15)

¹³And since we have the same spirit of faith in accordance with what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, and therefore speak, ¹⁴knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and present us with you. ¹⁵For all this is because of you, so that grace, extended through more and more people, may cause thanksgiving to overflow to God’s glory.

“...knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and present us with you.” This is all about the fact that there is a resurrection of the dead. So what is it that the apostle Paul and the other apostles don’t give up (and what is it that we should not give up) because there is a resurrection of the dead? According to the passage I read from Romans just before today’s passage, it’s patiently doing good and seeking for glory, honor and immortality. But more specifically in this case it’s spreading the gospel “so that grace, extended through more and more people, may cause thanksgiving to overflow to God’s glory,” according to verse 15. Our Lord and God wants thanksgiving to overflow to his glory. Thanksgiving for what? Thanksgiving for his grace and mercy and love through Jesus Christ his Son! Thanksgiving for salvation and eternal life!

“Our momentary light afflictions”: What were Paul’s momentary light afflictions? Well, according to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul received beatings, imprisonments and was near death many times. Three times he was beaten with 40 lashes minus 1. He was stoned and left for dead. He was shipwrecked. He was in danger from Jews, from Gentiles, from false brothers. He suffered from hunger, thirst, cold, sleepless nights and lack of clothing. Besides all that there was the pressure of his care for all of the churches. And Paul calls that “our light and momentary affliction.” The other apostles suffered similar things.

And what about us. Today, there are places in the world where persecutions are severe. People are starved and tortured because they are Christians and refuse to renounce Christ. There are the North Korean prison camps, Darfur, the Muslim countries where people have their houses burned and are killed because they are Christians. What about us in this country? Our “afflictions” are indeed light and momentary compared with what is going on in other places.

You know, in this country we have the gospel of health and wealth—the prosperity gospel. If you don’t have lots of money, a nice house and good health, you must be doing something wrong. You’re not tithing. You don’t have sufficient faith—something. Try sending one of those books on the prosperity gospel to someone in a North Korean prison camp who has just watched her baby be beaten to death and fed to the dogs because she wouldn’t renounce Christ. Shame on us! (And whether we subscribe to the gospel of health and wealth or not, we still think we must be doing something wrong if everything is not going perfectly smoothly.)

Yet, Paul and all these people—all the people who are being persecuted in our present day—were and are looking forward to something that makes all these horrible things light and momentary by comparison—an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. We are talking about something that is eternal—it goes on forever—compared with what we have in this life! Paul says, “So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Paul says that they weren’t focusing on what is seen. But it is our nature to focus on what is seen. We give much more weight to our immediate circumstances than to something that we perceive to be in the distant future (maybe less distant future for some of us—and, you know, we can die any time). John Bunyan, who wrote the classic The Pilgrim’s Progress wondered why some people when they were growing old just acted as though their lives would go on forever. The answer may be that these people haven’t believed what’s in the word of God and that they are relying on “wishful thinking”. Wishful thinking doesn’t do it.

When I was young, I would read about various people’s ideas about aging. From time to time someone would come up with the idea that we were close to a breakthrough where our physical lives could be extended for a long time, maybe indefinitely. I was young, maybe a teenager at most, and thought that there was a good chance that the breakthrough would be made in my lifetime. Disease and aging would be completely conquered. I read all the articles with interest and with that hope.

However, eventually I realized that that kind of life would be miserable because you would be continually worrying about being accidentally killed. You would be afraid to do anything. (You know the earliest people to live on the earth did live a very long time—close to 1000 years. I would have thought that was great. But, except for Enoch, they all eventually died.)

As I said, we tend to look only at the present and what is going on around us—what is seen. For those who are perishing, “what is seen” is what belongs to this world—this world of which Satan is the ruler. For those who are perishing, this world consists of wealth, power, prestige and all those sorts of thing—glory and honor before men. For those who are perishing, it’s a “dog-eat-dog” world. But for us who are being saved—well, we still tend to focus on the things that are seen.

Speaking for my self, I can say that my tendency is to want to continue in this life indefinitely, but without trouble and worry. However, we are guaranteed trouble. God says that we will have it: “You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” Jesus said that in John 16:33. But, God also says that we can cast all our cares on him because he cares for us. (1 Peter 5:7) Do you do it? We need to pray about everything. We need to focus not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. What is unseen is eternal.

¹For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ²And, in fact, we groan in this one, longing to put on our house from heaven, ³since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴Indeed, we who are in this tent groan, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)

Our earthly houses are our physical bodies. Unless Jesus comes back during our lifetime, our earthly houses (which Paul compares to tents) will be destroyed. A tent is a temporary dwelling. People don’t normally settle down to spend their lives in a tent. (The Patriarchs did, but they were looking forward to permanent (permanent for this life anyway) houses in the Promised Land.) If you were living in a tent, wouldn’t you be looking forward to the time when you could live in a house? Again, we must live our lives looking forward to what God has promised—longing for it—what is unseen. He has promised us, for one thing, bodies that will not perish—that are immortal.

Verse 3 says, “...since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.” I’m not sure what to do with this verse, but most translations say, “If we are clothed, we will not be found naked” rather than “Since we are clothed...” And some Greek manuscripts even say, “If we are unclothed, we will not be found naked.” “Naked”, in the Bible is sometimes used to refer to our sinful condition. So Paul may be referring to the fact that, in heaven, we will be clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

Verse 4 says, “We groan.” As believers, we do groan. We groan for both righteousness and for immortality. We groan not just in the frailty of our bodies, but in the resisting sin and stumbling at temptations. (Do you groan for righteousness? If, not, are you already perfect? But in any case, we do have the righteousness of Christ—even now, not just in heaven.)

Verse 5 says, “And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.” The reason we are even interested in what God has prepared for us is that we have the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we wouldn’t have a clue.

The apostle Paul was happy to be “at home in the body” but even happier at the thought of being “at home with the Lord”. He wanted to do the Lord’s will in everything. Listen while I read what he wrote to the Philippians. This is from Philippians 1:21-26:

²¹ For me, living is Christ and dying is gain. ²²Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. ²³I am pressured by both. I have the desire to depart and be with Christ—which is far better— ²⁴but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. ²⁵Since I am persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your advancement and joy in the faith, ²⁶so that, because of me, your confidence may grow in Christ Jesus when I come to you again. (Philippians~1:21-26)

Did you notice the reason Paul gave for wanting to stay in the flesh? It was not because it wasn’t far better for him to be with the Lord, but because he wanted the Philippians to advance and to have joy in the faith. What do you consider the purpose of your present life to be? What do I consider the purpose of my present life to be? Is our purpose to gratify ourselves or to help others advance and have joy in the faith? By the way, if you help others to rejoice, don’t you think you will have joy, also? “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.” (Philip. 4:4, 5)

Back to today’s passage: Verse 7 says, “...for we walk by faith, not by sight...” “Walk”, by the way, refers to the way you conduct your life. “Walk by faith” means that you believe what God has promised and live according to it. How do you make your daily decisions? How do you make long-term decisions? We really can’t walk by sight as Christians. What the apostle Paul is telling the Corinthians (and us) is to focus on really is unseen. We don’t know what it is except that God is telling us that it will be much better than anything we have now and it will be eternal! The good things will last forever! (I know when I have something I think is good, I don’t want it to end. But in this life, some good things last a long time and others not so long. And for me, I enjoy them less if I know they are going to be taken away. But the good things in the resurrection won’t be taken away. They are eternal! There aren’t any bad things, either.)

We don’t know exactly what it will be like. Paul says, quoting from Isaiah, “But as it is written: What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has never come into a man’s heart, is what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor.~2:9) We don’t know fully, but we do have some clues. Of course we know that we will have bodies that don’t perish. And we also have a clue because Paul was evidently shown a glimpse of what paradise was like. He said that he heard “inexpressible words that a man is not allowed to speak”—evidently great beyond expression. We also have what was revealed to the apostle John in Revelation—Revelation 21:3-7:

⁵Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” ⁶And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to the thirsty from the spring of living water as a gift. ⁷The victor will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son. (Revelation~21:3-7)

⁹Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him. ¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:9, 10)

This is evidently a judgment for believers. Paul says, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” I think he’s referring to believers, not to people in general. But there are degrees of reward just as there are degrees of punishment. Some, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, will make it in, but as someone passing through the flames. Their works will not be as gold, silver or costly stones, but as wood, hay and straw. Their works will be as burned up, but they will escape. So, Paul says, “We make it our aim to please Him—to please Jesus. Do we make it our aim to please Jesus in everything we do? We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ!

Two things motivated Paul to do what he was doing, to preach the gospel and to build people up in Christ, to save as many as possible. Paul was motivated by the fear of the Lord and he was compelled by the love of Christ. The fear of the Lord includes awe and respect. But if that’s all that motivates you, if you are not compelled by the love of Christ, I believe you will at least not be very happy. Let me read Paul’s prayer for the believers from Ephesians chapter 3:

¹⁶I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, ¹⁸may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and width, height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Without love nothing else matters. Without love anything we do is worthless. We can love because God loved us through Jesus Christ. He died for us so that we would no longer live for ourselves, but for him. Pray, as Paul prayed, for us to have power through God’s Spirit to know what is the breadth and width, height and depth of the love of Christ so that we may be filled up with all the fullness of God.

In summary, God is teaching us to focus on what is unseen—the things he has promised us in the resurrection. How do you know that you are focusing on those things rather than on the things that are seen—the things of this life? What are your goals for this present life? Jesus says, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life? (Mark 8:35, 36) Jesus says, “The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25) Do you love your life in this world or do you hate it? (And to hate your life in this world doesn’t mean to grumble and complain about your situation all the time. It means to not serve the things that belong to this world, but to serve Jesus. Do you love and serve the things of this world or do you love and serve the things of Jesus? Do you love and serve Jesus? And you know that means to love people—to help them in their need—both those who love you and those who are your enemies. (People need the word of God, by the way, not just food as some liberal churches seem to believe. What good is it to be fed and then go to hell?)

And how much do you worry about the things of this world. Jesus says to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness first and he will provide for your needs—food and clothing. (Matt. 6:33) Jesus says, “Don’t collect treasures on earth that will be destroyed, but treasures in heaven. Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be, also.” (Matt. 6:19-21))

¹⁴“For it is just like a man going on a journey. He called his own slaves and turned over his possessions to them. ¹⁵To one he gave five talents; to another, two; and to another, one—to each according to his own ability. Then he went on a journey. Immediately ¹⁶the man who had received five talents went, put them to work, and earned five more. ¹⁷In the same way the man with two earned two more. ¹⁸But the man who had received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.

¹⁹“After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰The man who had received five talents approached, presented five more talents, and said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. Look, I’ve earned five more talents.’

²⁴“Then the man who had received one talent also approached and said, ‘Master, I know you. You’re a difficult man, reaping where you haven’t sown and gathering where you haven’t scattered seed. ²⁵So I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the ground. Look, you have what is yours.’

²⁶“But his master replied to him, ‘You evil, lazy slave! If you knew that I reap where I haven’t sown and gather where I haven’t scattered, ²⁷then you should have deposited my money with the bankers. And when I returned I would have received my money back with interest.

²⁸“‘So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents. ²⁹For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have more than enough. But from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ³⁰And throw this good-for-nothing slave into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (Matt.~25:14-30)

But, I always thought the treatment of the third slave was excessively harsh. The master called him an evil and lazy slave. He took away from him even what he had. He called him a good-for-nothing slave and had him thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. All this man did was...well, nothing. He did nothing.

This man represents an unbeliever. James says that faith without works is dead. (James 2:17) In other words, if your faith doesn’t result in good works, in reality, you have no faith. You are not a believer! You will receive what happened to the man in the parable—be thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And, by the way, the example James gives is that of helping your brother who is in need—who is without food or clothes.

Well, I hope I am speaking to believers. If you reject God’s salvation through Jesus Christ it’s a very serious thing. So if that’s the case, repent! (“Repent” means change your thinking. Start thinking that you are a sinner and that your only hope is salvation through Jesus. Believe that Jesus is Lord and that he died for your sin and that he rose from the dead. Believe that Jesus is your only, only hope. Ask for mercy and you will receive it.)

²⁴Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, ²⁵to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now, and forever. Amen. (Jude 24, 25)