The Lord, our God, calls us now to the wonderful privilege of listening attentively to His Word. And we're thankful for the promise that He gives us that His Holy Spirit strengthens and nourishes our heart as the Word is proclaimed. This morning we would like to consider the first ten verses of 2 Corinthians 5. If you turn there in your Bibles with me to our passage this morning. For context, I would like to start reading at chapter 4, verse 7. The Apostle Paul is speaking to the Corinthians about his work as an apostle, as an evangelist, that he, as a jar of clay, is proclaiming, is carrying within him the beautiful fragrance of the gospel. And because of that, he undergoes great opposition frequently from those who oppose the truth of God's word. We want to see that tension or that struggle in Paul's own ministry and then notice how also that applies to our own, the tension of our own lives and our own experience as Christians. So I'll begin reading at verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 4. This is God's holy and infallible word for us. At verse 7, But we have this treasure, that is the gospel, in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. And now we want to consider, especially this morning, the first ten verses of chapter 5. 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. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. If indeed, by putting it on, we may not be found naked. 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. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. so we are always of good courage we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight yes we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord so whether we are at home or away we make it our aim to please Him 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. This is God's Word for us. Let's now listen attentively as it is proclaimed. Brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus, The Bible teaches all throughout that all kinds of tensions characterize the Christian life. In fact, we could say that the Christian experience or the Christian existence is lived out on the bowstring of life. We feel the tension on life's line as we live being pulled almost in two directions. Towards our heavenly home, our heavenly building on one hand, and towards our earthly existence on the other. And all throughout Scripture, the Bible speaks of these kinds of tensions that characterize our life as we live in this age, longing for the age to come. You know, we learn that by God's grace, we have been made new creatures in Christ. That our old natures have died to a degree. That we've died to sin, that we are alive to righteousness. At the same time, we still struggle with the remains. We still feel the tension with the remains of our sin natures, don't we? Elsewhere, we learn that on this earth, this present earth, that we are nomads, we are strangers. This is never our final resting place. And yet we experience and enjoy certain aspects of heavenly glory, glimpses of heavenly glory already. So we see this tension and these kinds of tensions keep faith's bowstring tight and taut. Even as we focus our gaze intently on the future, and even as we serve God faithfully right now here in the present. Well, in our passage today, the Apostle Paul speaks to the Corinthians and he examines the life of faith for new covenant believers as they live in this tension between this age and the age to come. But this tension, Paul says to them, shouldn't discourage them. It shouldn't discourage us whether we should take confidence, We should take hope in the realities of Christ's coming, of our bodily resurrections because of Christ's resurrection. We should take hope and look forward to the coming judgment in which we will be saved. These realities should encourage our hearts, give us hope and confidence that even though we live right now as believers in temporary tents or buildings, as nomads, as strangers on the earth, That we can be assured that God has already given us a more permanent home that we can grasp onto by faith. Part of the tension we're going to notice from our passage, part of the tension of the Christian life is embracing what is still to come in light of what has already been given and promised to us by God himself. And embracing what is to come, embracing our future resurrection life will significantly affect the way that we live our lives here and now in the present day. And so God calls all of us as believers to lift up our eyes from the tension of this life and look forward with resurrection hope to all the blessings that God has already prepared for us as his church. We look forward with resurrection hope to what God has already prepared for us. That's what we want to consider together this morning under three points. First of all, we want to look at the tension that our passage and really the entire Bible describes. And we want to spend the most time on this first point, on the tension, because it really is a key to our understanding how to live as believers in this present age. Longing for the age to come. Second of all, we want to consider the promise of God. The comforting promise of God that he gives us as we long for, as we wait for the coming age and our resurrection bodies. But then finally, we want to consider together how we should respond as believers to all of these things. As I said, we want to look at the tension that Paul describes here. But before we do, we need to see this tension as it's described in the life of Paul himself as an evangelist, as an apostle. And we know, as I read from chapter 4, beginning at verse 7, that Paul, as an apostle, as an evangelist, experienced all kinds of oppression and persecution for his role as an evangelist, for proclaiming this beautiful, fragrant gospel that he had been given to, that had been given to him, rather. We learn that many members even of the church, of the Corinthian church, viewed Paul as weak and frail and unattractive. His words when he preached were not always eloquent. And so many accused him of having given up on the fight, having lost sight of the tension of this life. And that's partly why Paul addresses them specifically in verse 16 of 2 Corinthians 4. And he says to them, though my body is wasting away, though I do appear physically weak and frail and unattractive, I've not lost sight of the goal. I've not lost heart. Why? Because my inner self is becoming younger and younger. I'm being renewed day by day. And so Paul goes on to describe the light and the momentary struggles and afflictions that he suffers for Christ. In light of the greater and weighty glories that await him in the age to come. Now, why do I point this out as context? Well, it's important because it forms a key to our understanding why Paul says what he says in verse 1 of chapter 5. Understanding that momentary suffering paves the way towards eternal glory helps us understand his words. He says in verse 1, For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Well, here we notice that Paul introduces several metaphors or word pictures that helps us see and understand that tension that exists in the Christian life as we wait for our life to come. Well, first of all, notice that he uses the metaphor or the word picture of a building or a tent. First of all, he refers to an earthly tent. Now, what is this earthly tent? Well, it refers most specifically to our human manner of existence. That earthly tent is our present human bodies that one day will die, and even right now feels the effects, the consequences of sin and death. But Paul here expresses great confidence. And he expresses great hope that even if his present earthly tent, his body, should be destroyed, he knows that he will receive something far better and lasting in its place. Notice his confidence here. Notice his assurance. He says, we have a building from God, a better dwelling place, a resurrection body from God himself. And through Christ, this new resurrection body is as surely ours as if it had already come into our experience. Paul's real hope and our real hope as believers is not simply in the temporary separation of body and soul at death. Our real hope, our real confidence is in the resurrection bodies that await us, which Paul can say we already have and we know that we will receive by the grace of God one day. That's his confidence and hope. And so he makes this outstanding claim that his heavenly home, his new resurrection body, is going to be far better than the earthly tent that he's been living in since his birth. And I say that that's an outstanding claim because in some ways that goes against our experience, doesn't it? If we were to think about the homes in which we live, we are normally more reluctant to leave the home that we have become accustomed to and move into a new home. You know, the old home is familiar to us. It's comfortable. The familiar sights and smells and colors, all the memories that were created there in that old home, it's hard to leave that behind, to move into a new, unfamiliar home. Boys and girls, you know that the Gordons soon will be joining us. And I know that many here in the congregation have been working feverishly to prepare the parsonage for them. It's looking very good. The beautiful home that they will be moving into. But I have a feeling that it may take a few weeks, it may take a few months in fact, for them to become accustomed and comfortable in their new home. I'm sure they will miss their old home for a while. But Paul here looks forward to. He groans in anticipation for this new and better heavenly home, his heavenly body. So why will it be better? Why will it be better than his earthly tent? Well, you may remember that Paul knew something about tents. After all, his avocation as a missionary, his sideline job, you might say, was tent making. He knew something about tents. First of all, he knew that the heavenly body would be better because tents would be replaced by a building. Now, boys and girls, you know that a tent is temporary, don't you? When you go camping with your family, you don't leave your tent there on the campground for the next family to use when they come along, do you? No, after you're finished camping, you pull up the tent pegs, you fold up the tarp, you store it away carefully for the next time you go camping. A tent is temporary, but a building, that is meant to last. You erect a building to last as long as possible. They're more permanent than a tent. And so Paul says the existence, the building of our new existence rather, our heavenly resurrection bodies are a permanent and lasting gift from God on the last day. Much better than the frail and temporary bodies we live in now. They will exist, he says in our passage, eternal in the heavens. Second of all, our new resurrection bodies will be better because they are a spiritual creation. A house not made with hands will enjoy together a heavenly existence having been made or remade, recreated by God himself. And so you see, again, Paul speaks so confidently with such assurance in the midst of the tension of his own life and the Christian life. How can he do that? How can he speak with such confidence about his new existence? Well, thanks be to God, because of the certainty of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as founded upon the apostolic Word, We too, along with Paul, can surely know with certainty that beyond death there lies the sure reality of a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, which we have by faith. Because our God has raised Jesus Christ our Lord. Because we are united to Christ by faith, we know that He will raise us also by the same power with which He raised Jesus Christ Himself. And because God's Word promises us that He will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body, we know that it is our bodies. The bodies that you and I know very well that will be transformed and that will exist in eternal continuity. And so, you see, we can pinch ourselves right now an eager expectation for what awaits our bodies in the resurrection. There's so much to look forward to, Paul says. But second of all, we've noticed the building or tent analogy. Second of all, Paul goes on to say, or to describe the tension of this present and future life of ours with the metaphor of clothing or clothes. He says that while we are in this earthly tent, we long, we desire to put on or clothe ourselves in our heavenly dwelling. We want to be more fully clothed than we already are. Now, men, perhaps some of you have been asked by a friend or a relative to stand up in their wedding. My sister was married last April, and I was asked to stand up. And, of course, you know there are many fancy articles of clothing that you need to put on for that wedding ceremony, for that very special event. There is the special shirt and the pants and the socks and shoes even that you have to rent from the wedding store. The rental store. And then, of course, there is the bow tie or the tie and maybe even the cuff links and the tuxedo jacket. All of these things to show that this is a very special event. You want to be fully clothed. But before the event actually takes place, because you don't want those special outer articles of clothing to be wrinkled or because you don't want to be so warm in them, you lay them aside for a while until that final big event of the wedding ceremony itself comes along. When it finally does, you desire to be fully clothed. To put on the good duds, you might say. So people know you're ready for this big event. Well, Paul uses this metaphor of clothing to teach us about our further longing. to be clothed, to put on our new and better heavenly bodies at the final resurrection, so that, he says in verse 4, what is mortal may be swallowed up in life, so that death, the deathly character of our present tents and bodies, might be swallowed up in victory. You see, brothers and sisters, we long for something more than simply being separated from this earthly tent. We long for something more than simply the intermediate state in which our spirits are with God, but we've not yet enjoyed our resurrection bodies. We long for something more to be clothed in our better, new, and improved resurrection body. We long that what is our mortality would be transformed into what will be our bodies existing eternally in the heavens on the last day. That's what we long for. We long to inherit the new you that God has promised so that there's so much to look forward to as believers. And so you can see, can't you, the tension in our lives between the present and the future. We have two kinds of clothing. We have two manners of living, two different kinds of buildings from God. And we long for our present sinful and weak condition to be swallowed up and overcome by God's resurrection power and the clothing of our new existence in Him. We feel the tension, don't we, of having our new heavenly house now by God's promise, and yet we don't have it quite yet. There's still more to enjoy and receive from God. And so we groan, we yearn for the coming age when our obedience will be perfected, when our bodies will be made whole and complete again. We long for the day when our new resurrection bodies will be superimposed on the old ones. When the deathly character of our bodies will be swallowed up in life. And so, in our passage, Paul, in the midst of the tension of this life, he groans as a little child who's anticipating Christmas Day when the gifts will be opened finally. And we join in with him as believers. We join in that anticipation and that sure hope. But we learn in verse 5, second of all, that God, who is the designer, who is the builder of our bodies, has given us that longing. God is the one who's given us that desire for our resurrection bodies. And he's given us his spirit to live within us as his church to kindle the fire of that longing. Paul says here that the Holy Spirit is a guarantee, a down payment of the newly coming age and the renewal of our entire selves. And the word for guarantee, boys and girls, here is used in modern Greek, contemporary Greek, as a word for an engagement ring. And I think most of you know what an engagement ring symbolizes. What's the function or the use of an engagement ring? It symbolizes the man's promise that he will marry the woman that he loves on their wedding day. It's a pact. It's a guarantee that He will fulfill His vows. He will marry her. Well, God has given us an even more sure and strong guarantee than simply an engagement ring. He guarantees us that our deepest longings will be met one day. So we've grown, along with the entire cosmos, for our redemption as sons. But God's own Spirit within us serves as an internal life force working powerfully within us, assuring us that the very same power at work in Christ's resurrection, the very same power at work in our own regeneration by the Spirit, that very same power is preparing our mortal bodies right now for the consummation of our redemption. Having experienced new life by the regeneration of God's Spirit, we now long for the completion of God's recreation of all things. And the Spirit within us that guarantee that sure promise of God that these things will take place teaches us that God is faithful. That God is faithful. That what He has begun in us, He will complete. for His glory and for our growth in the faith. So you see, the presence of the Spirit within us as a church is a wonderful assurance of hope that God will fulfill His promise. He will most certainly fulfill His promise. By the indwelling Spirit, God encourages us to lift up our eyes from the tension of this life to look forward in hope to all that God has promised and prepared for us. And even the tensions of this life and our longings for the age to come are themselves the work of God within us and in His church. That's part of the down payment of the Holy Spirit who even now is preparing us for our new manner of existence with God. But finally, Paul says to the church, As we live in this period of tension, Paul admits that this can be very tiring, exhausting, in fact. Growing up as a child, one of my favorite games, the game that I looked forward to the most, was tug-of-war. And I'm sure many of you can relate to that. I loved and I looked forward to the challenge of pulling as hard on that rope, that line, as hard as I could with every muscle in my body to try to pull the other team over to my side. But eventually, rather than being stronger and winning, the one who won was the one who got tired first. And my legs and my arms, every muscle in my body would grow tired and weak and eventually I would be pulled over to the opposing side, maybe through a mud pile. Well, the Christian life, as you know, can be far more tiring, far more exhausting than a simple game of tug of war. But how do we stand up? How do we stand up under the tension and the difficulty as we yearn for, as we groan for the coming heavenly life that has been promised to us? How do we live as God's children in resurrection style? That's what the Apostle turns to in the final place in verses 6 to 10. And Paul gives us reason for courage and confidence in this present life as we live in the tension of the age. And he says of himself in such difficulty that he has unshakable confidence and courage that never spoils or fades. even while he says he's absent from the Lord and at home in the body, he realizes that he is never absent from the presence of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That even though the tension of this life remains, nevertheless, he doesn't lose heart. He walks in good courage, walking by faith more than by sight. He's determined that whether he is with the Lord or away from Him, He will offer his entire self in service and obedience. He will respond in faithfulness. He will live his life to please God based upon a confident and unshakable trust in God's promises for the future. He will live, he will walk according to the Spirit and in the power of the Spirit of God. And so Paul here is not concerned with the fact that his outer man is wasting away. Why? Why isn't he concerned ultimately that his earthly tent will one day disintegrate? Because he saw the unseen. He saw that his inner nature was undergoing daily renewal. Paul's faith in the unseen beyond controlled his entire manner of living as a Christian. And what he says about himself is also true about us as the church. Our present confidence, too, is based upon the victorious resurrection of Christ for us and the promises of God for us that He will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body. One commentator puts it so well when he describes our present hope and our present manner of living. He says this, Although the believer's future manner of life will be far better than our present earthly existence, the certain coming of heavenly glory encourages us to prepare right now in the way we live to enjoy our new clothes, to enjoy our new homes. And that's very true. You see, dear congregation, our personal motivation for obedience in Christ-like living should be motivated by a future-oriented perspective. And Paul says here, he mentions one way or one motive for our faithfulness in the present age in which we live, and that is the judgment that awaits. One day, everything and everyone will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to come under the scrutiny of God's perfect law. And on that day we too will face the judgment bench of God, but we will do so as saints, not as those who are condemned. Our works too will be evaluated, but in the light of the obedience, the perfect obedience of Christ for us. But Paul says in light of that day of judgment, God empowers us. He brings us to recall all of our duties and obligations as His people that we would pursue thankful and obedient, distinctly Christian living in this present evil age. And that is really what Paul's call and sermon to the Corinthian church was about. But he was calling them to be reconciled, to be at peace with God through Jesus Christ, their risen Savior. And that claim, the claim of Christ upon our lives right now is just as real, is just as real. And the claim of Christ upon our lives means that in light of the glorious promises of God, we will pursue by His strength and grace distinctly Christian lives of obedience, of integrity, faithfulness, willingness, delight in serving Him. We will respond in obedience, in the tension of this life, by the grace of God. Truly, we do live our lives, our earthly existence, amidst the tension of this age and the age to come. But how comforting to know. How comforting to know that even if we are being given over to death for the sake of Jesus Christ, or suffering the decaying effects of sin in this life, we can focus our gaze upon the resurrection promises of God and their reality in our lives. Praise God that we can confess together in the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, in all my distress, in all my persecution, I turn my eyes to the heavens and await confidently there a judge, the very one who has already stood trial in my place before God and so has removed the whole curse from me. All his enemies and mine he will condemn to everlasting punishment. But me and all of his chosen ones he will take along with him into the joy and the glory of heaven. What a beautiful promise of resurrection hope. A hope that is eternal in the heavens that never spoils or fades. A hope that we have right now. Amen. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that Your Spirit within us kindles a longing for the age to come. That our bodies would be transformed, renewed, perfected. Into heavenly buildings that will never spoil or fade, but exist eternal in the heavens. We thank you that we can say along with Paul and along with all believers from all ages that we know that we have right now a building from you. And that one day, as we persevere by your grace and your power in the tension of this age, one day we will inherit it for eternity. Right now, O Lord, with the hope of that glory, with our confidence of that sure knowledge, may we offer our lives in thankfulness and integrity and obedience to You. That Your name may be proclaimed throughout all the earth. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.