Well, if you have your Bible, let me invite you to turn to the book of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and chapter 5. And we're going to be looking at 2 Corinthians 5 verses 1 through 10 in the message. But for our purposes now, I'm just going to read a portion of this from 2 Corinthians 5. And so let me invite you as you're able. Let's stand in honor of the reading and the hearing of God's word. And I'm just going to read verses 8 and 9 and 10. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. May God bless today the reading and the hearing of his word, and let us join together in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, we give thee thanks for this opportunity once again to read thy scriptures, to meditate upon the truths therein, particularly relating to issues related to last things, And so give us light, give us clarity. We give thee praise for the peripiscuity of scripture, for its clarity. Even if sin and remaining corruption cloud our vision of it, give us light that we might see light. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. And you may be seated. We're beginning today a short series on eschatology and eschatology means the doctrine of last things. In Greek, eschatos is an adjective, which means last. And logos means word or doctrine. So eschatology means the doctrine of last things. And this is a subject that I think has a lot of natural sort of inherent interest within it. I want to suggest there are two aspects, two broad categories or aspects of the doctrine of eschatology. The first one is personal eschatology. And it's the question of what happens to me in the end? What are the last things about my personal existence? And this is something, you know, often all people struggle with. Believers, unbelievers. What happens to me when I die? That's called personal eschatology. We recently gathered, didn't we, here to acknowledge the death of our sister Carol. Where is Carol now? What is she doing? What will happen to that body that was placed out there in the grave? That's personal eschatology. What happens to me? What is my end? And then secondly, the second broad category is what we could call cosmic eschatology. And it's really the question of how does the world end? How does history end? And I think that's something also that there's sort of an innate human curiosity about this topic, this idea. I heard someone say a few years ago that all these people who are getting so alarmed about climate change and so forth, they said it's a secular eschatology. they have a sense innately, even if they're holding back or suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, that this world isn't going to go on the way it is right now forever and ever. Even the most sophisticated, educated scientists will tell you, there's going to come a day when they'll say the sun is going to stop and the world is going to go cold and existence on this planet will end. So they have even secular views of eschatology. But as Christians, we have a different view. We have a view informed by scriptures. And we believe there will come an end. And it will come at the second coming of Christ. But again, we've got eschatology that's personal and that's cosmic. And in this series, we're going to try to address some topics from both areas. We're going to try to address what does the Bible say about what happens to me when I die? What happens to believers when they die? What happens to unbelievers when they die? So we're going to ask those types of questions. What are wrong views about eschatology? I think I'll probably do at least one message summarizing what I think are some wrong views about personal eschatology. But then we're going to switch over. We're going to say, okay, what does the Bible say is going to happen at the end of the ages? What's going to happen when Christ comes with power and glory? So anyways, I'm not sure how many weeks we're going to give to it, but we're going to give several weeks to looking at these topics of eschatology. And again, today, we're starting with what happens to believers at their death. And we're going to use as a jumping off point for this one of the scriptural teachings about this, which is found in Second Corinthians 5. verses 1 through 10 and following. The Apostle Paul often touched upon many important doctrines and issues, but he did talk quite a bit about eschatology. He talked both about personal eschatology, sometimes as he considered his own end. We've been recently on Wednesday nights looking at Second Timothy. And I called 2 Timothy Paul's last will and testament. And I read some of his parting words again at the graveside with Carol's service when he said in 2 Timothy 4, for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. And here's his eschatology, verse 8 of 2 Timothy 4. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. He was talking there about the second coming of Christ, and that he would receive a crown of righteousness at the second coming of Christ. And so that's part and parcel of his eschatology. Here he's not addressing where the believer immediately is, but he is addressing a hope of the resurrection, that when Christ comes, his body will be raised, united to his spirit, and he will receive a crown of righteousness. He will receive the Lord's blessing and reward as one of his saints. But the view of personal eschatology starts with an understanding of who we are as human beings. The Bible teaches that human beings are made up of two parts. We are made up of bodies, and we also have a soul or a spirit. And the technical term for this is we are a psychosomatic unity. We have a spirit and we have a body. And this makes Christianity different from many other religions. There are many Eastern religions, for example, that see the body always as negative. They see the body as something that has to be overcome. The Greek philosophers thought of the body as being like a prison. and your spirit, they believe in the immortality of the soul, it would escape from the body. But the Christian view is we have a body and we have a spirit, and both of those have been impacted by sin, so that as Paul says in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so we will experience death, the body will die, and the body will go to the grave, but the spirit, the soul, will go to be with God. And so that is the basic Christian view, is that when the believer dies, his body goes to the grave, but his spirit goes to be with the Lord, awaiting the time, that's what Paul was talking about in 2 Timothy 4, of Christ's second coming. And it's at Christ's second coming that our spirits are reunited with our bodies, and we have those resurrection bodies, and then we are assigned for eternity either to heaven, we are believers, we have been made right with God through Christ, or we are assigned for an eternity of conscience suffering, of righteous judgment from the wrath of God. So let's just look at, again, one place of many where Paul talks about some of these issues. And we start off in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 1. As Paul says, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, We have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. On one hand, we might think Paul is talking about the world, about how these heavens and this earth being one day coming to an end, as Peter says in 2 Peter 3.10, that it will come to an end with fire at the judgment. But I also think he's using this metaphorically to speak of the body as being like an earthly house, a tabernacle. And when we die, of course, this body begins that process of disillusion. It begins that process of breaking down. But the believer has the hope of a building of God. Now, I think he's talking here both about the heavens as the abode of God, but he's also talking about the anticipation of the resurrection body, that one day that will be the body that the believer will have. He continues in verse two, for in this, meaning in this earthly house, in this tabernacle of the body, we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our house, which is from heaven. And so this is the dilemma, isn't it, in verse two of being a believer in this age. We are saved. We are converted. We are living the eternal life now. And yet everything is not as we might wish it to be. We struggle with remaining corruptions. We struggle, Paul says in Galatians, that the spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. There's a sort of an internal civil war that is working its way out. The Apostle Paul probably described this most memorably in Romans chapter 7. When he talked about the fact that as believers, we struggle to do that which is right, and sometimes we don't do that thing which is right, even though we know what the right thing to do is. It's not a matter of our knowledge. It's not a matter of ignorance. We can see Paul discussing this, for example, in Romans 7, verse 15. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, That do I not, but what I hate that I do. And that's the struggle. That's the dilemma. We might know what the right is to do, but we struggle. We're saved, but we have remaining corruptions. And we do the very things that we know are not the right things to do. And the things that are righteous that we should do, those things we fail to do. We have sins of of commission, doing the wrong thing, trespassing against God's law, and also sins of omission, failing to do that which is right and just. And it causes groaning within us. Have you ever groaned over your sin? Have you ever been distraught and grieved because you're not doing the things that you ought? Paul is describing that. We might have a longing. Oh, if I did not have to battle with these remaining corruptions, if I might be able now to experience the fullness of the glorified state. Paul talks about this in verse three, if so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. So he's groaning and hoping to take on the clothing of the resurrection body and knowing that we will not be found, the soul will not be found without a body in the end. And so he says in verse four, for we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. And so the believer anticipates, he knows that, he knows the mortality of his existence, he will not live forever in his current state, that his body daily is breaking down, and sadly we see it over the years, don't we? The teeth begin to corrode, the bones begin to get arthritis, The hair begins to fall out or grow in different places. And we're seeing all the ravages of age. Our bodies are changing. We're not those little newborns we used to be. If I can just tell a grandparent story, you know, you hold a grandbaby and you see that little new body and that new skin, those little fingernails, and toenails, and hair, and you realize, wow, a lot has happened to me since I was in this state. There's been a lot of, there's been a transformation that has taken place, and my body is breaking down day by day. Sadly, you know, you get the pictures, and you look back at the pictures 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and you're like, wow, I still feel like I was that, but I look in the mirror, I'm somebody else. And there's the groaning of understanding that I am caught up. I am understanding my mortality, the limits of my existence. Maybe when you were younger, you thought you could do anything. But you begin to see the limits of your existence. He speaks of God's provision in verse five, now he that hath wrought us For the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit." So God has made us, he has wrought us that we might know him, that eventually we might be clothed with our resurrection bodies, we might be renewed again with newness of life in the glorified state. And he has given us as an earnest, as a down payment of that, the indwelling Holy Spirit. One of the things that happens when we become Christians is the Holy Spirit inhabits our lives. The Holy Spirit moves into our lives. We were having a discussion before lunch about apologetics and scripture. And we were talking about how could you prove to someone that the Bible is the word of God? Can you give them enough evidential truths? Can you show them evidences so that they might come to believe there was a worldwide flood? Can you show them evidences so that they might come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a historical person, that he really died on a cross and so forth? Will that convince him then that what is in the Bible is true? In the medieval Roman Catholic Church, they got caught up with that, wanting to have empirical evidences so that every church would have a little splinter of the cross, so-called, or here's some little evidence, something tangible that you can touch. But how do you really convince someone that what is in the Bible is true? And I'm convinced that the way a person is convinced that the Bible is true is they first have to be converted. They become a believer. And then it's like, that's a no-brainer, the Bible's true. And how is that? It's because when you become a believer, the Holy Spirit enters into you. And as 2 Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's God-breathed. And when the believer who has God's Holy Spirit living within him, reads the scripture, which is God-breathed, what is in us resonates with what is in scripture. And we don't need apologetic evidences. We believe it's true. There's a place for evidences. I'm not saying, I'm not downplaying that. God will often use that as part of the means to make himself known to skeptical and hardened men. But we'll never, by evidences alone, be able to convince someone. What we have is the earnest of the Spirit. And with respect to eschatology, we have the earnest of the Spirit also informing us and telling us that this life isn't the only life that there is. That there's more. That this life is good. This world is good. Christians, we're world affirming. We love the world. It's a beautiful world and it's fallen. Could you can you imagine how beautiful and lovely everything would be if it weren't fallen? We're going to experience that one day in the glorified state. But we have the earnest of the spirit telling us there's more to come. Verse six, therefore, we are always confident. Knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. And so we know that in this life we're pilgrims, we're strangers, we're exiles, we're on a journey. This world is good, but while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the immediate presence of the Lord as we one day will see Him. Paul adds in verse 7, for we walk by faith not by sight. That could be applied back to what I said previously about we're convinced not by evidences, but by the spirit. We walk by faith, not by sight. When I read that, I was thinking, you know, there's a debate about who wrote the book of Hebrews, because technically Hebrews is anonymous, but you'll often hear me say Paul, when I quote Hebrews, say Paul said this or said that. And this is one of those places where we know Paul wrote 2 Corinthians. And he says here, for we walk by faith, not by sight. And if you look over in Hebrews chapter 11, it's a so-called faith chapter of the Bible. And it famously starts, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Kind of sounds like who? Paul, doesn't it? He continues, going back to 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 8. We are confident, I say, and willing, rather, to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. And this is the proof text. Often, it's just summarized as absent from the body, present with the Lord. But technically, if you read verse 8, this is the source of that. It's filled out with a little bit more verbiage. We are confessing and willing rather to be absent of the body to be present with the Lord. This is why the Christian, I'm not saying the Christian does not fear death. We should fear death. Death is horrible. It's a reminder of sin. Death can be painful. And there are a lot of things in the flesh we can be fearful about. But on the other hand, The Christian kind of has a higher gear in that he's always reminding himself, you know what? What's the worst thing that can happen to me? I can die. And what happens to me when I die? I'm absent from the body, but I'm present with the Lord. And this helps the Christian in his best moments put everything in life in perspective. One of these days, most likely, unless we die suddenly or some reason. There's going to come a time when the doctor is going to, you're going to sit in the room and you're going to get the test results. And they're going to tell you, you have this illness or you have this disease or your heart is giving out or you have cancer. And it's going to be a check on everything that you've ever believed, you've ever hoped in. But the Holy Spirit is in you. The earnest, the down payment is in you. And at that moment, by God's grace, may you be able, as Paul did to say, you know what? To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And so Paul continues, therefore we labor. Paul was doing missionary apostolic labor and ministry where his life was often on the line. Why didn't Paul just go off to some nice little island in the Mediterranean and give himself always to prayer or something like that? No, he went and traveled and put his life on the line. I heard a, I heard a, um, A well-known Christian personality say a couple of years ago that he wasn't going to go to a certain state in the United States because it was a blue state. And he wasn't sure what would happen to him if he went there because he was such a courageous Christian. And I thought to myself, could you ever imagine the Apostle Paul saying such a thing? That he wouldn't go somewhere because he was afraid of what might happen to him? He was fearless. Therefore, we labor that whether present or absent, present in the body or absent from it, we may be accepted of Him. And so Paul ends our passage here in verse 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. You may have heard this before, but the word that's rendered here is judgment seat in Greek is bema. Sometimes you'll hear people talk about the bema seat or the bema judgment. The bema was the place where the secular magistrate, this is where Pontius Pilate was sitting. This is where the emperor sat. Paul says, one day we're going to appear before the behemoth seat of Christ. And so we shouldn't worry if we have to appear before the behemoth seat of a human authority. We should be mindful that one day we're going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And he says something that can be very frightening if you're an unbeliever, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Can you imagine a record of everything you've ever said, everything you've ever done, every thought that's ever crossed your mind? You know what? Living in 2025, that sounds, it actually sounds something that's even with our puny human technology sounds a lot more possible than it ever used to be because there's a digital footprint of everything you've ever done online. There's a digital footprint of every phone conversation you've ever had. And can you imagine the superiority of the mind of God, who is infinite, omniscient? He knows everything we've ever done. And one day, we stand before his judgment seat to give an account for everything we've done, whether it be good or bad. That's frightening, isn't it? But what happens if you're a Christian? Is it something you fear? No. Because every sin you've ever committed has been laid upon Christ. And he has already paid the penalty and won the victory on the cross so that we have nothing to fear. absent from the body, present with the Lord, awaiting the resurrection, standing before His judgment seat, and hearing not, you're righteous or you're unrighteous, but as a believer hearing, Christ is righteous. And because He is righteous and you are in Him, you share in His righteousness. Amen? Let me invite you to stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious God, as we in this series will continue to contemplate what will happen to us at the end of our days and what will happen to this tired world at the end of its days, we ask that you would guide us, that our thoughts would be scripture-informed, and that we would not be filled with fear but with confidence As we go about living the life that you have given to us, help us to be good stewards. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.