Well, in his book, Forever, Why You Can't Live Without It, Paul Tripp writes the following. He says, most of us have no pilgrim experience, so perhaps the closest thing in our experiences of a journey of a pilgrim is rustic camping. I am persuaded that the whole purpose of camping is to make a person long for home. On that first day in the woods, putting up the tent is exciting. But three days later, your tent has unpleasant odors in it, and you can't explain what they are. And you love the taste of food cooked over an open flame. That's ash. But three days later, you are tired of foraging for wood, and you are irritated by how fast wood burns. You were excited at the prospect of catching your dinner from the stream running past your campsite, which is reported to be teeming with trout, but all you've snagged so far are the roots on the bottom. You're now four days in, and your back hurts. There seems to be no more felled wood to forage, and you're tired of keeping that fire going anyway. You look into what was once an ice and food-filled cooler to see the family-sized steaks you have reserved floating gray and oozing in a pool of blood-stained water. And suddenly, you begin to think fondly of home. You stand there hoping someone will break the silence and say, why don't we go home? Your four days in the wilderness have accomplished their mission. They have prepared you to appreciate home. Trip adds, our world isn't a very good amusement park. No, it's a broken place groaning for redemption. Here is meant to make us long for forever. Here is meant to prepare us for eternity. I think trips, observations, summarize the heartbeat of what we're going to put in front of us this morning from God's word in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I encourage you to open your Bible, if you have it, or take one from the seat in front of you. We're going to begin right at the beginning of 2 Corinthians 5. And you'll find that on page 966 in the Bible in that seat rack. And 2 Corinthians chapter 5 begins with these words from the Apostle Paul, he says, 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. Now Paul speaks of what he knows. Paul just happens to know quite a bit about tents because Paul is a tent maker. Oh yes, Paul knows all about tents. He has a company, Tents Are Us. Paul makes tents to support himself as he goes from place to place preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I want you to picture, picture Paul with me as he's there cutting out fabric or stitching together seams while he talks with whoever happens to be coming by about the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ. Among other things, Paul knows that tents are vulnerable and tents are temporary. I want you to think about what's your own personal experience with tents. In general, tents are not what we think of as a permanent shelter, are they? Tents are susceptible to the wind and the weather. They can blow over. They may rip or leak, and certainly tents wear out. And be honest now, how many of you have ever had a great night's sleep in a tent? I mean, really, a great night, a memorable night, best night of my life? Maybe I saw a few hands go up. Well, God bless you, thank you. Now Paul uses this picture of a tent to help us understand one of the great differences that exists between life here on planet Earth and what our life will be like on the other side of eternity. Paul talks about the tent that is our earthly home being destroyed. Now that's something that happens to all of us. The earthly home that Paul is talking about here, the tent that gets destroyed is not your house, but rather the physical body that encases your spirit. Now obviously, as I look out, I see some of us are a little further along in the destruction process than others. But we're all gonna get there. We're all gonna get there sooner or later. Sure, everybody looks bright and spiffy today in their Easter best. Slowly and surely our bodies do wear out. I mean, can I get an amen on that? I mean, amen. Amen. They wear out. Yes. Yes, indeed. We need to be good stewards of the bodies that we are given. We need to give them proper nutrition, along with adequate exercise and rest. But nonetheless, our bodies do wear out. And so knowing this is true, it is important for us to bear in mind that We're not our body. You are not your body. The part of you that will live forever in eternity is not what you can see in the mirror. No matter what, at some point, your body will break down and decay. Now that sounds like bad news, maybe not a very happy message on Easter Sunday, but it's not the whole story. That is not the end of the story, and that is certainly not the Easter story. Paul says, a day is coming when we will have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Imagine that. Imagine a building from God. Someday we're all going to move out of the temporary housing that we have inside these mortal bodies, and we're going to move into the permanent housing we will have in our resurrection bodies. How do we know this? Well first and foremost we look at the life of Jesus. Jesus lived for a while in one of these bodies, one of these standard issue tents in which our spirits are currently housed. The scriptures tell us we celebrate this particularly at Christmas, John 1 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus came to Bethlehem, that baby in the manger, encased in one of the same sort of fallible mortal bodies that you and I have been given. And to keep up with our tent imagery, fascinating to know that a very literal rendering of John 1 14 that you see on the screen in front of you would be to say he pitched his tent among us. That's literally what is written for us there in the original language. Jesus experienced hunger, he experienced thirst, fatigue, and every sort of hardship that our physical bodies are subject to. When Jesus was whipped, when Jesus was beaten, when he was crowned with thorns, when he was nailed to a cross, when he was pierced in his side with a spear, his body showed all the signs of being battered and bruised. Jesus did not have a superhuman body. Jesus' body was no different than yours. He might have been taller, thinner, whatever, I don't know, but the constitution of his body, no different than yours. Jesus bled real blood. Jesus knows all about what it is to live inside of one of these earthly tents. And that's part of what we're here to celebrate this morning. What we celebrate today on Resurrection Sunday is that having endured the cross, having despising its shame, having humbled himself and become obedient to death, even death on a cross, having taken the penalty of all of our sin, taking all God's wrath against our sin, all the punishment that we so rightly deserve because of our sin, Having done all of that, Jesus demonstrates God's power over sin and death as he is raised from the dead. Jesus comes forth from his temporary tomb wearing a brand new, glorified, permanent body, a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That's what's coming. That's what's coming for you, that's what's coming for me, that's what we're looking forward to. Someday your temporary housing in your mortal body will be replaced by something far more glorious. Paul expands on this in other places. Philippians chapter 3, verses 20 and 21, he says, but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. And Ted read us at the beginning of the service from 1 Corinthians 15, behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment. in a twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. Well, come back with me to 2 Corinthians 5. Let's move on to verse 2. Paul continues and he writes, In this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. Now, I'm asking you, and you don't have to say it out loud. Just be honest with yourself. Does anyone here groan? Any groaners? I'm sure some of you do, and nobody likes the groaning that comes about as a result of these bodies that are breaking down, these aching bodies. Oh, oh, oh. Linda will hear that. She'll come running in the room. They think I'm having a coronary or something. Are you all right? I'm like, no, I'm just getting up out of a chair. No, we don't like, we don't like to, we don't like that kind of groaning, but it just kind of escapes from us. But on the plus side of this, and there is a plus side, thank you Lord, Paul tells us that these are groans of expectation, so go right ahead and groan. Verse four, 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. Wow. Not that we would be unclothed but that we would be further clothed. Wow. What a thought. Now think about this with me for a few moments here. Let's talk for a moment about what this means, this whole idea of being unclothed. Now, you may not have ever stopped to think about this, you may have no background to know, but actually the idea of being unclothed is an extremely important theme that weaves its way throughout scripture. The topic of being unclothed is an extremely significant subject. This is not gonna be PG-13 or anything, don't worry. The idea of being unclothed, it takes us right back to the beginning. It takes us right back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When God creates Adam and Eve and sets them in the Garden of Eden, God puts all these wonderful, positive commands in front of them. He tells them, eat, eat, eat, eat, enjoy, enjoy all this, have children, lots, lots and lots of children. But along with all those positive commands, in his love, God establishes one and only one negative prohibition for them, which is just don't eat from this one tree. But of course, that's like telling a child not to touch the hot stove, right? What do they do? What do they do? They turn right around and do the one and only thing that God tells them not to do. And what happens? What happens when Adam and Eve step over that one single solitary boundary line that God has put in place for their protection? Genesis 3 7 then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and they made loincloths Adam and Eve suddenly become aware that they are unclothed. Adam and Eve instantly feel shame for the first time. Adam and Eve sense their vulnerability. They want to cover up. They know they're exposed. They're just feeling ashamed of that, and their sin is out in the open. It's laid bare. It's right out there for everyone to see. And their very first impulse is to hide their shame from God, to hide their nakedness from God. And most of you know the rest of the story. God drops by for his usual afternoon tea. And the man and the woman hide themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. And God calls out to Adam and Eve, where are you? And Adam reflects the fear that he feels as he replies, I heard the sound of you. in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid. And you know, things just spiral downhill from there. God announces to them the fallout their sin and their rebellion will bring not only to themselves, but on all of their future descendants. The consequences of their sin are tragic and painful. The consequences have far-reaching implications. The effect of their sin has an impact on all of our lives, including the fact that our bodies will wear out and die. But, God does not abandon his children. God does not wipe them out. God does not say, phooey on you, I'm starting over. No, because of God's love, because of God's mercy, because his mercies are new every single morning, God deals with Adam and Eve's nakedness. God does something about their shame and their exposure. God provides a covering. God makes garments for them out of skin. But this act of mercy, this covering that he makes because he loves them, it's not about the beginning of the garment industry. No, this is serious, serious stuff. Very serious stuff. To deal with the fallout of Adam and Eve's sin, something else must die in order for them to be covered. The Bible says sin causes death. The fallout of sin is death. In order to provide a suitable, albeit a temporary covering for Adam and Eve's nakedness and shame, another living thing must be killed to provide the skins that are needed to cover their nakedness. Now, I think all of our fine Easter clothes have come a long way from wearing animal skins, but they ultimately just serve the same purpose. all the way back to the beginning. Since the beginning of time, Adam and Eve have been, and all the people following them, have been trying to keep themselves covered up. And not just physically, but spiritually as well. Our natural inclination is to hide our sin, to try to sweep things under the rug. We go on and pretend like nothing's happened. We wear masks in front of one another. How's everything? Oh, fine. How about you? Fine. Oh, fine. Fine. It's not fine. You're not fine. No, if you think things are fine, then you are doing a fine job of kidding yourself. But you can't fool God. Maybe you can kid yourself, but you cannot fool God. You cannot hide from God. God sees all. God knows all. That's written down for us in his word. I want to just break into this message and ask you to read these verses from Psalm 139 that remind us of this truth, because it's so important to keep it in our head when we're tempted to try to cover things up, sweep them under a rug, wear a mask, whatever. So read this out loud with me from Psalm 139. O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my paths and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all together. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. Can't hide from God. God sees all. God knows all. And God knows what our greatest need is. He knows that beyond just the physical covering like he provided for Adam and Eve, we need a spiritual covering. He knows that these bodies that house our spirits, Are going to they're going to decay they're going to die They are temporary just like the garments of skin and the death of the animals from which those skin come from Anticipate the final covering for sin that God will provide through Jesus death and resurrection He is looking towards that permanent solution right from the beginning a permanent solution to deal with the shame and the nakedness that sin brings into our lives. It's one thing to deal with our external nakedness, and by all means, keep your clothes on, but it's quite something else to deal with our internal nakedness, to deal with your spiritual nakedness, the inner man. The inner woman, that secret place in your heart, that place where everything lies in darkness, the place where everything lives in darkness, it's ultimately brought into the light of God's judgment. That's the place where we are most radically vulnerable, the place where we are most radically exposed, and that's what Jesus' death is all about. Jesus hangs naked exposed on the cross of Calvary so that you and I can face the prospect of a moment yet to come when we will move from this life and all the pain and all the indignity that comes from being encased inside these temporary Bodies that grow weaker with time and fail us in so many different ways. We're looking forward to that future moment when we're going to move away from all of the nakedness and shame of these stinking, sin-scarred, old, decaying bodies and we will be clothed with a house not made with hands. That's a deep, deep longing in Paul's heart and that longing that Paul expresses to be clothed in this heavenly dwelling, this house not made with hands. It's not primarily about being set free from the physical pain and the defects and the blemishes of his body, but it is a longing to be clothed with a body that is set free from sin. Sin is at home in these tents. Sin is at home in these earthly bodies. To put it maybe a little more precisely, perhaps even more accurately, our mortal bodies are sin's home. But sin will not, sin cannot be present in the building God is making for us, that house not made with hands. There will be no sin living with us when we come into our house that is not made with hands. Paul longs for that day. He longs for the day when he will be enabled to serve and worship and praise God in absolute purity and freedom. He longs for the day when he's going to be able to be set free from the restrictions and the limitations that come from living inside his sinful, fallen body. Though Paul waits upon whatever the Lord has for him and whatever the timetable is that God has set, Paul makes his wishes and Paul makes his longing known that he might know it sooner rather than later that he would move into this heavenly dwelling, this house not made with hands. In another place, in Philippians chapter one, verse 21, he says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Some of you may look forward to heaven in the long run, as long as it's maybe not just quite yet. There's a story that's told about a great evangelistic preacher who arrived in a town in Texas. This is a kind of gentleman who was larger than life in every possible way, and he preached his heart out, and he preached loud, and he preached long. He talked about the horrors of hell. He talked about the glories of heaven. He painted such a vivid picture that at the end of his message he said, now I want everyone, everyone who is here tonight who wants to go to heaven to move over to this side of the sanctuary. And every single person in that sanctuary got up and moved to the other side except one young boy. One young boy still sitting all by himself over here. And the preacher walks over to him and he says, young man, don't you want to go to heaven? And the boy looked up at him and he said, oh, yes sir, I do. But I thought you were going to be taking them right now. Yeah, we want heaven, but maybe not right just yet. But when it comes to Paul's expression of his longing, when it comes to him trading in his mortal body for the house not made with hands, Paul definitely is longing for sooner, not later. Paul writes in that passage in Philippians 1, he says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, That means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Now Paul's not rushing himself to the finish line. Paul sees that there is still important work for him to do for God and for the church. But Paul is definitely looking forward to that moment when what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Sometimes we We have an experience, something really, really good, a great vacation, maybe even just one perfect day, a perfect day at the beach, a glorious hike up a mountain and we get to the end of that day and we say, wow, this is really living. This is really living. But you know what? It's not. What's coming is life. What's coming is real life. Again, going back to 1 Corinthians 15, where we started our service, when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Then we're going to know what really living is all about. As followers of Jesus, We shouldn't be earnestly or morbidly desiring death, but we should be prepared for it. We should prepare ourselves to live for the glory of God, and we should be prepared to die for the glory of God. This promise of being further clothed and the moment when what is mortal is swallowed up by life is the hope of every blood-bought believer in Jesus Christ. And so I ask you this morning, do you live with this hope? Is it your confidence in life and at the moment of death that you will be swallowed up by life? Is it your confidence that in that moment for the first time ever you will know what really living is all about? Living with this hope. is available to anyone who will believe in Jesus Christ and Christ alone and acknowledge his or her need of a savior. Believe that Jesus is who he says he is and trust that in dying on the cross and being raised from the dead that Jesus has done all that there is that needs to be done to win salvation for you. If you've never done so before, there could not be a better day than Easter Sunday. Could not be a better day to do what Paul encourages us to do in Romans 10, 9 today. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. God's promise to you, it is a promise, you can take it to the bank, is that you will be saved if you do that. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. If that is your heart's desire this morning, I want you to pray along with me as we bring this to a close this morning. God, We thank and praise you for the fact that we know that if the earthly tent, that heavenly body we have, that earthly home is destroyed, we will have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We know that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. I want to call out to you this morning, God. I want to declare with my mouth, I know Jesus is Lord. I know Jesus is your son. I know Jesus came to earth in a standard issue tent like mine, in a human body, that he lived a righteous life. that he went about teaching people, healing people, showing his power over nature, showing his power over the demonic, evil world, but ultimately, by your pre-planned, foreordained will, Jesus went to the cross as a sacrifice, a substitute in my place, to pay the price for my sin. I know that, God, and I confess this morning, and I believe that, and I want to declare with everything I am, Lord, that I need that. I recognize I'm exposed. I'm vulnerable. I'm filled with shame. I am a sinner. I need what Jesus has and I want it. I want to line my life up with his. I want to receive what he has for me. I want to live for him, full out for him, all in for him. And so Lord, I confess that with my mouth and I believe it in my heart. Receive me today as your child. I thank you for that, I trust you for it, and I pray that you will now show me what my next steps are if I am going to continue to grow in this newfound faith. In Jesus' name, amen.