Well, I just got back from a week on vacation. And I spent my vacation, probably like many of you do, dwelling on the text for this upcoming Sunday, thinking a lot about death as I lay on the beach. I'm sure that's common for you all. You guys are going to have to start the slides, I can't. And so this morning, we're going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'd invite you to turn there with me as we begin. And we'll begin with, you can help me complete a statement that I know you know, and it's the statement that sort of brought me to this text as I was thinking literally about death and about funerals in the last month or two. And it's, There we go. Absent from the body. So, complete that for me. Absent from the body, present with the Lord, everybody said. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 8 says, absent from the body, present with the Lord. In fact, if you read that entire verse in the English Standard Translation, which is the one that I use, it says, yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. We would rather be. away from the body and at home with the Lord. So, my question is, is that our preference? To be absent from our bodies and present with our Lord? Are we looking to be free from the body so we can be home with the Lord? This is, whether you recognize it or not, a very popular idea, even I fear to some degree among many Christians today, and it's something that Paul was concerned with in writing to the Corinthians, this second inspired letter, 2 Corinthians. He was dealing in part with a Sort of a proto-Gnosticism. So, the Gnostics, perhaps you have heard of. Gnostics believe that God is spirit, with which we agree. The world is matter, with which we agree. But they put those two opposed to one another. And salvation, in the Gnostic view, is really escape from the world of matter. And they view the body as a useless covering or even a trap from which we would long to be released. Paul was dealing with an incipient form of that very kind of idea in Corinth. Now, can you imagine that concept of the body being a trap from which your spirit longs to be liberated? Can you imagine that being a popular idea? Can you imagine people thinking that they are trapped in their bodies? I bet your head just imagined some places where you've heard that even today, even among our day. You know, I trust, that this is not this Gnosticism and the beginnings of it that Paul was dealing with, this is not the biblical view of the body, right? I mean, was the first man and then the first woman, were they created spirits and then given bodies? No. You know that in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7, then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground. and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. We were not, in fact, created spirits. We were created bodies that were made alive. As I like how Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it generations ago, he put it this way, a human being does not have a body or have a soul, Instead, a human being is body and soul. When God destroyed all of humanity save eight in Noah's day, how did he destroy men? Did he reach down from heaven and pluck their souls or spirits out of them and their bodies crumpled to the ground? No, of course not. He sent a flood to destroy their bodies, not unplug their spirits. God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth." And he destroyed them and the earth together with water because he was concerned about bodies, not about snuffing out their life force on the inside and leaving the bodies to die. This is much more corporeal, the flood. He sends a flood to wipe out flesh, never even mentions touching of their spirits. Or you could compare that to the death of the firstborn in Exodus 12. The firstborn don't just keel over because of separation of spirit from body, rather the destroying angel goes through and touches the bodies of the firstborn in Egypt. Or think of it this way, were you saved by the Spirit of Christ or by His body? You know the answer. Jesus himself said at the Last Supper in Luke 22, 19, Jesus did not give his spirit for you, his life force animation for you. He gave his body for you. His spirit went immediately into the presence of the Father. The body died. The body lay in the ground for three days. The body of Christ was resurrected for our justification. So, when Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5-8 that we would rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord, is he teaching something different from what the Bible has always taught about our embodiment? Well, join me, I invite you, this morning as we walk through this passage and see. So, let's read. I'll begin at the end of chapter 4 since this is actually where Paul's thought begins. So, I'll start in chapter 4 and verse 16, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 16. 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 for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 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." Let us pray. And Father, would you add your blessing to the reading of your word. And now as we look into this passage, would you guide our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus into all truth, just as the Holy Spirit promised he would do. We are counting on you for that this morning, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. absent from the body, present with the Lord." Let's walk through this text and see if it's teaching something that accords with the rest of Scriptures. I'm sure you know it will. He says first in the end of chapter 4 that I read to give you the context, the warning that death is coming. It's funny, if you read the apostle earlier in his life, in earlier letters that he wrote before the couple of Corinthian letters, he sounds like it's his expectation that the Lord will return before he dies. And then when you read this in 2 Corinthians and some of his other later letters, like when he writes to Timothy towards the end of his life, it sounds more like he's recognizing the fact that his death is likelier than not before the Lord's return. And he says that even though he recognizes that unless the Lord returns very soon, death will be coming even for the Apostle Paul, we do not lose heart in the face of death. Have you seen a dead body? It is so unnatural to see a body without life. To be in this body, as Paul says here, is to be alive. James says in chapter 2 and verse 26 of his letter, for as the body apart from the spirit is Dead. So also faith apart from works is dead. Listen, friend, I don't know if you recognize this, but you are a body. You are not something else in a body. There is no ghost in the machine. Your body determines who you are. You can change your mind, you can have some control over your emotions and order them, but you have no control over yourselves. But unless the Lord returns first, the body you were created to be will die. And that's the fact that Paul's wrestling with here. Do you ever think about death and the fact that unless the Lord returns first, yours is coming? Paul gives three reasons here in chapter 5 why, even though he's staring death in the face, he does not lose heart. Even though he's facing a decaying body that is going to die, he does not lose heart. So let's look at the three reasons he gives in chapter 5. First reason, because we know if the tent is destroyed, we have a building. If the tent is destroyed, we have a building. He purposely chooses these words, the first word, for we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, that word refers to, just like you would think, a tent. What was Paul's occupation, by the way? How did he support himself in his missionary travels? He was a tent maker. He was a worker in skins who specifically made tents. So he would be well familiar with the fact that a tent may shelter you for the night, but it does not make a very good permanent structure. You wouldn't want to live in one forever. And he chooses the word tent to describe our earthly home. And then he uses another word, building. We have a building from God, a house not made with hands. He describes this building, and that word building is a good rendering. It does imply something much more stable, something much more permanent. You would think of it as having a foundation and walls, actual solid walls, unlike a tent. And he describes this building, the structure, to come in three ways. He says, first of all, that this building is from or by, it could be translated either way, God. The building is from or by God. This is not one that you receive from your parents. This is not one that you fabricate yourself. God himself supplies this building that is to come. The second thing he says about the building that we will receive is that it is not made with hands. I find this fascinating. How was Adam's body formed? By God. It was formed almost literally with God's hands out of the dust of the ground. This body is not made with hands. It's not made with hands, which first, I'm sure, implies that it is not of human origin. Your body, you could say, you received from your parents, and it is of human hands, if you will. This body that you're going to receive is not of human origin, and it is not fashioned by God from the dirt of this ground. It's not made from hands in that sense, but it is from God, not made with hands. And thirdly, he describes it as permanent. A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That word eternal does not need to imply that it has existed forever, but that it will exist forever into the future. This building to come is eternal. That's reason one. We don't despair in the face of the death of our physical bodies because we know if the tent is destroyed, we have a building. Reason two is because we're groaning in this tent, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. A groan, that word he uses there, could be translated sighing. We are sighing in this tent. We are groaning. It means to express oneself involuntarily in the face of usually of an undesirable circumstance. In this case, we're groaning or sighing because what? We're longing. Good word, it means to have a strong desire for something with the implication of need. Like when Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2 to long for the pure spiritual milk of God's word. That's the word long, desire, have an intense, strong desire for something with the implication that you need this thing. We are groaning because we long to put on our heavenly dwelling, he says. The heavenly dwelling, he does not explain here, probably because he didn't need to, because he did in the prior inspired letter to Corinth in 1 Corinthians in chapter 15, one of the big three resurrection passages in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 15, he describes in some more detail what he calls here the heavenly dwelling, what he calls in 1 Corinthians 15 the spiritual body. Love that phrase. He describes it as the resurrection body to come. He describes it as a spiritual body. It's almost oxymoronic, isn't it? It's a body, but it's spiritual. Usually those things are separate and distinct from one another, right? Think of God, of course. God has always existed as pure spirit. John 4, 24, Jesus tells the woman at the well, God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth. And you remember that this God who has always existed as pure Spirit, the second person in the Trinity, Jesus Christ, received a physical body, became a man, and then after He received and then lost temporarily his physical body, he was the first one to receive this spiritual body, this heavenly dwelling as Paul calls it here, spiritual body as he calls it in 1 Corinthians 15. And we know, especially from 1 Corinthians 15, that at Christ's second coming, we, you and I, will receive our spiritual bodies, our heavenly dwellings. Spiritual bodies that are suited perfectly for life in the new heavens, on the new earth, with God. And this, Paul says here, in verses 2 and 3, is what we long for. Not, get this, that we be found naked. but rather that we long for this new heavenly dwelling and we long to put it on. Have you ever heard your body described in Christian circles as an earth suit? I've heard that one a number of times. I think expressing the emotion in 2 Corinthians 5, 8, absent from the body present with the Lord, but people describing the body as an earth suit, like we only need it here, and then we get to go be with the Lord and we don't need it anymore. Let me tell you, I hate that expression. because it is absolutely foreign to Paul's thought. As I said a minute ago, there is no ghost in the machine. You are the machine. You were created a body, and the most unnatural thing in the world is for your spirit to be separated from your body. That is not how you were created to be. That's death. We don't welcome death as Christians. Death is our final enemy as believers. We are not looking for it. We are not celebrating it. We do not welcome its coming. We are not longing, beloved, in verses 2 and 3 of 2 Corinthians 5, we are not longing for release from corporeal existence, embodied existence. We are longing for our heavenly dwelling. That's the second reason why we don't lose heart in the face of our own death. The third reason, that he gives in verse four, is because we're groaning in this tent, being burdened to be, I put it on your slide, overclothed. Here's how it's translated. 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. Now, this groaning, same word as in the previous verse, Two verses back, same word, groaning, sighing. But this time it has a more negative tinge because we're not groaning because we're longing, we're groaning here being burdened, he says. And that means to press down as with a weight, to weigh down. We are groaning here in verse 4 because we are weighed down, we are burdened. What's burdening us? You might think it's our sin, but that is not the case specifically here in this verse. And it is not the ravages of time on our bodies. And it is not, emphatically, the fact that you are carrying around a body. As if the Apostle would even talk that way. No. What we're groaning is not to be unclothed, what we're burdened for, is not to be unclothed, which would be naked in the prior verse, but rather that we would be further clothed, that we would be overclothed. That word translated further clothed, it's really like putting on a cloak or a garment over an existing garment. We don't want to be free, beloved, from our bodies. Perish the thought. We want our bodies, which can die, they are mortal as the text says, we want them to be swallowed up by life. We want bodies that can never die. That's what he says we're groaning, being burdened with in verse four. He says it this way in Romans chapter 8, verses 22 and 23. You'll remember these. For we know that the whole creation has been, what, groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for what? Adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies. That's what he says in Romans 8, 23. That's what we're groaning for and all creation along with us. Redemption of our bodies. Redemption, that word means release from a captive condition. We're not waiting to be set free from our bodies. Rather, we and the whole of creation with us, Paul says, are eagerly waiting for our bodies to be redeemed. to be set free from their current condition. Or as he says back here in 2 Corinthians 5, not that we would be uncovered, but that we would be further covered. Those are his three reasons why we do not lose heart in the face of death. And then he says, fascinatingly, in verse 5, that God has prepared us for this and has guaranteed it. Verse 5. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." Prepared us for, the expression is emphatic, this very thing. What thing is He talking about? The very thing that we have been prepared for by God is being overclothed, having spiritual bodies, receiving our heavenly dwelling, the redemption of our flesh. That's the very thing. And the preparation and the down payment, if you will, the guarantee that God gives is the giving of his Holy Spirit to live in us. Verse 5 says that's the guarantee. Paul said in his first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 6 and verse 19. Actually, let me ask you a question before I read that verse. Where does the Holy Spirit live? God has given you his Spirit as a guarantee. Where does the Holy Spirit live? I bet most of you, your first thought was, in my heart, because that's the prayer I prayed to receive salvation. That's what I heard in Sunday school and sang as a child, down in my heart. Actually, 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 19, listen to this. You know this, don't you? Of course you know. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't mystically live in your heart, in your soul, if you're a trichotomist, or in your spirit. if you're right like me and only believe in spiritual and physical existence, not three parts. The Spirit of God lives in your body, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, and it is that indwelling Spirit of God that is your guarantee that you are going to receive a new body, a spiritual body, your heavenly dwelling. Your body being indwelt by the Holy Spirit is your guarantee that what is now mortal, this flesh, what can die and will die unless the Lord intervenes and returns first, this mortality will be swallowed up, as he says in the verse, by life. That's what you're longing for. You don't want to be free from your body. You just want your body that can die to not be able to die, for mortality to be swallowed up by life. You want a new heavenly dwelling to replace your purely earthly dwelling here. And so, that eventually brings us to verses 6 through 8, where he makes the statement, absent from the body, present with the Lord. So, he began in the face of death in verse 16 with, we do not lose heart. And he wraps up here in verse 6 with a parallel idea. We are always of good courage. We do not lose heart. We are always of good courage. And I think here in verses 6 through 8, the apostle gives us rather a surprising twist. Because follow his train of thought. Okay, he recognizes that death is, unless the Lord returns, inevitable for all of us. And it's coming for him. His body is breaking down and death is coming. And what have we been sighing and groaning and longing and being burdened for throughout this passage that we've been reading? Our spiritual bodies, new bodies, heavenly dwellings. And when do we get those bodies? He doesn't explicitly say here, but we know from 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 that we get those new bodies not at death, rather at the second coming of Christ, at his parousia, when Jesus comes back for his church. And so, we are longing for something that we don't get necessarily at death. We get at Christ's second coming. So, your death, It's an unnatural event. It is not the way God designed things to work. It's purely a result of sin and the fall. And it doesn't bring you what you're longing for, what you're groaning for, what you're burdened for, what you're sighing for in this text. Jesus coming brings you what you long for. So there is then sort of an intermediate state, which is implied here, even though it's more explicit in the other two passages I mentioned, 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4. So, think this way. Paul has been contrasting here in these verses we've been looking at two states, if you will, the temporal state and the eternal state. Here's how he's been drawing these contrasts, comparing these two states for us. He describes the temporal state, what we have right now as a tent, and what we will have forever as a building. He describes what we have right now as being clothed. He describes what we will have after Christ's second coming as being further clothed, over clothed. He describes our current condition as mortal, meaning subject to death. Eternally, we will no longer be subject to death. The new spiritual dwelling, our new body will be immortal. Today, here in these bodies, we walk by faith. How do we walk when we are with the Lord? The implication is by sight, and he says that specifically, you'll see in a minute, about the intermediate state, but we can infer that we will walk with the Lord by sight when we are with Him. That's the reason he gives why we know we're in a temporary condition in bodies that can die because we don't see Jesus. We're walking by faith. We have to experience a relationship with Him by faith, not by sight. At that point, it will be by sight. So why does he now say, in verse 8, after comparing those two states and saying we're longing for the latter condition where we're further clothed and we have a body that is perfect and not subject to death, it's been swallowed up by life, why does he now say that we would rather be absent from the body? And I would say it's because we know from, especially from those other passages I mentioned, that we get the building from God at Christ's second coming, not at death. So, he's addressing the question of what about the space in between? What about death now instead of Christ, before Christ coming now for you? What about the space between for those who die in Christ before Christ returns? Well, what do we know from this passage about this intermediate state? We know that, as he says here, in this situation of death before Christ's coming, we are, as he says, away from the body. absent from the body. We know that we are, as he describes it here, unclothed. He's been using that word earlier, and we can infer that that's what it would mean. To be absent from your body is to be unclothed. He just said we don't want to be found naked, but in this situation we are. We are unclothed. But This is an important, but if you are unclothed, if you die and your spirit is separated from your body, are you walking by faith anymore? No, you're with the Lord. Now you are walking by sight. Faith has become sight. And Paul says, we know that while we're away from the Lord, we are away from the Lord while we're at home in the body, in this tent. absent from the body, present with the Lord. We are courageous, in other words, as he says, We are of good courage because, get this, in spite of our intense longing, our desire to be overclothed with our resurrection bodies, we would still rather be away from the body, unclothed if you will, in order to be at home with the Lord. We're not longing to be away from the body, but if that's what it takes to be home with the Lord, it's better. The contrast that he makes is between faith and sight. You are not, friends, actually separated from Christ while you're here at home in the body. You actually are with him, but you don't see him. You're with him by faith. You experience walking with him by faith, not by sight. We experience walking with him entirely now by faith, but, friend, The Apostle says, if and when death separates you from your body that you were made to be, you will be united with Christ in sight, not in faith any longer. You will experience being with him with your own, well, at that point, not physical eyes, but eyes. You will see him. you will be with him. You will be absent from the body but at home with the Lord." I believe that's the contrast that he's making for us. No Christian, according to the apostle, is longing to put off the body. But if that's what it takes, if we have to die and wait naked, if you will, for our tents to be resurrected and made into permanent buildings, to be clothed over with glorified bodies, then it will be worth it to be with Christ. So, Let's wrap up and I'll ask you a question. Do you ever think about why Jesus has right now in heaven at the right hand of the Father a body? He does, right? He was resurrected on the third day, given his new spiritual body, the heavenly dwelling. It was a real physical body. People saw it, people touched it, he ate in people's presence. It was a real body, as real as yours, actually more real, and he's in it right now in heaven. Why does he have that body still? Because I'm afraid sometimes we think about heaven as purely a spiritual place, when in fact, in the resurrection when God makes new heavens and a new earth, they are real physical creations. It's all corporeal. You will be in a real body, a spiritual body, but a body nonetheless on the new earth and with Christ in his glorified body. It's all corporeal. It's all embodied. It's not pure spiritual. Death, friends, that's being unclothed. That is unnatural. We're not longing for that. We're longing to be what we were created to be, bodies created in God's image, only with new, permanent bodies to replace these tents. That's what we long for. Now, I will admit to you, that longing, those facts that we just covered, that is not a particularly applicational message. I didn't give you any exhortation so far about what to do about the fact that you love being in a body and just want a new one, not to be out of yours. But can you think, friends, of any implications of believing like Paul does here about being a body, about our bodily existence, present and future? Can you imagine any implications that would have on your life and your thinking and what it might do to how you interact with people around you? Well, tonight we're going to consider some of those implications. We didn't get to verses 9 and 10 where he gives his sort of therefore. Here's one of the things you do with this way of thinking about the body and the body to come. So we're going to look at those two tonight. Plus, I'll help you think through some biblical implications of this text that we've been reading, 5, 1 through 10. on everything from the LGBTQ movement today to planning your funeral or a loved one's funeral. We're going to talk about implications of this text for all of that this evening, so I hope you'll join me for that. In the meantime, let me just make it clear for you, if it's not clear to you already. Our society, and really every human society, but ours in particular, has a terribly ungodly, unchristian view of bodies and death. and you've been imbibing the spirit of the age, those ungodly views of the body since you were born. And so I can say on full authority that there is no way, unless you've been meditating on how the Bible actually describes your embodied existence for a long time, that you think about your bodily creation and your bodily ongoing dwelling into the eternity like Paul does. So it's my prayer for you this morning that you'll work and you'll think hard about how to align your view of having a body and receiving a new body and spiritual body to come with the apostles' vision for us here in 2 Corinthians 5, rather than what the world has been teaching you about your body from the day that you were born. Will you join me in prayer?