2 Corinthians 5:1-5 “ 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.”
Pastor Kyle continues that though the Christian longs for Heaven and to be present with the Lord for eternity, it is not that we have a deathwish and want to die and get rid of these bodies that cloth our inner self soul. Ephesians 2:10 tells us, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Jesus commanded all Christians in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” The children of God have the godly work of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world and advancing the kingdom of Heaven on Earth in God’s overarching plan of Salvation, reconciliation and restoration. God does prepare his kingdom citizens with the blessing to come home and be with the Lord, but know that we will not pass from this life to eternity one minute earlier than the time given us.
Hebrews 11:1 explains, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The Greek work for “faith” in this passage is “pistis” meaning the conviction that God exists and is the Creator and ruler of all things, the Provider and Bestower of eternal salvation through Christ with a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah sent by Father God, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God. This is why the Apostle Paul proclaims that we walk by faith, not by sight. The term “things hoped for” is the Greek word “elpizō” meaning to wait for salvation with joy and full trust and confidence; a sure hope. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 13:12-13, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us, [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Even the most devout saints (those who have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit in transforming salvation through Christ) live on the promises of God by faith and hope with blessed assurance of the “things not seen” of God and certainty of Heaven to come. 1 John 5:11-13 assures us, “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Romans 10:17 explains, “ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Our Creator God has put eternity into everyone’s heart and His holy word in our hands, but when we get to eternal Heaven, face to face with the Lord, faith and hope are no longer necessary and love abides. God gives us a guarantee … He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. Jesus announces in John 14:15-17, 26 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
The fourth thing that we need to know about this tent living is (4) the guarantee is in the Holy Spirit working in Believers today. The Apostle Paul instructs us in Galatians 5:16-18, 22-25 “I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit.
The Lord Jesus said in John 7:37-39, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. The Greek word for “thirst” in this passage of Scripture is “dipsaō” meaning figuratively, those who are said to thirst who painfully feel their want of, and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and strengthened. The Lord Jesus quenches the thirst of the soul and the Helper, the indwelling Holy Spirit guides us in paths of righteousness, producing “living water having vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul that flows out of the heart. The physical is temporary, but the eternal soul transcends and is permanent.
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message on our temporary earthly lives in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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