Title: Christ Jesus is our mighty fortress!
Text: 2 Cor. 5:1-10
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.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 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.
The great evangelist George Whitefield was relating the difficulties of the gospel ministry to some friends. He said that he was weary of the burdens and was glad that his work would soon be over and that he would depart this earthly scene to be with Christ. The others admitted having similar feelings -- all except one, a Mr. Tennant. Noting this, Whitefield tapped him on the knee and said, "Well, Brother Tennant, you are the oldest among us; do you not rejoice to think that your time is so near at hand when you will be called Home?"
The old man answered bluntly that he had no wish about it. When pressed for something more definite, he added, "I have nothing to do with death. My business is to live as long as I can, and as well as I can, and serve my Savior as faithfully as I can, until He thinks it's time to call me Home." Whitefield accepted that word as a gentle rebuke from the Lord, and it helped him go on with his work calmly and patiently.
Our Daily Bread.
We are to go about our daily tasks in whatever vocation God has placed us as faithful servants of the word and to serve our neighbor which is God’s desire for each one of us. God has done all things for us in restoring our relationship with him but he uses us daily to serve the needs of others.
Christ Jesus is our mighty fortress!
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.
Paul speaks here of the human body with the analogy of a tent. For those of you who enjoy camping - and I’m not one who enjoys camping - you may have experienced the fact that tents … don’t last forever.
Ill.
Back in 1984 when my wife Monica was pregnant with Amy we went camping with our friends Terry and Julie Stanley. We had camped the summer together and even though Monica was pregnant we went again. As we got to the campsite we began to set up the tent. About half way through the process the seams started pulling apart and before long the tent literally fell apart at the seams. Those around us were getting a pretty good laugh at our misfortune. As we pulled one side tighter ... the other side would pull apart.
Evidently after camping the previous year, Terry had put away the tent wet instead of setting it up and letting it dry and the thread of the seams had rotted. So to continue to have our camping trip another new tent had to be purchased. Not a great joy but we did finish our camping trip.
The hearers in Paul’s day would have been familiar with the wearing out of fabric of their own tents and here Paul connects it to the fabric of their own mortality.
2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
Our lives are like the vulnerability of being naked and exposed.
This past Tuesday I preached at the funeral of Lori Cheal who at 56 was about the age of my own mother who also suffered the pains of cancer and was called from this life to the life eternal in heaven way too soon. At times the blessing of a long life is given and it seems so many are living into their 90s and for some, like my classmate in Jr. High Sylvia Kalaras who died in a house fire in 1969 at 14 years of age. I still remember the details of her death in the basement ... she couldn't get out. The principal of the High School lived next door and Sylvia got as close to a foot away from his hand so he could pull her through the basement window and fear caused her to back away into the smoke and he never saw her again. 46 years later and I still remember it like it was yesterday.
4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—
We all can attest to the trials of this life and times being burdened, worn out and spent - not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, by God’s miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit to clothe us with a building not made by human hands so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
Through the Spirit we are pointed to our mighty fortress which is Christ Jesus our Lord!
5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
Ill.
There's an Ozark story about a hound sitting in a country store and howling as hounds do. In comes a stranger who says to the storekeeper, "What's the matter with the dog?" Well, the owner lifts up his head and says, "He's sitting on a cocklebur." "Well why doesn't he get off?" says the stranger. Well, says the storekeeper, "He'd rather holler."
Bits and Pieces, May, 1990, p. 20.
There is a guarantee that we will receive the incorruptible when we put off the corruptible as our mortal bodies are clothed with immortality at Christ’s return.
Paul had told the Corinthians this in 1 Cor. 15:52
52 in a moment, in the 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.
But Paul adds in his second letter to the Corinthians that they are to be found clothed and not naked. That they are to be clothed in this life with Christ – first at their baptism – as the righteousness of Christ is given and marked as their own, and as they partake of the Lord’s body and blood in the sacrament of the altar, for the forgiveness of their sins and to have their faith strengthened.
But like the old dog sitting on the cocklebur ... at times, we’d rather holler than joy in the gift of God’s forgiveness in Christ. Missing out on the faith building God desires to do for us by his free gift.
But God, by his Spirit, won’t let us grumble long. As his church we are fed and receive the blessing that he intends for us, so that we can have courage and be confident.
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
It is a comfort to know that when we leave this life and this body of death we are to be with the Lord.
It is the confidence that is proclaimed at funerals and as was proclaimed this past week.
That while grace and faith are God’s gifts and we earn nothing by our belief but simply receive. Our neighbor, our children and our friends need us to carry out God’s will for the Christian in this life.
Martin Luther says this in his Large Catechism to parents about the 4th commandment.
Parents should consider that they owe obedience to God, and that, above all, they should earnestly and faithfully discharge the duties of their office, not only to provide for the material support of their children, servants, subjects, etc., but especially to bring them up to the praise and honor of God.
The Book of Concord, LC, Tappert Pg. 388
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
By Christ’s work we have peace with God. This is a blessed gift and it is true that to depart and to be with Christ is far better but as Paul also wrote to the church at Philippi:
23I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
Christ Jesus is our mighty fortress!
We live in the tent and serve until the Lord calls us home whether at 14, 56 or in our 90s. It is not our concern to dwell on death for Christ Jesus has overcome death at the cross for you and by faith in him you have an eternity that awaits all who believe.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
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