Father, we ask that you would gently and deeply pour out your Holy Spirit upon us as we think
upon your word. Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would help us, would bring your word
and have your word touch our heart, the center of who we are, so that in our day-to-day life,
we might live in such a way that we bear much fruit for your glory. And this we ask in the
name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.
So I was off last Sunday. I was at another church. I had a week off. And so two Sundays
ago was the last time that I was here preaching and leading the service. And I didn't know
two weeks ago that as I was doing the service that there were three people here waiting to
talk to me after the service. And they wanted to talk to me after the service because their
dad had died and they wanted me to do a funeral. In fact, they wanted me to do the funeral during
my holiday because I had a week of holiday. So it was Craig, the husband of Dodie. And I
knew Greg a little bit and I knew Dodie very well. So I said I would do the funeral. And so,
you know, you're preaching, you're doing this. Many of us have all maybe had, I mean, you know,
notices of death and stuff like that. And it always comes, almost always comes unexpected and
unbidden. This morning, just before the eight o'clock service, about five minutes before, I get a text on my
phone. And Dodie, whose husband had died just a week and a half, two weeks ago, she died at 3.30 this
morning. So I'll be doing a funeral probably on Wednesday, actually, for Dodie, who was a long,
fairly long time member of this church. We don't like to think about death. In fact, one of the
reasons that we have the curtain up today is because this is like a normal, I mean, not really a normal
household scene. For those of you who are young, most houses used to have ashtrays back in the old
days. Because so many people smoked. And it was considered polite, even if you were non-smoking,
that when smokers came that they could smoke in your house. And so I grew up in a house of non-smokers,
but we had an ashtray. And when smokers would come, we'd pull out the ashtray. And so they would have
an ashtray. So this is a bit of a dated type of a house. But, you know, it's in a sense, it's life,
right? It's where it sort of is very, makes it very conscious of where we live. And sometimes,
you know, the curtain here, being in front of the cross and everything, it can make us feel as if,
you know, on one hand, it's a good thing that we can sort of feel like we're in a bit of a holy place.
But it can also be something that it makes us not think of life as much. And having the curtain up
been looking at this living room thing, even if it's a bit dated, somebody told me that it's an
Anglican room because there's decanters of alcohol over there. But then another person told me it
can't be an Anglican room because there's no picture of the queen. So I don't know, maybe it's a lapsed
Anglican house or something like that. I don't know. Anyway, the fact of the matter is that every
single one of us in this room will die. Unless Jesus comes back, every one of us will die.
And in Canada, we don't like thinking about it. And in fact, there's lots of pressure to not even use
the word die when we're talking about different people who are dying. But we will all die. And how
we understand death and how we think about death makes a really big difference to how we live, at
least potentially. And the Bible text today that we're going to look at, because we're preaching
through the book of 2 Corinthians, is a very important and powerful text about death, death
for a Christian. So it would be a great help for me if you'd get your Bibles out and turn to 2 Corinthians
5. If you don't have a Bible, there's some Bibles over here and you can just get up and wander over
there and get your Bible. But if you could, actually, before we look at 2 Corinthians 5, let's look at
2 Corinthians 4, verses 17 and 18. They're the two verses before chapter 5. And here's what the text
says in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 17 and 18. Verse 17, you might remember two weeks ago that it was a
verse that we had up on the screen and we said it quite a few times because it's one of the most
beautiful verses in the Bible, I think. And it says this, for this light momentary affliction,
2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of
glory beyond all comparison. Isn't that just so beautiful? I'll just, I'll read it again. 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. Now, just before we need to read
the next verse, verses like this have been very, very influential to many, many Christians throughout
the years. And it tends to create within Christians, whether we're aware of it or not, almost this
sense that when we die, we become more spiritual. In fact, we might become spiritual. We have echoes of
it in our culture, even if our culture isn't aware of the fact that when, like, if you probably went down
Rideau Street after this and asked people time after time what happens to you when you die, many,
many people will probably say, well, we either, that we go to a better place, that our spirits pass to a
better place. And many people don't realize that they're sort of having an echo and a shadow and a
memory of a Christian idea which has been, has been twisted and turned a bit, but it's in fact where
people get it from. And they also get it from some fundamental intuitions, which I'm going to talk about in a
moment. But many Christians, we tend to think of the fact that when we die, we just, we go to a better
place. We go to heaven. And it's a spiritual reality. And reading a text like this, it's very easy to see.
It says this, that we're being prepared for this eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, and
that we look to the things that are unseen, not the things that are seen. It's very easy to understand
this in a very, very spiritual sense. But Paul, the writer of this, immediately goes from giving this
view that makes it look like it's just going to be a type of spiritual reality that we head to.
He grounds it and helps us to understand that in fact,
it's not going to be spiritual in the way that we think of spiritual as being something non-physical,
that it's going to be a physical reality that we go to when we die in Christ. It goes like this.
Actually, I'll just start the last sentence of chapter four.
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. Andrew, could you put up verse
one for me on the screen, please? Could you all say this verse with me together?
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God,
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. This passage is to teach you, if you could put up the
first point, Andrew, all of these verses which I just read are teaching us a very, very important
idea. God will resurrect me with a resurrected body to dwell in the new heaven and earth with him and
his people. I'm not saying he's going to do that to me because there's something special about me.
There's nothing special about me that's relevant to being resurrected. I, like all human beings,
are fallen and a rebel against God and have my only trust and confidence is that I have put my faith
and trust in Jesus and trusted in what he has accomplished for me in his, in the cross and in
his resurrection. I'm speaking here as a Christian that God will resurrect me with a resurrected body
to dwell in the new heaven and earth with him and his people. That's what the Bible's teaching.
You know, because if you go back, in fact, the Bible, Paul gives in these four verses three different
images that all communicate to us that there's going to be, in a sense, an embodied existence that
we're going to continue to have in the new heaven and the new earth. After Jesus comes and there's a
judging of the living and the dead and God in his sovereign power recreates the entire order and
we now live in a new heaven and a new earth. And there's three different images. The first image is
in verse one, 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. And some of your Bible translations might
not have the word destroyed, it might have the word dismantled. And the original word in the original
language has, it has to actually be destroyed, dismantled slash destroyed. They're both completely
good ways to understand what the original word says. And so we have this image that there's this
sense that the tents are transitory things, that they don't last very long, that they're far more
flimsy and weak and houses are something far more substantial. And on one hand, we know that,
that there is something weak about our bodies and our bodies, they do get dismantled, they do get
destroyed, they do come to an end. But this text is telling us that what God has done, and it's very
interesting, did you notice it says a house not made with hands? Not made by human effort.
Or human ingenuity, or just anything human. Me, and for good or for ill, part of how I am and how I
look, well, part of it is, I guess, the amount I exercise or don't exercise, how I eat, how I don't
eat, how I sleep, or how I don't sleep. In other words, the work of my hands. And more fundamentally,
a lot of how I am is completely and utterly the type of ancestors that I have, and how the DNA has
gotten mixed throughout the generations, giving me a different type of basic abilities and propensities
and weaknesses and strengths. Got my mom's, my dad's eyesight, my mom's asthma.
You know, my hairline is more and more and more looking like my mom's dad's as I get older.
It has nothing to do with anything I've done, but it's still all the work of our hands, right?
And so there's this image that Christians are like everybody else. We're jars of clay. We're earthen
vessels, and this me will be dismantled. It will be destroyed. There's no particular option about that.
But when we put our faith and trust in Jesus, what we have, and we know that we will have once this is
dismantled, is that God gives us something not made with hands.
And it's something that will last for all eternity. And then if you just go down to the next verse,
he gives you a different image, because he says the same thing three times with three slightly
different images, because it's a really important thing for us to get our minds around and to grasp.
I'll explain why it's important later on. But it's an important thing for us to grasp
that the physical and the body matters. And that, I mean, you know, if you think about it for a second,
you know, one of the reasons we know that God loves matter? He made a lot of it.
I mean, that's just so shocking how much matter he made.
How big the universe and the galaxy is. He loves matter.
And he made lots of it.
Look at verse 2.
For in this tent we groan, and longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
If indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
And so, you know, it's once again the image, like the image that we die and then we just become
pure spirit. It's like we become more naked.
We become less us, because we really need clothes, especially in Ottawa in the winter.
But all the time we need clothes, and it's part of who we are to have some clothes.
And so rather than this image that what happens with death is that there becomes,
there's this type of diminishment, a nakedness that grows,
until we're just bare spirit.
The image here is that as if in death, and you're walking along, and death comes,
and we're going to see in a moment it swallows us up.
And as there's this image of something that comes and swallows us up,
it's not just an image of being swallowed.
It's what's actually happening is that God is putting something on us.
And rather than becoming diminished, we become more clothed, clothed by God.
Clothed not by human hands, but by God.
And the groaning here, which is being talked about, isn't the groaning you hear maybe when
I have to get up after not having slept very long, and then I have to go down the steps,
and you're sort of groaning because you're tired, and I'm groaning because maybe my joints
are a little bit sore in the morning when I've just woken up.
The closest analogy is if you're out later on after the service,
and you go somewhere with your friend or your kids or your husband or your wife,
and you decide to have some dessert, and it's a really fancy dessert place,
and the person that you're with, they take a fork of dessert or spoon, and they eat it.
They go, oh, oh, is that ever good?
And then they want to share it with you.
And then you take a bite of the dessert, and you go, oh, oh, is that ever good?
That's the type of groaning that the Bible's talking about.
It's a groaning of longing that what's going to happen after death for those of us who are in Christ.
That we'll see in a moment that God himself puts in his children
beginning to long and yearn to be with him where he dwells, face to face,
with resurrected bodies that are healed and whole as resurrected people,
so that our spirits are at one with our bodies,
and our bodies are at one with our mind and our heart and our spirit,
and our mind and our heart and our spirit and our bodies are at one with the created order,
and they are at one with our creator, and they are at one with each other.
Not that we all become the same, but at one in terms of that there's this basic harmony,
because as we all know right now, there's a fundamental disharmony in our world
that, you know, I want to be able to run and do certain things like I could when I was younger,
but I can't do that.
My spirit and my mind desire, but my body can't.
Where you want to be across somewhere and be able to be with your friend
in the far side of the country when they're going through something,
but your spirit or your mind wants to, but your body can't do it,
and we're at disharmony with each other, and we're at disharmony with God,
and there's this picture that there will come a day
when this earthly tent is destroyed or dismantled,
and we are in a building that is prepared.
Our body is something not made with human hands,
not a result of our genetics and our DNA,
not a result of whether we have cared for our body very well
or not cared for it very well,
not whether or not we have been granted spectacular genetics
or just the lottery of genetics has just really worked against us.
We will have this body not made with hands as resurrected.
And the third image here is,
for while we are, it's in verse 4.
Actually, could you put this up here, Andrew?
I'd like us to say it together.
Could you put it up?
Can we all say this together?
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.
Isn't that beautiful?
That's the third image.
The first image is a house.
The second image is of being clothed.
The third image is that we'll be swallowed.
And the language is of completely swallowed.
But what swallows us is life, more life.
It's as if when we die,
it looks as if death is swallowing us.
And death is swallowing us.
But something bigger, life, is swallowing us.
And that which is mortal is swallowed up by life.
Can we say it again?
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.
It's a very, very, very, very, very beautiful,
beautiful passage.
I can hear in my head,
as I say these things to you,
the voice of some of the people that I talk to
in the coffee shops.
One fellow,
well, actually several people that I talk to,
once they get comfortable,
you know, with me,
and they say,
you know, I'm a scientist,
or I'm just a simple guy,
simple gal,
I just observe what I see.
And you know, there's no evidence for any of this.
I mean, it's a very nice story, George,
and you told it very, very movingly.
But you know,
the evidence is,
is that when you die, that's it.
There's nothing.
You just die,
and then you're over.
It's over.
There's no evidence for anything like this.
It sounds very poetic,
and very beautiful,
and if it gives you some comfort,
and helps you live your life,
then I'm not,
I don't want to rain on your parade.
I don't want to depress you,
or anything like that.
I don't want to make you feel as if,
oh, dang,
all this stuff that I talk about on a Sunday morning
is just rubbish,
and maybe I should quit
if I have any type of integrity,
and I don't have a job,
and I'm,
you know,
I don't,
I can't afford to retire,
and all of that.
But you know,
they just say,
well, you know,
there's no evidence for this.
When I did the funeral
for Dodie's husband,
just,
I don't know what it is,
ten days ago,
nine days ago,
actually,
the funeral for,
if I do Dodie's funeral on Wednesday,
then it would have been,
on Wednesday,
it would have been two weeks earlier
that I did her husband's funeral,
and,
um,
I don't entirely know
where Craig was with things.
I know he had a,
a fair dose of skepticism.
I also know he was a really,
really fine man,
and he came to many church services,
and I don't know everything
there is to know about him.
I'm not making any comments.
But when I,
I went to his funeral,
I felt led to do a particular thing
when it came time for me
to share my word.
And,
uh,
I,
I did what I often do in funerals.
Um,
I said,
um,
I'm going to take a few minutes
in the service,
and I know that there are people here
who would describe themselves
as agnostics,
maybe some who describe themselves
as atheists,
and I know that there are people here,
probably,
who follow some of the great religions
that have been on the planet,
and probably some who are,
would describe themselves
as being more spiritual
rather than religious,
and are putting together,
you know,
a different way of being spiritual
and coming with meaning to life.
But I would just like to take a few moments
to share with you
what my hope is as a Christian,
what the Christian hope is.
And then I looked at Dodie,
and I said,
what Dodie and my hope
as Christians are,
as,
what Dodie's hope and mine
as Christians
is in the face of death.
And,
the Christian hope
in the face of death
isn't based on
just intuitions.
It isn't based on
just longings
or yearnings
for something better.
It isn't based
on an analysis
of the cycles
of the season.
It's not based
on
things like
butterflies
and, you know,
how they're
chrysalis
and all that type of stuff
and they become butterflies.
Nothing based,
not based on anything like that.
It's based on
the real defeat of death
in history
by Jesus.
Jonathan spoke
last Sunday
on 1 Corinthians 15
and that actually
was my text
at Craig's funeral.
And, you know,
it's very,
very interesting.
If you go
to the religion faculty
at Carleton
or University of Ottawa
or if you go
to the theology faculty
of St. Paul University,
which is very,
very,
very liberal,
they would probably
say in the theology
faculty there
that most of the things
in the New Testament
never happened
so they're quite
liberal.
But if you were
to do a survey
of scholars
over the last
100,
150 years,
you would find
several things
that they all
agree on.
They would all agree
that Jesus lived.
You know,
up until very recently,
part of Marx's dogma
was that they,
Jesus never lived,
but that was just
Marxist dogma.
It wasn't based
on any type
of historical stuff.
But most people
would agree,
most scholars
who studied these things
would agree
that Jesus lived.
There's also actually
almost complete
unanimity on the fact
that Jesus died
on the cross.
The only people
today fundamentally
who don't believe
that Jesus died
on the cross
are Muslims
and they don't believe
it because of
historical research.
They believe it
because the Quran,
written over 600 years
later,
actually spoken
by Muhammad
over 600 years
later,
but not actually
written until
about 150 years
after Muhammad.
So 750 years
after the historical
events,
it says that Jesus
didn't die on the cross.
But so apart
from Muslims,
people who study
the issue
historically
would agree
that Jesus lived.
They would agree
that Jesus died.
They'd also agree,
go to Bart Ehrman,
go to the most
skeptical scholars
that the early
Christians almost
immediately proclaimed
that Jesus had risen
from the dead.
Virtually all scholars
would accept
that that goes back
almost immediately
to 33 or 30 AD,
which is when Jesus
died upon the cross,
depending on how you
date it with new moons
and stuff like that.
It's probably one of
those two years.
But there's very little
doubt,
even amongst the most
liberal or skeptical
scholars,
that the proclamation
of Jesus having risen
from the dead
emerged almost
immediately.
And the fourth thing,
which isn't quite
unanimous,
but it's over
probably 75%
of scholars,
even skeptical
scholars,
is that the tomb
was empty
and that everybody
would say they've
never found the body.
And so that actually
is historical,
that he lived,
that he died,
that there's bodies
never been found.
And that almost
immediately,
the Christians
proclaimed that he
had risen from the
dead.
A fifth thing,
which could be added
historically,
is that the primary
witnesses of this,
all but one of them
died in some type
of exile or official
death by the state.
died in some type of
official execution
by the state,
and they died
proclaiming that
Jesus had risen
from the dead.
Now, of course,
atheists and skeptical
scholars,
they just leave it at
that.
They would just say,
these are the things
that happened,
but they can't
explain it.
I would say that,
in fact,
the original Christian
account perfectly
explains the data.
That the reason
early Christians
proclaimed that
Jesus had risen
from the dead,
and the reason
the Christian faith
grew in Jerusalem
so quickly,
and then spread,
was because,
in fact,
Jesus really did
rise from the dead.
that he really
did rise from
the dead.
That it's actually
true.
And if it's true
that he really,
really did
die upon the cross,
and he really,
really did
rise from the dead,
and that this,
contrary to my
skeptical friends,
isn't just me
having some type
of pious belief
or intuition,
but me actually
being able to look
at the historical
record and the data,
and you.
And in a sense,
my skeptical friends,
they come to the data
and history,
and at that point
in time,
their minds balk,
and they take a step
back.
They won't take
that further step,
because they would
say that any
explanation,
even if I don't
have one,
has to be more
probable than the
fact that Jesus
died.
And part of the
reason is that
if Jesus did die
and rise from the
dead after he had
predicted that he
would,
that it means the
universe is not at
all like we think.
because this,
this death and
resurrection starts
to have a particular
type of authority
because of the
context of Jesus'
teaching.
Now,
I say all of this
because,
go back,
can we say verse
four again?
Say verse four
again with me.
for while we were
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.
Andrew, could you
put up the next
point, please?
Death thought it
had swallowed
Jesus,
but Jesus
swallowed death.
death.
Death thought it
had swallowed
Jesus,
but Jesus
swallowed
death.
It's very
interesting,
if you go back
and you look at
the seven last
words of Jesus
on the cross
from the historical
records,
which we now call
the Gospels,
and you'll see
that the second
to last word
that Jesus says
on the cross
is it is
finished.
And then
shortly after
that,
the language
that he uses
and the verb
tenses are very
interesting.
The very final
word that he says
from the cross
is,
into your hands,
Father,
into your hands
I give my spirit.
And the thing
which is interesting
about that
in the text,
and it shocks
the Romans
who were
guarding the cross
and everything,
is the
type of imagery
and the language
of Jesus
is using
is very different
than how we
would normally
use,
talk about
our own death.
You see,
in a sense,
you could picture
that I'm living
my life every day,
I walk,
and day by day
I go,
and death,
that grim reaper,
is slowly
getting close
to me.
And at some
point in time,
I do it all
I can.
Maybe even
in those latter
days,
I become a
vegetarian.
I don't know,
Lord have mercy,
because that will
maybe give me
an extra few
months.
And then maybe
I'll even,
I had an uncle
who died,
and he was
Irish.
He loved a
good Irish
fry-up
breakfast.
Potato
scones,
all dipped
in bacon
fat and
fried,
with fried
tomatoes,
and fried
mushrooms,
and fried
eggs.
And you take
some of that
bacon fat,
and you pour
it on top
of the
eggs.
And he
became a
vegan at
the end
when he was
suffering with
cancer,
in the hope
that it would
let him live
a little bit
longer.
So maybe I
even become
a vegan.
But eventually,
no matter what
I've tried,
death comes
and swallows
me up.
It's inevitable.
But the
language and the
imagery of
Jesus' final
word about
the cross
implies that
death can't
just swallow
Jesus.
Jesus
enters
death.
And so
from the
outside,
you see
death
swallowing
Jesus.
But Jesus
has predicted
that he's
going to die
on the
cross.
In fact,
he says
that he
comes
specifically
to die
upon the
cross.
And after
he's done
his work
upon the
cross,
my God,
why hast
thou forsaken
me?
The eye
thirst,
it is
finished.
And he
enters
death.
And Christians
understand that
as he enters
death,
and death
appears to
swallow him,
but Jesus
then experiences
every single
thing there is
to experience
of death
with nothing
left over.
And he
emerges on
the far side
of death,
and he has
triumphed over
death,
and death
no longer
applies to
him or has
any hold
on him
because he
has completely
triumphed over
death.
And so we
see that it
looks as
if death
has swallowed
Jesus.
But on
Easter Sunday
and with the
resurrection
appearances,
we begin to
understand that
Jesus has
swallowed
death.
Can you
put the
scripture,
can you read
this with me
again?
Read verse
four with
me?
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.
Not because
there's something
special in
me, but
because when
I put my
hands in
the hands
of Jesus,
that he
would be
my savior
and that he
would be
my lord,
he takes
me,
because he
will cast
no one
away.
And as
he takes
me,
then he
who was
swallowed by
death,
but it
turns out
that ultimately
he swallowed
death himself.
Life
swallowed
death.
Death
is not
the final
word.
Nothing
is not
the final
word.
Love
and grace
and mercy
and justice
and life
and God
himself,
the Lord
Jesus Christ
is the
final word.
It
swallows
death.
Life
swallows
death.
And when
I am
in him
and he
is in
me,
and friends,
when he
is in
you and
you are
in him,
the day
of our
death is
the day
that we
are swallowed
by life.
Could you
put up the
third point,
Andrew?
Every human
being, I
think, has
that intimation
and intuition,
in fact,
well, I'll
say it,
love and
life are
stronger than
death because
Jesus is
stronger than
death.
Love and
life are
stronger than
death because
Jesus is
stronger than
death.
We all
have this
intuition.
I think
every human
being has
an intuition
in the face
of death
that there's
something wrong
with it,
there's
something not
right with
it.
Every human
being has,
I think,
some intuition
that love,
although it
seems to
lose to
death and
life seems
to lose to
death,
that there
must be
something about
love and
life that is
in fact stronger
and more
important than
death.
And all they
are for most
people are
intuitions.
They're intuitions
for us.
But our belief
in this isn't
based on
intuition.
intuition in
the context
of God
doing something
and revealing
something to
show that in
fact these
intuitions are
correct and
to call us to
call out to
God for
mercy.
Can you put
up the next
point,
Andrew?
Notice in
verse 5,
he who has
prepared us
for this very
thing that's
been swallowed
up by life,
this groaning
for something
more.
He who has
prepared us
for this very
thing is God
who has given
us the spirit
as a guarantee.
God grows a
longing in his
children to be
swallowed up by
life.
God grows a
longing in his
children to be
swallowed up by
life.
And some of
you might say,
I'd like to
have that longing,
George, I don't
know if I have
it.
I guess I have
two things to
say.
The first is
that you should
pray for it.
Like, make it
part of your
daily prayers.
Lord, I'm
afraid that
somehow death
is more
powerful, and
that hatred
is more
powerful, and
chaos is more
powerful, and
I'm afraid of
that, that
somehow it is.
It seems as
if in my job,
or in my
house, and
in my body,
those things
are more
powerful.
And I'd
love to have
this type of
longing, even
occasionally,
Father, I'd
love to have
this longing.
And so pray to
the Father about
that, and ask
him to begin to
grow within you
that which he's
promised through
his word, that
he'll grow a
longing for these
things in you.
Call out to him
in prayer.
But the other
thing that you
need to do is to
be gripped by the
gospel.
you see, the
longings and
the yearnings
come out of
an ever
greater sense
of what it
is that Jesus
did for us on
the cross.
As the cross
and his death
and erection
becomes more
real to our
hearts, these
longings and
yearnings become
in a sense more
natural as a
byproduct of it.
And so ask
that the Father
would help the
gospel to become
more real to you.
Think about Jesus
and his death
upon the cross.
Think about the
fact that he
knew every single
thing there is to
know about you
and still he loved
you so much and
loves you so much
that he would be
willing to die
upon the cross.
That in fact,
no matter how
much you might
feel in your life,
that nobody
loves you, the
fact of the
matter is, is
that from the
time you were
conceived, Jesus
has known you
and he has
loved you more
than you could
possibly imagine
and he loved you
so much that he
died for you on
the cross.
You are loved
beyond your
imagining in a
costly love that
took him to the
cross to die.
And faith in
Christ is in a
sense finally
stopping to run
from Jesus and
to turn to face
him and to put
down all the
things that we
trust in and all
of the things that
we think we
need to accomplish
and just saying,
Lord, have
mercy.
Take me as
your own.
I don't want to
run from you
anymore and I
don't want to
try to impress
you and I
don't even really
feel worthy, but
your word says
that you'll take
me and I want
to be yours.
I know that I
need you to be
my Savior and
my Lord.
And Jesus
turns no one
away.
In fact, if you
could put up the
next point,
Andrew, God
himself guarantees
my resurrection to
be with him.
Notice that in
verse 5?
He who has
prepared us for
this very thing
is God who has
given us the
spirit as a
guarantee.
You know, just
think about this
for a second.
If God ordered
a pizza, would
he be able to
pay for it?
Yeah.
He could pay for
a pizza.
If God called
up and says,
you know, I
won't give any
company credit,
sent me a
pizza, you
know he's
going to pay.
He's given
us this
guarantee.
And he's
proved this
guarantee by
the death and
resurrection of
his son.
My time is
almost up.
And I have
two more
things I want
to say.
I'm just
going to say
something very,
very briefly to
try to wrap it
up within a
couple of
minutes.
A couple of
weeks ago,
I don't like
telling stories
like this because
it makes me
look like I'm a
better guy than
I actually am.
I'm a very
strong introvert
and I was just
telling somebody
that when I fly
on the plane
occasionally I
have this
misfortune of
sitting beside
somebody on a
plane that
knows me.
And I'm not
making this up.
It happened to
me just in
August when I
had to fly to
Vancouver and I
ended up sitting
beside somebody I
knew and I
told them,
I'm really sorry
it's nothing
personal but I
don't talk to
people on
airplanes.
I really need
this introverted
quiet time to
get some work
done and so
I'm not going
to talk to
you.
They were
pretty shocked.
You know,
so I'm not one
of those guys
that goes on
the plane and
tries to
convert the
whole plane.
Anyway,
so just to
counterbalance
this story,
one of the
Starbucks I
go to
regularly,
there's this
mentally
handicapped
man who
started coming
with his
helper.
And he's
one of these
mentally handicapped
men,
he's probably
in his
50s,
and he
goes up to
people and
says hi to
them and
tries to
shake their
hand.
Now,
Canadians,
when a
mentally
bit
disheveled,
definitely
not well
coiffed,
mentally
handicapped
man comes
and thrusts
his hand
out to you,
a lot of
Canadians do
this,
right?
And then
some of
them,
they realize
when I'm
a Canadian,
I'm not
supposed to
do this,
and then
they sort
of take
his hand.
Anyway,
about a
month or
so ago,
a month and
a half ago,
he happened
to sit
beside me
and he
shook my
hand and
I shook
his hand
and I
asked him
his name,
told me
his name.
And so
then two
weeks later,
he comes
in the
restaurant and
as he's
walking by,
I stand
up,
put my
hand out
to him
and say
hi,
I'm going
to call
him Bob,
hi Bob.
and he
looks startled
and turns
around,
shakes my
hand and
smiles at
me and
he goes
off to
the seat
with his
helper.
After the
service,
after the,
at the
end of the,
as they were
leaving,
the helper
came up to
me and
said,
you don't
know how
much that
meant to
me,
that you
remembered
his name
and that
he initiated
a conversation
with him
because
everywhere he
goes,
he's
friendly,
just the
way he
is.
And most
Canadians
don't even
want to
talk to
him and
often when
they see
him coming
in another
time,
they try to
look another
way to make
sure he
doesn't shake
their hand.
You remembered
his name,
it meant a
lot to me.
And so then
we get
talking and
she says,
I notice
that you
often sit
there with
a Bible
and big
books,
like are
you a
pastor or
something like
that?
And I
say that I
am and
she has a
few things to
say about
me and my
type of
Anglican and
stuff like
that.
But then
she's leaving
and as
part of her
explanation as
to why she's
no longer an
Anglican and
she's spiritual,
she says,
you know,
it's all yin
and yang.
Like I'm a
spiritual person,
it's just a
matter of
accepting the
yin and
yang of
life.
And I
said to
her,
you don't
believe that,
do you?
And she
said,
no, I
really do.
I said,
no, you
don't believe
that.
You don't
believe that
love and
hatred are the
same,
that death
and life
are the
same.
You don't
believe that
it's just
the same
for me to
know Bob
and shake
his hand
as it would
be if I
came up
and punched
Bob.
You don't
believe that.
You're
working probably
for not very
much money
to spend
time with
guys like
Bob.
You don't
believe in
yin and
yang.
nothing.
This
entire text
is a
profound
refutation
of
Buddhism
and
Hinduism.
It's
profound
complete
and utter
denial of
all of
those things.
Those
religions,
what do
they tell
you?
Lose
your desire
and at
the end
you become
nothing.
And what
does the
Bible say?
Grow your
desire.
Grow your
desire for
life.
Grow your
desire for
love.
And at
the end
there is a
house not
made with
hands that
is yours in
heaven forever
in the new
heaven and
the new
earth.
That's what
you desire.
And in a
culture that
thinks that
after you
die you
just become
nothing,
whether it's a
Hindu or
Buddhist society
or whether
it's our
secular society,
death grows
in that
culture.
Death grows
because people
don't have any
value.
Because at
the end,
what does it
really matter?
You just
amuse yourself
until the
end.
And we
try to
amuse
ourselves
until the
end.
At the
same time
we have
these
intuitions
that love
does matter,
that life
does matter,
that goodness
does matter,
that we
are to live
on them,
that we
praise somebody
for remembering
a mentally
handicapped
man's name
and treating
him like a
person and
a person
of value
and not
as someone
who qualifies
for doctor
assisted suicide
or that if
you knew
that he was
going to be
like that
in the
womb,
that you
would have
him aborted.
Because this
teaching,
it grounds
the importance
of human
beings from
the moment
of their
conception
to the
moment of
their death.
People
matter to
God.
And that's
what this
text is
teaching us.
And it's
teaching us
that if the
world is
telling you,
if your
family is
telling you,
if your
boss is
telling you
that you
are nothing,
nothing is
not the
final word
about you.
Put your
faith and
trust in
Jesus.
You matter
to him.
You matter
to God.
God.
You matter
to him.
You matter
to God.
And one of
the things
which is,
here just
brought up
the seventh
point,
not the
sixth one,
Andrew,
one of the
things which
is so
important
about this
text is
that the
more that
you know
that you
are loved
by Christ
and cannot
lose,
the more
courage you
have to
live and
to choose
life.
The more
that you
know that
you are
loved by
Christ
and cannot
lose.
Why can't
you lose?
Because it's
not my
hands or
yours that
are making
my body
in the
new heaven
and the
new earth.
My hands
have nothing
to do
with it.
God's
doing it.
It's
secure in
him.
My destiny
is secure
in the
hands of
Jesus.
Not my
hands,
but his.
His hands
that will
take me
still bear
the scars
of the
nails
that hung
him to
the cross.
Those are
the hands
that reached
down to
take me.
Died for
me.
I matter
to him.
Nothing is
not the
final word
about me.
Nothing is
not the
final word
of the
most handicapped
person,
the oldest
and weakest
person,
the poorest
person.
people
matter to
God.
And the
more that
you know
that you
are loved
by Christ
and cannot
lose,
the more
courage you
have to
live,
to choose
life,
to choose
love.
Please
stand.
Father,
you know
some people
here,
some of
us are
maybe
really
have been
struggling
coming in
here,
thinking like
we're
nothing,
thinking like
we're becoming
more invisible
as we get
older.
Father,
you know
maybe there
are some
people here
struggling with
cutting themselves
as a way to
try to maybe
deal with
their emotional
pain or
the chaos
in their
life or
just to maybe
feel alive as
they become
invisible.
Father,
you know
those of us
who are
struggling with
things like
cutting.
You know,
Father,
those of us
who are
struggling with
worry about
the diminishment
of age.
We ask,
Father,
that your
Holy Spirit
would make
us disciples
of Jesus
who are
gripped by
the gospel.
And as we
are gripped
by the
gospel,
help us,
Father,
to learn to
live with
courage to
choose life,
to face
each day
with courage
choosing life
and living
for your
glory and
not for
our own.
We give
you thanks
and praise
that if
we die,
Father,
before your
Son has
returned,
that the
moment that
we are
swallowed by
death,
apparently,
is in
fact the
moment that
we are
most fully
and completely
swallowed by
life,
and that
you have
prepared for
us an
existence as
resurrected
people in
resurrected
bodies to
live with
you forever,
and that is
sure.
Father,
fan into flame
within us a
longing and
yearning for
this.
As we are
gripped by
the gospel,
and this we
ask in
Jesus' name.
Amen.