Oakbrook Evangelical Free Church

One Minute After You Die
Resurrection Sunday, April 12, 2009

Introduction:
C.S. Lewis exhorts us saying,
“Every human being is in the process of becoming a noble being; noble beyond imagination. The dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare…There are no ordinary people…It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

Those who find themselves in heaven will be surrounded with friends whom they’ve known on earth.
Phil 1:21-23 – It is a better place
1 Cor 2:9 – It is a wonderful place
Rev 4:1-3 – It is a beautiful place
Rev 21:27 – It is a holy place

Others will be shrouded in darkness, a region of deprivation and unending regret.
It is everlasting: Matt 18:8; 25:41; Rev 14:11
It is called gehenna: 1 Kings 23:10; Matt 10:28; Mark 9:47-48

There are no meaningful relationships there.
It is the place of wasted lives beyond the reach of God.
Luke 16:24 – It is a place of suffering.
Luke 13:28 – It is a place of gnashing of teeth
Matt 8:12 – It is a place of outer darkness
Rev 20:1-2 – It is like a bottomless pit

While relatives and friends plan your funeral (deciding on a casket or an urn, a burial plot, and who will be pallbearers – you will be more alive than you have ever been. You will either see God on His throne surrounded by angels and redeemed humanity or you will be in darkness and feel an indescribable weight of guilt and abandonment.

There is no place in between.
And you can’t transfer from one to the other.

Illustration: Headstone in Indiana reads:
“Pause, stranger, when you pass me by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, so you will be
So prepare for death and follow me.”

An unknown stranger passed by and scratched this reply:
“To follow you I’m not content
Until I know which way you went.”
How can we know anything for sure about…

You can trust your Bible:
Matthew 5:17-18 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” ESV
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” ESV
Matthew 22:29 “But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” ESV
Acts 18:28 “he (Apollos) powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.” ESV
Ecclesiastes 12:11-12 “The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” ESV

But be sure to make a distinction between direct statements and implications:
Matthew 22:29-33 “Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living. When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.” NIV

Ok, are you ready? Let’s dive in to 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.
2 Corinthians 5:1-8 this morning.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 next week.

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 “Now (for) we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” NIV

Even as Christians we experience a good deal of ambivalence about dying.

3 Bases for Comfort
I. First, all Christians who die will receive an immortal body. 5:1-4
II. Second, all Christians have received the down payment of the Holy Spirit who is God’s pledge of future, complete glorification. 5:5
III. Third, for the Christian, death begins a new phase of living that will be far superior to what we experience now. 5:6-8

I. First, all Christians who die will receive an immortal body. 5:1-4
Greek: our “earthly dwelling tent” or “dwelling house (oikia)

Everyone experiences…this dismantling
Physical dwelling house is being destroyed = dismantled!
In the process: we groan

Two realities: physical / personal – we live in.
Groan: weighted down, burdened with a heavy load.
Death does not = ceasing to exist!
Death = separation
Physical death = separation of body and soul
Eternal death = separation from God forever
Genesis 35:18 “It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.” NASB95

Another reality / realm we don’t see.
~ Story of Jan 1956, 5 missionaries speared to death in Ecuador
Offenders are now believers have told Steve Saint that they heard and saw what they now believe to be angels while the killings were taking place. A women hiding at a distance also saw these beings above the trees and didn’t know what kind of music it was until she heard Ctn choir on records.

~ Acts 7:55-59 “But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” NASB95
Even scientists at Yale, Princeton and Stanford postulate there may be as many as 10 or more dimensions of reality we don’t see. Steven’s eyes were opened to see a spiritual dimension of reality which God has hidden from us in this present age. 2 Kings 6:17
Personhood survives the death of the body!

Death does not change what we know.
Moses/Elijah/JC/Peter – no need for introductions = intuitive know

Love continues
John 14:1-3 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

In Luke 16 the rich man continued to be concerned about his 5 bros
There is no more a break in love than there is in continuity of thought

Chet Bitterman said after his missionary son was killed by guerrillas. “We have eight children. And they are all living: one’s in heaven and seven are on earth.”
Remember what Jesus said, “I am the God of Abraham”…
The God of the living, not the dead.!

Feelings continue:
Psalm 16:11 “In your presence oh God is fullness of joy; in your right hand there are pleasures forever.”

Apparently, bodily existence continues
“We have” = can have a future certainty: “We will have”
“heavenly dwelling” = oikodome (oikodome or oiko do me)
The language of building, house and overclothing indicates that our future life with the Lord involves some form of material existence! Disembodiment is not the hope of the believer.
There is some manner of continuity between our present and our future forms of existence.

God’s intention is bodily existence, not disembodiment!
1. Heavenly vs earthly
2. Permanent vs temporary
3. Assembled by God rather than by human hands
Apparently, this new body awaits us immediately after death.
God will clothe us with a new and better garment.
No details!
References to believers after death and before resurrection seem to have a bodily existence:
Lazarus, Luke 16:19-25
Moses and Elijah, Matt 17:1-3
Martyred dead in heaven, Rev 6:9-11
(5:3 Not disembodied spirits!)
Paul shrinks back from the idea that his soul would live through a period of time in nakedness!
The Bible consistently views humans as unified beings
People: both material and immaterial parts.
We long for a better time!
God’s promises of something better make us dissatisfied with what we have now.
Now overwhelmed by death but…
Swallowed up by life! To gulp down; to consume entirely
Life swallows up the entirety of our earthly, fragile, expendable, jars of clay existence!
Whatever our existence after death we will be more alive than ever.
Clouded thinking…cleared up with total awareness
Ambivalent living … transformed into an undivided heart

II. Second, all Christians have received the down payment of the Holy Spirit who is God’s pledge of future, complete glorification. 5:5
Arrhabona – engagement ring!
The Holy Spirit is the first installment of the believer’s full possession of an eternal dwelling house.
The resurrection-transformation is the inevitable result of the Holy Spirit’s regenerating/renewing work within us.

III. Third, for the Christian, death begins a new phase of living that will be far superior to what we experience now. 5:6-8
Tone = confidence!
How? = Faith
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” NASB95
One thing is clear: believers go directly into the presence of Christ at death.
We will see Christ face to face.
1 Corinthians 13:12 “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” NASB95
“At home with the Lord”
Not just spatial proximity to Christ.
But in dynamic, interpersonal communion with him.
A one-for-all turn of events! “At home with the Lord”

No other alternatives for the believer.
1. Either at home in the body or
2. At home with the Lord
We will go immediately into the Lord’s presence!

As Christians we need never despair!
C.S. Lewis said about women and clothing
“Women sometimes have the problem of trying to judge by artificial light how a dress will look by daylight. That is very like the problem for all of us: to dress our souls not for the electric lights of the present world but for the daylight of then next. The good dress is the one that will face that light. For that light will last forever.”

Philippians 1:21-23 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;” NASB95
We will worship Jesus as the Almighty God
We will bow down and worship Him in reverence.
John 17:24 ““Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” NIV