A house not made with hands
2 Corinthians 5:1-5 · Vern Peterman · May 16, 2010
1 & 2 Corinthians, No. 46
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492623104430

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. I was communicating with Randy about the fact that he remembers me singing I'd Rather Have Jesus while I was pushing him on the swing. I don't remember that, but it just seems to me that the tempo of it goes well with pushing a swing, you know. But anyway, that's what I recall. Anyway, neat thought, neat memory.

We're stepping into 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We'll be looking, as Randy's read for us here, at the first five verses. And this is a passage that kind of reminds us almost repeatedly of the hope that we have, even in spite of the fact there's a recognition that the bodies that we have and the conditions that we're in are not our hope. Matter of fact, we ultimately can't find an ultimate hope. We can certainly hope for lots of things, but we can't find an ultimate hope. We can't find a certain hope on this planet. But there is an ultimate hope. There is a certain hope in the Lord. You have on the top half of your handout on page one here a layout of the poetic pattern of the passage. It essentially has five verses officially, but in a poetic pattern about four verses here.

And the middle part of it particularly has an area of repetition. The first roughly half of the passage uses the word picture, if you will, of a tent or a house or a building. And the middle of the passage then shifts to a focus of using a word picture of clothing to talk about our present bodies and our new bodies. What we find here is there are particularly a couple of lines there where the line in the passage is repeated either verbatim or in restatement or rhyming.

And we'll see that shortly. In verse 1, there's reference there to an earthly tent. These bodies are referred to as an earthly tent. Our house, as it's stated there, or a building. And so anyway, we'll be taking a look at that shortly here as we step through it.

The people of the city of Corinth, the ones that Paul was writing to, knew about earthly tents, most certainly, and houses and other buildings. Paul himself was a tent maker. And as it turns out, a couple of the people who were at least for a time in the city of Corinth with the believers there, Achille and Priscilla, were also tent makers. And so they certainly knew about these kinds of things.

Something else also made them very aware of tents, aside from Paul and his two companions being tent makers, and that's that Corinth was host every two years to the Isthmian Games. Now, I wouldn't suggest you try to say that ten times quickly. The Isthmian Games were games somewhat in parallel to the Olympic Games that have been restored here within our last century. And these games would be games primarily of track and field, as we would tend to call it, and other Olympic kinds of events.

And they were hosted by the city of Corinth. Well, as people came into Corinth, there was nowhere near enough housing capacity for them. And so they would have tent cities all around Corinth when this took place. So the idea of having a whole bunch of tents was certainly something that they were accustomed to, aside from any idea of going camping recreational, which was something less common than our own time. The people in Corinth lived in houses, of course, of various sizes and status, everything from something very simple and appropriate to low income to those who had achieved quite a bit. After all, it was a port city on an isthmus, essentially a port from two sides. And there was a lot of trading also going across that little land bridge. So Corinth was ideally situated for some to do quite well and as well as others to just barely make a living.

Corinth had religious buildings. Some of it is still remaining in the religious buildings. They had business buildings of different kinds, and even government buildings. And as you see in this picture, on the top of the hill above the city of Corinth, they also had kind of a defense building where everybody could go to if they were attacked.

So as you look at this pattern, it starts off in the first part of the verse here with the tent, the house, and the building. And so we'll take a look here at the first verse. So the message here is right now we're just camping out. He starts off with this word picture of an earthly tent. So these bodies that we have, he calls it an earthly tent. It's a temporary dwelling place, just like we would look at a tent as being now. It's a place where we live for a while. Maybe you're even glad that this is only temporary, that we're in this thing, in these bodies, these human bodies.

Our bodies, as scripture points out, Psalm 139, 14, are fearfully and wonderfully made. And while that's certainly true, some of us are just fearful about our bodies and wondering if we're going to make it. So you may have gotten to some range of that point. There is both an awesomeness about how the Lord has designed our bodies and how they're made, and even something that may be of great interest in drawing our attention.

But there is also a wonderfulness in the way the Lord has put things, and yet these bodies, as phenomenal as they are, they're not designed to last. As a matter of fact, that's the very reason for Paul's illustration, this earthly tent, this temporary dwelling that we're in. Paul describes these temporary bodies we have now as an earthly tent or a house.

And one of the things he says right there in verse 1, someday these earthly tents, these houses, are going to get torn down. Someday these bodies of ours are going to be, we're going to be done with them. We're going to be through. Some of you may be more anxious to get rid of them than others.

Paul said something very interesting here. He says, we have, when in fact it's looking forward to something in the future. This is sometimes called the prophetic present. The idea is this. He used the present tense not because of our future bodies already being something we have. That's not the case. But he said it to indicate the certainty of the coming body. It's important that we know that we have certainty in what the Lord's promised us. It is not an, I hope so, kind of hope. Oh, it would be really nice, we might say, if this happened. I sure hope this is the way it turns out. It's not that kind of an earthly hope. It is a certain hope.

It's an absolutely sure and fixed thing. If the Lord promised it, it most certainly and absolutely will be the body that we have in the future. It's the reason for his use of this present tense. It's not because we now have it, but it's to indicate the certainty. Absolutely sure that what the Lord has said is going to take place is exactly what's going to take place. Paul described this new body with three distinct phrases here. The first one is a building from God. We will have a new dwelling place and it's from God. It's from him.

Which also means it's personal, okay? It's not just another one showed up. You know, look what UPS delivered, okay? This isn't just something the FedEx guy rings a doorbell, leaves this body on our front porch and then takes off, right? Not like the usual delivery. Secondly, and we'll be taking a look at this because this is a figure of speech, a house not made with hands. It's more than just God created it and God doesn't have hands. There's more to it than that, and we'll see in a minute.

The other is it's eternal in the heavens. Now, I don't know about you, I'm glad that I'm not going to be staying in this thing eternally, right? In fact, I think it's about to expire. But anyway, but it's also eternal in the heavens. And that is, the Lord has it in the heavens. It's not for here. Even though he uses that present tense, we have. It is in the heavens.

It's there where we're blessed. It's there where we have every spiritual blessing. It is there where we're seated with our Savior. It is there where we have our citizenship. That place. that place that is really our home with a capital H. The new body that we'll have is not from trial and error or man's best effort. It's not an engineering feat that is today's best technology. It's suited not for a time or not for a fad or not even to be futuristic. It's suited for eternity. It's a body graciously given to all of us who believe by God Himself. God's the one who does the giving. And by the way, it's graciously giving. The Lord doesn't say, here's your new body and then here's your bill. Right? Here's the invoice. Make payments regularly or else it'll be removed. Right?

It is graciously given to us. We don't pay it back. We don't earn it. It is graciously given to us. And it is from God Himself. He says, this is exactly the body you need. And it's a body suited for forever. We'll have a new body that was not made with hands, which we'll see shortly as to what that means.

It doesn't need a warranty. Isn't that nice? You ever have a warranty, you have to call them up and get them to make, oh, I hate that. You know, make good on the warranty. It's not like you'll say, Lord, this thing was supposed to last for eternity and it's only lasted two million years. It's just I need something else. No, there's no need to call God on the warranty. This is good forever. You don't need any screenings for this. And there is no expiration date. None of that. This is a new body that won't have any of those things that this human body seems to have. Now we have this thing we've been hinting at, now we're going to address it.

Made with hands, made without hands, what's the difference? From the Old Testament on into the New Testament, there are a number of references to things either being made with hands or without hands, or not made with hands. So these are expressions. There's a variation in the general pattern, and one of them, for example, is not made with hands or made without hands. You'll see it stated both ways.

Now, the works of man are spoken of as being done by man's hands. So things made with hands by a man is clearly a pattern in scripture. Sometimes it's spoken of as in a positive light, and even sometimes as a thing that God has appointed man to do. And making idols, which is of course a negative thing, is the works of man's hands.

By the way, that picture there, that's your classical Harry Potter. Oh boy. All right. Yeah. By the way, here's some groaning. We'll be talking about groaning in a minute. OK. So the scripture here has examples from Deuteronomy on to Revelation about things that are done by man's hands. I see Roger shaking his head. I don't know. I'm probably going to hear about it next elders meeting. OK.

The work of God in the physical realm, in this present creation, is often spoken as being done by God's hands, or as the work of His hands. So very interestingly, although God does not have physical hands, things that are in this present physical world that God does, or God created, are spoken of as being done by His hands. It's a figure of speech. And it means that it has to do with things of this present creation that God does. God created the world, and that was done, it is said, as a figure of speech, by his hand, the work of his hands. And that starts everywhere from Job, carried on into the book of Hebrews, where that pattern, that terminology is used. It was a Jewish figure of speech.

And finally, we get to the one that is relevant here in this passage. When God does something that is not in this present creation, the Jewish figure of speech is either not made with hands or made without hands, or some similar term as that. So that's why Paul used this figure of speech here, is that he's talking about something giving us a body that is not a part of this present creation. Not a part of this present creation.

Here we have that showing up here in 2 Corinthians 5.1, in this passage we're looking at now, the very first verse.

It's exampled in Hebrews 9.11, where it's actually made clear in that passage, the last part of the passage says, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation. So the figure of speech is clarified there for us. So that's what he means here.

As we step into the next verses, You see this groaning houses and tents. The first lines of verses 2 and 4 are partly identical and partly rhyming meanings or restatement, if you will, in the middle of those lines. Both lines say that in this body, which is a house or a tent, we're groaning. And that fits with what some of you were doing to my joke.

Anyway, so in this house, in this tent, we groan. And we also groan when Vern tells a bad joke, right? So in this tent, in this temporary dwelling, we say, oh, are you sure I have to keep living in this thing? Yeah, yep, this is the one you got until God gives you another one, right?

There is a groaning. But a part of that groaning is important to recognize. And we'll see in a minute. It's not just groaning and griping a lot. He has these lines that start verse 2 and 4 that you can pick out from your own handout there on the top of page 1. Our groaning doesn't mean that we just complain a lot or not even quietly to ourselves. The groaning is more than that.

It means that not only do we realize that these bodies are not what they ought to be. And by the way, have you ever noticed that? that people often have a sense that things are not the way they ought to be? Where do they get that? There is almost a built-in sense in human beings, something ought to be different, including our sense of our bodies, right? Boy, this body ought to be different. Things ought to be different.

And that's a part of the groaning, but Paul goes on to talk about these temporary bodies and our permanent bodies in terms of clothings. The next lines we talk about what we long for or what we want, what we desire. So the groaning isn't just about griping forever and griping endlessly about our dissatisfaction with these present bodies. It isn't just a matter of saying, boy, I wish my body would do this. I wish it would stop doing that. That's not what he's talking about by groaning, although that's a part of it.

The groaning and our present burden, as he usually puts it, are really based on our longing and awaiting and anticipating our new bodies. You see, it has built into it a sense of, you know, this isn't quite like it ought to be, but the body that we're going to have, that's like it ought to be. That's what we're anticipating. That's what we're longing for. We're awaiting the new one. It's not just that we gripe and grouse about the one we've got. It's that we have an anticipation of how it ought to be, and how it ought to be is exactly what God has in mind. So he uses this clothing analogy, moving on from the house to our new bodies as clothing. As a matter of fact, the word means outer garments. So I suppose, meanwhile, we're running around in our underwear.

I don't think so. Anyway, as we look in verses 2 through 4, a body from this earth just isn't going to cut it ever. Ever. If you have a sense that this body isn't quite operating like it ought to, good. Because this isn't the one we're intended to have permanently.

And in fact, God recognizes in these bodies and the condition in which they are and the fact that they're temporal, the fact that things go wrong, there is already an anticipation in that, that we're going to have a new body. Only the heavenly one will do.

You've likely had this experience that after some period of time, there is something that you've been looking for that's satisfied and you go, ah, that's it. Of course. And that will be the character of these new bodies that we can look forward to. People often try to hold on to these new bodies, all sorts of medical procedures and taking all sorts of things and avoiding other things. And I'm not saying there isn't some point in that. Certainly there is.

But the reality is what we really need is a real endless life and a body that goes with it. That's what we were intended for. The body that we really need, the one we really long for and want, is one that comes from where we're blessed with every spiritual blessing. The body we really need is the one that comes from the place where we have our citizenship.

The place that's home with a capital H. One of the key points here, is for us to remember that as we go through this life, this life is not the end. And that's one thing that frustrates a lot of people and gets a lot of people sidetracked. This life, this body is not all there is. This is preparation time. God is getting you ready for something. This isn't to be all and end all. This isn't all that there is to be the satisfaction of every longing and desire here on this earth. Not going to be. God's getting you ready.

As a matter of fact, you might ask, why doesn't God, as soon as a person becomes a believer, why doesn't God just take them up right then and there? Matter of fact, if you go along the street and you see a pile of clothes sitting there with no body in it, you'd look at it and you would think, oh, that person must have been saved just now. Right?

Because there's the clothes sitting there and the Lord took him. But that's not how the Lord does it, does he? That's not how the Lord works. What the Lord actually does is he has us stay here for a time when we become a believer. And the reason is he's getting us ready. He is preparing us for eternity. See, this is just a getting ready place. That's what we're here for. It's a getting ready place. The eternity, the body that we're intended to have forever, that's what he's getting us ready for. So we're just being prepared. That's why the Lord doesn't just take us and why we don't find just empty suits everywhere. God's getting us ready.

Here is some of that getting ready, Romans 8.28 and 29. We know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. So if you're worried about, if you have a dread of being predestined, like, oh no, every breath I take is God-fixed and determined.

Oh no, I can't make any choices. Everything's predestined. I'm just a machine. God can't hold me responsible. He's making everything happen and I don't get any choice. That's not the point. Notice what's predestined. What's predestined, regardless of what happens, is I will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That's predestined. This is not predestination that you would dread, predestination that would have you puzzled. It is predestination that gives you hope. Because guess what? If you're a believer, you are in the process of being conformed to the image of the Son.

And you know what he uses to make that happen? One of the things that he does is he uses circumstances, the all things. Circumstances around me, circumstances, yes, even with things that go wrong with this body. And for some of us, the list is getting long, right? But God intends to use that. You are in the process of being conformed. That's why you're still here. As some have put it, if you've got a pulse, you've got a purpose. Even if that pulse isn't perfect, right?

Here's another one that we've looked at, 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all, we all believers, with unveiled face, and of course we're not looking at the whole context, that is, without the law, are beholding as in a mirror, which is the Word of God, the glory of the Lord.

We are being transformed into the same image. What? The image of the Lord. We are being transformed. Remember we said conformed to the image of the Son. Now we have transformed to the image of the Son. We have a conforming, we have a transforming process that is taking place. Both of those things are going on in parallel, but both of them are in the direction of you looking like Jesus Christ.

It's a process. That's one of the reasons you're still here. God still has a process going on. There's another thing that's going on, and that is a growing, a maturing process. Ephesians 2, 19-22 puts it this way, So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, all of us, are being fitted together is growing into a holy temple on the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. There is a growing process.

These are some of the key processes that are going on in the life of the believer and why the Lord doesn't just, once you're saved, take you home. You are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, you're being transformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and you are growing and maturing.

All those are exactly by God's intent. And he's not just kind of walking away, coming back to check on you once in a while, or waiting till the end to say, well, how'd Vern do? No. He is not just letting it happen. He's working all things together for good. He has his indwelling Holy Spirit who is involved in the transforming process. He is working to build us up as a church body. And it's why? It's because we're being made ready. We're being prepared. It's exactly what he has in mind.

Just so that we can be quite certain that God's going to follow through on what he's promised to do. including our bodies, including this conforming process, including the transforming process, including the growth and maturing process, just so we'll be sure, God has given us a security deposit. If you're a believer here this morning, you have the security deposit. Now, don't look at your wallets.

Every believer is continuously indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Every single one. If you're a believer here this morning, you are indwelled, you individually, every single one of us, by the Holy Spirit all the time. You don't need to ask for the Holy Spirit to come back. You don't need to ask for the Holy Spirit not to go away. You can count on His continuing universal presence among each and every one of us, assuring every single one of us, all of us. The Holy Spirit is a pledge.

The Holy Spirit carries on a range of ministries in our lives all the way to the very end of this life in this tent, in this house, in this building. We have, I believe, on the cabinet, just as you step outside this room on the right, there's a one-page listing of the ministries of the Holy Spirit.

There's also a stack of them right here. avail yourself of either one. And just so you don't miss it, it's already on the website to download and we're going to email it to you too. It's that important. It lists, and this is a list that Hal put together, and he knows even better than we what's on this list. It's a list of all the ministries of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a continuous set of ministries to every single believer in this room here this morning. and it doesn't stop.

So that's a part of the security deposit. It's not like dead money just sitting there. It's active. It is active ministries of the Holy Spirit going on all the time for every single believer non-stop until the day we see the Lord face to face. And that's the security deposit. The Lord gives us the deposit like earnest money in a real estate transaction or a down payment. The Lord gives us the deposit of the Holy Spirit as an assurance, I will, I will, I will follow through on everything that I've said.

No exceptions. Not a one. See, God isn't far away. He indwells you. That's the security deposit. You don't have the security deposit somewhere else. If you're sitting here this morning as a believer, the security deposit's right with you. You got it with you all the time. Not out of your sight. Well, sort of. But not distant. Not hidden away somewhere. But right here. There's something else.

Well, we could possibly think of, okay, I've got this body, I've got a new body, and it just sort of becomes mechanical or like going to a heavenly spa or something. It could be one of those things, because we can get replacement. God's not just going to give us a whole bunch of replacement parts. We've had people in our church body this year who've gotten replacement parts for different things. That's not how God intends to operate when He gives us a new body, which is good. If that was an option, I'd go for a neck replacement. That's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about replacements or just kind of sprucing up what you got. This isn't just something about mechanics and grocery stores and switching bodies. This is personal. You ever heard the expression, don't take it personally? I encourage the exact opposite. I would like for you to take what we've looked at here this morning very personally. Please do. Let me tell you what I mean.

In 1 John 3, verses 1 and 2, it says this, and this is not in your handout. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us. And by the way, that word bestowed is written in such a way that it implies permanent. See how great a permanent love the Father has given us. The Lord is not intending for us to have this love where He says, I love you now. Nope, we're done. You know, I love you until about five o'clock. No. See how great a permanent love the Father has given us irreversibly.

That we would be called children of God. Now, when you see children of or son of in the Bible, it means two things. It means close in relationship to And it means like in character. Close in relationship to and like in character. So notice twice in this passage, children of God. It means you are given as a permanent gifting, a bestowal. You are given a close relationship with the Lord. You are also given to be like in character to him.

That's what this conforming is about. That's what this transforming is about. That's what the growing and maturing is about, like in character. See how great a love the Father has permanently bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God, close in relationship and like in character. And such we are. It's a fact.

For this reason, the world does not know us because it didn't know him. There is a character to us that the world doesn't know. As a matter of fact, I could put it this way. God intends that our lives be inexplicable to people around us. How about that? Verse 2, Beloved. By the way, I think that means those who are loved. Now, we are children of God. close in relationship to Him, like Him in character.

And it has not appeared as yet what we will be. These bodies right now are not the ones we're going to get. I do think, and we're going to cover this in Q&A class, I do think there will be a recognition when we get to be with the Lord. But that's an aside. It has not appeared as yet what we will be.

We know that, and by the way, You see that? It's not just an, I hope so, kind of hope. It's not, oh, wouldn't that be nice? It's not just a, well, there's several different possibilities, and this is one of them. No. We know that when He appears for us, we will be like Him. See that? You're children of God, like Him. Because we will see Him just as He is.

He has a new body. that he got on the day he was resurrected. A body that's different in character. Jesus displayed some of the differences in character when he walked through doorways. Jesus displayed some of the differences in character when he was ascended. New bodies. Our bodies, like the rest of us, will be like his.

You see, this isn't just a matter of the sort of body mechanics, where, okay, on this place we get one kind of body, and sometimes it's not so great. But when we go to that place, we get a new body. Won't that be nice? Okay? It's not just body mechanics. It's not even anything about the body snatchers, right? It is instead personal.

We will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. The conforming, the transforming, The growth, the maturity has an end and has a purpose. So when we go to see him face to face, when we see him face to face, we'll be like him inside and out. We'll be like him for we'll see him as he is. Isn't that great? Isn't that wonderful? And it is not an I hope so kind of hope. It's not a wouldn't that be nice? I sure hope it turns out that way kind of hope. It's a certain hope.

God promises. The one who has permanently bestowed love on us. That's the one that's done the promising. We will be like Him. We will see Him as He is. Isn't that great? Let's pray. Lord, what a wonderful hope we have. And it's not just a hope of, gee, wouldn't it be nice to have a body better than this one? But we have a wonderful hope that is focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, the one like whom we are being conformed, the one like whom we are being transformed, the one into whom we are growing. That one, when we see him face to face, that one that we will be like in every way. We thank you for the marvelous, amazing hope that you have for us, a gracious hope, a hope that is based in mercy. Thank you for that marvelous hope. because of your amazing grace. In Jesus name, Amen.