January 13, 2009

• 2 Corinthians 5 by Pastor Don

  We went over this chapter in detail on one of our Thursday Discipleship studies. 

  2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

  It is important to know who and what we are.  We are not only physical bodies, but also spiritual.  Our Physical Body has a soul, heart, spirit and we have a celestial body (spirit).  When we die we will be able to recognize people on the other side.  We will have a spiritual body.

  Our Spirit has a body.  God is a spirit and God has a body – the Bible tells us that God SITS on a throne, it mention’s God’s FEET, God’s HANDS, and God’s BACKSIDE.  We are made in the image of God. Thus we will have a Spirit body just like God. 

  Pastor Don told us that scientists have found out that when a person dies they lose 2 pounds 2 ounces – that is the weight of a spirit body – the Spirit has weight. Spirits can be seen and be seen through.  They are not bound by time and space.  They can travel great distances in a short amount of time.

  Man was given a physical body – and God breathed in man and the Bible tells us man became a LIVING SOUL.  The Spirit in the body and the body becomes a living soul.  We have a mind – but there is no life in our mind once the spirit leaves, life leaves with it.

  The dead in CHRIST shall rise – that is called the blessed hope.  Christ returns prior to the second coming – he returns in the clouds, and will remove the church from the earth (the rapture).  Scripture does not tell us exactly when.  When we are raptured we will be spending 7 years at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.  A Hebrew wedding lasts 7 days, and that is a party time for the bride and groom.  So we will be spending 7 years at our wedding feast.  Paul, Daniel and Jesus and John have scriptures that refer to the rapture – but it’s a mystery.

  We will not be on the earth when God pours out His wrath.  God never pours out His wrath on the righteous.  When the rapture occurs the earth will be changed for there will be nothing left to hold satan and his minions in abeyance.  The world will be turned over to the god of the world – satan.  There are Old Testament pictures of the rapture – Enoch who walked with God and was no more, and Elijah.  After Jesus died  He was resurrected, He got raptured from the condition of the sins of the world.  Jesus descended into hades, and God raptured Jesus out of hell so he would not suffer for our sins.  When Sodom and Gomorrah was to be destroyed the angels took out Lot and his family.  Noah and the Ark preserved Noah and his family. 

  The Bible tells us that the dead in Christ will rise first, then we will meet Christ in the air. We will not be raptured and stay on Earth.  God removes us from it. 

  In essence Christ comes three times – once as Suffering Savior, once in the Clouds to take the dead in Christ and rapture the believers, and during the Day of Tribulation at the end when He sets foot on Mount Zion.

  It is important to know that the soul and spirit are not interchangeable – there is a difference between spirit and soul.  The Bible talks about dividing spirit and soul.  There is also a difference between divine protection and divine removal. Jesus gave the criterion.

  He talks about the 10 virgins – the 10 were ALL virgins (all saved).  Five will be taken into the wedding feast and five will remain on earth.  They were all believers, they were all not righteous, but five had faith enough to prepare and wait with anticipation.  The wise were waiting with anticipation and had brought extra oil.  The foolish had no oil.  Notice that ALL were asleep but the foolish were not prepared.  We want to be like the wise virgins, waiting for the rapture with preparation.

  Some think that it would be interesting to stay on the planet during these seven years, but the truth is that the time on earth will be rough when the seals, trumpet and bowl judgements of Revelation are occurring.  When the antichrist becomes prominent because the church is not there to hold him back, the life for believers will be miserable.  None of us will know how we would plea if we are placed before a firing squad or guillotine, and told to renounce Christ or die.  

  Pastor Don then talked a bit about the traditions of a Jewish wedding, for what a believer should do while waiting for the rapture.  The bride would be preparing her wardrobe and household things, and watching and waiting for the groom to come and get her. 

  The groom has made a deal for the bride and has made a covenant for his bride. The groom negotiates the dowry, and then the families sit at a table to share a meal.  The groom tells the bride that he will work for her, die for her, build a house, etc. The bride and groom will share a cup (symbol of the blood covenant) and bread (the body, provision), and if the bride drinks from the cup then she has accepted the covenant, if she turns the cup upside down spilling it out she rejects the covenant.  At the Last Supper Judas did not take communion with the disciples, he rejected the covenant. Once she has accepted the covenant she is considered “married” and then waits for the groom to come and get her.  The groom in the mean time is to go and prepare a house for the bride – often an addition to his parent’s house. 

  John 14:2-3 (Jesus speaking)  In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 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

  Jesus goes away, no one knows when He will come, but they know by faith that He will come. In the Jewish wedding the groom prepares the place for his bride (just as Jesus prepares a place for us).   Jesus did not even know the time.  For in the Jewish wedding traditions the father looks over the work and when the father decides that the dwelling is ready to receive the bride, the father tells the son to go and get his bride.  God will tell Jesus to go and get His bride as well.

  A cry goes out at MIDNIGHT, at the time of darkness.  In the Jewish tradition days begin at sundown.  When the father tells the groom to come, the groom and his friends come with a SHOUT, to get the bride for the wedding.  That is why the bride has to be constantly ready, waiting for the groom.

  The body of Christ has heard the voice of the prophets, pastors, teachers, speaking about what will happen in the end days.  Are we preparing ourselves for His coming?  Are we preparing ourselves as HIS bride.  We need clean, white, linen garments (we cannot get those on our own, but only through Jesus).  We want to place ourselves in a position of righteousness.   This kind of righteousness is only strictly according to the Gospel, it cannot be bought or earned.  We do though, because we love Christ, give to the poor, needy, do His work on earth not to earn our way to Heaven, although when we do do good works we do build treasures in Heaven. 

  Elder women teach the younger women how to please their husbands.  We too need to learn from our teachers the things that bless God. As believers we want to enlarge our tents for the wedding – we want not only family, friends, but also the lost and unsaved to be brought to the wedding.  Help our unsaved ones know that there is a better life available to them than what they are living.  We are now friends of the bride. 

  As with the 10 virgins, only five were ready.  At the first trump, it will anounce the Wrath of God.  The last trump will anounce the culmination of the wrath and judgement.

  Then Pastor Don gave us an illustration about the Body, Soul and Spirit.  He had six volunteers come forward and form two lines.

  Line 1 – Physical  was in this order BODY – SOUL – SPIRIT

  Line 2 – Spirit  was in this order  SPIRIT – SOUL – INCORRUPTIBLE SPIRIT BODY.

  In the Physical the fleshly body has a Soul (mind, will, emotions) and a spirit man – this is not the Holy Spirit.  If the physical dies the only thing that would come out of this line would be the spirit. When our spirit comes out at death it goes into our spirit (in line 2). Our spirit also has a soul (mind, will, emotions) and our spirit at the coming of Christ will receive an incorruptible spirit body (which will act much the same way as Jesus’ body acted after His resurrection).

  Do we have emotion in heaven?  Yes, the Bible tells us there will be tears in heaven.  The Bible also tells us that the Holy Spirit can be grieved.  When the rapture occurs our corrupt bodies will be changed into an incorruptable spirit body, a resurrection body.

  When we become changed, we shall be like Him.  Paul talks in Romans 7 about the struggle in the physical to be like Jesus. Romans 7:24-25 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
  So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

  Paul talks about how he wants to do right, but something inside his flesh causes him to choose to do wrong.  Who is fighting with who when you make a wrong decision? Paul talks about how he dies daily, killing the physical to get a new spirit, the blessed hope.  We are seeking to let the Holy Spirit help us to be more controlled by our Spirit than by our flesh.

  Pastor Don told us that a 7 year old is at a purest age, that their decisions are not calculating.  At some point past the age of seven we begin to come to what is called the age of accountability, where we begin to lose that playful, imagination, and not being really mean, and begin to transition into a place where we actively choose to do either good or evil. Before the age of accountability the law did not affect us – but once we knew the law, then we died for sin came into our world. 

  Romans 7:9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

  In another Bible study Pastor Don said that before a speed limit sign is put on a road you can go any speed you want and not break the law.  Once there is a speed limit sign on the road and you go faster, then you are breaking the law.  Before the sign we were alive without the law.  Once the sign is put up then we are under the law.

  2 Corinthians 5:1-2 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,

  Our earthly spirit longs to be clothed in the heavenly spirit – and the incorruptible spirit body.

  Once a believer is born again he becomes aware of the wretchedness of his soul man, and we groan.  As we grow closer to Christ we begin to be aware of our sinful nature – and groan.

  Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord, and said Isaiah 6:5 So I said:  “Woe is me, for I am undone!  Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

  We need a resurrected Body, to be able to see God, our physical body could not survive in God’s presence.

  Pastor Don continued the study, but I will include that in the next entry. 

  Hoping your day is blessed.

  Heather

  • 12:59 pm
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