THE PROMISE: I Believe in Life Everlasting

2 Corinthians 5: 1-8 (NKJV)

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,

if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now

He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

This is the final message in the series on the Apostles’ Creed. We started a long time ago when it was very cold and we’re ending on a hot summer Sunday in July.

We’ve focused on an over-arching theme of Jude 20, “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith.” We’ve been trying to become stronger in our faith as we learn what that faith is as represented by the ancient church creed called the “Apostle’s Creed.”

Today we come to the final phrase of the creed: “I believe … in life everlasting. Amen.” In order for us to grasp this truth, let’s think together about the last phrase of the creed, the last word of the creed, and then the last thought based on all we have learned from this series.

First,  The Last Phrase of the Creed—"Life Everlasting.” “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8). 

Question: Where is home for you?

Is it were you grew up? Where you went to school? Made your home after you got married? Where your parents live, lived, or owned a home? Is it where the majority of your the friends live? What makes or determines what home is?

Is it memories? The store down the street. The first bicycle ride. The first cut or broken bone. Playing with friends at the old tree swing. Going to school on a bus, or walking to school with others. Snow events, floods, weather, and other natural disasters or problems? Weddings, birthdays, family gatherings, church?

Where is home for you? Where is that place that you learned who you are, what you wanted to become, and served as inspiration or motivation? 

Where is your comfort zone – the place you know and the place people know you?

Robert Frost said that “home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in.” Sounds more like friends and family then a place doesn’t it?

I think because of the circumstances of my early life I can tell you where I lived but I can’t really tell you I had a home until Becky and I made one. I spent time here and there and didn’t really feel a part of anything until after I entered the Navy. But even there I served in four commands over six years which is moving for a sailor.

I think this is why I developed the ability to just let time pass with no concerns or cares. I used to be able to go someplace and wait for long periods of time because it was almost like it wasn’t real. I could disassociate myself from time if I had to. So I’ve often had a different perception of home meaning being by myself. Weird?

But most people have memories that define where home is, and friends, family, and physical locations that mark familiar landmarks and locations that make them feel good.

Becky grew up about a ¼ mile from where we live. It’s always been home for her, but she’s a rarity in the sense that most of her friends have left and there’s very little left in our small community that reminds her of her childhood home – but it’s still like home to her.

Most of us are looking for that “Cheers” home experience – a place where everyone knows our name and are always ready to be friendly in a really honest way.

That’s what Hebrews 13:14 means when it says, “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”

The NLT translates the first phrase this way: “This world is not our home.” And that brings to mind the words of a familiar gospel song: “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.” How true that is, especially in the world we have.

This world is not my home. Victor Hugo said we spend the first 40 years leaving home, and the next 40 years going home.

We are born saying “Hello,” and the rest of life is one long goodbye. Friendships come and go, people move into our lives for a while and then they drift away. We move from house to house, job to job, church to church, sometimes we even move from spouse to spouse, always looking, searching, hoping for a place where we will finally feel at home. A place where we can relax and be ourselves. Where we don’t have to pretend or try hard to impress others.

Where we can say, “Ah, this is where I belong.”

For the Christian, that place is called heaven. It’s a real place, filled with real people. And contrary to popular opinion, it’s not really one long, never-ending church service. Far from it. The Bible says that when we get to heaven we will be “at home with the Lord.” What does that mean? Jesus said to the thief on the Cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

The essence of heaven is the presence of Jesus. Heaven is where he is, and when we are in heaven, we will be with him forever.

I may go away from home for a day or two but I’m always happy to come home.

Now I didn’t mean I’m happy to be physically home but because it is home because the people I love live there. Home to me is where they are, and if they are not there, it doesn’t seem like home at all.

The phrase “life everlasting” tells us that our home isn’t in this world. Our home is somewhere else. And we will never really be at home in this world because we are constantly saying goodbye to the people we love the most. They leave us, or we leave them. Our children grow up, they leave home, they come back for a visit, and all too soon they leave again. As the years pass, the visits grow more infrequent. There is no getting around that fact as long as we live on planet earth. If you are looking for a place where you won’t have to say goodbye, you won’t find it here.

When Jesus prayed in the Upper Room on the night before his crucifixion, he declared, “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17: 3). Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ. If you know Jesus, then you already have eternal life. We think eternal life means “living forever.”

Well, it does mean that, but it means a lot more than that. Eternal life in its essence is a relationship. It’s not just living for 100,000 years and never dying. If you know Jesus, you have “life everlasting” here and now. It begins the moment you believe, and it continues right on through your death, and it carries you all the way home to heaven.

I would suggest that most Christians have a hard time with heaven. We see it as a backup plan, something that will happen a long time from now. Meanwhile we get busy trying to create a little bit of heaven on earth. But we are disappointed again and again. And even when we are successful, we can’t understand that nothing lasts forever.

That’s why God must take away the heaven we create, or it will become our hell.

There’s a book in the Bible that explains that thought. It’s called Ecclesiastes.

Solomon experimented with all that life had to offer: money, sex, possessions, wine, women, song, parties, education, buildings, books, armies, grand projects and vast gardens. He dabbled in everything and became the wealthiest man in the world. This was his conclusion: “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:1 KJV).

All his accomplishments amounted to nothing more than chasing the wind. He even says, “I hated life” (Ecclesiastes 2:17). But that’s a good thing to say if hating life causes you to turn to God.

Have you ever wondered why so many people have to hit rock bottom before they turn to the Lord? It’s not a coincidence—it’s how God set things up. We think real life consists in what we own and what we accomplish. But having climbed to the top of the heap, we find even the greatest success leaves us empty on the inside.

It takes years and years for some of us to realize this. And you may go through four or five careers and two or three marriages before you figure it all out.

Let me see if I can tie it all together:
1) This world is not our true home, and we’ll never really feel at home here.
2) All of life is one long goodbye.
3) Nothing in this world can satisfy us ultimately.
4) Even the truly good things we enjoy don’t last very long.
5) We should enjoy those good things without holding on to them because we can’t keep them forever anyway.
6) We won’t be truly at home until we are with the Lord in heaven.
7) Most of us have to learn this the hard way.
8) Eternal life begins the moment we believe, not the moment we die.
9) "Life everlasting” and “heaven” are all about knowing Jesus.
10) If we know Jesus, heaven has already begun for us even though we won’t be there completely until we meet Jesus face to face.
11) Thus the phrase “life everlasting” answers both the futility of this life and the mystery of what happens when we die.

Thomas Kelly captured this truth in the last verse of his famous hymn, Praise the Savior, Ye Who Know Him:

Then we shall be where we would be,
Then we shall be what we should be,
Things that are not now, nor could be,
Soon shall be our own.

Lastly, The Last Word of the Creed—"Amen.”

Our problem with “Amen” is that we hear it so often that it loses all meaning. For most of us, “Amen” either means, “The prayer is over” or “It’s time to eat.” And when we see it at the end of the creed, it’s like the caboose at the end of the train. It simply means that the creed is now finished.

But the writers of the creed had something more in mind. The word itself comes from the Old Testament and means, “So be it” or “I agree” or “Yes, this is true.” It’s not a throwaway word. The word “Amen” teaches us three important things:

FIRST. These things really are true. We say Amen because the creed is true—and every part of it is true.

I believe in God the Father Almighty—Amen!
Maker of Heaven and Earth—Amen!
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord—Amen!
Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary—Amen!
Suffered under Pontius Pilate—Amen!
Was crucified, dead, and buried—Amen!
He descended into hell—Amen!
The third day he rose again from the dead—Amen!
He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty—Amen!
From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead—Amen!
I believe in the Holy Spirit—Amen!
The holy catholic Church—Amen!
The communion of saints—Amen!
The forgiveness of sins—Amen!
The resurrection of the body—Amen!
The life everlasting—Amen!

The Christian church says “Amen” to the whole creed and to every part of the creed because these things really are true.

SECOND. Truth demands a personal response. It’s not enough merely to say or to recite the creed Sunday after Sunday. You must at some point decide whether or not you actually believe what you are saying. The “Amen” forces you to make a choice.

THIRD. Truth is ultimately wrapped up in Jesus. Did you know that “Amen” is one of the names of our Lord in the Bible? In Revelation 3: 14 he is called “the Amen, the faithful and true witness.”

If you say Amen at the end of the Apostles’ Creed, you are saying, “Lord, these things are true and I truly do believe them and I truly believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. 

The creed begins with “I believe,” and ends with “Amen.” 

These become personal statements of commitment that we learn to live by. Amen.