Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00019B
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00:01 And we're back. We are talking of the book 2 Peter and
00:05 Dr. Shepherd is with us. We are talking about this departure. 00:11 Yes. You said the term is exodus. 00:13 Exodus. Now there is a book in the Bible is Exodus and I 00:19 understand it means exit from Egypt. 00:21 Yep. The departure. So the term can be used several different 00:24 ways but it became also used just to talk about a person 00:28 dying. Okay. Going back to 2 Peter now. 00:30 What we've read appears to say that Peter is leaving or 00:36 departing his body after death. Yeah. And many people might 00:41 use some of these verses to say that. Right. Is that right? 00:46 Well they do and there are, as I said, these two passages in the 00:51 New Testament that particularly focus or make use of the 00:55 terminology tent to refer to the body in relationship to 00:59 questions of death. The other one we want to take a look at is 01:02 in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. So let's go over there right now 01:06 so we can get a good look at that and then we'll come back 01:12 and relink it with 2 Peter. So 2 Corinthians 5. It's a little 01:17 longer passage. We want to read verses 1-10, so I'll read the 01:21 first 5 verses and then you can read verses 6-10. We're reading 01:26 2 Corinthians chapter 5 starting in verse 1. For we know that if 01:32 the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed we have a 01:36 building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the 01:39 heavens. For in this tent we groan longing to put on our 01:45 heavenly dwelling. If indeed by putting it on we may not be 01:50 found naked, for while we are still in this tent we groan 01:56 being burdened. Not that we would be unclothed but that we 02:01 would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed 02:05 up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God 02:09 who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 02:12 So we are always confident knowing that while we are at 02:15 home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by 02:20 faith not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased 02:24 rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the 02:29 Lord. Therefore, we make it our aim whether present or absent 02:33 to be well pleasing to him, for we must all appear before the 02:37 judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things 02:41 done in the body according to what he has done whether good 02:44 or bad. All right. Now this passage is 02:49 another one of those passages that people kind of scratch 02:53 their heads over and kind of worry about because many of our 02:57 friends from other denominations will talk about being absent 03:00 from the body and present with the Lord. They talk about a 03:03 person going to heaven when they die. So we have to look at this 03:07 passage quite carefully to try to understand it. The reason 03:11 we've come here is because Paul talks about this idea of a tent 03:15 as well just like Peter did. So we have this parallel between 03:19 the two apostles and one scripture can help us understand 03:23 the other. Peter talks about it almost in passing. Paul focuses 03:28 attention on it and so he unpacks the ideas more. 03:31 The first thing we notice is that he's using a number of 03:36 metaphors to talk about life and death and future life. And the 03:41 first set of metaphors that he uses are structural metaphors. 03:45 He talks about a building and a tent. We notice this in verse 1; 03:49 he says that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed 03:54 we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, 03:58 eternal in the heavens. He makes a contrast between our earthly 04:02 bodies, the bodies that we have now and the bodies that we will 04:06 have when Jesus comes back and takes us to heaven, okay. 04:11 He makes a distinction between those. Now the other place where 04:15 he talks about these ideas in much detail is in 1 Corinthians 04:19 15. So we have 2 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 15 and then we 04:22 have our passage in 2 Peter 1 that we've been talking about. 04:26 Okay. It's quite clear in 1 Corinthians 15 that he talks 04:30 about the mortal and immortal bodies and the time when this 04:34 all takes place is when Christ returns at the last trumpet and 04:39 that's when we are shifted from mortal to immortal. And he 04:43 displays this same kind of idea here very nicely in 04:47 2 Corinthians 5 verse 1. He talks of our earthly tent and 04:51 he talks of a heavenly building. Now which is more permanent, 04:55 a tent or a building. A building. 04:56 A building, yes of course. 04:59 A tent can be blown down by the wind, it's movable, it doesn't 05:03 have the same kind of quality and structure and stability that 05:08 a building does. So he says that if I were to compare my mortal 05:12 body and the heavenly body that Christ has prepared for me it 05:16 would be like comparing a tent and a massive, beautiful 05:21 building. So he says, we have this in the heavens prepared 05:25 for us. Now notice, he goes on in verse 2, For in this tent we 05:29 groan, that's in our mortal bodies here, longing to put on 05:33 our heavenly dwelling. He's still talking about the 05:35 difference between a tent and a building. Now notice verses 3 05:39 and 4. These are crucial verses. He says, If indeed by putting it 05:45 on we may not be found naked... Read verse 3 in your version. 05:50 If indeed having been clothed we shall not be found naked... 05:55 So mine talks about clothing, being clothed. 05:59 Yeah, he shifts from a metaphor, this is mixed metaphors again, 06:04 he shifts from a metaphor of structures and goes to talk 06:08 about clothing. Right? But notice that he talks about a 06:13 state where he wants to put something on, that's of course 06:17 his heavenly building, but he says he doesn't want to be found 06:21 naked. Now read verse 4 for us. 06:24 For we who are in this tent groan being burdened not 06:28 because we want to be unclothed but further clothed that 06:32 mortality may be swallowed up by life. 06:35 Now here are three states; it's very important to notice three 06:40 states. We have our mortal body, we have our immortal body, you 06:44 could say our tent and we have our heavenly home, our heavenly 06:48 building, now we're talking about a new body that God gives 06:53 us at the resurrection and in between our mortal life here 06:56 and our heavenly home there's another place, there's another 07:00 state we might say. He switches metaphors; he's been talking 07:04 about being clothed and he wants to be clothed upon and in 07:07 between as being naked. So the one talks about our earthly life 07:10 the other talks about our heavenly life, the one that's in 07:14 between, the nakedness, that's being dead. Okay. That's when we 07:19 die. So when we die we take off this mortal body but we don't 07:24 have our immortal home yet. We're in a state of nakedness, 07:29 that is, we are in the grave, we are sleeping waiting for Jesus 07:32 to come which is the same thing that he teaches in 07:35 1 Thessalonians 4. It's the same thing he teaches in 07:39 1 Corinthians 15 that you have mortal and immortal bodies and 07:44 when do you get your immortal body? When Christ returns. 07:48 He says oh death is swallowed up in victory and that all 07:51 happens at the return of Christ. Okay. So when we get down to 07:57 these verses in verses 6-10 and now he shifts over to talk about 08:04 geographic concepts as to where you are, absent from the body 08:10 present with the Lord. Sometimes people confuse this and they say 08:16 oh he goes to heaven right when he dies. Well, no, he isn't 08:20 going right to heaven when he dies. If you read 1 Corinthians 08:24 15, this shift from mortal to immortal, from the tent to the 08:30 heavenly body, that occurs when Christ returns, you see. And so 08:35 we sleep in the grave, 1 Thessalonians 4, people are 08:38 asleep in Jesus, they're asleep in the grave until he calls them 08:42 back to life. So when Peter discusses these things over in 08:48 2 Peter chapter 2, we can take all this knowledge, all this 08:54 background that we have in Paul's writing and bring it over 09:00 to understand better what is the idea of the tent. It is of our 09:06 movable, mortal body that does not last forever. 09:13 And if we look at verse 14... 09:15 Yeah, go back to 2 Peter, right? 09:17 ...2 Peter and verse 14, Knowing that shortly I must put off my 09:22 tent just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me... Okay Peter 09:27 is saying that Jesus showed him that he must put off this body 09:33 or this tent. Yeah. This mortal body was going 09:36 to pass away and he says Jesus told me about this. Now we're 09:41 going to look at that in just a moment, but he mentions his 09:45 departure in verse 15 and I will make every effort so that after 09:49 my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. 09:53 He says, I'm not going to be around forever. 09:56 Had Jesus at one point showed him or told him about his death? 10:00 He did. In fact we have that record in the book of John 10:04 chapter 21 verses 18 and 19. So we want to turn over there. 10:09 This is a story we looked at before. In 1 Peter we noticed 10:14 that the last chapter of 1 Peter 1 Peter 5, plays into the 10:19 metaphor of the shepherd that Jesus shared with Peter when he 10:24 reinstated him to ministry, but we didn't keep reading and that 10:29 is in John chapter 21 and verses 18 and 19. 10:39 Most assuredly I say to you, now this is Jesus talking, When you 10:43 were younger you girded yourself and walked where you wished but 10:48 when you are old you will stretch out your hands and 10:51 another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. And 10:57 verse 19. This he spoke signifying by what death he 11:02 would glorify God. And when he had spoken this he said to him 11:06 follow me. Yes now we read these verses the 11:08 other day but we didn't discuss the last part of what verses 18 11:13 and 19 meant. Jesus is foretelling Peter's death here, 11:18 the way he was going to die. He says, When you were young you 11:22 dressed yourself and you walked where you wanted but when you 11:26 are old you will stretch out your hands, he says, and 11:31 another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. 11:35 It's there's not a lot there described but the tradition is 11:41 what happened to Peter, he went to Rome eventually and he was 11:47 put to death, he was crucified. He said to those who were going 11:52 to crucify him that he wasn't worthy, this is the tradition, 11:56 that he wasn't worthy to be crucified in the same way as 12:01 Jesus, he said, so please crucify me upside down. Put my 12:06 head down, the cross upside down so that I won't be like my Lord. 12:09 Stretching out the hands; that's exactly what they did when they 12:13 crucified somebody. So notice here that he was going to die 12:19 and John in stating this in John 21:19, This he said to show 12:25 by what kind of death he was going to glorify God. So when 12:32 Peter says in verse 14, Since I know that the putting off of my 12:37 body will be soon as the Lord Jesus made clear to me, he's 12:41 talking about that story that he heard when Jesus met him in 12:45 Galilee. It's very interesting that the words that he says at 12:50 the end of verse 19 to Peter are Follow me. He was going to 12:54 Jesus through his life and he would follow him as well in the 12:58 manner of his death. So he wants to get these people in the book 13:03 of 2 Peter, he wants to be sure that after he dies they will 13:07 have a testament, they will have a message that will help protect 13:11 them against these false teachers who are trying to lead 13:14 them astray. It's rather encouraging that the Lord showed 13:17 him what he should share with people before his death so the 13:21 church would be protected from evil doers. 13:24 Amen. Dr. Shepherd I want to thank you for joining us again 13:28 in this series of 1 and 2 Peter. We're not through, we're not 13:31 finished yet so stay tuned as we continue studying now the 13:35 book of 2 Peter with Dr. Shepherd. 13:38 He comes all the way from Andrews University. He is a 13:40 professor there. I certainly have been blessed and I ask that 13:45 you pick up the Bible, ask God for his Holy Spirit as you read 13:49 in his word. God bless till next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17