Title:- Terminal Sickness
Philippians 1:21-24
For what is life? To me, it is Christ. Death, then, will bring more. But if by continuing to live I can do more worthwhile work, then I am not sure which I should choose. I am pulled in two directions. I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing;
In 2004, Director Stephen Spielberg teamed up with American actor Tom Hanks for the third time, to produce a film called ‘The Terminal.’ The story revolves around a fictitious eastern European immigrant, one ‘Victor Nagorski,’ whose country is overcome by revolution whilst he is in transit. On arriving in New York Nagorsky is ‘country less’ and therefore has no legal way that he can enter America. So for 9 months, Victor takes up residence in ‘terminal 1’ of J.F. Kennedy airport!
You might think this is a little too far fetched to be believed, except that it is based on the true story of Merhan Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian immigrant, who up to and even after the filming of The Terminal in 2004, had been living in Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris since August 26th 1988. Danielle Yzerman, spokeswoman for Charles de Gaulle, comments on Nasseri’s long and continued stay in saying that “An airport is kind of a place between heaven and earth and he has found a home here.” Found a home there? Yes indeed, for you see after living in that strange bubble for so many years, Nasseri, became very quietly, quite, quite bonkers. Sad but true.
I wonder if serious Christians living gloriously in this present world, yet doing so with unremitting attention and persistent application of all their very being to their true home of heaven, have had come upon them a similar kind of madness, a sickness if you will, for Heaven’s gates? Yes a sickness, because we are all in a terminal time line and our mental, physical, psychological and spiritual health, all depend so much in the embracing of where we are on that time line right now. We Christians live on earth but our eyes and hearts are in heaven. Yes, we Heaven gazers, we longing lookers, must never-the-less, be fully present in the present to live sanely! Well how can we do this? How can who are right now also seated with Christ in the heavenlies, also live well in this present spiritual dimension between heaven and earth? Well, allow me to try and explain how we might do this by contrasting both youth and maturity.
Christian youth should carry with it, an exciting sense of destiny. There is a race to be run, there is a course to be completed, and there is a fight to be victorious in. Heaven is our hope and our goal, yet the destinies of this life and this age, have under the guidance of God the Holy Spirit, taken on a more solid form for us. We are young and we have something to accomplish, something to achieve with our life in this world. Heaven will be nice when we are dead but for now, we want to live! So goes the musings of youth and that kind of thinking, is in my mind, quite natural. Who wants heaven when there is so much to be done right here!
Christian maturity, on the other hand, should carry with it an exciting sense of completion. The race is drawing to a close, the battle has been fought and we have the scars to prove it and above all this, our reward awaits us and we know it. Under the guidance of God, the Holy Spirit our future life has taken upon itself an even more solid form, a kinder attraction, a buzzing expectation if you will. It is far better to be with Christ and we know it and now we begin to long and yearn for it all the more. Who wants this tired old earth and this injured old body, when all the happiness of our home in heaven calls us to a most glorious rest?
To be young and long only for heaven’s gates, may be indicative of some spiritual disease, some terminal disease if you will. Consequently, to be mature and long to stay here in the terminal, may be a sign of spiritual deformity, of spiritual childishness of matronly mutton being dressed as little lambs. It’s just ridiculous!
So to the Young I say: “Get on your knees and ask God to reveal to you your glorious earthly destiny. The way He wishes for you to go, the battles you are to fight, the giants you are to slay, the kingdoms you are to possess. Get on your knees and ask Him to show you this. For if you have no sense of calling, purpose or destiny, you are diseased and in need of spiritual counsel, help, healing and releasing. Get on your knees!”
To the Mature I say: “If you have no eager anticipation of that which now speedily comes upon you, then you are disabled and deformed." Yes, if you are older, then you should be ready and your desire for heaven should have increased and not wained. Only the regret of the incompletion of your task can rob you of this happy expectation. If you have been robbed of this heavenly expectation then I wonder if the good God might say to you today: “Get up! Be healed! I am able to restore to you all the years the locusts have eaten! I am able to make your end better and more prosperous than your beginning. I want you to have success in this life and the life to come! I want you to expect a glorious and joyful ‘well done you good and faithful servant!’” I tell you friend, if breath is in your body; it is not too late to achieve great things for God right here, right now, whilst you also still long and look for heaven.You know where you are on the timeline today friends, so let me ask you: “Are you diseased or deformed? Or are you at ease and informed?” To fully possess your present you must appreciate and experience just where you are on your time line. If you aren’t possessing your present, then I wonder just what kind of terminal sickness might be upon you today?
Listen:- For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. Philippians 3:19-21
Pray: - Lord, help me to abide in You in such a way, that while sojourning between my new heavenly home and this old earth, I might live well here, and may have such confidence in pleasing You that I would not be ashamed at Your glorious appearing. Amen.
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