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FAQs ABOUT HEAVEN (Pt. 3) 4-13-08 Some friends were having lunch together and waxing philosophical and the conversation turned to the subject of death One of the friends asked: “What would you like for people to say about you at your funeral?” At first there was silence but then one of them said: “I’d like for people to say that I was somebody who cared about other people.” Then one of them half joked: “I’d like for them to say: ‘He knew how to have a good time.’’” That inspired another one and with a wry grin he said: “Do you know what I want them to say at my funeral? Look he’s moving!” Thus far in our miniseries on heaven we have considered half a dozen of the most frequently asked questions about heaven We’ve asked: What is heaven? Where is heaven? How do heaven and earth compare? Will there be time in heaven? What will our bodies be like? And are we looking forward to heaven? Today I want to attempt to answer three more of the most common questions about heaven so first 1) Will we remember or see things on earth? Now again before I attempt to answer this question I should say that it’s hard to be dogmatic about heaven since none of us have been there I can tell you a lot more about Texas since I’ve spent more than 35 years of my life there But I haven’t been to heaven yet And while the Bible gives us incredible hints about what it will be like It does not spell out anything like as much as we’d like to know But when everything God says tells us that heaven will be more wonderful than we can begin to fathom that should be more than enough for us But again question: Will be remember things from this life? And will we be able to see things in this life? Well there are several good arguments for and a couple of passages suggesting that we will be able to remember things from this life Let’s look at the passages first As we’ve said before Revelation 6 gives us a glimpse of the life of believers in heaven Vss. 9-11 say: 9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. In context these martyrs in heaven remember that they had been unjustly killed They call on the Lord to avenge their martyrdom But the point to note is that they maintain their identity and they remember what happened to them on earth In Luke 16 Jesus tells the story of the rich man in hell who in v. 24 sees and remembers the beggar Lazarus whom he used to pass by every day at the city gate So he too has a memory of his life on earth In every appearance of anyone from the afterlife: Jesus, Elijah, Moses, they are recognizeable These men, the martyrs in Rev. 6, the rich man, Lazarus and Abraham in Lk. 16, all clearly maintain their original identity But how is it possible to retain your identity and not your memory? If we did not remember things from this life we would not be ourselves Furthermore we will be judged or rewarded for what we did in this life But how could we be judged or rewarded for things we have no memory of? Since we will infact be much greater versions of ourselves in heaven we will actually remember things much better there than we do here In all probability when we are judged or rewarded God will make crystal clear to us the reasons For example Jesus says in Matt. 12:36: “Every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for in the day of judgment.” (cf. also Matt. 25:44) So all the evidence is that we will remember things from this life But will we be able to observe things as they continue on earth? Well the evidence is not as strong However the passage in Revelation 6 suggests that we may be able to If the martyrs in heaven know that God has not yet brought judgment on their persecutors then that suggests that they have some knowledge of things on earth Rev. 18 says that when Babylon is brought down there is rejoicing in heaven Rev. 19 also says that there is rejoicing in heaven when judgment takes place on earth So again there is at least to some degree knowledge of things on earth Heb. 12:1 says that we are surrounded by a great clowd of witnesses as we run the race of faith and many believe the reference there is to believers and angels watching from heaven Furthermore there are several passages which speak of angels knowing about things on earth (e.g, 1 Cor. 4:9; 1 Tim. 5:21), and if they do then might not belivers as well? Now it may not be that they’re watching everything we do and we’re providing entertainment such as in movies like The Truman Show or EdTV But it may be that there is at least some knowledge of things on earth You may remember that I said two weeks ago that many believe that heaven will be an eternal realm, an eternal present, in which we may be able to somehow observe events that are both past and future to us in this life We could also make a case that our friends and loved ones in heaven may be praying on our behalf Again in Revelation 6 we see those heavenly believers entreating God to bring justice then as Randy Alcorn suggests: “If we believe that people in Heaven are aware of events on Earth, and that they talk to God about His plan, His purpose, and His people, we will naturally assume that they do pray for people on Earth (p. 71) The evidence is strong that we will remember everything from this life and it also suggests that we will be aware of things that continue to happen on earth But next question 2. What will our relationships be like in heaven? Our first question is will we recognize our loved ones? All that I’ve already said suggests we will But George MacDonald answered the question bluntly: “Shall we be greater fools in Paradise than we are here?” (cited by Herbert Lockyear, Death & The Life Hereafter p. 65) Why do we sometimes think somehow that we’re going to know less, that we’re going to as it were lose in heaven? That is exactly the wrong assumption! That assumes this life is the best life But everything about heaven will be infinitely better than the best things here The best things here are just appetizers of the banquet, the feast to come I thought about showing several different movie clips at this point about joyous reunions Several very moving scenes come to my mind but all of them again would only give us a tiny taste of the kind of joyous reunions that await us in heaven I think of for example the last scene of “Field of Dreams” when Kevin Costner is reunited with his father If you remember the story as a young man Costner angrily left home and for years afterward he had no relationship with his father But at the end of the movie his dad comes from heaven to play catch with him His Dad appears as a young man in the prime of his life and the scene unfolds like this (PLAY CLIP HERE) There will be more wonderful reunions in heaven than we can begin to fathom But for those of us in good marriages, there is one nagging question which we struggle with, That is, will we be married and have sexual relationships in heaven? The majority opinion has always been no based upon Jesus comments in Matt. 22 and Luke 20 In Matt. 22:30 Jesus says: “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” Let me quickly survey the parallel account of this verse in Luke 20 The passage begins in v. 27: “That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. The Sadducees were the liberals of the day As has often been said, they were sad you see, because they did not believe in an afterlife And so they came to Jesus with a trick question: 28"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30The second 31and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32Finally, the woman died too. 33Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?" In other words they try to trap Jesus into agreeing that an afterlife is absurd because of the Law’s prescriptions about marrying your husband’s brothers if he should die and leave no male heirs (Dt. 25:5-6) If there is a such thing as an afterlife then this woman would have seven husbands in the afterlife 34Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. ... Jesus does not say that there will be no afterlife Jesus does not say that there will be no memory of loved ones in the afterlife Jesus does not say that we will not have bodies in the afterlife or that we will no longer be male or female in the afterlife Jesus says they, the Sadducees, are wrong There is an afterlife Believers will be like the angels in that they will not die but will live forever And they will be like the angels in that marriage will no longer be necessary Marriage is for procreation, for partnership and a picture of intimate union with God Now presumably there will be procreation in heaven We will in all probability continue to have an intimate relationship with our mate but we will in effect be married to Jesus We will be His bride Randy Alcorn writes: “The one-flesh marital union we know on Earth is a signpost pointing to our relationship with Christ as our bridgegroom. Once we reach the destination, the signpost becomes unnecessary. That one marriage - our marriage to Christ - will be so completely satisfying that even the most wonderful earthly marriage couldn’t be as fulfilling. Earthly marriage is a shadow, a copy, an echo of the true and ultimate marriage. ... At the Lamb’s wedding feast, all the human marriages that pointed to it will have served their noble purpose and will be assimilated into the one great marriage they foreshadowed. ‘The purpose of marriage is not to replace Heaven, but prepare us for it.’ Here on earth we long for a perfect marriage. That’s exactly what we’ll have - a perfect marriage with Christ. My wife, Nanci, is my best friend and my closest sister in Christ. Will we become more distant in the new world? Of course not - we’ll become closer ... Nothing will take away from the fact that Nanci and I are marriage partners here ... I fully expect that no one besides God will understand me better on the New Earth, and there’s nobody whose company I’ll seek and enjoy more than Nanci’s. The joys of marriage will be far greater because of the character and love of our bridgegroom.” (pp.336-37) As great as a great marriage is, no marriage in this life will begin to compare to the relationships we will have with everyone in heaven and especially our mate and the Lord Now there are other minority views of marriage and sex that we can consider in Sunday School but the best evidence is that our relationships will be so much greater in heaven that marriage as we know it will be obselete For many of us it’s hard to imagine heaven being heaven without our marriages but God will apparently replace marriage and sex with even better relationships [cf. Other perspectives: Randy Alcorn: “We’ll maintain distinct genders in our resurrection bodies. We’ll be male and female. But will there be sex in the sense of sexual relationships? If human marriages existed before the Fall and were not the product of sin and the Curse; they were perfect in God’s design. ... Given what we know about the continuity between this life and the next, marriage and sex seem natural carryovers. However, as we’ve seen Christ made it clear that people in heaven wouldn’t be married to each other. ... Because sex was designed to be part of a marriage relationship, marriage and sex logically belong together. Because we’re told that humans won’t be married to each other, and sex is intended for marriage, then logically we won’t be engaging in sex. This appears to be, then, an exception to the principle of continuity. However, since there’s a different sort of continuity between earthly marriage and the marriage of Christ to his church, there may also be some way in which the intimacy and pleasure we now know as sex will also be fulfilled in some higher form. I don’t know what that would be, but I do know that sex was designed by God, and I don’t expect him to discard it without replacing it with something better. There’s a unique metaphysical power to sexual union. It’s no coincidence that pagan worship often involved sexual acts. As immoral as they acts were, they recognized a transcendent spiritual nature to sex. This otherworldliness is again a signpost - and it suggests that sexual relations in this world foreshadow something greater in the next world. Certainly we should reject all christoplatonic assumptions that sex, which God called ‘very good,’ would be unworthy of Heaven. Rather than viewing marriage and sex as bad things somehow to be replaced by good ones, we should view them as good things somehow transformed or resurrected into better ones. If we won’t have sex in Heaven and if in Heaven there’s no frustration of desire, then it appears we won’t desire sex. This isn’t because we won’t have physical desires, of course - we’ll desire food and water. But what we will desire - and always enjoy - is the relational intimacy that was the best part of sex. We may discover, as we look back, that sex prefigured what it means to be lost in intimacy with Christ. ... Our romance with Christ will far exceed any earthly romance. ... We’ll have greater intimacy with Jesus than we ever had in the best earthly marriages.” (338-39) Sam Storms: “Remember that sexual passion per se is not sinful or evil. Before the Fall Adam and Eve experienced sexual passion in its highest and purest form. If there will be sexual passion in heaven it will be pure and free of any illicit desires. Many assume there won’t be sexual relationships in heaven (since there will be no more procreation), but we don’t really know. The Bible simply doesn’t say. If our sexual identity continues and God created us with sexual identity, it’s hard to imagine it’s ceasing to function.” (“Will There Be Sex in Heaven?”) Peter Kreeft (130-32): “Since there are bodies in Heaven, able to eat and be touched, like Christ’s resurrection body, there is the possibility of physical intercourse. ... Animal reasons for intercourse include (1) the conscious drive for pleasure and (2) the unconscious drive to perpetuate the species. Both would be absent in Heaven. For although there are unimaginably great pleasures in Heaven, we are not driven by them. And the species is complete in eternity ... Transhuman reasons for intercouse include (1) idolatrous love of the beloved as a substitute for God and (2) the Dante-Beatrice love of the beloved as an image of God. As to the first, there is, of course, no idolatry in Heaven. ... As to the second, the earthly beloved was a window to God, a mirror reflecting the divine beauty. ... Specifically human reasons for intercourse include (1) consummating a monogamous marriage and (2) the desire to express personal love. As to the first, there is no marriage in Heaven. But what of the second? I think there will probably be millions of more adequate ways to express love than the clumsy ecstasy of fitting two bodies together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Even the most satisfying earhtly intercourse between spouses cannot perfectly express all their love. If the possibility of intercourse in Heaven is not actualized, it is only for the same reason earthly lovers do not eat candy during intercourse: there is something much better to do. The question of intercourse in Heaven is like the child’s question whether you can eat candy during intercourse: a funny question only from the adult’s point of view. Candy is one of children’s greatest pleasures; how can they conceive a pleasure so intense that it renders candy irrelevant? Only if you know both can you compare two things, and all those who have tasted both the delights of physical intercourse with the earthly beloved and the delights of spiritual intercourse with God testify that there is simply no comparison. This spiritual intercourse with God is the ecstasy hinted at in all earthly intercourse, physical or spiritual. It is the ultimate reason why sexual passion is so strong, so different from other passions. so heavy with suggestions of profound meanings that just elude our grasp. No mere practical needs account for it. No mere animal drive explains it. No animal falls in love, writes profound romantic poetry, or sees sex as a symbol of the ultimate meaning of life because no animal is made in the image of God. Human sexuality is that image, and human sexuality is a foretaste of that self-giving, that losing and finding the self, that oneness-in-manyness that is the heart of the life and joy of the Trinity. That is what we long for, that is why we tremble to stand outside ourselves in the other , to give our whole selves, body and soul: because we are images of God the sexual being. We love the other sex because God loves God. And this earthly love is so passionate because Heaven is full of passion, of energy and dynamism. ... to think of the love that made the worlds, the love that became human, suffered alienation from itself and died to save us rebels, the love that gleams through the fanatic joy of Jesus’ obedience to the will of His Father and that shines in the eyes and lives of the saints - to think of this love as any less passionate than our temporary and conditioned passions ‘is a most disastrous fantasy.’ And that consuming fire of love is our destined Husband, according to His own promise. Sex in Heaven? Indeed, and no pale, abstract, merely mental shadow of it either. Earthly sex is the shadow, and our lives are a process of thickening so that we can share in the substance, becoming Heavenly fire so that we can endure and rejoice in the Heavenly fire.”] In heaven our relationships will no longer be burdened by sin In heaven our relationships will be perfect The most loving things we have ever done for anyone The most loving things anyone has ever done for us will pale in comparison to everyday life in heaven To be reunited with all of the wonderful loved ones and friends whom have gone before us to heaven will be one of the greatest things imagineable But as great as such thoughts are they will be nothing compared to the ultimate reunion we will experience ... which begs the question 3. What will we do in heaven? We’re going to consider this question more next week and focus today on the primary thing we will do in heaven It won’t be sitting on clouds playing harps but our foremost activity and desire will be to worship ____ read to us Rev. 4 and Rev. 4-5 picture believers in heaven focused on worship Have you ever had a close encounter with a celebrity? A close encounter with someone who was almost a hero to you? I’ve told you two or three times before about the lady in the ice cream parlor in Kansas City who turned around and found herself eyeball to eyeball with Paul Newman She was so flustered she put her ice cream cone in her purse Now I don’t know about you but I’ve had some encounters where I felt as awed & awkward I’ve had brief encounters with at least half a dozen world known people in the course of my life but the biggest challenge for me was the faculty at Dallas Seminary I had so much respect and appreciation for them that I had hard time being a normal human being around them They intimidated my socks off Actually the problem was not them but me But if you could sit down and spend an evening over dinner with anyone in the world who would it be? Who would you like to interact with more than anybody else on the planet? Keep that person in your mind but now I want you to think of something different as well I want you to think of the most beautiful, the most awe inspiring places you have ever been The grand canyon is certainly one of mine But I think I could spend the rest of my days sitting on top of just about any mountain Mountains just take me to another plane of existence Some of you might think of beaches or gardens or whatever But think for a moment of the most beautiful, awe inspiring place you’ve ever been Now think of dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of places like these Think of views you’ve seen of earth from space Think of Northern Lights or even blizzards Think of all of the incredible diversity and design of our planet Think of all the wonderfully diverse, colorful people you’ve met in your life Think of all the colors and cultures around the world Now think of the Person Who thought it all up Think of the Person Who spoke it all into existence Think of the Person Who holds it all together and controls it and makes it all work to His glory And think of having dinner with that Person Think of being invited to His house for a banquet Try to begin to get a tiny clue of what it will mean to see God, to interact with Jesus The One Who healed the sick and walked on water The One Who told the sea what to do The One Who turned water to wine The One Who turned a picnic basket into food for five thousand The One Who loved us so much that He laid down His life for us The One Who conquered sin and death Imagine seeing God the Father and His Son Jesus face to face The Bible says that we will (cf. Matt. 5:8; 1 Cor. 13:12; Heb. 12:14; I Jn. 3:2; Rev. 22:3-4) Jesus says: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” (Matt. 5:18) Paul says: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; the we shall see face to face.” (1 Cor. 13:12) The author of Hebrews says: “... we will see God.” (12:14) And John says: “...what we be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 Jn. 3:2) Christians for centuries have called this the Beatific Vision The greatest, most beautiful sight ever beheld by human eyes A vision that words cannot convey A vision that is hard for us to imagine A vision that is impossible for us to fully appreciate But one day we will have an audience with God One day we will see Jesus face to face And such a vision will be transcendent It will surpass our wildest dreams The Puritan Thomas Watson put it like this: “This sight of God will be a transcendent sight. It will surpass in glory. Such glittering beams shall sparkle forth from the Lord Jesus as shall infinitely amaze and delight the eyes of the beholders. Imagine what a blessed sight it will be to see Christ wearing the robe of our human nature and to see that nature sitting in glory above the angels. If God be so beautiful here in his ordinances, Word, prayer, sacraments; if there be such excellency in him when we see him by the eye of faith through the prospective glass of a promise, O what will it be when we shall see him face to face! ... There will be glory beyond hyperbole. If the sun were ten thousand times brighter than it is, it could not so much as shadow out this glory. In the heavenly horizon we behold beauty in its first magnitude and highest elevation. Then we shall see the king in his glory. All lights are but eclipses compared with that glorious vision.” (Sermon on the Mount, pp. 197-98) To see God will be a transcendent vision and it will be a tireless vision If it sounds boring to gaze on God and worship Him endlessly the problem is that we don’t begin to have a clue Who He is Do you remember your first love? Do you remember when you were head over heels in love with your mate? Most of us have been there and we’ve certainly observed it in others Lovers who totally absorbed with one another Lovers who can sit for hours looking into each other’s eyes and constantly growing in their knowledge of and love for one another Now we might not think the one they’re enamored with is such a big deal but to them there’s no other person anywhere they’d rather be with I remember when both of our boys were born Sherry was wasted but for me it was an incredible adrenalin rush When William was born I’d been up all night and I was pumped When Jonathan was born it was late at night but again I was anything but tired I studied my boys for hours I was enamoured with them but if you had seen them you might have said: “Yeah they look like babies to me.” You see the most important people on the planet to me are Sherry and my boys And when we get to heaven we will finally see that the most important Person in the universe to each of us is God I said before that I think I could spend the rest of my life sitting on top of a mountain I’ve never gotten tired of mountains or caves or castles or cathedrals I guess eventually I would I don’t study the boys much any more And I only occasionally stare into Sherry’s eyes these days BUT we will never get tired of seeing the Father or Jesus Again Thomas Watson says: “We shall never be weary of seeing God, for the divine essence being infinite, there shall be at every moment new and fresh delights springing from God. So sweet will God be that the more the saints behold God the more they will be ravished with desire and delight.” (p. 200) We’ve talked a lot about all the wonders of heaven but Thomas Aquinas was absolutely right when he said that if there was nothing in heaven but God we would still be perfectly happy As wonderful as it will be to be reunited with our loved ones and to sinless relationships Despite having glorified bodies and perhaps a timeless existence and on and on Enjoying God will eclipse everything else in heaven! Heaven will be first and foremost most about Him Seeing God the Father and God the Son will be a transcendent vision it will be a tireless vision and it will be a transforming vision The poet Lucie Campbell put it like this: “Not just to kneel with the angels Nor to see loved one’s who’ve gone, Not just to drink at the fountain Under the great white throne; Not for the crown that He giveth, That I’m trying to run this race; All I’ll want up in heaven Is just to behold His face. Not just to join in the chorus, And sing with those that are blest, And bathe my soul that is weary, In the sea of heavenly rest. But I’ll look for the One Who saved me, From a death of sin and disgrace; Twill be my joy when I get up in heaven, Just to behold His face. Just to behold His face, Yes, just to behold His face; All I want up in heaven Is just to behold His face.”