CRCF\u201d\u201d7\/5\/09<\/p>\n
Questions of the Heart #8
\nIntroduction– In one of his books, A.M. Hunter, the New Testament scholar, relates the story of a dying man who asked his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he was going. As the doctor fumbled for a reply, he heard a scratching at the door, and he had his answer. “Do you hear that?” he asked his patient. “It’s my dog. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient, and has come up and hears my voice. He has no notion what is inside this door, but he knows that I am here. Isn’t it the same with you? You don’t know what lies beyond the Door, but you know that your Master is there.”
\nA.M. Hunter, Christian Theology in Plain Language, p. 208.
\nI dare say that every one of us\u201d\u201dwhether we trust Jesus as our Savior or not\u201d\u201dhas wondered, \u201cIf heaven is real, what is it like?\u201d
\n\u201cIf I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.\u201d
\nC.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, New York, Macmillan, 1960, p. 119.
\n\u201cAs I get older, I find that I appreciate God and people and good and lovely and noble things more and more intensely; so it is pure delight to think that this enjoyment will continue and increase in some form (what form, God knows, and I am content to wait and see), literally forever. In fact Christians inherit the destiny which fairy tales envisaged in fancy: we (yes, you and I the silly saved sinners) live and live happily, and by God’s endless mercy will live happily ever after.
\nWe cannot visualize heaven’s life and the wise man will not try to do so. Instead he will dwell on the doctrine of heaven, where the redeemed will find all their heart’s desire: joy with their Lord, joy with his people, and joy in the ending of all frustration and distress and in the supply of all wants. What was said to the child — “If you want sweets and hamsters in heaven, they’ll be there” — was not an evasion but a witness to the truth that in heaven no felt needs or longings go unsatisfied. What our wants will actually be, however, we hardly know, except the first and foremost: we shall want to be “always…with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17).
\nWhat shall we do in heaven? Not lounge around but worship, work, think, and communicate, enjoying activity, beauty, people, and God. First and foremost, however, we shall see and love Jesus, our Savior, Master, and Friend.\u201d
\nJames Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.
\nAnd yet a very common question that we have ALL probably had at one time or another is the last question in our series, \u201cQuestions of the Heart\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cWill we have no special relationships with our family members in heaven?\u201d<\/p>\n
Christ-followers can be assured that in heaven we will not miss the relationships we had on earth, but we will enjoy an eternity that is far superior to anything we\u201d\u2122ve ever known!<\/p>\n
1.\tLife as we know it in this world is passing away, including marriage.<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 7:29-33 (NLT)
\n29 But let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage. 30 Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. 31 Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away.
\n32 I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord\u201d\u2122s work and thinking how to please him. 33 But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife.
\nLife as we know it in this world is passing away, including marriage.
\n2.\tJesus tells us that there will be no marriage in heaven, because we won\u201d\u2122t need it anymore and our relationships there will surpass it.<\/p>\n
Matthew 22:23-33 (The Message)
\n23-28That same day, Sadducees approached him. This is the party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies childless, his brother is obligated to marry his widow and get her with child. Here’s a case where there were seven brothers. The first brother married and died, leaving no child, and his wife passed to his brother. The second brother also left her childless, then the third\u201d\u201dand on and on, all seven. Eventually the wife died. Now here’s our question: At the resurrection, whose wife is she? She was a wife to each of them.”
\n29-33Jesus answered, “You’re off base on two counts: You don’t know your Bibles, and you don’t know how God works. At the resurrection we’re beyond marriage. As with the angels, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding your speculation on whether the dead are raised or not, don’t you read your Bibles? The grammar is clear: God says, ‘I am\u201d\u201dnot was\u201d\u201dthe God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.’ The living God defines himself not as the God of dead men, but of the living.” Hearing this exchange the crowd was much impressed.
\nWe won\u201d\u2122t need the earthly relationship of marriage anymore!
\nMen won\u201d\u2122t need a helper; women won\u201d\u2122t need a protector; and there will be no need for procreation. Also, the picture of Christ\u201d\u2122s unity with His church won\u201d\u2122t need to be painted anymore, for everyone in Heaven will be experiencing the ultimate marriage with our Groom, Jesus Christ!
\nAnd that is why . . .
\nOur relationships in heaven will surpass even the best of earthly marriages!
\nWe will all be perfect and sinless\u201d\u201dglorified\u201d\u201din heaven. The result will be an unbroken unity\/intimacy with ALL of the other inhabitants of heaven!
\nBut, I believe,
\n3. We will still know one another and enjoy one another in heaven.
\nKing David expected to know and recognize his son in heaven:
\n2 Samuel 12:23 (NLT) \u201d\u201d\u201cI will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.\u201d
\nIs David functioning as his son\u201d\u2122s father in heaven? I don\u201d\u2122t think so\u201d\u201dbut he knows him and that he was his son on earth. Now, I believe, they are brothers in a relationship much deeper and closer than they ever could have been as father\/son.
\nMatthew 17\u201d\u201dJesus takes Peter, James and John up on a mountain and there His appearance changed (His face shone like the sun) and Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Him. Peter, James and John saw Moses and Elijah and recognized them. This seems to indicate that we will still be who we are with our unique appearance and personality\u201d\u201dyet all perfected!
\n1 Thessalonians 4:13, 16-18 (NLT)\u201d\u201d\u201cAnd now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know what will happen to the Christians who have died so you will not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope . . . For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with Him forever. So comfort and encourage each other with these words.\u201d
\nWe WILL see our friends and loved ones who have trusted\/followed Jesus again in heaven\u201d\u201dand we will know and enjoy them there. And we are to comfort one another with these truths!
\n4. A perfect relationship with Jesus while living in perfect relationships with each other will form the perfect (and ultimate) \u201cmarriage\u201d.
\n\u201cIf you\u201d\u2122re worried about feeling out of place in heaven, don\u201d\u2122t. Heaven will seem more like home than the dearest spot on earth to you. It is uniquely designed by a tender, loving Savior to be a place where we will live together for all eternity and enjoy Him forever\u201d\u201din the fullness of our glorified humanity. Is it any wonder that the psalmist said, \u201d\u02dcPrecious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints\u201d\u2122?\u201d (MacArthur, The Glory of Heaven, 140-141).
\nWe will have a perfect relationship with Jesus!
\n1 Corinthians 13:12 (New Living Translation)
\n12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
\nWe will have perfect relationships with one another and will be with God in heaven together!
\nJohn 17:20-24 (New Living Translation)
\n20 \u201cI am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one\u201d\u201das you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
\n22 \u201cI have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!
\nJohn 14:1-3 (New Living Translation)<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u201d\u2122t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father\u201d\u2122s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
\n\u201cSimply put, we\u201d\u2122re going to be with a Person as much as we are going to live in a place. The presence of Christ is what makes heaven heaven. \u201cThe Lamb is the light thereof\u201d (Rev. 21:23). And perfect fellowship with God is the very essence of heaven.\u201d (MacArthur, ibid, 142)
\nRevelation 21:3 (New Living Translation)
\n3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, \u201cLook, God\u201d\u2122s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.
\nMatthew 5:8\u201d\u201d\u201cBlessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.\u201d
\nRevelation 22:3-4 (New Living Translation)
\n3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. 4 And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.
\n\u201cIf you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. \u201c
\nC.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
\nRevelation 19 (The Message)
\n1-3 I heard a sound like massed choirs in Heaven singing, Hallelujah!
\nThe salvation and glory and power are God’s\u201d\u201d
\nhis judgments true, his judgments just.
\nHe judged the great Whore
\nwho corrupted the earth with her lust.
\nHe avenged on her the blood of his servants.
\nThen, more singing:
\nHallelujah!
\nThe smoke from her burning billows up
\nto high Heaven forever and ever and ever.
\n4The Twenty-four Elders and the Four Animals fell to their knees and worshiped God on his Throne, praising,<\/p>\n
Amen! Yes! Hallelujah!<\/p>\n
5From the Throne came a shout, a command:<\/p>\n
Praise our God, all you his servants,
\nAll you who fear him, small and great!
\n6-8Then I heard the sound of massed choirs, the sound of a mighty cataract, the sound of strong thunder:<\/p>\n
Hallelujah!
\nThe Master reigns,
\nour God, the Sovereign-Strong!
\nLet us celebrate, let us rejoice,
\nlet us give him the glory!
\nThe Marriage of the Lamb has come;
\nhis Wife has made herself ready.
\nShe was given a bridal gown
\nof bright and shining linen.
\nThe linen is the righteousness of the saints.
\n9The Angel said to me, “Write this: ‘Blessed are those invited to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.'” He added, “These are the true words of God!”
\nA perfect relationship with Jesus while living in perfect relationships with each other will form the perfect (and ultimate) \u201cmarriage\u201d.<\/p>\n
Conclusion\u201d\u201d \u201cWe know very little about heaven, but I once heard a theologian describe it as “an unknown region with a well-know inhabitant,” and there is not a better way to think of it than that.
\nRichard Baxter expresses the thought in these lines:
\nMy knowledge of that life is small,
\nThe eye of faith is dim,
\nBut it’s enough that Christ knows all,
\nAnd I shall be with him.
\nTo those who have learned to love and trust Jesus, the prospect of meeting him face to face and being with him forever is the hope that keeps us going, no matter what life may throw at us.\u201d
\nJames Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.
\nChrist-followers can be assured that in heaven we will not miss the relationships we had on earth, but we will enjoy an eternity that is far superior to anything we\u201d\u2122ve ever known! (REVIEW Main Points)
\nWhat will it be like when we get there? This song helps us imagine that day.
\n{\u201cI Bowed on My Knees and Cried \u201d\u02dcHoly\u201d\u2122\u201d Video}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CRCF\u201d\u201d7\/5\/09 Questions of the Heart #8 Introduction– In one of his books, A.M. Hunter, the New Testament scholar, relates the story of a dying man who asked his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he … Continue reading