Q and A

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word, providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. Okay, so we are in a series and we're ending it this week called One Minute After You Die. It's been a really cool series, been challenging on some levels, been encouraging on others to look at the afterlife, what happens after we die. So week one, we dug into like a little bit of the makeup of what happens after you die.

When you leave this world immediately, your body and your soul separate, right? And you go to be with the Lord or elsewhere. I just don't want to scare you there. So our bodies are separated at death from our souls, and our bodies go into the grave, and they are left here on earth, and our souls go to heaven to be with the Lord. The next week we talked a little bit about what happens to those who don't believe.

We talked about hell and Hades and what all that means for those who do not make a decision to follow Christ in this life. And then last week was our more encouraging, uplifting message, if you want to call it that. All of our messages are uplifting, and there's hope in all of them. But last week we talked about heaven, and we talked about the beauty of heaven, what heaven means, the process in which the timeline that takes place as we leave this world, what we are to expect as it pertains to the timeline of heaven. And that always brings up a lot of questions, right?

A lot of questions that you can't answer in just a 30-40 minute piece of time. So this week I wanted to offer the opportunity, I've never done this before, so this is new to me, to do a little bit of a answer the question. So of those things that people may have about heaven, hell, and eternity, and what all that really means. So what I did is I put a post up on social media, I shot out an email, I asked people in our small groups, and just gave everyone an opportunity to ask a few questions. Okay, what have I not answered here?

What are the things that are really challenging? How do you make all of this, you know, make of all of this? How does it all work out? So what I did, I got a lot of questions. There was a lot of questions that came in.

I think there were about 25, 30 questions or more that came in of different thoughts about it. And what I did is I kind of looked at those questions and I narrowed it down. I believe I got about 8 to 10 questions today that I'm going to try to roll through about what people are asking. So if you would just kind of walk this out with me, we'll try to roll through these things. And perhaps, perhaps, perhaps I can answer them in the best of my knowledge and ability based on what God has given us in the Bible.

And sometimes with a little bit of a redemptive speculation, if I could call it that, to help us understand a little bit of what's going on in the afterlife. So let me start off with the first question that was asked. And I think this is probably a really more, more believers probably ask this than non-believers. And that is, what does it mean that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and the old earth will pass away? What exactly does that mean?

Last week we talked about heaven and the timeline in which the Lord would come back for His people and set the world right. And the new heaven, Scripture calls it the new Jerusalem, comes down and meets the earth, the new earth. And we will live forever. And that's what happens basically in the end of the timeline and into eternity. What we do after that is another question on this.

But what does it mean that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and the old earth will pass away? Is God going to completely destroy this earth? That's what many would think or many would say. Okay, so God's going to come in and wipe this earth away, just explode, implode, whatever it looks like. And then He's going to just kind of bring in a new, a brand new, fresh heaven and earth.

And this is what a lot of people speculate or think about the new heaven and new earth. Where do we get this idea from? In Revelation 21.1 it says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and first earth had passed away. 2 Peter, Peter talks about this too, in chapter 3, verse 13.

But in keeping with His promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. So we've got this new heaven and this new earth. What does it mean that this new heaven and new, is it an old heaven that's renewed or is it a new heaven? Well, let's just go to the original language here just to kind of look at it a little bit. There's two different words for new.

There's kainos and neos. Neos is used often in Scripture to describe something fresh and brand new of origin. Then we have this word kainos, which we see in Revelation 21.1. And that means that, kainos means new in nature and in quality rather than new in time and origin.

So what we see here is that there isn't a complete destroying of the new heaven and earth, but yet a renewing of the heaven and earth. Therefore, there's not an emergence of a cosmos totally other than the present one, but the creation of a universe which, though it has been gloriously renewed, stands in continuity with the present one. And so I'm going to give you three things or three concepts to help us understand that God will not scrap this earth. He'll keep it going, but he'll make it into what it was originally intended to be. And the first one is continuity.

Continuity. God will not resurrect an entirely different group of people. He tells us that. He's going to resurrect our bodies. He's going to make us new.

He's going to transform us in the twinkling of an eye as we talked about the other week. So in this... In the same way that He's not going to resurrect people, He's not going to do away with us, He's not going to do away with the heavens and the earth. He's going to renew it. God will renew another cosmos.

And He will redeem the very one that He originally called in Genesis 1.31, very good. So we see continuity there. If He's going to do it with humans, if He's going to do it with mankind, He's going to do it with the earth. So this earth that we see now will still be the earth, but it will be the earth that God originally intended it to be.

Continuity. Continuity. It kind of works together. Secondly, conquest. Conquest.

Liberation is a conquest. As Christ has liberated His children from death and disease, so too He will liberate His cosmos from destruction and decay. I love how Romans 8.19 and 21 put it, For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. For creation was subject to futility.

It means it was frustrated. Not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be set free from the bondage of decay and will obtain a freedom of the glory of the children of God. So what we see here is that creation is crying out to be liberated from bondage. Just as our hearts and our souls are crying out, we see the conquest of Christ. Christ liberating His children.

Christ is also liberating creation through His blood, through His sacrifice, through His second coming, through the whole process. It is for the world. For God to love the world. Yes, it meant humankind, but it meant everything thereof that the world was created for. And that is humans in mind as well as those things that God created for us to enjoy.

And the third thing is childbirth. We see it through the analogy of childbirth. The final assurance that God is not going to scrap this earth, this universe to start over, is with a brand new one and is communicated through the metaphor of childbirth. As Scripture puts it, the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this present time. So what does that mean?

Paul uses the metaphor of childbirth to describe the longing of creation and the consummation of Christ's conquest on the cross. So I love how John Piper, Dr. John Piper puts it, something is about to be brought forth from creation. Not a place of creation. Creation is not going to be annihilated or recreated with no continuity.

The earth is going to bring forth like a mother in labor through the unheavals of fire and earthquake and volcanoes and pestilence and famine a new earth. A new earth. It sounds very painful, but that's what God is doing through childbirth. As childbirth is painful, as you women would say amen to, agree with that, so will the birth of the new heaven and new earth. It has to go through some type of transition.

And I don't know about you, but the more I think about the new heaven and the new earth, the more I get excited. Because I know it's going to have everything that we could possibly ever want that we enjoy in this life, but yet without pain, without suffering. Eden lost will be Eden restored. We will have everything. We will walk with God.

It says we will be in the presence of God. We will be His people. He will be our God. We will walk with Him. We will never come to an end of exploring His infinite and inexhaustible glory and who He is.

And it's just an amazing thing. And I love how Revelation 21, 3 and 5 says it. The dwelling of God is with man. This is how it's going to be. And He will live with them.

They will be His people. And God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more mourning, or crying, or pain. Amen.

Can I get an amen to that? Hallelujah. For the old order of things has passed away. That term, passed away, means the old order. And He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new.

Everything new. Everything new. We can have a hope today that He is going to make everything we know about this life that is good and that is holy and that is righteous, He will make it good, He will make it new, and we can have that hope. So the second question people will ask, or have asked, what will the judgment look like for believers? What will the judgment look like for believers?

When I was young in youth ministry, part of a youth group, I remember sitting out where you are as a speaker, a youth speaker came up, and he gave the picture of standing before God. And there was going to be this big movie screen. And it's going to reveal every piece of your life, your sins of great and your sins of small, and you're going to have to account for every one of those sins. He's going to make you sit and you're just going to watch your life and watch it and watch it and watch it and watch it and watch it and you're going to feel guilty and condemned and all of this right there in the courtroom of God. And for me, as a young man, still trying to figure it all out, he says, that just sounds like hell to me.

And am I a believer or not, you know, that I have to sit before God? And if Christ paid for all of this, how does all of that work out in judgment? Do I have to stand before Him? And is there an account for every sin that I have committed in this life? What does that look like?

Well, I talked a little bit about this in, I believe, week two, when we talked about the judgment of Christ. What does that look like? And there's a lot of different views on that, but there are two judgments mentioned in the Bible. There's the judgment seat of Christ and the great white throne of judgment. So we have the judgment seat of Christ and the great white throne of judgment.

And while some Bible scholars may disagree about the timeline of these things, whether it all happens at the same time, where we're separated at that moment, or whether some would, what we call dispensational theology, where there's different times in which things take place, and some would believe that the great white throne of judgment happens at the same time. And then the judgment seat of Christ happens at an earlier end. But regardless of what people think about that, we know that there are two, everybody agrees that there are two different judgments, or most everybody agrees there are two different judgments in the Bible. The great white throne of judgment is Revelation 20, 11, 15, and it's the judgment of the dead. They talk about the judgment of the dead.

These are people who do not, who didn't follow Christ in this lifetime. And those that are basically not believers. And then we have the judgment seat of Christ. And this is where Paul's getting at for the believers when he's talking about this. In fact, in 2 Corinthians, he says this, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what we have done, whether good or bad.

You also find this in Romans 14, 10, and other accounts in scriptures, a few other accounts where they talk about the judgment seat of Christ. This is a different judgment than the great white throne of judgment. The great white throne of judgment is where those who were condemned for what they had done in this life according to their sin. This one is a little bit different because if we look at the Greek word for the judgment seat, the seat, the judgment seat, the judgment seat of Christ, And when the New Testament church heard this word, they knew exactly what it meant. And it revealed or it actually relieved some of their fears.

I mean, there might have been some speculation about what that looks like as we have speculation today, but there wasn't a lot of fear because they understood what that word judgment seat meant. And the Greek word for that is Bema, B-E-M-A, Bema. And when you look up that, it's a word taken from a Greek Olympic Games, which referred to the end of the race. So after the challenges took, after the race took place, people would come to the judgment seat, the Bema seat, and they would receive their rewards according to what they had done to make it to that point. Right.

So back then it would have been mostly running, you know, who the challenge of running different meters and different dashes and different things like that. That was kind of the big one back then. So they would stand before the judge and he would issue the medals as much like our Olympics today, where they come to the end of it and they are given according to what they had done. The Bema seat. And for the believer, the Bema seat is not a place where you qualify, but a place where you are recognized based on what you have done.

The Bema seat of God is not a place where you are judged for your sins, but rather are rewarded for your works. Now, in some situations that could be good or bad, you know, the works you do in this life. And I think what Paul was getting at is the works you do in this life are utterly important for when you are before the judgment seat of Christ. But when you are transformed by Jesus and you no longer are what you were, you are called a new creation in Scripture. And before God, the Bema seat of Christ, the Bema seat will not be a place where every small and great sin you have committed is going to be flashed before you.

It's not going to be in that way, but rather it's going to be a place where the Lord looks at you and sees the work you have done. As he showed us in Scripture, as Jesus was talking, sharing the parable about the Master, he says, And well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount. The things that he's given you in his life that you've taken care of, that you stewarded well. So now I will give you many more responsibilities.

Let's celebrate together. I love how that version of it says it that way. Let's celebrate together. So we don't work for salvation. We work from salvation and we stand before the judge one day.

And if we work and we have these works, we can stand confidently before him and say, I trust in Jesus and I gave my life for his glory. We can do that at the judgment seat of Christ. So the Bema seat is not a place where we are condemned. OK, it's not a place where you're condemned, but in some way where your works will be tested before God and rewards will be decided. So in the courtroom of God, we are all condemned, right?

We all have fallen short of the glory of God, as Romans says. We all have no, no one is good. No, not one. So when we are before the courtroom, the throne room of God, the room of God, we have no hope outside of who our savior, Jesus Christ. And we can confidently say as we are before Jesus, Jesus, when we are put on trial and when the verdict is guilty as it should have been, we can say, I've trust in the blood of the lamb.

I've trust in Jesus. And God will say innocent, innocent, proven innocent. I love the third day song, I trust in Jesus. And it kind of gives you an idea of that. One of these days we will stand before the Lord, give a reason for everything we've done.

And what I've done is trust in Jesus, my great deliverer, my strong defender, the son of God. God, I trust in Jesus, blessed redeemer, my Lord forever, the holy one. And we can stand before God with complete confidence. I've trusted and I put my hope and I put my life in Jesus. I hope that encourages you today.

That encourages you. So piggybacking off of that. Okay. Talking about rewards. What purpose do rewards have to serve in heaven?

Isn't heaven enough? The New Testament mentions rewards. Matthew 5.12 says, Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Rewards are also found in Luke 6.

1. Rejoice in the day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. 1 Corinthians 3.14, 9.18 says it as well.

But why rewards? Why are they necessary? Won't we be in heaven? Won't that be good enough? Won't we be before His glory?

Won't we be before His throne? Why rewards? Well, there's a lot of stuff we could talk about as far as rewards are concerned and how that relates to God and what He desires to do for us. But I've put it into just a few things. So, what's the best things?

Or the best things? Is he Dylan, we have we ever needs to head back in the program? The first one is, the rewards will show the reality of sonship. Galatians 4 7 says, So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, you are an heir through God.

You are sons and daughters of God. And would not a father give rewards to his son and daughter and share in that heir? Also, the justice of God is a reason for rewards. Hebrews 6 10 says, For God is not unjust so as to overlook your works. A just God sees what you're doing and he honors it, right?

Because he's a good God. He's a just God. And the love that you have shown for his name is serving the saints as you still do. So God is looking down on us and watching what we do. And he's excited because he is a God of justice and he will reward us according to that.

Because of God's very nature of being a just God, he will reward us. God will give rewards in heaven in order to do this, fulfill the law of sowing and reaping. There's a law of sowing and reaping. When we sow, we will reap. It was talked about in Galatians 9, 7 and 9.

And to make good on his promise that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. He said what we do in this world, it's not just for nothing. There is something. There is something we can lean into. 1 Corinthians 15, 58 shares that with us.

It's not in vain. Jesus shares his rewards with us. That's the fourth point I want to make. Jesus shares his rewards with us. Paul said, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

Emphasize in me, not beside me, but in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself, Galatians 2, 20. Our lives are hidden with Christ. So we are hidden with Christ who is seated at the right hand of God, Colossians 3, 1 and 4. We die with him and we live with him and we share in his joy, Romans 6, 8, Matthew 25, 21, and a thousand other scriptures, right?

In heaven we will dwell with him, John 14, 1 and 3. And our lives, see, what we can know here is our lives are without a shadow of a doubt, inextricably linked with Christ. We are linked with Christ. When we are believers, we link with Christ in every way. We are hidden.

We share in his sonship. We live. He lives in us. He lives with us. He's hidden with us.

It's just all over. He dwells. We dwell with him. We are a part of him. And Jesus in his sonship shares those things with the sons and daughters of God.

I love how Romans 8, 17 puts this, if we are children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. We are connected with Christ in that way. If indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. He shares his glory with us.

Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that wonderful that we are a part of a family, that a unit in Christ that is full of sharing, of unselfishness. In the goodness of God, he is selfless and he gives us and shares with us all that he has. We are a part of him. He is a part of us.

And then our rewards in heaven depend on the goodness and power of God. The goodness and power of God. Through Christ's resurrection, we gain an inheritance in heaven. And on earth, our faith is tested and results in praise and glory and honor when Christ is revealed according to 1 Peter 1, 3, and 9. So, other words, the things we do in this life are only permanent if they are built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

They have to be grounded in the foundation of Jesus. And the rewards we gain in heaven are not like the rewards we earn here on the earth. When we think about rewards here on the earth, we think about physical things, right? Like jewelry and mansions, and if I have success, maybe I'll be able to have this and this and this and this. But these things are only representations of the true rewards we will gain in heaven.

I see it like this. A child who wins a spelling bee and gets a trophy for his wins, he receives the trophy. But it's not the trophy in and of itself that he's proud of, right? It's the things that he had done, the accomplishments that he worked on, and the meaning behind it that people had actually said, hey, you are worthy and you deserve this reward. And that's really what it's about.

It's built on the foundation of Jesus Christ that we are here to please and honor and glorify Jesus. And that's what we see when we see rewards, that it is the least we could do is work for him. And the rewards that he gives us are just, they pale in comparison to the goodness that he has had for us. Rewards in heaven glorify God and provide us with joy, peace, and wonder. And as we consider God's work in us and through us, the closer we were to God during this life or we are to God during this life, the more centered on him and aware of him, the more dependent we are on him, the more desperate we are for his mercy.

In eternity, the more there will be to celebrate. And that's the goodness of rewards. We are like characters in a story. See it that way. We suffer, doubt, loss, fear, wondering if we'll ever make it, you know, at times, wondering when the end will come.

We're like, we're like racing towards that goal that is set before us. And the rewards in heaven are the completion of that earthly story. When we get to heaven, those rewards will be eternally satisfying. And that's something to be thrilled and excited about. Rewards in heaven.

Rewards in heaven. So that's how we see as believers, what it means to, when we say we are before the judgment seat of Christ. Number four, and this is again, piggybacking, there was a lot of questions about rewards and things like this. And I love this one. If we are rewarded, we're rewarded.

Crowns in heaven, then why would we lay those crowns down at the feet of Jesus? I mean, here's your crown. I'll give it back to you, Jesus. You know? It doesn't make a lot of sense.

And there's a second part to this question, too, and I'll get to that in a minute. So, this idea comes from Revelation 4, 10, and 11. It says, "...the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and they cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "...worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power."

Now, this part is a vision from Jesus to John, John when he's in the book of Revelation. And we get a picture of twenty-four elders around the throne worshiping, and they're putting crowns before the king. And as we saw this in our last question, there are many rewards, you know? We'll receive rewards. Jesus promises various rewards.

And some of those rewards that are mentioned in Scripture are crowns. James talks about crowns. 1 Peter 5, 4, James 1, 12, Revelation 3, 11. They all talk about receiving a crown, receiving a crown of life, receiving a crown of glory. Kind of symbolic for rewards, right?

We're going to receive something. He was encouraging believers. There's something good coming. Now, in the elders' words of worship, they indicate that despite what they may have done on this earth to earn these crowns, only Jesus is truly worthy. Now, let me just kind of take a step back here.

We aren't quite sure whether the crowns that were laid before Jesus Christ and the elders, the 24 elders in Revelation, are connected with the crowns we will receive. But we can speculate that that's probably what that means, the 24 elders. So if we believe that those crowns that the elders lay before the throne are the same crowns that we lay before Jesus, this is how we are to look at despite what they had done on this earth when they were alive. Only Jesus is worthy of glory and honor. In the presence of Jesus himself, all the good deeds we have done in this life really pale to comparison.

A crown will seem but an insignificant gift compared to all that the one who gave it all for us had done. So it's almost as an act of spontaneous worship that we will lay our crowns back before him, before a holy, righteous God. It is...it's just a no-brainer, you know? He gave me this crown, but look, look, this crown is nothing compared to the life eternity that he gave me and everything thereof.

So what more can I do but lay this crown back before and down to as an act of worship and honor to him? Now, what was interesting about this question was, could you possibly explain this in the way of an agnostic or an atheist could understand it? That's a really challenging thing to do, and here's why. Why? Because unless we understand the grace of God, we never get how much it pales in comparison.

Our gift pales in comparison to what he's able to do. I remember Chuck Colson and Larry King sitting across from the table with each other, and Larry says, I will give you an hour to prove to me that Jesus exists. And Chuck went through the whole thing, laid it all out, an apologetic genius, this and this and this. And then Larry, you know, with his big old tie and suspenders, looks across the table and says this, and he says, I still don't believe that Jesus is God. And then Chuck kind of leaned back and looked at him and said, I know, because it takes more than just evidence.

It takes a supernatural transformation in the heart of the believer to really understand this truly. So this is where we have to split ways. Because until you have an experience with God, until you have a transformation, you can never, ever, ever know. And I tried so hard, so hard to put this into a, just thinking about it all week, how can I put this into a practical example? And it's impossible, but the best I can do is that if someone that was a murderer to the level of a Hitler walks into a courtroom, and a, you know, genocide type person, and because of some heart change that took place before the courtroom appearance, the judge says, you're found innocent.

Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty of everything, but you're found innocent at this point. And not only are you found innocent, I'm going to give you absolutely everything you need to live a successful life throughout your time here on the earth. I'm going to help you, I'm going to give you house, living, all that stuff, I'm going to do everything for you. Just unbelievable, how could you do that for somebody who was condemned to death? You know, why would you do that when they should be condemned to death?

But also, I'll give you, and I know this is kind of silly, here's a hundred bucks just to kind of get you started. And you look at that one hundred bucks and you're like, I don't want this a hundred bucks, this is yours, you know? Like, you've already done so much, how can I even accept this? I mean, that doesn't even calculate the degree in which God will do for us as we stand before him. So that's kind of my thoughts on that, the crowns.

Number five, how old will you be in your resurrected bodies? That's a really good one, I think a lot of people. Let me just give you three, and I know we're getting short in time here, I want to get through all of these. Adam, Jesus, and DNA. Adam, Jesus, and DNA.

First, and this takes a little sanctified speculation, I'm going to be honest with you here, because the Bible doesn't scream out loud about it, and neither can we. So we're just kind of like looking at Scripture and just seeing what we can kind of grab from it. Because that's an interesting point, right? I mean, what are we going to look like? If you're old or young, when you die and you're resurrected, what are we going to look like?

You know, we're going to have perfect bodies and stuff. So first, when God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He created them with apparent age. We don't have a specific age, but we know that there was something there, there was something physical there, they looked a certain way. Additionally, Jesus apparently died and was resurrected in the prime physical age of development, if we want to say that. Most scholars would say He died at 33 years old.

We don't know for sure, but based on some time. Timeline pieces, we suggest that maybe somewhere between 32-33 years old, when he died on the cross. And then, and another thing, our DNA is programmed in such a way that at a particular point we reach optimal development from a functional perspective, right? And for the most part, it appears that we reach the stage somewhere probably between our 20s and 30s, right? Yeah, yeah, I'm already well past it.

And prior to this stage, the development of the body exceeds the devolution of the bodies, right? So we see that our strength start to leave from that point, our bodies start to break down, where our strength kind of leaves us, which eventually leads to physical death. And with age, our muscles get shorter, right? Our connection tissues degenerate, our hormone levels decline, our neurological functions break down, and so forth. So we start to deteriorate somewhere around that time.

All of this to say that if the blueprints of our glorified bodies are in the DNA, then it would stand to reason that our bodies would probably be resurrected at the optimal age of development determined by our DNA. If we're physical bodies in the resurrection, then DNA is a part of the process, the blueprint of who we are. So whether we die at an old age or a child, we will be resurrected to the optimal age of development. Isn't that cool? We'll be able to see, we'll be able to hear, we'll be able to do all the things that we did at 20 to 30 years old and at that optimal stage of development.

And one thing that can be stated with complete certainty is this, that we will be resurrected without deformities. Scripture specifically says that. So anything that you don't have, if you're missing a limb, if you're missing eyesight, whatever it is, it will be restored. I love how Joni Erickson Tata says that she's been, she was paralyzed from the shoulders down in a wheelchair. She writes wonderful books about heaven and what it will be like.

She says, someday and not in the too distant future, I'm going to pull vault over the pearly gates. She just has such a positive look at it, spending most of her life in a wheelchair, not being able to function on her own. And it's just a beautiful picture of heaven. And so in heaven, there will be no more death, mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. And we can be certain of that.

Number six, what will we be doing in eternity? Will we be perfect? Will we be perfectly boring? That seems to suggest the answer, that kind of goes with my answer, you know. If we were perfect, if we did everything perfectly, would it really be that great, right?

The truth is that humans are finite and they will always be finite. Even in the afterlife, we will be finite. We are being raised incorruptible, imperishable, but that doesn't mean we're going to become God. We're not God and we're not God's character, right? We will be His people and He will be our God.

He's going to continue to be our God. I've also heard it said that if there was a never-ending repetition of hole-in-ones on a golf course, that's enough to even make Tiger Woods board, right? So I believe in the new heaven, we are going to continue to learn, grow, develop, explore, enjoy. It's just going to be a consistent, consistent learning experience for us. Number one, we will endlessly explore our Creator.

We're finite, He's infinite, and there's so much more we can know. And the more we know about Him, the more we're going to want to know about Him, the more He's going to reveal to us. So I believe endlessly we're going to be learning more about our Creator. We will endlessly explore His creative handiwork. The cosmos will be created.

And even if we could exhaust a whole new heavens and the new earth there, and even explore the cosmos, He could create new vistas for us to enjoy and explore. We're going to be exploring endlessly. We will endlessly explore Christian fellowship. Our ability to appreciate one another will be enhanced exponentially. I like the words of B.

H. Streeter. He says it like this, Our love for one another will be of an intenser quality, will lavish itself on a wide range of persons, and will always express itself more freely and in a more diverse way. So to piggyback on that, I got a lot of questions about this. And y'all know where I'm coming.

How about surfing? How about golfing? How about reading? How about gardening? What will that be like in heaven?

The answer based on these three things kind of answers that for you. A good God gives us the joys we love in this life, but in an incorruptible and imperishable way. Imagine competition without selfishness, right? Imagine enjoying the activities you love in the contents of thinking of others instead of yourself. I mean, it's going to be in a much more relational way.

So with athletic and intellectual challenges, they will be there on the earth. They will be there and they will be for us throughout eternity. So what will we be doing? Continually learning about our God, His handiwork, and loving one another in a more deeper way. And that's cool.

Everything we do here, but just a lot more. And without imperfections, incorruptible, imperishable, in a way that glorifies God. Seven, will there be animals in heaven? More so, will my pet Bruno be in heaven one day, right? Okay.

I needed to answer this question, okay? Because I know there's a lot of people that ask the question. A traditional Bible answer. I think my wife was sharing a thought with me. She was with a friend that was talking about, they were talking about, will animals be in heaven?

And her friend, like, really, really loved animals. And you would have thought her answer would have been, she was a believer, and she said, you would have thought her answer would be, yes, of course they would be in heaven. And she said, affirm, no, they're not. Because animals don't have souls. It's like, okay, okay.

Well, let's just look at the Bible for a second. The Bible does not give any explicit teaching on it, okay? First of all. So we can't cry out loud on it once again, but we can make some speculations whether they have souls or whether our pets will be with us in heaven. However, we can use general biblical principles to develop some clarity on the subject.

The Bible states that both in Genesis 2-7 and Genesis 1-3, 30, excuse me, and 6-17, 7-15, 22, all over Genesis. Can I just say that? That they have the breath of life. Both men and animals are living beings. Shall we get the breath of life?

Right. Thank you. All right. Bye. The primary difference between human beings and animals is that humanity is made in the image of likeness and likeness of God.

So Genesis 1, 26 and 27, while animals are not made that way, they're not made like God. Being made in the image and likeness of God means that human beings are like God, capable of spirituality, with minds, emotions, and will, and they have a part of their being that continues after death. So that's what it really means to be like God. And that's what the Bible kind of shows us there. So if pets and animals do have souls or immaterial aspects, it must therefore be of a different or lesser quality.

So we have to understand first of all that we are made, we are the magnum opus of creation. And that we are above, everything was made for us to glorify God. Amen. So many would say this difference possibly means that pets and animals, they don't have souls and they don't continue to exist after death. However, another factor to consider is regarding whether pets will be in heaven in general.

And we know that animals will be in heaven, right? Genesis 1, 25. Therefore, there is no reason why there could not be pets and animals in the new earth. You know? And there will most definitely be animals as we see in Isaiah 11, 6 and 65, 25.

So we can kind of conclude that there's going to be, you know, the lion will lay with the lamb. And also we can go back and God says that what he made from the beginning was good. And the continuity there of what's good. We know that animals are going to be in the new heaven and the new earth. Now, the question, the big question is, will Bruno be in heaven?

My answer to that is, why not? I can't say yes or no, but why not? If God created all good things with us, let me just say this. All dogs go to heaven, all gats go to hell. Okay, let's just leave it at that.

Okay, so, why not? Why not? God loves us and he wants the best for us. He created things for us. Why not?

Why wouldn't he surprise us by us entering into heaven and little Bruno coming running up to us to welcome us in heaven? I don't see why God would not do that. So I don't scream out loud about that, but that's just my personal opinion about it. What's that? Somebody said something.

Okay, last question. And I know it's 1151 right now, but let me just, let me roll through this. Will our loved ones who have passed see us and will we be able to intervene in their lives? So two questions. First part of that question, will loved ones be able to look down at us?

I don't know. Ultimately, I think the answer is that we don't know for sure. At least we don't know to the extent that God would allow them to see or know what's happening on earth. And I would not stake my life on the position about this because the Bible does not, again, cry out loud about whether saints are looking at us or people are looking at us. We like to use the terms, well, grandma's looking at me right now.

She's so proud. We just don't know. But there is one scripture in Hebrews 12.1 that we speculate might have some indication that people are looking down at us. It's therefore, and Hebrews 12.

1 if you want to follow on. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders us and easily entangles us and let us run with perseverance the race that is marked before us. So you look at that first part, you're like these witnesses. There's clouds of witnesses. They're watching us.

They're looking at us. The witnesses are the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11. And the fact that we are surrounded may suggest that those heroes are possibly looking at us in some way, shape, or form. And certain people like theologian Henry Alford would say that. That just solidifies it, you know, that people actually are capable of seeing it.

But you have people like Randy Alcorn who's written numerous books on heaven that says this is absolutely not true. And this is the reason why. And this is why I can't personally say, yes, they are looking down on us. I can't say that for sure. Because Hebrews 12.

1 is teaching something different here. Building on Hebrews 11, the author begins by drawing up a practical lesson from 12. So the witnesses are the people whom God commends for their faith, right? So you see these witnesses in 11. And there's a large crowd of them in heaven.

And the question is, who are these witnesses? Well, the proper interpretation of Hebrews 12.1 is that the men and women forming the great cloud of witness are the witnesses, are witness to the value of life in faith. So the Old Testament stories give testimony to the blessings of choosing faith over fear. To paraphrase Hebrews 12.

1, it would say, since we have so many tired and true examples of proven faith, is how we should look at that. So it's not necessarily that people are watching us in heaven, but that those who have gone before us have set a lasting example for us and are encouraging us through what they have done and what they left for us to follow. So the record of their lives bears witness of faith and God and truth. So because of the faith and endurance of the believers who went before us, we can be inspired. We can have confidence.

We can follow examples of Abraham and Moses and Rahab and Gideon and all the people they put in Scripture, those who gave their lives, those who didn't see faith, see what was before us, but they had faith. They couldn't see it, but they knew it. The land that Abraham was set that he would absolutely never see. He would never see Israel. He would never see the church today.

He would never see all the inheritance that God had for us. But we look to him and it encourages us today. But I'm led to believe a little bit, just a hair, that possibly in God's ability to allow others to see on this earth, and I want to be careful because why would saints want to look back on this life anyway? I mean, they're in the glory of Jesus Christ, and why would it be even something they want? But because of the race that is there, maybe a possibility, and I would say this, if there is a possibility, we need to see it this way, they see with different eyes.

If I say that if God grants saints in heaven to see the suffering and misery that is going on on this earth, you're going to have to hurt the wind there. here. In heavenly bliss right now, with no more crying, no more tears, we may be sure that they see it not with old, imperfect eyes, or with an old, imperfect mind, but with an imperishable, incorruptible mind that understands the complete picture of God's grace and God's love. And we can be sure that if they are able to see us that they don't experience the hardness of life that we experience now. I see with understanding they access all things in a perfect way.

The second thing I'd like to mention is they are not mediators. You have to be careful. They're not interfering in our affairs. They're not mediators. There are denominations that would pray to saints of old.

Some of you grew up in those denominations. You know about them. And we should caution, be aware of spending too much time thinking about the saints above so that we are tempted to interact with them. And I think this is very dangerous for the health of our faith. It has led millions of people to look to the saints and to Mary in their longing for help rather than focusing on Christ Jesus Himself who is the end all, be all, the absolute truth of our faith.

And the throne of grace that has opened up for us for freedom. This very book of Hebrews that we just quoted says, We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every aspect has been tempted yet did not sin. Let us then with confidence because of Christ draw near to the throne of grace, not to Mary, not to the saints. It says that we may receive mercy in Jesus and find grace to help in time of need. Do they intervene with us?

Do they intervene with us? Does grandma guide me? Does grandma help me? I think it's clear in scripture that they don't. If they see us, they don't intervene.

And God gives us or Jesus gives us a pretty good picture when we see the story of the rich man and Lazarus. And we looked a little bit at that in week two as Lazarus was looking up to Abraham and he begs Abraham. He doesn't even ask for himself, Can I go back and tell my brothers about this place of torture because I don't want them? He says, Can you send Lazarus? So right away we know that the rich man, for some reason, however that looked, knew he couldn't go back.

He couldn't interfere with the affairs of what was going on in the world. And then Lazarus, we have we have Lazarus and can you send Lazarus? Can you? You know, he's he's a man. He's a holy man.

He's with the Lord and yada, yada. Maybe he can go back. And and Abraham's response is if even I sent a man back, even if they witnessed the resurrection of the dead, they still wouldn't believe they have Moses and the prophets. Why would they believe a man who was even raised from the dead? So we see right there that they don't interfere with the affairs of what's going on here.

Perhaps they see. We don't know. We just don't know. But they they they don't interfere with it. And this suggests that those who have gone to be with Christ are no longer a part of the process outside of the testimony that he left in this life.

Our testimony now is the life that we leave for those who are going before us. And also, we need to be careful of sentimentalism. What do I mean by that? If you watch movies, if you watch shows when people talk about heaven, well, they are with the angels now, you know, they they they are in heaven. They are looking down on us.

They earned their wings. You know, we hear things like that. And and and these little, if I may say it, sappy statements that we make from time to time without any reference to God Christ. And the fact that those who have gone from this world. Don't go there because they were good in this life, but because they trusted in Jesus Christ.

We don't want to confuse that as we talk about those. So when I think about my grandfather, my grandpa, my mother's father, who was not a believer in this life. And he passed away when I was very young. And my mom and I have many conversations about it. We absolutely positively believe that God can rescue somebody at death.

But we know that there's a possibility that he did not know Jesus when he passed from this life. We just know that. And we pray it. You know, we pray. God, I hope I hope he gave his life.

You know, we we think about those. But we know that we're not we haven't interfered in that affair at all. But whether I see him in heaven or not, all I am all I know is that I've got to keep my focus on the one and true only God. The only way to heaven is through him, through Jesus Christ. And whether he made that decision at death or not is between God and the mysteries thereof.

But let us be very, very, very careful of making the statement that good people go to heaven because good people don't go to heaven. Forgiven people go to heaven. You can live a life of shame and bitterness and, you know, you're you're every and right up to the very end. The Bible says it's as if one is barely escaping the fire. So we must know that Jesus Christ, the gospel, that's the point of the gospel message is good news that it can be available for you and me.

And anyone who calls on the one name that is above any other name. The Bible says they will be saved. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we do have your written word that we can look at the revelation that you've given us to be able to see beyond where we are, to get glimpses of your glory, to get glimpses of the things that are in store for us. But God, in this series, there's two things.

I feel that you probably wanted us to get from this, Lord, and one of those is to create spiritual urgency in the lives of believers that we don't really have that long in this life and what we do in this world does reflect in eternity. The other thing is to perhaps alleviate fear, the fear of not knowing you, the fear of not having what is promised to us in eternity if we trust and believe in you. So today I just want to offer, with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, the Spirit of the Lord working in this place, just working in every heart, Lord, just you do, you do it, Lord. You move in this place, that if there is one in this house that does not know you, that they would today make an open confession to you saying, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin. Today I commit my life, I commit my heart to you.

I no longer want to walk in my own goodness, if I want to call it that, but I want to walk in the righteousness I can only obtain through your blood, because this is the good news for yet I was a sinner. You died for me. You thought of me. You gave it all for me. So today, Lord, I receive the blood on the cross.

I give you praise and glory. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.