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Colin Smith: Today we come to the subject of relationship and particularly the question: Will we know one another in heaven? I think that's probably the question that I've been asked about heaven more often than any other.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. So, Colin, if you're asked that question a lot, you must have an answer.

Colin Smith: You want the one-word answer, Steve? Yes. Praise the Lord. Everything about our lives in the presence of the Lord will be more than our experience of life here. God has made us not as isolated individuals. He has made us with the joy of knowing one another and the richness that comes to life in our relationship. Our relationship with each other and our relationship with Him will be moved to another level altogether when faith is turned to sight.

Steve Hiller: Amazing to think about the fact that we do get to experience each other, know each other without that sin element there, the conflict that we experience here even with people we love. That's totally gone.

Colin Smith: That's right. Adam and Eve knew this wonderful relationship, fellowship with God, fellowship with each other in the Garden of Eden. That was then spoiled and ruined. Well, Christ is going to bring us back not only to that level but to something even better still. Join us in Revelation chapter 7 today as we begin this message, "Will We Know One Another in Heaven?"

We've asked the question: How can I be sure of heaven? We saw the answer from the story of the thief on the cross. He turned to Jesus, he asked of Jesus, and he trusted in Jesus. To the person who turns and asks and trusts, Jesus says, "You will be with me in paradise."

Then last week, we asked the question: What will it be like in heaven? What is the experience of our Christian loved ones immediately after death for those who are already in the presence of the Lord? We saw four answers to that question from the Bible: they are with Christ, they are fully conscious, they are actively engaged, and they are eagerly waiting.

What they enjoy in heaven is better by far than anything that we know here on earth, but the best for them and for us is still yet to be. They are waiting for the resurrection of the body, they are waiting for the gathering of the entire family of God, they are waiting for the new heaven and the new earth, and all that lies in the future for them as it does for us.

Now today we come to the subject of relationship and particularly the question: Will we know one another in heaven? I think that's probably the question that I've been asked about heaven more often than any other. And so we're going to attempt a clear answer from many scriptures a little later in the message today.

The outline is simply this: we're going to look at the joy of being at home in heaven, we're going to look at the joy of being together in heaven, and we're going to look at the joy of being with Christ in heaven. So if you have your Bible open at Revelation and chapter 7, we begin there at verse 9 with the joy of being at home.

After this, John says, I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number. Now what a great scene this is. John sees a vast crowd, a great multitude, he says. And they are in the immediate presence of Jesus. They are standing before the throne and they are standing before the Lamb.

And notice that those who are in the presence of Jesus as John sees them, they are dressed in white robes, which of course speaks of complete purity. There is not the hint of a stain of sin upon them. There is not the whiff of a temptation anywhere near them. And they have palm branches in their hands.

Palm branches, of course, in biblical times were symbols of victory. And here are these people and they are celebrating complete, total, utter, and lasting victory. There are for them no more battles, no more struggles, no more wounds. Complete and total victory, and they ascribe this victory not to themselves but to God. Salvation, they say, belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

So obviously their experience is very different from what we experience here. Think about it. When you become a Christian, Jesus Christ gives you a new heart. A new heart I will give you. God puts his Holy Spirit within you. But you live this life in the body, and therefore living a truly Christian life as we try to pursue that is a battle all the way.

It's a battle for us in this world because we live with the baggage of remaining sin that's never completely gone in this life. We live with the pain of a fallen world in which God is so dishonored and righteousness despised and where evil and violence cast a shadow over all that is good.

We're up constantly against the pull of the flesh in this world. It may change the direction of the pull as you move through the course of life. The pull of the flesh may be at one point more in the direction of lust, and at another time more in the direction of greed, and at another time more in the direction of laziness.

The pull of the flesh may change its direction, but the pull never ends and the battle never goes away. And then we have our enemy the devil, who although he cannot ever finally succeed against us, will never give up trying. And so in this world we are always living a life of repentance and of faith.

Repentance because we are never beyond the place of being aware of our own sins and our failures, and faith because we have to walk by faith and not by sight. And we do this with the help of the Holy Spirit and because God has put a new heart within us. But the Christian life, to pursue a truly Christian life in this world, is a struggle all the way.

But what we're seeing here in Revelation and chapter 7 is that it will not always be so. John sees believers in the presence of Jesus, and they are not struggling at all. They are celebrating victory. They're waving palm branches. There isn't the hint of a stain of a sin upon them. There isn't the whiff of a temptation near them. Their long struggle is over and their battle has been won.

And so now they are at home. Verse 15: Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. That last phrase, shelter them with his presence, literally translated means that he, God, will spread his tent over them.

It's a beautiful picture. You imagine this vast piece of canvas and here is the Almighty and he's shaking it out and it floats now down over all of the people of God, so that nobody is outside and everybody is inside. It is the most beautiful picture of inclusion. He will spread his tent over all of his people. It's a wonderful way of saying you're at home here, this is where you belong.

Try and think about the time or the place in your life where you would say you felt most at home, where you were most yourself. Where is that? When was that? Wherever and whenever it was or is, what you experience when you feel most completely at home is just a little foretaste of what you will experience in the presence of the Lord.

And that's very important because some of us struggle to feel at home in this life. Some don't feel completely at home in their work. Here you are doing this job and you say, I'm not sure it's really me. I'm not sure I'm really a fit for this. I'm not really sure that this is what I was made for.

Some don't feel completely at home in the church. Some don't feel completely at home in their own families. And some don't feel completely at home in their own bodies. But if you are in Christ, the day will come when you know that you are completely at home. God will spread his tent over you and you will say, ah, now this is where I belong. I was made for this place. This is where I was always meant to be.

And to be at home means, of course, that you will truly be yourself. In fact, in heaven you will say, I'm more myself now and here than I have ever been in all of my experience before. So much of what went before wasn't really me; it somehow attached itself to me. But now that I am here, I am home. I am myself.

And for that reason, you will be able, as it says here, to serve the Lord as you always wished you could. Every Christian really wants to serve the Lord, but we struggle with so many difficulties and tiredness and jadedness and discouragement. But here they serve the Lord day and night. You see the significance of that? There's no tiredness, no jadedness, no running low that's happening there in the presence of the Lord.

Ligon Duncan, an esteemed pastor, college president, Christian leader, has a wonderful comment on this. He says, I have no idea what it is like to live with a heart that is wholly given over to God. You see what he's saying? There's always that tension, always that struggle in the human heart, even the redeemed and the renewed heart.

I have no idea what it is like to live with a heart that is wholly given over to my God. I have not lived one second with that kind of heart, but one day I will. Think how much you will enjoy your own heart being wholly given over to God. Not a hint of a stain of a sin upon you and not the whiff of a temptation around you.

And Satan unable to get his hook into your heart ever again because nothing in you is drawn to anything that is his. And you will never be out of sorts. You'll never have that experience of a sort of mood settling over you, and you know what that's like, so a sort of mood settles over and you say, where in the world did that come from?

You'll never have that kind of an experience again. You will be at peace with yourself. You will be at peace with all your brothers and sisters made perfect in Jesus Christ. And you will be at peace with God and you will be at home.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Will We Know One Another in Heaven?" and we've been looking at the joy of being at home. In just a moment, we're going to continue by looking at the joy of being together.

If you ever miss a broadcast, you can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. While you're there, check out our heaven page. Not only will you be able to listen to different messages about heaven, but we have a one-hour film based on the story of the thief on the cross called "Heaven, How I Got Here" that's been translated into over 20 languages like Russian, Farsi, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese, just to name a few.

Visit our website openthebible.org/heaven and watch "Heaven, How I Got Here" in one of more than 20 languages. Again, that's openthebible.org/heaven. Let's get back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: The joy of being at home in heaven. Secondly, the joy of being together in heaven. Verse 9: After this I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

Now I want you to notice something important here: that the distinct identity of every person in this vast crowd is maintained. They are specifically from every tribe and every nation and every language. Here is something very wonderful: that the distinct individuality of every one of Christ's children in heaven is preserved.

But what makes us different no longer divides. There isn't the hint of conflict, there isn't the hint of tension in this vast crowd from every tribe and nation and language. Truly in the presence of God in heaven, God's people out of many will be one.

Now friends, this speaks directly to the question: Will we know one another in heaven? Now I want to give you the one-word sort of bottom-line answer to that and then to support it from the Bible. Will we know one another in heaven? Answer: yes.

You will be you, I will be me. We will be made perfect like Christ. We will all reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, but each of us will reflect his likeness through our own unique individuality. God never made two snowflakes exactly alike, and he certainly never made two Christians exactly alike.

He has made us distinct in our reflection of his likeness in creation, and that distinction and that individuality will continue to all eternity among the redeemed of the Lord in heaven. For sure we shall know one another in the resurrection. The disciples recognized Jesus in his resurrection body.

But even before that, we have good reason to believe that the same will be true for believers now, even in advance of the resurrection body in the presence of the Lord. And to that end, I want to offer to you seven scriptures today that all point to our knowing one another in heaven, all make clear identity, individuality, and relationship in heaven.

Seven scriptures. All of them for sure point to knowing one another in the resurrection and some of them point to believers knowing one another immediately after death in the presence of the Lord. Having been asked this question so many times, now when someone asks me the question, "Will we know one another in heaven?" I'm going to say, well, there's seven scriptures that answer that, it's all on the internet, you can just download the message.

I want you to get this and for it to be settled in our minds. Because if there's one great purpose for this series, it is to heighten our anticipation of heaven. Why would it be that the Son of God would give all that he did to open the gates of heaven for his people and that there would be a relatively low level of anticipation among God's people with regards to actually going there? That would be very strange.

And we are given glimpses of what lies ahead in order to encourage us in the battle now, to press on in anticipation of the joy that is yet to be. So I'm going to try and make the case here, as someone tries to make a case, I'm going to call witnesses and I have seven witnesses from the scripture.

The first one I want to call: David and his son. That is from 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 23. Now as most of you know, King David had a little boy who died in infancy. David had prayed much that God would spare his life. The boy died and when the little boy died, David said, 2 Samuel 12 and verse 23, "I shall go to him."

He's not coming back to me, but I, King David, says under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, "I shall go to him." Now think about this. There is more here than David saying, "I will go to heaven when I die." No, David says, "I will go to the boy. I will see him. I will be reunited with him in heaven."

And there are many parents who have gone through the great grief and sadness of losing a child in infancy, and here is a wonderful assurance for every Christian parent who loses a child. David says, "I shall go to him." C.H. Spurgeon points out very beautifully from the story of Job.

You remember Job lost everything and his children died and lost all of his cattle and money and terrible, terrible devastation in chapter 1. When you get to the last chapter of the book of Job, God restores to Job double all that he lost. And if you look at the first and the last chapter, Job has double the cattle, he has double the sheep, he has double the money.

But at the beginning of the story, he had seven sons and three daughters, and at the end of the story we're told not that he was given double of that, but simply that he was given by God seven sons and three daughters. And Spurgeon asks this question: Why did God not give Job double the children when he got double the cattle and double the money and double everything else?

And here's his answer: God regarded the children who had died as being Job's still. He does have double now in the presence of Jesus. Witness number one: David and his son. Witness number two: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And here we're looking at Matthew chapter 8 and verse 11, where Jesus says, I tell you that many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

Now notice again, this is very important, distinct identity. Abraham is Abraham in heaven, not someone else, not some kind of composite figure. Isaac is still Isaac, Jacob is Jacob. They retain their distinct identity. They do not become in heaven nameless, anonymous spirits.

Abraham is enjoying the company, think of this, of his own son and of his own grandson. Jacob is enjoying the company of his father and of his grandfather. Three generations of the same family and there they are together according to the word of the Lord Jesus.

And notice what they are doing here in the resurrection. They are reclining at a table. They are eating and they are drinking. You have identity, you have relationship, you have conversation, you have sharing a meal. Three generations of the same family. Jesus said it.

And Jesus says many will come from the east and the west to join them. What's he saying? That is the joy into which every believer will be brought, that same joy that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will experience in the resurrection.

Steve Hiller: Well, unfortunately, that is where we have to pause today's teaching here on Open the Bible. A message entitled "Will We Know One Another in Heaven?" and as we're learning already, the short answer to that is yes, but really a helpful look with Pastor Colin about what we're going to experience in heaven, how we're going to be at home and how we're going to have that joy of being together.

Our message is part of a larger series simply entitled Heaven, and if you miss any broadcast in our series, you can always come and listen online at openthebible.org or through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your App Store.

Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. We're able to do what we do, bringing you Pastor Colin's teaching each day, because of your generous financial support. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you three copies of our very first graphic novel. It's inspired by Pastor Colin's book, "Heaven, How I Got Here," the story of the thief on the cross. Plus we'll send you one copy of the original book. Colin, how does this graphic novel speak to young people today?

Colin Smith: Well, if you're a young person and especially if you have grown up in church, you probably find yourself asking the question: Am I living a good enough life? Am I living a life that's really going to be pleasing to God? And you maybe have in your mind the idea that pleasing God is going to be a very, very hard thing to do.

And here's the marvelous good news. Entrance into heaven and peace with God don't depend on you living a good enough Christian life. It's the gift of God's marvelous grace and that is made wonderfully clear in the story of the thief on the cross.

And this graphic novel tells that story in a way that's clear, simple, and compelling. And it communicates the greatest good news ever: that God's marvelous grace comes to us in Jesus Christ. He's the one who gives us peace with God, he's the one who opens the door of heaven. There is hope for every person in Jesus Christ, and especially for the person who's saying, I haven't lived a good enough life, I feel very, very far from God. That's the message, and I hope that it is going to be very encouraging to every young person, to everyone who's a visual learner, and to everyone who needs to understand God's marvelous grace.

Steve Hiller: Well, you can give your gift of support to Open the Bible by calling 1-877-OPEN-365 or going online to openthebible.org. Again, our phone number is 1-877-673-6365 and our website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

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