Study the Word

Pastor Thom Keller: You really are no earthly good until you start being more heavenly-minded. Because when we realize this isn't our home, priorities change, goals change, life changes, decisions change. In light of eternity, does it really matter? So many times in light of eternity, is what I'm fighting about, is what I'm arguing about, is what is such a big deal in this family? In light of eternity, does it really matter?

Guest (Male): You've no doubt heard the saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff." Having eternity in view helps to do just that. We'll be looking at eternity and answering some questions about it on today's Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. Philippians 3, verse 20 and a few other scriptures will help us do that. Pastor Thom starts off with the struggle even the disciples had about life after death.

Pastor Thom Keller: The disciples, the fact that Jesus's face had changed threw them, confused them, caused them to doubt if it really was Jesus. Matthew 28, verse 16: "But the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful. Some were doubtful."

My name is Thomas. I grew up my whole life hearing what in front of Thomas? Doubting Thomas. I'm always encouraged by the fact that really all of the disciples doubted as well. And again, Mark 16:14: "Later, he appeared to the 11 as they sat at the table, and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen."

And even up to what may very well have been one of the very last encounters the disciples had with Jesus during the 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension, they still doubted. The background here is that seven of the disciples decide to go fishing. They were without Jesus, without a plan. They're going to go try fishing, which is what they know. And again, quite unsuccessfully.

John chapter 21. And they get a suggestion from a man standing on the shore. He says, "Hey, throw your nets on the other side of the boat instead." And they do that and instantly they take in a huge haul. Now John figures out that it must be Jesus because this is a repeat performance of what Jesus had done one time with Peter with exactly the same problem, the exact same solution, and the miraculous outcome.

But even with that, even with that, when Jesus invites them to the shore to sit and have some breakfast with him, they still doubt that it's Jesus. John chapter 21, verse 12: "Jesus said to them, 'Come and have breakfast.' None of the disciples ventured to question him, 'Who are you?', knowing that it was the Lord." Well, they didn't question him because they weren't sure it was him.

But they were sure it was, but not by look. Or said another way, by his appearance, they had reason to question who this man was, but by this man's orders on the shore, the miraculous results, they knew it was him even though not recognizing him by face. And this points something else to us that we know about our new bodies: we will be able to eat.

Again, back to the upper room. When Jesus suddenly, instantly appears, he asks the disciples for a Big Mac. Verse 40: "As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet. They stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder. Then he asked them, 'Do you have anything here to eat?'" Again, I think it's just an unremarkable statement: "Hey, you got anything to eat?" They gave him a Big Mac and he ate it as they watched.

I really like that. He ate it as they watched. Can you see the disciples watching? Did you ever think where food goes in a resurrected body? I wonder what happens to it. Does it just disappear as soon as it goes past the taste buds? Inquiring minds want to know. So they watched him as he ate. So we will eat in heaven. We won't have to eat, but we can if we want to.

Proof positive of that is found in Revelation 19:9: "The angel said, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he said to me, "These are the true words of God." We will partake in the marriage supper of the Lamb. And Jesus said, "I will not drink of this vine again until I drink it with you anew in heaven with me."

Just a few other quick facts on heaven. Number one, really misunderstood by many: we do not become angels when we die. Angels are created beings with eternal souls. Angels do not become humans, humans do not become angels. Someone will say that they've gone on to heaven to become one of God's angels. No, that does not happen.

Second thing: we will never... get ready for this... we will never be tempted again. How do you like that one? Never again. Third: we will still experience emotions. God has emotions. In fact, we share every emotion God has except one: fear. God has no fear. There's another neat thing about God: he's never seen a shadow.

Did you ever think about that? He's never seen a shadow. Someone has to explain it to him or draw it for him because he's never seen one because there is no light that's brighter than he is. So he dwarfs any light that could cast one. And we will be like Jesus in this regard of emotions. In 1 John 3, we read this: "Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is."

We will be like him, sharing in the same emotions he shares, except Revelation 21, verse 4 says this: "Except he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All of these things are gone forever." How do you like that? No more death or sorrow or crying or pain.

Well, will we recognize one another in heaven? A question that comes up often. The answer is a clear yes. In Luke 16, as the rich man is in hell, he looks up into the paradise and we have this dialogue taking place: "Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham in paradise. The rich man also died and was buried, and he was carried... his soul went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side."

So this rich man who knew Lazarus while he was living on earth instantly recognized both Lazarus and Abraham. Although separated by no doubt hundreds or even thousands of years, the rich man in hell recognizes Abraham. Do you think he had a name tag? "Hi, my name's Abraham." Remember, there were no photographs or pictures. He knew him instantly to be Abraham.

And we will remember our past on earth, and I believe we will know the life history of every person on earth. Again, I think that we can draw that out of Luke 16. Listen again to verse 25: "But Abraham said to him, 'Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted and you are in anguish.'" Abraham knew everything about Lazarus. Abraham knew everything about the rich man.

But Abraham isn't Jesus. Abraham isn't God. He's just a human being. He has no supernatural powers. And yet in his place in paradise, he knew the story of Lazarus, he knew the story of the rich man. He knew all about him. And what about people in hell? People will say, "How will I not cry over their fate?"

Well, I believe in heaven, because we will know each person's personal life history as did Abraham, we will see that each person had ample opportunity to believe. And we will know that God's sentence against them is just. Remember, just as there are differing degrees of rewards in heaven, in exact same way, there are differing degrees of punishment in hell.

In Matthew 10, Jesus speaks of the greater punishment that will be in store for a certain select number of cities who had heard the gospel preached to them by Jesus and yet rejected the gospel. In Matthew 10, verse 15, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town" who had heard Jesus preach to it. There will be lesser punishment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for another town who heard him preach and yet rejected him.

And to make this point, consider this: the angels see those people who are today living in hell. We know that Revelation 14:9 says this: "A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or hand, they too will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.'"

Listen: "They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb." They will suffer in the presence of the holy angels. So the holy angels are taking in, they are aware of that punishment that is being handed out. Now the question is: do you think the angels complain about themselves, that the punishment that God is handing out is too excessive?

No, of course not. The angels know all these people. They've been privy to all this information. They know the exact amount of punishment they're receiving, and they know that it is in exact proportion to their sin and hardness of heart. And I believe we will see this issue in exactly the same way. In heaven, we will discover even more fully that God is just and fair and equitable in all of his dealings, both with the lost and the redeemed as it pertains both to rewards in heaven and punishment in hell.

In Revelation 19, 1 and 2, it says this: "His judgments are just and true. He has punished the great prostitute who has corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged the murder of his servants." This is coming from a vast crowd in heaven. A vast crowd in heaven shall shout, "His judgments are just and true." So we know that will be our position in heaven.

And we won't just be sitting around on clouds playing harps. How many of you thought when you were a kid that you were going to sit in a cloud when you got to heaven? Anybody? Was I the only one? At first, it seemed impossible. And secondly, that wasn't a very fun thought because I liked summer more than sitting on a cloud. But that is not true.

We are going to have work to do in heaven. Work that is always fulfilling, never boring or tiring. And this is, in fact, what it means to be like him. John 5:17. This is the nature of Jesus. Jesus replied, "My father is always working, and so am I." Now, will we know everything there is to know in heaven? Will we know everything that God knows when we get to heaven? No, I don't believe so.

Ephesians 2, 6 and 7 says this: "God raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." I believe that revelation knowledge will continue to be progressive.

And proof positive of that is Revelation 6, verse 10: "And they shouted to the Lord and said, 'O Sovereign Lord, holy and true,'" these are people in heaven, "'how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they've done to us?'" How long? They don't know how long. That's why they're asking how long. So they don't know the answer to that question because they don't know the future. It has not been revealed to them.

And this also points out that we won't know the future, except for what the Bible has revealed to us, and that there is still a dimension of time in heaven. People say heaven is timeless; that's not true. And another proof of that is found in Revelation 22, where it says this: "Then the angel showed me a river from the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb. It flowed down the center of Main Street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit with a fresh crop each month."

Month is a factor of time, a measurement of time. Every month, a different fruit. So obviously there is still time in heaven. People also ask: Will there be animals in heaven? I remember when we taught fifth and sixth grade. I remember the young lady who asked, and she said, "My cat died. Will it be in heaven?" You know what I said? "Yes." I didn't know. I just thought she needed to know that her cat would be in heaven.

This I do know, and that's why I said yes: there isn't anything that you're going to get to heaven and wish it wasn't that you're missing. That I do know. There's not a single thing that you're going to get to heaven and say, "I wish this was here," or "I wish that was here." That's not going to happen.

I've often said no one's going to die, get to heaven, and turn around and say to Jesus, "You know what, Jesus? Disneyland was almost as good." That ain't never going to happen. You know, I picture getting to heaven and for the first couple thousand years, walk in, pass out, get back up, pass out, get back up. It's going to be amazing. An amazing, amazing thing.

Well, we do know there are horses in heaven because we leave heaven to come to earth, every one of you. You're going to be in a white horse someday. Revelation 19:11 says this because we come back with him: "Then I saw heaven open and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war."

This is Jesus as he comes back to the earth. And then verse 14, we get included: "The armies of heaven," that'll be you, "dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses." So it doesn't say there are other animals, but if horses are there, why not others? Listen, what we do know is this: for the thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth, when we're down here with him, we will be living in the earth, in a large part as it is now, except animals won't be fighting one another, or man.

That aggressiveness will be gone. But there will still be animals on the earth during that thousand years that we're down here with him. And then a huge question that many times comes up is out of 1 Thessalonians dealing with the rapture. 1 Thessalonians says this: "Now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell of this directly from the Lord. We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with a voice of the archangel, with a trumpet call of God.

First, the believers 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 into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever." So this is when we will all get our final, our final resurrected body.

But people will say, "Hey, wait a minute, I thought I already had a body in heaven. How do I get a resurrected body? What's in between? Let's say I die in 2021 and the rapture only happens ten years later, which is when I get my resurrected body. What am I doing until then? Am I just floating around like Casper the Ghost without a physical body?"

No, because Paul addresses this in 2 Corinthians 5:8: "We are well confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." So there's no soul sleep. We go right to Jesus when we die. We close our eyes here and we open them in heaven. Can you imagine what that's like for someone who's in physical pain, suffering?

They close their eyes in that horrible pain... maybe you've had a loved one die with that death rattle... and they close their eyes for the last time, take that last breath, and then open their eyes and take their first breath in heaven. Can you imagine what that's like? I've thought about people that... terrible, horrible... but to be in a fire, die in a fire. And to take that last breath in flames and open them in heaven.

Boy, just thought of the parallel to that. Or think about someone that is living on earth in great joy, closes their eyes in great joy and opens their eyes in flames. There's a flip side to that, isn't there? And folks, all of this talk about heaven... we do get a body. 2 Corinthians 5, 1 to 3, again, Paul speaking: "For we know that when this earthly tent we live in now is taken down, that is when we die and leave this earthly body, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal home made for us by God himself and not by human hands.

We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothes." Here it is: "For we will put on heavenly bodies, we will not be spirits without bodies." You say, "Well, then what happens at the rapture with my first body?" Well, the Bible doesn't speak to that. It doesn't give any clarity.

What we do know is that in some way that we don't yet understand, when the rapture takes place, we're going to exchange our first heavenly body for a second, final resurrected body that will in some way be reconstituted out of the atoms that came out of our first body. People say, "What if somebody died in the ocean and sharks ate them and then who knows where that all is?"

That's God's problem, not yours. He's going to in some way gather back those particles and reconstitute your new resurrected body, but you will have a first body. And folks, all this talk about heaven highlights the incredible difference between our perspective of life and what happens after life and the perspective of an unbeliever and their view of life and what happens after life.

Philippians 3:19 says this: "Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, their glory is their shame, with mind set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself."

ESV says we await our Savior, New King James says we eagerly await our Savior. The Greek verb here points to waiting for the Lord's return patiently, but with great expectation. Patiently, but with great expectation. Romans 8:23 says this: "And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory.

For we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We too wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us." We were given this hope when we were saved. If we already have something, we don't need to hope for it.

But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently. Do you wait patiently and confidently? Do you live with eager anticipation of that day? Do you know you're not home yet? Do you know that? Do you long for that day? And folks, we've said this before; it's many times been said, "He's so heavenly-minded, he's no earthly good."

And really, it's just the opposite. You really are no earthly good until you start being more heavenly-minded. Isn't that true? Because when we realize this isn't our home, priorities change, goals change, life changes, decisions change. In light of eternity, does it really matter? So many times in light of eternity, is what I'm fighting about, is what I'm arguing about, is what is such a big deal in this family? In light of eternity, does it really matter? You want to be a little more earthly good, be a little more heavenly-minded.