Heaven: Part Two… · 2 preached through that, Ive preached through the last two chapters and avoided the middle. And, I was contemplating this and Ive got to tell you, over the

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

Morning. Good to see all of you guys today. And, I hope you had a great week. If you’re visiting with us, I want to welcome you. Now, shirt-tailing on what Matt just led us through regarding how to fill out the “Now Serving” card, I want to ask you to just pray about that. This is our fall ministry season push and we’d love to have you be a part of that. Just consider filling that out and having a conversation with somebody on staff about that. Also, just wanted to point out to you, if you’ve not been around the south side of our building this last week, we finally broke ground. So – that’s very, very exciting. If you are visiting or if you’ve recently come this summer, we are building out and expanding the children’s ministry to match the capacity of this room. We out grew our children’s ministry space about a year-and-a-half ago. And then, inside of that will be an indoor park, a little bit bigger than the last one, and it will also be special needs friendly. So, that’s all coming down the pike. I want to thank you guys for your generosity. God’s hand has been on that. Thank you for continuing to pray. And if you’re new to the church, would like more information on it, like to jump in on that, contact our office – we’d love to talk to you about it. We’re in this series called Afterlife and on week number one, we talked about the fact that what we believe about death and eternity will most definitely influence the way that we currently live here. The decisions that we make, the way we spend our time and money. Then last week we studied Revelation 21 and we said that heaven is a lot better than we think – the Bible gives us this vivid description of heaven – and it’s a lot sooner than we think. And today, here in just a minute, we’re going to jump into some common questions about heaven that this series has stirred up. It seems like the last two Sundays, we’ve gotten done and I’ve had people stop me in the hallway and say, “Yeah, that was all good but what about this? Or what about that?” And maybe even as you’ve been listening to the messages they’ve spawned some questions of your own. You’re thinking, “Aaron, you didn’t hit that and I’m really curious about it.” So, today I’m going to try to hit some of those as well as common questions that I’ve heard over the years concerning heaven. Let me tell you though, this series is really a primer to the pump for the series that we’re going to jump into September the 9th as we work through the Book of Revelation together as a church. And I’ve had several people come up to me over this last month and they’ve said, “How did you come to this place where you decided to teach through the Book of Revelation? Not a lot of people do that. Are you afraid? Do you think you might get fired?” All that kind of fun stuff. So, let me just tell you a little bit about why I felt God led me to that place. For about a year-and-a-half, I’ve been wrestling with the decision over whether or not we should just go all the way through the Book of Revelation. I’ve covered the first three or four chapters before – I’ve

Heaven: Part Two August 19, 2012

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

preached through that, I’ve preached through the last two chapters and avoided the middle. And, I was contemplating this and I’ve got to tell you, over the last year-and-a-half, I’ve talked myself in and out of it multiple times. On my more courageous days, I said, “Okay, we’re going to go for it.” And on other days I would say, “Okay, we’re not going to do that.” And, I was in my office several months ago, literally pacing. I was pacing back and forth, the computer screen was up, and praying, “God, what should we do? What do you want us to preach through this fall?” Contemplating Revelation, it just seemed like this animal that would devour me. And, I got a phone call from Matt Proctor. Some of you might recognize that name. Matt’s the president of Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri. He’s preached here a couple of times before, great preacher. And, he’s the president of what’s called The North American Christian Convention. Next summer it’s going to be held in Louisville, Kentucky. He said, “Aaron, I wanted to ask you if you’d speak at one of the sessions. But before you answer, you need to know what the theme is.” [Laughter] We’re you guys listening in on that phone call? So he said, “We’re going to teach through the entire Book of Revelation in seven sessions.” And I thought, “Okay, you know, I think we can probably do this at Trader’s Point this fall.” I’ve begun to study it, and read through it, and I told you a few weeks ago that it’s been so enriching, just for my own study, to really get in and study through the Book of Revelation. There are some resources I’ve just posted online this week because I know that it can be an intimidating book. And some of you have tried to go at it, and tried to read it, and maybe pulled a spiritual hamstring reading through it thinking, “How am I supposed to understand it?” And, there are a few resources there, trusted resources, to try to help walk you along and get you in that mode so that we can get the most out of this study together. And, I really believe, as I’ve made this decision, that God’s collectively moving in His church. You all realize this, that there is one church across denominational lines – Jesus is known, the Bible is His Word. I’ve talked to some other pastors around the country – we’ve not been a part of the same conversations where they’re contemplating teaching through Revelation. I just wonder if God’s Spirit is moving through His church to say, “My church needs to know what this says.” We’ve neglected it an awful long time. We’ve been afraid of it and we shouldn’t be. It is a pastoral letter, really. We need to put down the charts, and put down the prophesies, and wonder what’s going to happen next, and recognize that John wrote this as a pastor to people like you and like me who were facing persecution and seduction from the culture. So, I’m really anticipating this and I’m going to ask you to be praying now that God would take this study and really breathe fresh wind into our church. And I would also ask that, if you’re a part of a life group, that maybe your life groups would come together and decide that during this series of Revelation, beginning September 9th through the end of the year, that we would take turns and during the service, go back stage and circle some seats together and just pray, petitioning God to be in this place during the service. That people’s hearts would hear and that we would just have some concentrated prayers during the service. I’m going to need it! You’re intimated to read it – try preaching it. So, I’m going to need it. And, I think that God will take this material and magnify it and use it. So, if you’re interested in that – love to be a part of that – contact our office. I’ve not had any meetings to tell our staff that’s what I’d like to do. So this will be my fun, little surprise to them today. Be patient with them. I’d love to see a spontaneous movement of prayers in our church this next season as we go into this.



We’ve been talking about heaven the last two or three weeks, and this series on Afterlife really couldn’t be complete if we didn’t at least take one week to talk about what the Bible teaches about the subject of hell. A lot of questions surrounding that. So, next Sunday that’s what we’re going to talk about from Luke 16. We’re going to take a look at what the Bible teaches about hell. So, I just want to give you parents a head’s up. It’s not going to be morbid or gratuitous. I’m not going to try to shock anybody, but you might want to have your child go to the childcare/student ministries then take them through the material later, once you’ve had a chance to listen and digest it. Not real great planning on my part because that I believe that next Sunday is family dedication day, so baby day is hell day – messed that one up. But I’m confident God will show up and He’ll provide provision for that. Well, today, what I want to do is look at some of the common questions that come to me about the subject of heaven. And, this is what I want you to know as we dive into this. The reason why we have questions about heaven, the reasons that these get brought up, is because oftentimes the Bible doesn’t clearly provide an answer. That’s why it’s a question. And, so I want you to know that when I pose a question, if I don’t know the answer, I’ll actually just tell you, “I don’t know.” Or that we can’t give a chapter and a verse answer to this. But one of the rules in Bible interpretation is that when you come to a complex issue, you first start off and say, “Well, what do we know?” And then you move to what you don’t know. So, you say, “Well, what is clear from Scripture?” And then let’s move to what is unclear. Let’s start with what is plainly known and then move to what seems to be concealed or unknown. And actually, by doing that then you can begin to employ some Biblical reasoning to some of these questions and provide an answer to that – just as long as you’re honest about it. So, we’re going to dive into some of these questions. We’ll get through these today. So, if you’re ready say, “Aaron, let’s go.” Alright – you’re with me. The first question, “When you die, do you go straight to heaven? Now, we addressed this question a couple of weeks ago, but I think it’s worth briefly mentioning it again. The Bible says that when we die our body goes into the ground. In Genesis chapter three, verse 19 it says, “By the sweat of you face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” So, the Bible says that our bodies go back into the ground, where we came from, and that our bodies and our spirit or our soul, they separate. There have been some throughout church history who wanted to suggest – what happens to your soul? Does it go into this holding place, or does it fall asleep? There are some who talk about soul sleep and they get that because the Bible will sometimes refer to the dead as “fallen asleep.” But, it’s important to understand that that is a euphemism for death. The reason that we can believe that is because if we go over to another passage, in II Corinthians chapter 5, verses 6 – 8 Paul says, “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” So, Paul is saying there that if you know Christ, if you’ve responded to Him, that when your body dies, when it gives out that your spirit immediately goes to be with the Lord. I take that to be a conscious existence with the Lord, wherever He might be, in heaven as it currently is. And we said last week from Revelation 21 that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and there we will await our bodily resurrection in Jesus to return to the earth. This brings up another question. Will we know each other in heaven?



Will we know each other in heaven? I remember when I was a little kid, I had that question. And I remember asking some of the adults in my life and they always seemed to want to dodge it, “Well, I don’t know. Go ask the pastor.” I had a couple of adults say just flat out, “No. You won’t know everybody that you knew here on earth. And it will be like you’re meeting everybody again for the first time.” I think they get that out of passages like Isaiah were it says the former things are forgotten and done away with which we will deal with here in just a minute. And so, honestly, as a little kid I wasn’t looking forward to heaven. Why should I? I didn’t want to get to heaven and be a stranger. It just seemed so overwhelming. It seemed like this cold, impersonal place. I wouldn’t know anybody – will we know each other in heaven? I think Scripturally we can answer with a yes we will. In Luke chapter 15 we see that those who are in heaven rejoice over the individual salvation of people. What we get from that is that heaven takes a great deal of interest in our identities. Jesus would often refer to people who had passed away by name. One example of that is Lazarus from Luke chapter 16 which we will look at next week. In Matthew chapter 8, verse 11 Jesus says this, “I tell you many will come from east and west …” what that means is many will come from earth to heaven, “… and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” So, Jesus is essentially saying here that one day in heaven you’re going to actually sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob and everyone else that you’ve read about in the Bible. You’re just going to get to hang with them for a while. Share a meal. Just imagine – who are some of your favorite people in the Bible? Maybe it’s Ester, maybe it’s Ruth, or David, or Paul – you’re going to get to sit down with them and you’re going to say, “You know I’ve always wondered this David. Why did you do that? What was going through your mind when that happened.” Or, “What was that like? That was really incredible.” And you’re going to have this conversation with them and I think that it is safe to say that if we’re going to know them, who we’ve never personally met here on earth, then we’re going to know each other. In Matthew chapter 17, verses 1 – 4 we read about Jesus’ transfiguration – that word transfiguration just basically means transformation. He takes the disciples up onto a high mountain, they’d always seen Jesus in His humanity, He was God wrapped in flesh, but on this mountain, Jesus shows them His glory and in that passage from Matthew 17 verse one it says, “And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James, and John his brother …” these are disciples, “… and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.” And the Bible doesn’t indicate that there were any introductions that went on. It wasn’t Jesus saying, “Peter, James, and John this is Moses and Elijah, Moses and Elijah, this is P, J, & J.” They didn’t do any of these introductions. Moses lived 1,500 years prior to this and yet it appears as if they knew each other. Not only do I think that we will have our identity, but I think this – this is really cool – I think for the first time ever you are going to be you without all of the bad parts about you. Isn’t that awesome? So, this is more than just even physical – think for just a minute about your personality. Do you have any personality quirks? Man I do – as long as my arm. Many of those got revealed to me after marriage. And so, I’ve got things about myself that even I recognize, “I wish I wouldn’t have said that. I wish I wouldn’t have done that.” Maybe some of you have a problem with your anger and you would really love to be done away with that. Maybe some of you struggle with lust, or deceit, or laziness – whatever it may be – in heaven it’s you but without all of the stuff that kind of drags your personality down. I’m really looking



forward to that. I think you’re going to be you. I think that you’re going to recognize those who you love around you. Charles Spurgeon is a great preacher. One hundred years ago he was preaching a sermon and he told this story about a wife whose dying and she said to her husband, “Will you know me in heaven?” And her husband looked at her and said, “Shall I know you in heaven? Well, I’ve always known you hear on earth. Do you think I’ll be a greater fool in heaven?” Not a real warm response from the hubby. The idea here is – do we think we’ll actually know less in heaven or more in heaven. I think we’ll know each other. And, as I said earlier for the longest time as a little kid, heaven just seemed like this cold, impersonal place. And honestly, for so much of my life, I just really wasn’t looking forward to it. I said, “Okay, that’s fine. Whatever. But I don’t really want to go there.” And I think the reason why is because, as a little kid, everybody that I knew and loved was here. But, as you grow older and as you move through the decades of life, more and more people that you knew and love here have gone there. And so the anticipation of heaven grows greater and sweeter. It’s going to be a great reunion. I think that God’s going to give that to us as a gift. A reunion with those that we love. This brings up this next, painful question that I have had asked of me several times. If someone I love isn’t in heaven, how will I be able to enjoy it? This is just a very real question that people have had, “Aaron, you talked last week about Revelation 21 that God will wipe the tears from our eyes. That there will be no more grief, no more sorrow. But if I’m in heaven and somebody that I dearly love is not there, then how in the world am I going to be happy? How can I experience no grief and no sorrow?” I think that would be very difficult for me, too. This is a very complex question. Let me just say – it does not have an easy answer. There are some who have tried to deal with this question by suggesting that in heaven we’ll lose all memory of our loved ones. I don’t think that’s the case. There are some who say that when we get to heaven, we won’t even be aware of hell. That will get swiped from our memory. But I don’t that’s consistent with Scripture either. I think that’s to suggest that our joy in heaven is dependent upon something else other than God – largely ignorance. I don’t think the Bible teaches that. Theologian J. I. Packer offers this explanation to this very difficult question. It’s hard to hear, but I do believe that it is Biblical. Listen to what he says, “In heaven, God will judge justly and we will praise Him for it.” In heaven, God will judge justly and we will praise Him for it. Now, on this side of eternity with our finite thinking and with our sinful nature, it’s hard for us to know when a judgment is just or not. There are all kinds of other questions and objections that we end up bringing up to that. But, this is the idea that in heaven we’re going to fully be able to know, and see, and to understand. We’re going to be able to see for the first time that God’s justice is not unfair. It’s not cruel. Certainly, it’s not heartless. In Romans chapter 1, in Titus chapter 2, it says that God has revealed to everyone His existence, and His grace, and given them opportunity to respond so that no one is without excuse. And even right now, God is beckoning your loved ones through His Holy Spirit to respond to Him. And they either receive or reject that. I think in heaven, we’re going to be overwhelmed by the fact that we deserved hell and yet, we’ve been given this gift of grace by God. We’re going to fully come to understand this passage in II Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is …” here’s the key



word, “… patient toward you …” Some people ask the question, “Well, why hasn’t Jesus come back yet? Things are getting pretty bad.” Patience, not wanting anyone to spend eternity without Him, giving them every opportunity to respond. The passage says, “… not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” I think we’ve have to understand that as much as it pains us to think that our loved ones might spend eternity without Christ, it pains God more. That He’s actually paid more. He’s felt it more. And, I think more than anything that we’ve got to come to this understanding – don’t let the reality of hell overshadow the joy of heaven. Hell has no power over heaven and none of its misery will overflow into it. And so let me just give you this very kind, but gentle challenge. To suggest, “I don’t think I could be happy in heaven without a loved one there,” is to diminish and to doubt the power of God’s promise and what He says He’s preparing for us. I can’t fully understand exactly how all of this works. I just trust Him. He said there will be no more grief. There will be no more sorrow. It will make sense to you then. Well, what about this question? Will we be married in heaven? I would say that out of all the questions on heaven this is the number one question that I get asked all of the time. I never know how to take it. I don’t know if you want the answer to be yes, or no. Some of you are looking for an out here. That would be nice and convenient. Well, first of all, I think in answering this we’ve got to look at this and ask some other questions, this prompts some other questions. So, if you’ve been married more than once here on earth – both of the people who you have been married to, if they are Christians – what if you are a widow or a widower and you’ve gotten remarried after your spouse has passed away? Well, you’ve got to ask yourself the question, if we’re married in heaven then which one are you married to? Ever thought about that? Is this like a cosmic Three’s Company? Isn’t this going to be awkward? A little weird? Honestly, in order for me to dive into this question and try to answer it Scripturally, I’ve had to wrestle with it emotionally. Because, I love my wife! And I thought about this verse and I just thought, “Okay, what does that stir in me?” And I can’t really imagine being in heaven with Lindsay and not being married to her. And I just, honestly, let myself go there, “Man what is that going to be like – that is weird. Are we going to go back, are we just friends again? Am I going to have to watch her date other guys?” That would just be odd. This whole kind of emotional tug-of-war that I’ve gone through. Well, what do we know? In Matthew chapter 22, there were some religious leaders, known as the Sadducees, who came to Jesus and they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead – they didn’t believe in a bodily resurrection. And so they come to Jesus and they are trying to set this up to trap Him so they say, “Okay, Jesus. Imagine if there is a woman and she’s been married seven times. And each one of her husbands has died?” So, she got married and he passed away, and she got married again, that guy kicked the bucket, she got married again, that guy is eating dirt. She got married again – seven husbands all died. I’m thinking there’s a theme. Marrying her is a health hazard! So, she’s had seven husbands, they have all passed away, and then they throw this at Him, they say, “Jesus, when she gets to heaven which one is she going to be married to?” And they stand back and fold their arms and think, “Let’s let Him deal with this.” This is classic Jesus. Chapter 22, verse 29. “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” I just love that. No subtly about that. It’s, “No. You’re wrong. You don’t know the



power of Scriptures, you don’t know God.” Then He goes on, “For in the resurrection …” so He’s talking about the new heaven and the new earth, the culmination of human history, the return of Jesus, “… in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” A little side-bar thing, this also answers another question that I’ve heard that we’re not going to get to today, “When we die do we become angels?” And I don’t think that scripture says that when we die that we become angels, I think is says that we become like angels. Throughout Scripture we see that humans are humans and angels are angels – they have their own unique identities and histories – and that there will be some overlap in roles and responsibilities. The Greek word for angels is angelos, it means messenger, so we know that angels are messengers, they’re worshipers – there will be some overlap in roles but I don’t think we become angels, I think we become like them. So, back to the marriage thing – this passage here in Matthew 22 it doesn’t say that marriage won’t exist in heaven – it does say that people aren’t going to get married. So no new marriages in heaven. However, if you take Scripture in its entirety, you go over to I Corinthians 7 Paul says that there are many things, many forms, human functions, on earth that will not exist in heaven. They will pass away. The Greek word in that passage is schema and that just means, the humans forms, functions, institutions – they’ll go away. And so you take all that Biblical knowledge collectively, and it appears, then, that there will not be marriage in heaven. Why? Well, there’s no need for it. Earthly needs for marriage will cease to exist. Now, if you were here earlier in the year, we studied Ephesians 5 together in a message series called Marriage Unscripted. And we learned that one of the functions of marriage is that it is an illustration, it’s a symbol, it’s God living out in real life. This idea of Jesus’ love relationship and covenant with the church. And so we see that in real life. We also see that marriage is designed to create stability in the culture and an environment to raise a healthy family. And an outlet for appropriate sexual intimacy. Well in heaven, there’s no procreation – there’s no new human beings being born which brings up this interesting question. Will there be sex in heaven? Now this is like in the top three most common questions I get, “Aaron, will there be sex in heaven? Aaron, will there be sex in heaven?” I’m always like, “Lindsay, would you just calm down?” One track mind. She’s in here somewhere. I can feel her laser beam on me now. Well, how do we answer this? Will there be sexual intimacy in heaven. Well, I think it is safe to conclude that since the Bible seems to teach that there’s no marriage, and there are no new people born in heaven – it appears that the answer to that will be, no. And some of you are going to be happy, and some of you are wrestling with that – there will be counselors available after the service. That just spawns a lot of other questions. Right? What will we do with our urges, sex isn’t a bad thing – it’s actually a very good thing, a good gift. Listen. Be careful not to impose our earthly reasoning on this. Understand that Scripture says that God is going to prepare a place for us. Who’s the One who designed and created sexual intimacy to begin with? God. It’s His deal. It’s His idea. I trust Him and if He says that’s not going to be there, I trust Him to replace it. There will be good things for you to enjoy. Just think about this for just a minute. Imagine something as beautiful, and as fulfilling, and as personally enjoyable as sexual intimacy without guilt, without shame, without regret. I trust that there’s a good



God who has this – in other words – you’re not going to get to heaven and there will be an empty void in your life because of that. You know, a great marriage just provides so much earthly blessing. And I know that when marriage goes bad, it can certainly be painful. And, I know right now in this room today, some of you are just walking through a real painful season in your life because your marriage is falling apart, or it has, and it’s difficult – it’s painful. Others of you, you’re in a great marriage. You’re married to your best friend, building a life together and you’re in step – there are still challenges because we’re all sinful and selfish. Man, I tell you what. Marriage, on its best days, it’s just awesome. And, it’s this idea that in heaven that’s multiplied by a jillion. So to suggest that marriage won’t exist in heaven is not to diminish marriage – it’s to elevate every other relationship. It’s this idea that in heaven there’s this unity, there’s perfection, there’s closeness, there’s no more personality tension in heaven. There’s no more earthly need for marriage. So, will we be married in heaven? The Bible seems to indicate that we won’t. But if you are a widow or a widower, and that answer saddens you, don’t be sad. You’re going to be reunited with your spouse. You’re going to know them and you’re going to remember the earthly bond and covenant that you made together. And not only that, but you’re going to be able to live with them in a new heaven and a new earth without all of the bad days that incurred due to your sin. It’s going to be a perfect relationship. So, it doesn’t seem like there will be marriage in heaven but I am going to put in a request that Lindsay be my roommate. All right? I am going to do that. What about this question? What will our bodies be like? And maybe some of you have asked this question, others of you maybe haven’t but it’s this idea of what will we look like? Well we know in Revelation chapter 5 and 7 that there will be racial identities. It says that there will be every tribe and language and nation and tongue represented there. But there’s no separation – there’s no racism there. But there are different tribes and nations. I don’t think we will be an ethereal spirit bouncing around from one cloud to another. I don’t think we will be androgynous drones, genderless, no identity, no face – whatever. I think that we will have a new body. I think that it will be us, just perfected. Philippians chapter 3, verse 20 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will …” this is key here. What’s the word? Transform, “… transform our lowly body …” so there seems to be a connection, a continuity, but a transformation, “… to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.” So we’ll have our identity in the Lord. He’ll restore us back to what we were originally created to be. I’ve had some people who want to suggest, “You know in heaven everybody is going to be lean, and tan, have six pack abs.” Have you ever heard this? “In heaven calories don’t count.” People will say things like that. I don’t know. I think we need to be really careful that we don’t impose our western mentality of what beauty and attraction is to heaven. Because, it’s been different in different cultures and different time periods. So we just need to be open to that. What about this question? It’s a very real question. I know a lot of people struggle with this. Will a child who dies without having first professed Christ be in heaven? This is a legitimate concern a lot of parents have. I know for me, when each of my kids was born I held them for the first time and it’s just like this flash forward of their life. And, one of the big concerns that I would have is that I really want them to know the Lord. And I asked, “God. Help me to be the kind of dad



that would be a good representation of a Heavenly Father.” I want them to know Jesus and I think it’s a very legitimate concern that parents have. But because of this sense of urgency, it’s led the church into potentially some false doctrines here. This is where we get terms like, age of accountability, infant baptism, and even baptism for the dead. It’s this idea that salvation is something we can do to somebody else so that they’re in. And, I think that has the potential to create some confusion in the life of that person. I’ve have friends in the Catholic church, Presbyterian or Methodist churches that disagree with me on this and many of you have grown up with different backgrounds. Maybe you were sprinkled as an infant and I’m not trying to disregard that experience. Some will use the passage out of the Book of Acts and say, “Well, whole households received Christ.” True, but it’s a little bit of a jump to say each of those individuals made some sort of decision. My whole household has a mortgage, but my kids haven’t written a check yet. So, I think we have to be careful with this. It’s a legitimate question to throw up. But I don’t think we can create a doctrine out of it. We can go the other way with that. In the Old Testament, II Samuel chapter 12, David has a little child that’s dying and he’s fasting, and he’s praying, and he’s grieving, he’s petitioning the Lord to spare the life of his child. Nowhere in that passage does it say that David had him sprinkled, or that he baptized him, or even dedicated him. David’s just praying for him. And the child ends up passing away and David gets up, he gets something to eat, he cleans himself up, changes his clothes. His servants come to him and say, “David, how are you going to go on?” Listen to what David says in that chapter. “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may life?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” That’s not a passage that’s big enough to create doctrine out of, so hear me on that. But it is an interesting sentence, isn’t it? David seemed to have this peace that he was going to be with his child. His child is with the Lord. I think the whole issue, wherever you land on this – I know people; I have friends who were sprinkled as infants later they were confirmed. Their conversion, their relationship with God is legit. They had an experience with the Holy Spirit. I’ve also met people who were sprinkled, or maybe just baptized very young because they felt their parents wanted them to. It created great confusion because they think that salvation was something done to them. They don’t have to respond now because my parents did that for me. And, what we know from scripture is that salvation comes when you receive it. When you feel the conviction in your life. And I don’t want to do anything to muddy the water for that for my kids. So, even for my kids, one is going on 10, another is eight, the others are five and seven months and I’m praying for them. They know so many answers, they’ve got a mom who is just so good about teaching the Bible, and praying over them, and the children’s ministry here is so awesome in its teaching. They are so far ahead in their knowledge of the Bible than what I was. That’s all a blessing. But, you know what I’m looking for? I’m looking in their eyes and I’m crouching down and looking them right in the eye, and I want to know if they’ve received the Holy Spirit. Some of you are asking, “What’s that look like? Is that like jaundice?” As a parent you’re going to know. I’m longing for that day when I see my son come in through tears and say, “Daddy, I’ve got the Holy Spirit. Daddy, this is not playing church. Daddy, it’s



mine. I’m not doing this because you’re the preacher.” He’s got two strikes against him there. You need to be praying, especially for my kids. So, as a parent, I’d simply say to you if you ask, “We sprinkled our kids. Is that wrong?” No, no, no, no. I’m just saying instead of being panicked, trying to do something to get your kids saved – be on your face praying for their salvation. That they would receive it, and make their own, and open themselves up to the Holy Spirit. What about this question? Will children who die grow up in heaven? Now the reason I put this question on here is because I’ve been asked. I remember the toughest funeral I’ve ever had to do was before we moved here. There was a young family in our church to whom a baby was born and she had a disorder, she wasn’t expected to live very long. The doctors gave her two to three months, tops. And she ended up passing away at two weeks. And they lived in our neighborhood. I’ll never forget getting the phone call early on a Saturday morning. It was the husband, Eric. He said, “Aaron, you’ve got to get over here. She passed last night.” I’ll never for going over, walking into the living room, seeing that young mother – the image is just seared into my mind – sitting on the couch with her baby. And I walked over to her and just consoled and prayed with her. And she looked up at me through tears and she asked, “Aaron, I just want to know this. Will she grow up in heaven?” Man, that question rocked me back on my heels – I had no idea how to answer it. The Bible doesn’t ever specifically say – so I can’t honestly pretend like I know. But what we do know is in Isaiah chapter 11 children are mentioned being in heaven. Talks about a child being with the lamb. And we know that Jesus had a great heart for kids. He said, “Let the little children come unto me.” I believe, taking what we know from Revelation 21, that God said I will wipe every tear from your face, I’ll take away the grief, I’ll take away the sorrow, I’ll replace it with joy. I think God has something really great in store for those of you parents who have lost a little child. We’re speculating here. But I think that it could potentially include being reunited with that child. I think a good God will make provisions for you to see your child grow up in a perfected body in a new heaven and a new earth. Here me clearly on this. I can’t back that up with chapter and verse. I’m speculating, but I think it’s not too far off from what a good God will do. I think it runs parallel to Revelations 21. What about this question? Will we age in heaven? Now, maybe you’ve never thought about that before. But it is a question that has been brought up a lot in church history. Theologian Thomas Aquinas once suggested that in heaven we will all appear to be the age that Jesus was when He died on the cross. Which would be what? 33. Hank Hanegraaff says that our DNA is programmed in such a way that we reach optimal, physical performance in our 20s and 30s. So he says in heaven that we’re all going to like the cast of Friends. I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. The Bible does not speak to this at all. Really, when you start to think about this it’s a little bit of a silly question. The Bible says that our bodies will be perfected, and they will be eternal, and that’s good enough for me. What about this question? What will our daily lives be like?



I still get this question from some of you people. You ask, “Aaron, are we going to have enough to do? My schedule is full, and I’m the kind of person who likes to be productive, and I like to plan things out, and heaven would be awesome for the first six months to a year. But after several millennia, are we going to be bored? Are we going to be looking for things to do?” I think the answer to that is absolutely not. I think that we will work, we will rest, we will worship, and we will play. In Hebrews chapter 4, verses 1 – 11, you can look that passage up later, Revelation 14:13 addresses this as well. Revelation 22:1 says that we’ll serve God, which implies all kinds of jobs, but one of the things it says that we’ll get an opportunity to do is that we’ll help God run heaven. I don’t know what that means, but that sounds awesome. I want to run the crane. God is a God of production. Understand this – we covered this last year – work, as painful as it can sometimes be in our lives, is not the result of sin. Work existed prior to the fall and we need to understand that. So, I think God will take work and He’ll redeem work. We were made to be productive. Think about this for a minute, work in your life right now and throughout your life has probably been one of the greatest sources of stress and grief and struggle, and frustration. But there have also been seasons where work was one of your greatest joys, one of your greatest fulfillments. We kind of come in and out of that. It’s a very painful thing, isn’t it, to be in a job where you’re misaligned. Any of you there right now? You have a boss and you’re just not clicking, or you went through all of this schooling and then you get the job of your dreams and you find out it’s not the job of your dreams. Then you’ve got to figure that out again – that’s just a frustrating thing in life. You know, when I graduated from college. I was 21. I felt called by God to go into ministry when I was 19, knew this was what I wanted to do, passionate about it, wanted to preach, wanted to jump in and was so filled with energy, and ignorance – it’s like I just wanted to jump out and go. And Lindsay and I were engaged, and I needed to save some money, no church would hire a 21 year old and I was preaching in a really small on the weekends. It wasn’t big enough to hire me full-time. And so, right after college, for a year-and-a-half, I worked on a farm. Some of you who know me well are saying, “Wow, they must have failed to check your references.” But, I worked on this farm and I tell you what – I was very grateful for the job. There is no job that should be beneath anyone. There is dignity in any job. But, man, I was miserable for that year-and-a-half. And it wasn’t because I thought that I was better than that, it’s that I felt called to this – but I was doing this. You know what I’m talking about? I’m passionate about that but I’m over here doing this. And it was a struggle – there has never been a day at Trader’s Point when I look at the clock just waiting to clock out. I did that there every day. I can remember getting in the truck – I don’t even know what it’s called. I worked there for a year-and-a-half and still don’t know what it’s called. It has big, automated arms that go down to pick up hay bales and put it up into the back, and then you drive out to the middle of the field and you load it down, then you cut the rope, then all the cows would come, and there’s hundreds and hundreds of cows that would come to eat this hay. And you’re out in the middle of nowhere, not working with anyone else. I was by myself and there was more than one day where I would hop up on the bed of that truck when the cows were eating, and they’re all around me, and I would just pretend it was my church. Some of you are getting this visual, aren’t you? I wish You Tube was invented then, that would have been awesome. I wish this wasn’t true – but it’s true. I was on the bed of the truck and I’d start preaching – open your Bibles, the time is near, the butcher is coming. I’m telling you what – cows are awful listeners, they don’t



listen, they don’t make eye contact, they just sit there and eat, one of them is relieving himself over there – it was just a time of great frustration. All, of know what that’s like. Listen. In heaven – no more. No more dead end jobs, no more frustration with the boss, no more difficult co-workers, you’re running in the fast lane. This is what God made you to do. It’s going to be great! What about this question? I get this a lot. Will there be pets in heaven? Will there be pets in heaven? Very simple answer to this. If you guys are taking notes – dogs, yes. Cats, no. We had a whole section first service just got up in protest and left. I’m totally joking. In heaven we’re going to have to have something to hunt. Too far? Too far – sorry. Hey, this is a legitimate question that I actually want to be very sensitive to because I know that there are many in this room who just love your pets. And, it’s a good gift that God has given to us. They provide companionship. Maybe, for some of you after your kids have left you get a pet and it just provides that. I think that’s something God wants us to enjoy. Some of us say, “Well, I just don’t know if I’ll be real happy if Spot’s not in heaven with me. I really want him to go.” So let’s look at this. What does the Bible say about it? First of all, I think we’ve got to ask this question from the perspective of logic. So, if pets do go to heaven, how do they make the cut? If pets do go to heaven, what gets them in? We know that Jesus said that whoever professes the name of Jesus Christ and believes will go to heaven. How does a pet do that, exactly? Is it if your pet goes to obedience school? Does that get them into heaven? What if your pet pees on the carpet one too many times, do they go to hell? It’s just the pets of Christians? What about the pets of Atheists? Is it just the cute, fluffy, domesticate pets – what about the tarantulas and the piranha? You get the idea. Right? How does a pet respond? Listen, God did not breathe spiritual life into animals. It doesn’t mean that they’re not a good gift, doesn’t mean that we should mistreat them, they’re a good part of creation, they reflect His glory. But, in Ecclesiastes 3:21 Solomon makes it clear that what we have in common with pets is that we have a physical housing that will one day pass away. The difference though, is that we have a spirit that goes on. Solomon says that God has planted eternity into the human heart. That’s what that means. So, pets are not eternal, they don’t have souls, they can’t intelligently respond to Jesus. So it doesn’t appear Biblically that our pets will be there – but there will be animals in heaven. Look at the Book of Revelation and it mentions, lions, calves, leopards, eagles, and bears. Sixteen times in the Book of Revelation horses are mentioned including Revelation 19 when Jesus, Himself rides in on a horse. And, like on earth, those animals will reflect the goodness, creative ingenuity, and glory of God. Not only that, they won’t be predators. Isaiah chapter 11, verse 6 says, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat.” So no more mountain lion attacks, no more shark attack week, all of that goes away. What about this question? Will people who make deathbed confessions be in heaven?



This is sometimes referred to as a foxhole conversion. This is the idea that that there is a soldier in a foxhole and bullets are buzzing by his head and bombs are going off at his feet and he says, “I better get square with God before I die.” And so he professes Christ right at the last minute. And answering this question, I think we need to be abundantly clear here, that God’s grace can cover anyone, anywhere, anytime – period. Then we also need to understand this. Scripture is clear that God is the judge of the heart – there is no place for a human to say who is saved and who is not. To make that determination – we need to be very careful. Now, Scripture does say that you will know them by their fruit. So it’s not to say that we can’t ask the question. But God is the Judge of this. Two observations here. The first thing is that a death bed confession can most certainly be genuine. In fact the whole side of the Brockett family is not saved at all. In fact there are a whole bunch of them living in Ohio and I’m praying for their salvation. I went to one family reunion when I was a kid and my second cousin was dressed in camo and almost beat me up – but that’s a whole other story. My grandparents didn’t grow up in a Christian home. My grandfather gave his life to Christ when he was in the army – the only one of his family. But my great-grandmother, on her death bed, he led her to the Lord. And so we know that it can be genuine. We have a good Biblical example of this in Luke chapter 23, verse 42 – the thief on the cross. The thief on the cross is there, essentially a death bed. He knows that he’s going to die. He wasn’t selfish. He wasn’t looking out just for himself. He said to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when You go into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said, “Brother, today – today you will be with me in paradise.” Here’s the next thing that we need to keep in balance with this. Statistically – statistics say that people who pray a prayer of repentance on their death bed and then they make a full physical recovery, most of them do not go on to live for Christ. This is the idea that there is a difference between just fear based salvation and transformation. This is the idea that a person on their death bed is not just trying to save their hide, but that they love Jesus and there has been a transformation that has taken place. That gets a little muddy. That is a little bit different to discern. And so what I just say to all of you who have loved ones and loved ones whose health is beginning to fade – take advantage of today. Don’t just make a mad rush to the hospital and say, “We’ve got to get this thing done. We’ve got to seal this thing.” God can certainly work there and the point isn’t that God’s grace can’t capture them then, it most certainly can. The point is that His grace is ready for them now. That’s why the Bible says over and over again, today is the day of salvation. And that leads us to the last question on heaven. It’s the most relevant one. It’s the most urgent one. It’s simply this – it’s for you. Will you be there? Will you be there? Now of all of the questions that you can ask about heaven, that is the most important one. And if I were to ask you if you will be in heaven and if you can’t answer straight up without stumbling and pausing, “Maybe, I kind of, sort of will. I’ve grown up in church and I’m a good person.” If you can’t just say straight up, simple, immediate, “Yes, by the grace of Jesus I’ll be there.” Then today is the day of salvation for you. Today is the day where you quit making it so hard. Today is the day where you respond to the grace of God.



And in a couple of weeks we’re going to do a public baptism service just to provide a spontaneous response. We’re going to do it differently than the way we’ve done it in years past – because I don’t want it to become a formula. But we are going to offer a time for people to be baptized in two weeks at the conclusion of this series. And maybe some of you today will be going home wet, you’ll go home with an all-in T-shirt, you’ll go home finally saying, “I finally quit messing around with this, and I quit making it so hard, I just responded to Jesus. And His Spirit lives in me now. And I’m not just going through a religious ritual in attending church. I’m a child of God. Not because of anything I’ve done, but because I’ve responded to a God who loves me and who has given me every opportunity and every breath in my lungs, daily, to respond to His grace and forgiveness.” So with that in mind, let me pray for you today. Father we come to You right now so grateful for the fact that Your word really is living and active and even when we have some of these human questions about heaven and eternity You’ve spoken into them. Some of these questions, You’ve chosen not to answer straight up, others You have. God, I pray that the most important thing is that we would recognize, the most compelling reason why we should want heaven – it’s because You’re there. And You are where we get our existence, where we get our worth, and our value. God, I pray if there is somebody here who’s been blindly stumbling through life, and had some bad experiences with church, and there seems to be some blinders on like trying to fully understand this, they can’t fully understand it, then I pray that today it would be as if a light would flick on and they, maybe, can’t even fully explain it, but they would know that You’ve come into their life, and that You’ve claimed them, You’ve sealed them. And so we give You the glory for that now. God I pray if anyone needs to respond, they’d do it right now, in this time, in this place, just You and them, and they would surrender their lives to You and then begin to see the fruit of that decision. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Documents

Heaven: Part Two… · 2 preached through that, Ive preached through the last two chapters and avoided the middle. And, I was contemplating this and Ive got to tell you, over the