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What to Expect on Sunday |
Well, we have come to the conclusion of this fascinating journey imagining Heaven. I hope it’s been a fascinating journey for you—it certainly has been for me. It has provided much fuel to my faith’s fire in thinking about the wonder and the glory of Almighty God and the eternal home he has prepared for us. I know that, for me, the conversation and the imagining will continue…until my life on earth ends. And I hope that is true for you also. After all, that is what today’s Scripture passage encourages us to do. Colossian’s 3:1-4 (read). Let’s begin with a quick summary of where we’ve been on this journey—beginning with what we can say with certainty and moving from there toward what we might say with less certainty. First, with certainty, or what I might say are foundational, essential tenets of our faith—beginning with Christ’s resurrection from the dead which is a prerequisite for a theology of Heaven. Jesus Christ physically died upon the cross, and physically rose from the dead. We have the testimony of many eyewitnesses to that event—the testimony of its impact on their lives and the testimony of their very willingness to die for this truth they were proclaiming. Christ rose from the dead, the very purpose of which was to restore us in our relationship with God by removing the stain of sin from us and sin’s ultimate consequence for us—death and separation from God. And, as Christ was resurrected from the dead, so shall we be resurrected from the dead. This is foundational to Christian faith, a foundation upon which we can stand with absolute certainty. Consequently, we can also say with certainty that because of Christ’s resurrection we will have eternal life with Christ in a place we call Heaven. We might quibble over what that Heaven looks like, but it is there and it awaits those who proclaim Christ as their Savior and Lord. The road to Heaven goes through Jesus Christ and he is the Judge of who gains entrance to this Heaven. But, we can know with assurance of our acceptance into Heaven because the Judge has told us the way—through accepting God’s gift of salvation by acknowledging our sin that separates us from God, admitting our need for a savior, acknowledging Christ’s saving act of dying on the cross for our sins and rising from the dead that we might have victory over sin and death—in other words, acknowledging and receiving Jesus Christ as the Savior you need. We don’t have to live with uncertainty about our future. It has been secured in Jesus Christ, the Judge himself, and we can know with absolute certainty that eternal life in Heaven is ours by acknowledging Jesus Christ as our Savior. Those are things we can say with absolute certainty—the foundation of faith upon which we stand. Then there are a few things we’ve mentioned over the past few weeks that we can say with less certainty. In other words, they are not essential tenets of Christian faith—but pretty close! They have the strong support of Scripture…but we might quibble some over the details and conclusions. One such topic we’ve covered over the past few weeks is that there are two resurrections—one, the immediate resurrection of a Christian’s spirit at his/her death to be present with Christ; and a second bodily resurrection uniting body with spirit upon the occasion of Christ’s return. I won’t repeat the details or Scriptural support for that—you can look back on previous sermons for that—but two resurrections is what I believe Scripture teaches us. But there’s room for discussion on that. A second idea on the topic of Heaven is closely related to the previous one and certainly open to further discussion—but one I also think Scripture leads us to believe. That is the idea of two Heavens—one the "present Heaven" of the first resurrection and the second is the "eternal Heaven" also ushered in with Christ’s return. A third idea is that the eternal Heaven is actually a renewed and restored Earth—the description at the end of the book of Revelation of the New Jerusalem coming down to earth and God’s dwelling place now being among the people. Again, I won’t go into some of the Scriptural support for that idea, but that is what I have come to believe in this journey on the topic of Heaven. It’s certainly not an essential tenet of faith, but is an idea worth contemplating and imagining as we "set our minds on things above." I look forward to additional conversations about that. That is a brief summary of where we’ve been on this journey—some of what we can say with certainty about Heaven and eternal life with Christ and some of what we can say with less certainty. I want to conclude by addressing a few other questions out of the many, many questions we might still contemplate about Heaven. These are classical questions we have about Heaven, but answers to which we can say with much less certainty. There is still good Scriptural support and rationale for these questions and answers—but we cannot state with absolute certainty. In fact, as one reads further and further in Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven, and comes across these (and more) questions, one notices more and more Alcorn using the word "speculating." So, with less certainty, but still guided by some of the conclusions reached on the aforementioned issues, here are some of the classic questions about Heaven. One such question is, what will our bodies be like in Heaven? With some certainty, I would say that we will have restored bodies without the defects brought by sin. I don’t believe we’ll all look alike, like Greek gods and goddesses. Rather, I think we will retain identifiable characteristics from our bodies in this life—but restored and perfected bodies. I don’t think we’ll be "Stepford saints" all alike in characteristics. If you were tall in this life, you’ll be tall in Heaven. If you were short in this life, you’ll be short in heaven. But the social hangups we have about such things will be gone. We will be who God created us to be—only without the imperfections brought by sin. What "age" will our bodies reflect? I don’t know. Thomas Aquinas thought we would all be the age of Christ at his crucifixion—around 33. Others have conjectured that we will be at the peak of our created DNA—whatever that is. The truth is, we can’t say. But, I believe we will be without sin or defect—yet recognizable to one another. Another question I’ve been asked about in this series is the issue of cremation. If there’s a bodily resurrection, is cremation ok or not? And the short answer is…ok. The short answer is that God’s resurrection power is not limited or hindered by anything that happens to our bodies in this life. Our bodies will be restored to His intended perfection regardless of what happened in this life. A Joni Erickson Tada, for example, who suffered a horrible diving accident as a teenager that left her a quadriplegic, will be restored. A martyr who suffered persecution and was burned at the stake for his or her faith will be restored. John Wycliff, for example, the great reformer and Bible translator of the 14th century (Wycliff Bible Translators carrying forward his name and translation task to this very day) who had his body exhumed by a vengeful anti-reformation church council, after which they burned his body and scattered his ashes in the River Swift in southern England. Would one assert there is consequently no bodily resurrection in store for John Wycliff? I think not. The body of the Christian who died at the peak of his or her physical prowess and has been long ago buried in the grave has no resurrection advantage over a John Wycliff…or a Christian in his 90’s who was cremated. There is no limitation on God’s resurrection power. What about worship in heaven? Will heaven be one eternal, on-going worship service? Let me ask you this: Would that be heaven for you? You’re not going to hurt my feelings! Would that be heaven for you? Really? I didn’t think so. Not heaven for me either. Yet, why do we tend to think that? Yes, there are images of worship around the throne of the Lamb in Heaven, but that’s not all there is to Heaven, particularly in the vision of Heaven as the New Earth, renewed and restored. Recall that we have encouraged you to think of every aspect of your life on earth as an act of worship to God. Faithfulness in doing your job, faithfulness in your marriage, kindness to a stranger and others in need are all acts of worship. So it will be in Heaven—an eternity of activity on the New Earth will be enveloped in worship of Almighty God. Randy Alcorn quotes Cornelius Venema as saying, "No legitimate activity of life—whether in marriage, family, business, play, friendship, education, politics, etc.—escapes the claims of Christ’s kingship…Certainly those who live and reign with Christ forever will find the diversity and complexity of their worship of God not less, but richer, in the life to come. Every legitimate activity of new creaturely life will be included within the life of worship of God’s people." Whatever activities we participate in in Heaven will, as is true in this life, encompass an aspect of worship. Not one on-going, eternal worship service, but an eternity of great adventures and activity that include a worshipful joy and awareness of God’s glory. And, of course, the pressing question: Will there be baseball in heaven? Interestingly, Alcorn thinks there will be. The element of truth to it, frankly, is that why would what brought us Godly pleasure and joy in this life—distorted though it is by sin—be missing in Heaven? As enjoyable as a hike in the mountains is here, as close to a sense of God’s presence and magnificence we get in such a hike today, imagine how much more so in the restored creation! Why not baseball? Maybe we don’t keep score…or care to…but maybe, just maybe we can play in the boundless joy of God’s creation. Or some other similar activity that brought you joy in this life. Alcorn does offer an interesting quote from Eric Liddel, the English runner, Olympic champion and subject of the film Chariots of Fire, who said in trying to describe to his sister how God had called him not only to the mission field in China, but also to run in the Olympics, "He made me fast, and when I run I feel God’s pleasure…To give up running would be to hold him in contempt." I can well imagine Eric Liddel running in Heaven, head back, feeling the wind on his face and reveling in the glory of God. Why not baseball? Why not hiking? Why not some other similar activity that brought you great joy in this life? Only now freed from the trappings and tainting of sin? We can’t say with absolute certainty. It’s even beyond the total grasp of our imaginations. But what a wonderful thing to imagine! Speaking of baseball and Heaven, we began this series with this scene from the move Field of Dreams (show clip of Shoeless Joe asking, "Is this heaven?"). At the end of the movie, however, there’s another scene that comes closer to what we’ve been suggesting about Heaven (show clip of Ray and John Kinsella discussing Heaven). Now, again, let me be clear. We’re not talking about Heaven being what we make of life now on Earth. Ray’s glance at his wife and daughter on the porch swing—that is not Heaven. A glimpse of Heaven? Yes. But not the eternal Heaven that awaits us. A baseball field in the middle of a corn field in Iowa...Heaven? Not in this lifetime. But in a renewed and restored Iowa? A New Earth? Just maybe. One thing for certain: Heaven won’t be boring. It won’t be wings and a harp, wishing we’d brought a magazine to relieve the boredom. It will be glorious beyond our imagination. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! For Silent Reflection: Then I saw a "new heaven and a new earth." And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell 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’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." (Revelation 21:1, 3-5) |
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