Sermon Notes
Pastor Jeff Stanfill

"The Life to Come"
October 1st, 2006 - PM Service

THE LIFE TO COME
TEXT: REV. 21:1-4
INTRO:
It is one thing to consider the end of time; it is another to consider the end of our time. The Bible does not reveal everything to us about death and the essence of life after one has died. But God reveals enough for us to trust Him and life for Him until that time.

In all that we talk about tonight, it needs to be understood that "1 Cor 13:12. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

While this verse is not about our life to come but it relates as a verse about the eternity of the Church, the attitude of this verse applies to us tonight.

The attitude is that of humility and hope. Surely, if there was one who could say, "I know how this will occur," it would have been Apostle Paul. But he humbly confessed the poor sight he had attained and admitted that he only knew in part.

Yet there is hope expressed in a confidence that one day he would fully know what the future state would be like for he would be there to experience it himself.

And so we do not fully know what life in eternity will be like therefore we remain humble in interpretations and opinions. But that does not diminish our hope; for we are confident that in Jesus Christ we will one day experience the full everlasting life.

It is also important that we understand that what ever is after death it is an existence marked before and after the resurrection. Often this before and after of the resurrection is called the intermediate state.

I. BIBLICAL TERMS FOR DEATH.
1. Sleeping (1 Cor. 15:51). It is easy to connect death with sleeping for being asleep gives an appearance of death. And humans natural think of death as being the end of laboring, freedom from responsibilities, disengagement from immediate events, etc. But in the Bible a lot can happen in one's sleep. Jacob received a revelation of God as he slept (Gen. 28:10-17). Nebuchadnezzar was told of the future while he slept (Dan. 2). Joseph, Jesus' earthly father was directed by God concerning what to do in being responsible for Jesus as a baby in dreams at night (Matt. 1:20, 2:13). So to speak of death as sleep rules out the ideas of having no consciousness while dead. The Bible witnesses to the dead being well aware of their surroundings and having some concern for things here on earth like the rich man's awareness of his torment and his brother's spiritual condition (Luke 16:22). Jesus spoke of those who died in faith as being the object of the God of the living (Luke 20:37,38).

2. Waiting (Rev. 6:9). Under the altars are those who await the justice of God to be served. How time is experienced by the dead, we simply do not know. But it seems that the way believers are in a now/not yet time of the Kingdom of God, so those who are dead are in the tension between times. While it is far better as Paul said to be with the Lord, until the resurrection it perhaps is not the full reality of everlasting life.

3. With Christ (2 Cor. 5:8). This is the most important description and was one Jesus used with the thief that died along side Him on a cross. "Today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43). Paul wrote that to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord. To die is to depart to be "with Christ, which is far better." (Phil. 1:23).

4. These terms are used of believers in their death. I do not want to conjecture about the lost as little is told us of their intermediate state. We do know this, that like the believer the dead unbeliever will have consciousness and awareness.

The resurrection will occur, as we understand, before we enjoy what I am about to layout from the Bible. We will return to the resurrection next Sunday evening if the Lord so wills. So keep that in mind tonight as we look at the qualities of our life to come:
II. OUR LIFE TO COME.
1. An embodied or corporal life (1 Cor. 15:35-44). God is taking everything toward a new Heaven and new Earth (Isa. 65:17, 66:22, 2 Peter 3:13). This present Creation awaits sharing in the liberties that believers will enjoy at that time. So there is a connection or continuity to this Heaven and Earth and the new. Our physical bodies undergo decay in this Earth but we have the hope of resurrection. The resurrected body (which we will look at more fully next time) will be immortal. While we do not know specifics, we do know that our existence in eternity will be with a body. The word "spiritual" in this context can be thought of as "supernatural" (G. Fee, First Corinthians, pg. 785). It is not immaterial but is ordered in such a way as being able to exist in this new Heaven and new Earth.

2. A social life. The images the Bible uses to describe our life then are strong relationship words. It is described as living in a city (Heb. 13:14) which is certainly a community of people. We are in a victorious kingdom (Heb 12:28) which again is a relationship setting. We participate in a wedding feast (Rev. 19:7). We see many around the throne of God not an individual on a cloud with a harp! Since God's ultimate purposes will be fulfilled for Creation, our created need and capacity for relationships will be ultimately fulfilled in fellowship with the occupants of the New Heaven and New Earth. Chris Franklin often comments about anticipating the fellowship we will enjoy in Heaven!

3. A responsible life (Rev. 20:3). In Jesus' parable recorded by Luke (19:11-26), when the noble man received his kingship, his servants were assigned responsibilities according to their faithfulness. Paul mentions that the saints will in some way judge the world and angels (1 Cor. 6:2,3). These passages allude to responsibilities rather than define them, but it is evident that our life will not be idle. In fact, we must remember that work did not enter the world after the Fall but humanity was created for responsibility before the Fall. Exactly what we will be doing is not revealed other than it will be service to God. Perhaps we will serve God in ways that we only dream of now.

4. An everlasting life (John 6:47). I do not think we are able at this point to grasp the meaning of time in the new Heaven and new Earth. It does seem from the sequence of occurrences in Revelation that events will appear to us as happening one after the other indicating a progression of time. It would be doubtful that we ever grasp time as God does for He is God and being perfect and infinite everything He knows He knows perfectly and infinitely. While we will have everlasting life, we will not be infinite beings as God is infinite.

But a terminal to life will not be experienced. The biological cessation of our bodies that now defines death will be of no consequence for our resurrected bodies. Some ask about aging and infants. We should approach this making a distinction between age, aging, growth and maturity. Will an infant be an infant everlastingly?

Maturity and growth are inherent in creation and the human experience. God designed Adam and Eve to have children before the Fall of humanity. These children, by design, would be born small and grow to full stature. They would need to mature and develop emotionally, intellectually, socially, and physically. Age could have been tracked by the number of orbits around the Sun. So in the Garden, we had age, maturity, and growth or development.

But aging would have been non-existent in the Garden. As a perfect world radiation would not have destroyed cells; dehydration would not happen; genetic material would not diminish through the continual cycle of regeneration. Therefore, aging did not exist but growth, maturity, and age did.

It seems reasonable that infants that die and are in Heaven will continue to grow and develop though not age. Birthdays do not matter! We will have everlasting life in duration and in quality.

5. A God-centered life (Rev. 21:22). The greatest feature of our life to come will be our interacting with God as we were created to do. All this other is secondary at best. 1 John 3:2 tells us will see Him as He is. Bruce Milne writes that, "To see and know God is the essence of the heavenly life, the fount and source of all its bliss: "You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand' (Ps. 16:11). We may be confident that the crowning wonder of our experience in the heavenly realm will be the endless exploration of that unutterable beauty, majesty, love, holiness, power, joy and grace which is God Himself." (Milne, pg. 340).

CONCL:
1. We do not know everything about our life to come, but we know all that we need to trust God. What death will be like can only be told by one who has been there. Dead men do not talk to us. But living men do talk and Jesus, the living God-man has assured us

And of what does He assure us?

2. We need not fear death for we have a Savior awaiting us. Isa 43:1-3. But now, this is what the LORD says -
he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire ,
you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

3. We can expect continuing maturity and growth in eternity. Our knowledge of God will mature and grow. Our fellowship with Him will mature and grow. Just think of knowing God unhindered by a sinful nature that betrays you. To climb the mountain of the knowledge of God is to attempt to scale a height of which there is no summit. We will treasure Him as we can only now at best desire to treasure Him!