HoHum:
School House rock- I’m a machine, you’re a machine, Everybody that you know, they are machines. To keep your engine running you need energy, for your high powered, revved up body machine, your high powered, revved up body machine; Machines, what a description?
WBTU:
“In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15:52, NIV.
Thesis: What will change? How will we be changed?
For instances:
A. What has been will be gloriously changed
The curse will be removed (Rev. 22:3) and with it, all will be made new (Rev. 21:5). Richard Baxter said that, come heaven, we will have “changed our place and state, our clothes and thoughts, our look, language, and company.”
We will have resurrected bodies and minds- enhanced, improved and thoroughly healed (Isaiah 35:5). “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.” Isaiah 35:5, 6. What every doctor dreams of! It will be a spiritual body. Not just spirit, like wispy clouds or ghostly apparitions, but spiritual, immortal, eternal- just like our souls. “it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” 1 Corinthians 15:44. “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” 2 Corinthians 5:1. What will that glorious body be like? We can have some idea by studying our earthly form. “Somewhere in my broken, paralyzed body is the seed of what I shall become,” Joni Eareckson Tada has written.
Jill Briscoe admits: “Some of us that have struggled with accepting our bodies we have been given for earth may not be terrible enthralled with the idea of another one quite like it for eternity!” But she reminds us that Paul pictured our heavenly and earthly forms as different as a blossom to the bulb. Jill Briscoe goes on, “Think of a daffodil bulb, then think of the flower. Could there be any comparison between them? Yet both are unmistakably daffodil in nature.” Both are suited for their environment, she continues: “One belongs to the earth... But the flower of the bulb dances in the fresh air and sunlight above the ground.”
“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, NIV.
According to Paul, what was once perishing and perishable, dishonorable, and weak in its physical form becomes indestructible, glorified, and powerful in its spiritual form, suited for life in heaven- 2 Corinthians 5:1-5. Just as we bear the image of the first man, Adam, and his dusty earth form in our humanity, we bear the image of heaven and the “heavenly man,” Jesus, in the afterlife (1 Corinthians 15:47-49)
Our better bodies will have shape and substance yet be able to move about instantly and freely, just like Jesus could after His resurrection. We will not resemble the angels; we will looks like ourselves, but without flaw. This means that those who knew us on earth will recognize us in our eternal form, though we may not look the age at which we died. Especially for those who died very young or very old, we can reasonably expect them to be “resurrected physically mature” based on the fact that Adam and Eve were created as adults in the Garden of Eden.
B. Everything wrong on earth will be made utterly right
One way to think of this is that when we are finally with the Lord in His kingdom, nothing will be broken anymore. Not our bodies or our minds or our hearts. Not our families or our wills. We will have rest from temptation and the accusations of the devil; we will no longer fight the lusts and addictions of the flesh. All fear will be vanquished, all dreams and hopes and godly desire fulfilled. Every thing will be set straight and purified.
With our new bodies and minds will comes wholesome desires-“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2. What we long for and enjoy will be untainted, right, and good. Every thought in heavenly world will be holy and pleasing to God; every deed a tribute to Him. “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:27. We will no longer sin, no longer be sinners, no longer be enslaved by our own sin or that of others. Everything about us- including our ability to love and be loved- will be able to operate at full capacity. This can happen in world where there is no sin.
There is no death in heaven. Justice will be done; sin will be purged and punished. No sufferings or sorrows will reach us there either. God will wipe away every tear. In heaven our joy will be full, without mixture of sorrow. “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.” John 16:20, NIV. Then there will be no sorrow for a present trouble, nor present fear of future troubles. Our bodies cannot be subjected to pain or disease in that place.“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Philippians 3:20, 21, NIV. And we will never have to be absent from the ones we love again. Not for a moment! “Endings” will be no more. Heaven is a long hello
Here there are so many farewells. There will be no want in the heavenly world, no lack of anything that may be necessary to make its inhabitants happy- “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.” Revelation 7:16, NIV. And “relationship” and “fellowship” are two of those necessities.
Dr. Chauncey Crandall- Missing Chad as much as I still do, I cling to the truth of Jesus’ words-“Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no-one will take away your joy.” John 16:22, NIV. What was true of that reunion with Him will be true of our reunion with the friends and family we have loved.
C. We will be fully, gloriously, joyously occupied
Lutzer and others assure us that we will not suddenly lose our identities- all those things that make us unique. Our personal knowledge, interests, personalities, and relationships with other people and the Lord will continue into heaven, and we will continue to grow in our thinking and talents. Heaven will be a constantly expanding place- not only for the pursuits of work but the enjoyments of play. Nothing will turn stale. Our every experience will be a dynamic, ever engaging discovery that leads us to the next new thing.
Heaven must be boring with nothing to do. Boredome is one thing that Christians worry about in heaven, but this is not what biblical “rest” means. The sons and daughters of God will have rest from what makes work “labor”- the toil and heat and sweat and stress that was introduced by the curse in Eden. We will still, however, enjoy all the rewards and fulfillment of whatever it is that we love to do. We will no longer have to provide our own food, for example, or put a roof over our own heads. The current consensus among Christian thinkers seems to be that if we love those things in this life, we will not be deprived of them in the next life. Rather, we will have both the endless resources and opportunities to continue our craft, whether we farm heaven’s fields or prepare heaven’s banquets or develop its land. The hardness and uncertainty that plague our labors on earth will be replaced by goodness and joy and gratification “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.” Revelation 22:3, NIV. There will be no sighing in exhaustion or frustration. No wasted energy. No lost time. No disappointing results. If we plant and tend a seed, it will flourish. If we take the time to build a wall, it will be plumb. If we sew a hem, it will be straight and true. If we dance, we will hit our marks. We will truly be able to work with all our heart unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23), without disruptions or delays, micromanaging bosses or harsh instructors. And we will reap a harvest for our efforts. Most of all work will have a purpose in heaven: service.“Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.” Revelation 7:15, NIV. Life and glad obedience go hand in hand there. We will rule and reign forever as kings and priests to our God. “To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations--” Revelation 2:26, NIV. We will honor and worship Him without hindrance, obstacle, or hassle- forever. What a day that will be!
D. We will be home at last
Heaven is a place like no other, with mysteries and glories untold but waiting to captivate our every sense. It is what anchors our hope throughout this life and spurs us into the next. Of all that it is, though, and all that it offers, what is its most important aspect? David Jeremiah says, “Sometimes heaven is referred to as a country, and we think of its vastness. Sometimes heaven is referred to as a city, and we think of its inhabitants. Sometimes heaven is called a kingdom and we think of its orderliness. But when we call heaven the Father’s house, we think of intimacy and permanency. The most important feature of this New Jerusalem is that God and the Lamb will be there, forever!”
And where they are, we also shall be. Finally in heaven. Finally home
