I can’t speak for everyone, but my thoughts have often touched on Heaven in the last few weeks. And as of yesterday, that has even been more the case. Sister Willi is there with her Saviour, having temporarily left her earthly body here behind.
There is much that we will never know about Heaven – until it is our time to enter. The Bible does tell us some things, but even the clear words on the white page, can be confusing because our points of reference are uncertain. We visualize that place and that existence from the perspective of what we see and know here below. And I’m quite sure that Heaven will be so radically different from this world that we are grasping for straws.
Nevertheless, we are given enough information to excite us, entice us and to ease our turbulent hearts. And some of that information is shared with us here in I Corinthians. Yet it is a bit strange that God uses this particular book to bless us in this area. Both Corinthian books were written primarily to rebuke and correct a church living in a variety of sins. But the God, who is gracious and kind, as well as holy and perfect, knows that there is a place for encouragement even in the midst of rebuke.
The last verse in chapter 14 is a key note in the book – “Let all things be done decently and in order.” There were a lot of things in that church which were not “decent.” That word speaks of honesty – they were unjust in their treatment of some members and some sinners. And there were things being done in that church which were not in God’s order. And the same is true in churches today. And as a result First and Second Corinthians are not among modern Christianity’s favorite books. And still there is the blessed information of chapter 15.
“Let all things be done decently and in order.” And what arguments are there for that? How about a brief meditation upon the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ – verses 1-4. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
And how about meditations upon the end of the Godly life in the abode of the Lord Himself? How about thoughts upon the miraculous translation of saints to be with Christ? “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
When we see Christ in His glory, what will that Heavenly environment be like? To what can we compare it? I think that some degree of meditation upon this subject is good. But most likely – speculation upon this subject could be bad. Certainly, “Eye hath not seen or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” If Heaven is beyond eye and ear, should we engage our imaginations? Perhaps if we love God, as John says there in I John 3, we should leave the future to the God of eternity.
A more appropriate question than what will HEAVEN be like, might be – what will WE be like in Heaven? When I say, “What will WE be like in Heaven,” I am talking about those who love God – as Paul says. “Eye hath not seen or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Do you really love God? That is extremely important, because only a fool would think that everyone will eventually graduate to Heaven. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God?” Do you love righteousness? Do you love the righteous God? Do you love His Word? Do you love His church, and His people? Enough to die for Him? Enough to live for Him? No? Then what makes you think that you’ll spend a single second in Heaven?
What will the children of God be like after they are raptured to Glory or resurrected from the dead? How should we picture God’s people in glory at this moment, before their bodies are raised?
Our bodies in Heaven will be the same but different.
Verse 37 – “And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.” Paul uses a kind of parable here – in the much the same way as his Master often did. He talks about our bodies as if they were seeds. Sow a kernel of wheat or corn into the soil and a plant of the same species will grow up. It will be the same – but different.
Most of us who are slightly over thirty-five years of age, remember what it was like to be twenty. Most of us who are slightly over sixty-five, probably can’t remember back that far, but perhaps can remember back to fifty or fifty-five. Any way, there are things about my fifty-year-old body, which I’d like to have back again. Maybe twenty-years ago, you didn’t have that arthritis, or back pain, or muscle weakness. When I first became your pastor, not one of us had thyroid problems, leukemia, neuropathy or heart-troubles – at least physically. Now look at us. Aren’t we the same people that we were twenty-five years ago? Certainly. But then again we aren’t quite the same.
Is there any profit in dreaming about a return to those same bodies of 1990? What if we could go on to bodies a hundred times better than our 1990 bodies? Beloved, the child of God, when he reaches his Heavenly destination will be same person – but infinitely improved. I think the Bible teaches that we will know and recognize our friends and loved ones. We will not be issued name tags when we enter the gates of glory – they will not be necessary. In Heaven we will be the people we are today, but it will be a new improved version of the same.
To be more specific, we will have shed our corrupted and corruptible components.
Verse 42 – “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.” This involves a lot more than we might expect at first glance.
As I’ve indicated, it involves our current corruptible bodies. In eternity, we won’t have to be debating between contacts and spectacles. Should my bifocal or tri-focal glasses be transitional or non-transition. The answer is – none of the above – because we shall be raised in incorruption. I take several different kinds of vitamins and other over-the-counter pills every day. I take them primarily for preventative reasons. I am told that I either need or might need what’s in them. But there will be no pills in Heaven, because there will be no corruption and no future corruption. Generally speaking whatever kind of physical infirmity you possess today will be unknown in glory. I say “generally speaking” because like the wounds of our Saviour, it could be that some scars might remain as a part of our eternal glory, but that is speculation. For the first time in our lives, we will be free from sin and the difficulties of temptation. And being free from sin, we will also be free from the curse which sin has produced.
And then there is the moral and spiritual aspect of corruption. I don’t know if we will define beauty in the same way we do today, but we will all be gloriously beautiful. Have you ever heard that there are a few politicians, judges or policemen who are corrupt? That means that some of those people are evil, using their power wrongfully. But they are not the only ones who are corrupt – so are you and I. We show our corruption when we forget to give God glory for His kindness. We show our corruption when we break, even inadvertently break, any of His precepts. And we prove our corruption as we rebel against His unmistakable revelation. Even though you may be born again, and forgiven of your sin, there is still corruption within you. If we die before the return of the Lord, we shall, with corruption, be sown into the soil. But in the resurrection we shall be raised with incorruption.
Consider the word “sown,” in verses 42 and 43. Of course the idea continues Paul’s parable about the farmer planting the seed. But don’t confine your thoughts to that cold cemetery up Spokane Street. The emphasis is not on planting the seed, but rather of the expectation of the crop coming to harvest. Farmers don’t throw away seed in the spring; they are planting in expectation of the late summer or fall. And that is precisely what happens at the funeral of the child of God.
Opposed to “corruption” is “incorruption” and the even more positive word “glorification.” Every saint will have an Heavenly body, a spiritual body, an immortal body, a glorified and glorious body. I am not sure that anything but a thoroughly sanctified imagination can even begin to grasp what these ideas contain. The immortal body is mentioned in verse 53 and speaks of a new kind of body which will not have the capability of death. I’m not sure that I know exactly what a “spiritual body” is. It apparently will have some of the characteristics of the Lord Jesus after his resurrection even before his ascension into heaven. His was a real body with features
in which the disciples could recognize, when the Lord permitted it. But it was a body which could be altered and camouflaged. And it was a body that could pass through locked doors. A spiritual body is something which we cannot fully imagine. Nevertheless, God’s saints shall each have one. Verse 44 – “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” The words “glory” and “glorious” are not found in this text, but are expounded elsewhere. “Glory” comes from the Greek word “doxa” to which I referred last week, and literally speaks about “praise.” There are very few in this world today that can claim a praise-worthy body – perhaps no one. But if you are a child of the King, someday soon, that is exactly the kind of body you shall be given. No matter how similar to what we have today, our future bodies will be unmarked by any kind of dishonor.
What sort of bodies will we have in Heaven? Incorruptible, glorious bodies.
And they will be bodies suited for a new life.
Verse 38 – “But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.”
Many people in this world wish that they could have new, or different, lives. They wish that their parents had just kept that little piece of bare land where now people are building multi-million dollar mansions. They wish that they had been smart enough to buy Microsoft shares in 1986. They wish that they had been discovered by some movie producer back when they were twenty. They wish that they had doubled they mortgage payments when they had the chance. Many people would like to change places with famous or powerful people. Some who are a little more practical, are trying to make changes in their lives today. They are working to get out of debt or to loose a few pounds and a few inches. They are earnestly striving to overcome some terrible habit or sin.
But how many of those people yearn to be truly different people? How many of those people yearn to be spiritual people? How many long to be so full of the fruit of the Holy Spirit that their cornucopia are just spilling over onto everyone else around them? How many want to be able to move mountains with their faith and their prayer? How many want to lead a long parade of souls to heaven, souls to whom they have introduced to Christ?
For everyone who has been redeemed and regenerated, their future heavenly lives will be radically different from what they are today. Gone will be the need to put sweat on our brows earning money to buy food and pay for the mortgage. Gone will be the world, the corrupted flesh, and the Devil to entice our hearts away from the Lord. No more distractions in prayer; no more falling asleep in mid-request. No more sleepy eye-lids when the Word of the Lord is being expounded. But is this the life that we really want?
In other words, what makes you think that you really want to go to Heaven when you die? That new existence will not be this existence amplified and pasteurized. There is a body which is terrestrial – designed by God to meet the needs of our terrestrial life. Fish have bodies that are marine, to meet the needs of oceanic life. And birds have aerial bodies to enable them to fly from Alberta to Arizona. But the children of God shall have heavenly bodies to enable them to enjoy an heavenly and eternal existence.
What can we say about professing Christians who show no enthusiasm for the things of Heaven today? Are we just so preoccupied with the corrupted world that we have been distracted? Are the words of Colossians 3 directed toward us? “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Or is the real problem in that there is nothing spiritual and eternal in us? Could the problem be that we are actually as lost as Judas or Herod? No wonder some have no interest in this message this morning?
When the saint reaches Heaven, whether by translation or by death and resurrection, we shall be changed. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” Our bodies shall be changed in such a way as to make us fit for our Heavenly abode. In a sense our bodies shall be changed to reflect what the Lord has already produced in our souls. At the translation of the saints, only the finishing touches will be applied to an adaptation which should already be progressing in our hearts and lives today. The child of God is “a new creature in Christ, old things have passed away and all things have become new” But what if we are NOT new creatures and we find no change today? Those whom the Lord has saved, have been converted in order to be conformed to the image of His Son.
If this is change actually going on in you, there should be a Heavenly desire, to some degree or another. There should be a desire to clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. There should be a realization that “if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands eternal in the heaven.” If we are truly saved, we should be “earnestly groaning, desiring to be clothed upon with our heavenly body. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”
Ask yourself this morning: Does this subject of Heaven and eternity there, interest you at all? If so in what way? Only as an escape from the problems which you’ve created for yourself. Does your desire for Heaven consist in merely a yearning to be with some former friend or loved one? Where does Christ fit into your longing for Heaven? And then, do you have the least bit of assurance that eternity will be joyful for you? Are you rejoicing in Jesus’ finished work for salvation? Are you preparing yourself for that impending day of glorification?
If your answers to these questions are not positive, then I’d like to talk to you about the condition of your soul. Apparently you need a new heart – you need to be spiritually quickened – made alive. If you have a corrupted desire for Heaven, then there is a good likelihood that you have no genuine hope of Heaven. My friends, “Ye must be born again.”