Is There Life After Death?

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church Podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning everybody. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's great to see you back in church this coming weekend. We've been in a new series called Blind Faith, and in this series we're kind of exploring some of the things that Christians are often accused of not thinking through or not being certain of. And sometimes we're challenged in our beliefs. And sadly for many Christians, they don't really know how to adequately express why they believe what they believe. And the Bible encourages us as Christians, as I said, not to argue our faith, but to be ready to give a defense of our faith. In other words, we should be prepared to say to someone, this is what I believe and this is why I believe what I believe. And this series is really about tackling some of the questions that are frequently asked of Christians and sometimes our inability to defend those particular positions. For example, we started out talking about, if God is good, then why is there evil in the world? Why is there so much suffering in the world? That was the first weekend out and that was a big weekend. And probably one of the bigger questions that people tend to ask, particularly people who do not have a relationship with Christ. And then we talked about, is the Bible reliable? Can you really count on God's word as being authentic? It is the basis for our beliefs. It is the reason that we defend our faith is we go to the Bible and we say, this is it. This is the reason behind our are thinking. But is that Bible reliable? And we tackled that topic the next weekend out. And then last weekend we talked about this. Is Jesus the only way to heaven? There's some 4,200 religions in the world, and are we so narrow to believe that all of those religions won't be taken into an account by God one day to look at the sincerity of those people and somehow say, well, they were sincere, they were sincerely wrong, but they were sincere. Take that into account and allow them into his heaven? What does the Bible have to say about that? And we came to that conclusion based on the words of Jesus when he said in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father, except by me. So we talked about that. This weekend, I want to tackle another topic that I hope will be an encouragement and a blessing to you, and that is this topic. Is there life after death? I mean, when this life ends, this life as we know it, is there anything beyond this veil of tears? Now, the Epicureans had a philosophy that they didn't believe that there's anything after this life. And so their philosophy was, eat, drink, and be merry, for there's nothing after this. And I don't fault the Epicureans. If I felt that way and thought that way, I would act that way. If I didn't think there was something beyond this, if I thought, this is as good as it's gonna get, yeah, eat, drink, and be merry, because there's nothing after this. And so that was their philosophy. So the Bible is very clear when it talks about the reality of life beyond death. And I, again, I hope I can share some things with you this morning that will encourage you. Because all of us, no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter your personal story, all of us are going to deal with this subject of death. It's uncomfortable. None of us like to think about it. We hate when our families are exposed to it, even the word death. And when that happens, we try to mask the coldness of it by using terms and expressions like this. Well, they passed away. That sounds so much better than they died. Or we'll say they're no longer with us, or they've moved on, or they've moved out. And so we. We try to use terms like that to soften the impact of the reality of that cold word death, because it is probably the harshest word in the English language. And yet death, guys, is an inescapable and an inevitable reality. If Jesus Christ tarries his coming. And let me stop long enough to say I think the coming of our Lord is near. I'm not an expert on prophecy, but what I've studied and what I've read about it, I do believe in every prophecy that points to the second return of Jesus, to the rapture of the Church. All of those prophecies have been fulfilled, or they're in the very process of being fulfilled. Even this morning. I think the only thing keeping him from returning, this is my opinion, but I think the only thing keeping Jesus from returning is the fact that there's still someone known in the mind of God who has not yet received Jesus as savior. And he, being sovereign, will know who that someone is. And when that last person receives Jesus as Savior, the body of Christ here on the earth will then be complete. I think the Father at that point looks at the Son and says, that was the last one. Go get him. And then the Bible says in 1st Thessalonians 4, the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God. And those who've died in Christ will be raised first. And we which are alive and remain at that time will be caught up together. Now we get the idea of rapture, by definition is to be caught up. We'll be caught up together with those who've died before us. We'll be caught up together to meet them in the clouds. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. I think that's the next event. It's the rapture of the Church. Seven years tribulation that brings into the second return of the Church, establishes his millennial reign on the earth. And I think again, the only thing that is holding that back is there someone that still will receive Jesus that has not yet received him. I like to think maybe that someone is in a service like this. Wouldn't that be cool if. When I close this service in a little while, and I encourage you to receive Jesus as your Savior, all of a sudden, man, the heavens open and we're caught up in the next thing we know when the presence of Jesus. That'd be all right, wouldn't it? That'd be a pretty classy way to end an 11 o' clock service, right? Just step into the presence of God. I remember hearing a preacher one time, he was talking about heaven and, man, he got so excited as he's preaching about heaven and he's talking about, man, one day we're gonna be in heaven, we'll see our loved ones again. We're gonna be there for all eternity. No sickness, no sorrow, no dying or death. I mean, he's going through heaven and all the people, Amen. Boy, they're getting all into that service except for one kid. And this kid's got his arms folded, just staring at the preacher. And so the preacher kind of caught eyes with him. Cause we tend to do that when somebody gives you the stink eye. We do see that. And so after the service was over, he's greeting people out in the way, and this kid kind of comes out and he says, young man, I was talking about going to heaven. You didn't seem to be too excited about it. Don't you want to go to heaven when you die? He said, yeah, when I die. But I thought you was getting a group up to go this morning. So, I mean, I want to live. There's nothing wrong with wanting to live. And honestly, I would rather be looking for the upper taker than the undertaker. And I'm praying Jesus comes before I face that. But here's what I know about that. That when Jesus Christ, if he tarries his coming, and I do in fact die at that moment, I have no fear of that experience. According to Psalm 23, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he said, we fear no evil. God has taken fear of death and fear of dying away from his children. Now, that doesn't mean we don't fear death right now, because I'm not dying. It means that the moment of death, when that time comes for us to leave here, God will remove the fear from the experience. And I'm telling you, I have been in the room. I have been with family members and I have been with friends. I have been with church members at the moment of their passing. And I can tell you, I've talked to them who had great fear about that moment. They wanted to be certain of their salvation. But when that moment came, the fear was gone. In fact, it's kind of a strange thing, you see, that happens, that kind of shocks family members. And I've seen this occur many, many times where they. They're kind of embracing the reality that they'll soon leave. When Paul was talking about death in 2 Corinthians 5, he said, there comes that moment. He said, when we leave this life and we deal with the suffering of this life, there comes that moment when the desire to be with God is greater than the desire to remain. It's that point that happens sometimes in the closing moments of a person's life. It's called dying grace. God gives grace to his kids so that the fear factor is removed. Now, I don't have that this morning. Neither do you. So it's okay to have a healthy fear of death. That's why we don't do stupid things. Cause we don't wanna risk anything because we have a healthy fear of death. And I have often joked about, I think if I ever had dying grace, it'd scare me to death. I'd say, I'm not afraid anymore. Oh, should I be afraid? Cause now I'm about to go, right? But the point is, God will remove that and has removed that from his children. But if. If he doesn't return, please hear me. If he doesn't return, Death is an inevitable and inescapable reality. So it's important that we understand what we should believe about that experience, because death is something we're going to have to face. In fact, I would say this morning, the great debate and really the focus of my message is not will we die, though? I'll deal with that. But what happens after we die? And every religion has explored this. In fact, as I was studying in preparation for this weekend, I found that every major religion has at least eight different options that they embrace as things that happen when a person dies. Now, atheists and agnostics would tell you, first of all, nothing happens when you die. It's the Epicurean philosophy. You just die. You go back to the earth. You know, you go back to the ground. There's nothing beyond this. It's such a fatalistic, nihilistic, empty view. But that's the view of atheists and agnostics. They would tell you, I don't believe there's anything after this experience. Well, that's a popular view that many embrace. The second one is that you return. You return in another form. We call that reincarnation. And a lot of Eastern religions and Hindus believe that. And they believe that the form in which you return is based upon the life that you. While you were on the Earth, you come back as a cat or a cockroach, depending on how you live, you know, depending on your life. Right. And so they believe in reincarnation, that you will return. The third view that many embrace is the view of Scientologists, which this is out there, literally. They believe you've returned to space as some form of an alien, a thean. It's like we evolved out of space. We came here from space, and when we leave here, we'll go back out into space as some alien form. And. And that's the view of Scientology. You return to space. Another one is you enter limbo. You just go into this place. Many of our Catholic friends view a limbo as more or less like a purgatory. It's this temporary place to where it's being determined if you're going to go into perdition or you'll get to go into paradise. But right now, you're in purgatory. You're in a place of limbo. And there are many that believe when a person dies, they enter limbo. Another view is soul sleep. Soul sleep. And I'll expand on that a little more, a little further in just a moment. But that's basically the idea that when a person dies, the spirit and soul lives within their body and is buried in the ground. And you'll see this if you go to the cemetery to visit someone who has passed away. You hear that term passed away, not died. And then a softer term, but someone that has passed away. And when you go to the cemetery, you'll see sometimes they'll leave a little light, or sometimes if a child, they'll have an animal, a little stuffed animal, or a car, a truck there at the grave. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If that's part of your tradition. I'm telling you, there's nothing wrong with it. But at its heart, the view is that that soul and spirit of that little one or that soul and spirit of that loved one is sleeping within that body. And a lot of times people will have a conversation at the grave and they'll talk to the person believing that that person, the spirit and soul of that person is living within that grave. Now, I'll explain what the Bible speaks about that in. I'm not critical of it. I'm just saying I understand it. It's called soul sleep. And many have that view. And then there's some that just believe, man, you're just going to hell. There's nothing you can do to change it. When you leave here, you die. You're going right into hell. In fact, John 17:12, the Bible says Judas was the son of perdition. In other words, he rejected Jesus from day one and he split hell wide open when he left here. And there's some that have that view that the moment you die, you just go into hell. And then there's another view that you arrive in paradise, you arrive in paradise. Now, this was a view that was held all the way up until the resurrection of Jesus. And let me explain that. When Jesus was on the cross, Jesus looks at the thief. Remember the one who said, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise. He didn't say, today you will be with me in heaven. There's a distinction with a difference. Prior to the cross, prior to Jesus paying the price for sin, prior to the resurrection of the dead, no one who had their faith and trust in Jesus could enter into the presence of God because there had not yet been a permanent solution for sin. So where do the people in the Old Testament and all of those, as in Hebrews 11, who died in faith not receiving the promise is the way the expression goes. Where did they go? Well, they went into a prepared place. It is a prepared place. Called Paradise. It was just like heaven. Heaven light. It was heaven light in the sense that God physically was not there, but it was a place prepared for those Old Testament saints to reside. Until Jesus paid the price for sin on the cross and rose from the dead so that he then could bring them into the presence of God. Until salvation was complete, they could not enter the presence of God, so they died in faith, believing, and they entered into this place the Bible speaks of called Paradise. And it was a temporal housing for those waiting the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In fact, in paradise, we know based on Luke chapter 16, when the poor man Lazarus died, the Bible says he went into paradise. When the rich man who rejected Jesus goes into hell, they see each other. So at this point in time, paradise, in my view and understanding of the scripture. But paradise was located in a close proximity to hell. And the separation between these two places was a great gulf. The Bible describes in Luke 16 meaning that someone could look across the way and see someone in hell from Paradise. I'm not pointing back at the tech booth as being hell. I'm just as an illustration. I'm just simply saying my mic will go off in a minute. But the point is I'm making is, is that they could see one another. Because the rich man who died rejecting Jesus sees the poor man, Lazarus, who's in Abraham's bosom, which is the Jewish conception of heaven. And he sees him there being comforted. He sees him there experiencing all the good things that paradise could offer. And they have an exchange. They see each other, they recognize each other, they converse with one another. Well, now we know when a person goes to heaven or a person goes to hell, that the people in heaven can't see the people in hell, and. And the people in hell can't see the people in heaven. So what happened? Well, at that point, paradise was located, in my view, in close proximity to hell. Because here's the tragedy. Had Jesus Christ not gone to the cross, had Jesus Christ not been raised from the dead, when you read First Corinthians 15, Paul said those who have died in Christ would have perished, meaning that at that moment, all of hell would have spread to engulf that area of paradise. And everyone who had ever died in faith believing in Jesus was, would have perished without any hope. But when Jesus went to the cross, and when Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says that he entered into Paradise. Now, some theologians believe that he went into hell, which was right, proximity to paradise. And they believe that he went there to suffer and he Took our hell and he took our. I don't share that view. First Peter 3. The Bible says that Jesus entered into that place to preach to those who were imprisoned. Meaning that on one hand, I believe he spanned the gulf between heaven. I'm sorry, between paradise and hell, in order to. On one hand, to preach the final condemnation to those who'd rejected him, to say to them, your doom is sealed. There's no hope for you ever being saved. You did not want me and you rejected me, and this is what you have. And he preached condemnation to those who had rejected him. And on the other hand, the Bible says he then led. Listen to this expression. He. He led captivity captive. Meaning he led those who were in paradise out of paradise into the very presence of God. And you see that expression in Psalm 68, 18. You see it again in Ephesians 4, 8, where it says he ascended on high and he led captivity captive. Meaning he led all of those people who were in paradise. He led them into the presence of God. The message he had to them was a message of hope. He said, I'm here representing the fact. I've completed everything necessary for you to be in the presence of my Father. And just as I preach condemnation to this group, I'm preaching hope and salvation to this group. And the Bible said he led captivity captive. And at that point, the prophecy that Isaiah had in Isaiah 5, where it said, hell has enlarged itself, I believe when that group from paradise was led into heaven, hell enlarged itself to engulf that area that once contained paradise. And hell had an expansion program. And that's according to Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 14. Now, that's one view, that they go into paradise. I don't believe that to be the case because paradise no longer exists. After the resurrection, Jesus led those who were held captive in paradise into heaven. Here's the final view, and this is my view. I believe when a person dies, they go immediately into heaven, into the presence of God. They go to heaven immediately into the presence of God. There's no layover, there's no holdout that you go into the very presence of God. The Bible puts it this way. In second Corinthians 5, you're absent from the body and you are now present with the Lord. So the first thing, if you're taking notes, I would just underscore, is the fact that death is a reality. It is, as I said, inescapable and inevitable. If Jesus tarries, his coming, this thing we call death, this separation, is a reality. George Bernard Shaw once said, the statistics on death have not changed. One out of one person will die. In fact, when you look in the book of Genesis, you see the story of mankind. You have man starting out in the garden of God in Genesis 2:1 and 2. And then when you get to Genesis 3, you have sin entering the picture. And by the time you get to Genesis 4, you have the first burial in the Bible as a result of sin, where Cain kills his brother Abel. And then by the time you close out Genesis, the last verse of the Bible, you see Joseph as he's buried in a coffin in Egypt. Think about the story of man. We started in the garden of God, we ended in a coffin in Egypt. In fact, when you get To Genesis chapter 5, the summary of all civilizations can be seen in these words as you read through the chapter. They lived and they died. They lived and died and they died. We joke sometimes and say we're not getting out of this thing alive. And that's so true. Again, if Jesus tarries his coming. So I don't have to spend a lot of time on that because you do understand the reality of death. Death is a reality. In fact, in Hebrews 9:27, the Bible said it is appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment. God talks about death in Hebrews as an appointment circle somewhere. If eternity has a calendar, somewhere on the eternal calendar of God is a day in which I will die. If Jesus tarries his coming, this will be the time that I leave this life. I'm here for a specified period of time for a definite purpose. And when that purpose ends, that time will end with it and I'll be brought into the presence of God. So death for all of us is a reality. Here's second thought. Death is not only a reality. Death is a release. Death is a release. Release of what? Well, when you look at the word death, death by definition means separation, separation, release. Separation of what? Well, the most obvious thing that death does is it separates us from our loved ones. We know immediately there's something that has changed. There's an empty chair at the table. There's someone that will not be with us for these holidays. And it's heartbreaking and it's difficult for all of us to navigate through, but it's just a reality that we have to accept that death is not only a reality, but death is a release, that they're no longer here, they've been separated from us. But the word really means more than the separation of one person from another person. It's the separation, hear me now, of the spirit and soul from the body. When Paul talked about how God made us in 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul said, I pray that your spirit and your soul and your body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord. We call that trichotomy, that we are made up of a spirit and a soul that inhabits a body. Now some look at it as dichotomy. They believe the spirit and soul are synonymous. I say potato patata. I just separate them out a little bit. Because Paul did there in 1 Thessalonians 5. Doesn't matter. That's not salvific. That's just an opinion. But I view it as Paul did. We are a spirit and a soul that inhabits a body. Meaning that we are spiritual, we are emotional, and we're physical, and all of those elements are essential to a healthy life. But our physical part is temporal. You're looking at a temporal being. I'm looking at temporal beings. We're only here temporal. We are eternal beings inhabiting temporal bodies. When God created man, and the Bible records it in Genesis, he says that God breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life, and man became an eternal, a living soul. Meaning that even though our body will die, there'll never be a moment when our spirit and soul will die. Our spirit and soul will live on. Now our bodies are getting tired and they're getting older as we go along. Man, you read Ecclesiastes and read chapter 12, where Solomon's talking about how his eyesight's beginning to fail him a little bit and his hearing is not what it used to be, and his legs don't work as well as they used to. Now he's got, you know, he's got, you know, bifocals, and he's got a lot of things going on. We can all relate to that, baby. But he also has an indomitable spirit. Have you ever looked at yourself and said, I don't feel as old as I am? We are not. Your spirit and soul are young and vivacious and you're vibrant. But. But your body is starting to fail you as it gets older. It's just these bodies are temporal, but our spirit and soul are very much young and alive. And so I'm just suggesting you. When that moment comes for us to leave this life, that body returns to the earth. Solomon said, the body returns to the earth. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The spirit returns to God, who gave it. Well, think about ashes to ashes. That's cremation. Dust to dust. That's normal decay. And some people say, well, you know, I mean, should a Christian be cremated? No. That's up to you. A lot of the people have an opposition to it because some of the cremations in the Old Testament was rooted in pagan religion. But there's nothing wrong if a person chooses to have their loved ones or if they choose cremation. That doesn't affect anything. This body's going back to the ground, whether it's ashes to ashes, which would be cremation according to Solomon, or dust to dust, which is normal decay. So I wouldn't pick with anybody over that. I'd say it's your choice. Now, I chose burial. I wanna be buried. I wanna be a burden to my children. So I choose to be buried. I've often thought about how I want my funeral to be. I don't know if you've thought about yours. I've thought about mine. I want mine sad. That's my preference. I prefer mine to be very sad. I do a lot of funerals and I'll have people say, bill, we want this to be a celebration of life. Because that's how they would want it, not me. I understand that. And we'll do. I mean, I don't wear the party hats and you know, I don't know about that. But the point is, man, when I go, I told my family, I said, if you gotta hire mourners to come in, you know, I want a few of you to fall over me and want me to come back. That's where I want this thing to be. And I threatened some of them. I said, if you don't come to my funeral, and if you don't cry, I'll be at your house haunting you at some point. And you won't know when I'm coming, but I'm gonna be there and it's gonna be really scary, I promise you. But I mean, I'm just. I plan my own thing, right? And you plan yours. I mean, that's right. Cause it's an inevitable reality. But the fact is, when I go, that body will be there at the memorial service. But my spirit and soul are long gone. I mean, I'm not there that's separated. I've been released. The first funeral I recall attending was my grandfather when I was an 8 year old little boy. And I remember, I can still remember that little old country church in Kiowa, Oklahoma, and the wood floors and walking down as the family went by to view his body. I remember reaching in and I remember touching his hand. And I remember his hand felt cold. And I remember thinking that just a little boy, I'm eight years old, and I felt like, that's not my granddad, he's not there. And I understood that was his body. And my parents explained it to me, no, that's his body. That's what we honor him because that's the only way we knew him and that's the way we loved him. But I knew as an 8 year old boy then touching his hand, he's not there. Something has changed. And you know, the moment our loved ones leave us, that spirit and soul leave. They're not now. It doesn't mean they're not somewhere. That's the whole point of my talk. It just means they're not there anymore. The body is headed back to the earth. And when the Bible speaks of death as asleep, it always talks about the body. The body sleeps. And by the way, that's a great word because anyone that's asleep are subject to be awakened at any moment. Which points to the resurrection. Meaning the body is sleeping, the body is waiting to listen for the trump of God. And when that happens, here's what happens. That body is resurrected. The spirit and soul are reunited in that moment. It is recreated and glorified. And then we are reunited with them in the clouds. All of that happens in the flash, in the second, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it happens quite. But until that happens, death, when we experience it, when our loved ones go through it, that spirit and soul are separated from their body. The body returns to the earth, it sleeps, awaits the morning of the resurrection. And that spirit and the soul returns to God. That's why I said a moment ago, I don't believe in soul sleep. I don't believe that body. Cause absent from the body, Paul said, is to be present with the Lord. You can't be present, absent in the same body at the same time. So he's saying the moment we die, absent from that body, release from the body. And that same moment, present with the Lord, we're in heaven. It's no more. Think about it this way. It's no more than stepping from one dimension into another. It's like walking out of this room into that hallway as we leave. In a moment, it's stepping through. All death is, is a doorway. You just step through a threshold. Where you were in the temporal and now you're in the eternal. Where you were absent from your body, now you are present with your Lord is saying good night down here and Good morning. Up there. It's just one moment they were here, and the next moment they're in the presence of God. So it's just a hope that we have. That's why The Bible in 1st Thessalonians 4 refers to this as the blessed hope. What's that mean? It means a happy hope. It is the hope that when your heart is broken because of the loss of a loved one, because the death of someone you cared about and you know everything in your world has forever changed because they're not here anymore with you on this earth, even though that's true God, deep down inside there is a hope that you have. A blessedness, if you will, a joy that you have. Because you know, one day I'll see them again. One day I'll be with them again. So death, while it is a reality, death is a release. Here's the last thought. Death is also a relocation. It is a reunion. Where do they go? They go into the very presence of God. Now, there are some Christians who believe that they. They take on prior to the resurrection, while the body is sleeping. The temporary form that they take on is like a ghost, almost like a spirit. They're strumming harps and they're floating on clouds. Cause their body is resting in the earth. Now, I don't know what type of body they have, but I do know this. It is a temporary housing. I'm in a temporary housing, and so are you. So it's some sort of a temporary housing in heaven while they await the glorification of their body that is still remaining, sleeping on the earth. Now, I know that to be true because I go back to Luke 16. When the rich man is in hell, remember? And across the way, the Gulf, there is the poor man who is in paradise. And they're in a body. He didn't say, hey, I see you floating over there on a cloud with a harp. Play me a tune. He said he recognized him. And not only did he recognize him, they had a conversation with one another. So I don't know what type temporary form our loved ones are taking prior to the resurrection, but I do know they're in a form that is recognizable. They're not disembodied spirits floating around on clouds, strumming harps. That's not what they look like, and that's not what's happening to them in heaven. Neither are they angels. Now, again, if you view your loved one as an angel, and I'll see people saying, my grandmother just became an angel, there's nothing Wrong with that. If that brings you comfort to think about them in that way, then do that. But the reality of it is they're not an angel. They are who they were. They're the same person in heaven. They were here on the earth. They just stepped into a new dimension. They don't have halos and wings. They have a beautiful, temporary, perfected body in the very presence of God. They are there. Who? They were here. So understand that. When we understand about our loved ones, when they leave us. However, at the rapture of the church, first, Thessalonians 4, and at the resurrection of all of our bodies who have died in the earth at that moment, they are then glorified. Those bodies are perfected. In fact, I believe the Bible teaches that they will. We're talking about a bodily resurrection, not a spirit resurrection. That's important. Listen to this. The Bible says, concerning Jesus, he became the first fruits of those who sleep. That's based on the Old Testament offering in Leviticus 23, when farmers would bring in the first of the crops and give them as an offering to God. The first fruits of those crops represented a harvest that would look just like that that was coming right behind it. The Bible says Jesus rose from the dead as the first fruits of them that slept. Meaning that everyone who has a resurrection is gonna look just like Jesus. Meaning they're going to be as perfect as he was. Who? What was his resurrected body like? Well, in Luke, chapter 24, remember when he appeared in the upper room to the apostles? Here's what the Bible Sundays. In verse 39, Jesus said, See my hands and my feet. He's not floating around. He's not a ghost. He's not an angel. I've got hands and feet. It is I, he said, myself. Then he said, touch me and see. And then he explains, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see, I have. What are the bodies like? Flesh and bone. What are these bodies like? Flesh and bone. They're powered. Our bodies are powered today by the blood, by the blood that pumps through them. But our eternal bodies will be powered by the spirit. Bloodless bodies powered by the spirit, which makes them eternal. The life of the flesh, Leviticus said, is in the blood. But the eternal, the life of the eternal body, will be in the spirit. So our bodies will be eternal. There'll be bodies of flesh and bone. I'll see you. You'll see me. Somebody says, well, will we remember things in heaven that happened while we were here on the earth? Yes. I had a country preacher who studied this. And he said this. He said, I would hate to think that we'll have less sense in heaven than we had on the Earth. We'll know each other there as we knew each other here. Go to Luke 16 again. See the conversation. They had memories of life while they were here on this earth. We'll have memories of life in heaven with our loved ones while we were here on this earth. There's several other things I wanna share with you. Just as I. Before we go, some fun facts about what happens in heaven. First of all, yes, we will know one another. First Corinthians 15:41 says, One star differs from another star in glory. So we'll all be different and we'll know each other. Number two, we'll work in heaven. You say, man, I'm gonna get bored for eternity just doing nothing. No, we're gonna work while we're in heaven. Listen, we're gonna. Revelation 22:3, his servants shall serve him. Think about this. Artists that are artists on the earth will be artists in heaven. Painters that are painters on the earth. You'll be a painter in heaven if you're a designer on the Earth. You'll be a designer in heaven. If you're someone who writes music or you're artistic in any way, you're going to be artistic in heaven. It's just you're going to be in a perfected form, and you're now going to be doing your art, and you're going to be doing your work in a perfected form, and you're going to be doing it to the glory of God, to the audience of all of heaven. So we got a lot of things we're gonna be able to do while we're in heaven. Not only that, oh, here's a good one. We're gonna eat in heaven. Isn't that great? As we sneak up on noon, we're gonna eat in heaven. When Jesus appeared to his apostles after the resurrection, before the Ascension, Luke 24:41. Listen to what Jesus said. Do you have anything to eat? Isn't that amazing? Of all the things he could have expounded upon, he goes, what do you got in there to eat? Do you have anything to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish. I'd have done better than that. A piece of broiled fish? Really? I mean, the resurrected Jesus, a brother couldn't come up with a steak or something, you know, I don't know. A broiled fish and honeycomb. And the Bible says he took it and did Eat before them. That resurrected body will eat one day. We're gonna have some babes in heaven, man. We're gonna have some. Let me explain that. That's a restaurant. I should have explained that ahead of time. We're gonna have chicken and we're gonna have chicken fried steak. That's what I meant. In heaven. Yeah. And so all that we're gonna be able to eat in heaven, brother's gonna have some food while he's in heaven. And then the Bible goes on to say in Luke 22:8, eat. We will eat and drink in my Father's house. So we're gonna eat in heaven. Another thing we'll do in heaven is we're gonna worship in heaven. Can you imagine when all the redeemed of all the ages get into heaven? What an incredible time of worship that's going to be. The Bible says, according to Revelation 5, 9, Revelation 14, 3, Revelation 15:3, we're gonna sing old songs and we're gonna sing some new songs. And then the last thing I'd point out is we're gonna get rewarded in heaven. Sometimes when our loved ones die, we say, well, they've gone on to their reward. Well, yes and no, they're not receiving their rewards yet because all the results of their life aren't in yet. First Corinthians 3 talks about the Bema, the reward place, where we'll receive rewards for the life that we lived and the motives that we had while we did what we did. But we haven't yet gotten there. And it's not time for those rewards yet because the impact of the lives of our loved ones has not yet totally been tallied. Listen to this verse. Revelation 14:13. Blessed are those who die in the Lord from this moment on, says the Spirit, they now rest from their labor and their works follow them. Works don't lead you to heaven, they follow you there. So when your loved one passes on and they go into the presence of God, they're not going to the reward. Cause it's not time yet. As long as the influence of their life is living on in your life and in the lives of others that knew them, they're still getting credit for that. That business that loved one built. As long as that business is impacting someone's life, that family he left behind, or she left behind, as long as that life is making, that's rewards that's going to their account. God's just going, I'm registering that and I'm boy, you're racking up some rewards here. Man, you're doing pretty good. Cause the ripples of your life, that boundaries of your life's continuing to increase, and those people are continuing to be impacted by the life that you left. Man, the reality of death is certain, but the reality and the hope of heaven, it's true. I don't know how many of you over the holidays played board games. When I was a kid, we played Monopoly. Did anybody ever do that? Monopoly. I wasn't great at it, but I learned how to play when I was a kid. And my brother and sister would just kill me. They were good at Monopoly. I mean, I was just trying so much to, you know, to acquire. And one day. I remember one day, it was just like a light from heaven, an epiphany. I acquired. It all started when I acquired Marvin Gardens. That was a turning point of my life. And then it wasn't long. I got Park Place. Oh, sweet Jesus. You get Marvin Gardens and Park Place. And then I got the railroads. Now I'm dominating. I'm in their face. I'm telling them, I'm bankrupting you, too. You're going down. And then I got hotels on those properties, you know? And all of a sudden, man, you're owning the. And I'm feeling good about myself. And then all of a sudden, my dad comes in and he goes, all right, guys, time to go to bed. Wrap it up. Put all that back in the box. It's time to go. And I remember thinking, no, no, we can't do that. I've been waiting all my life to acquire what I've just acquired. I mean, if I'd had the iPhone, I'd been taking a picture to memorialize that moment. I'd ruin my sister and brother. This was an amazing moment in my life. I dominated. I finally had it all. I had everything. And yet the game ended. And everything that I acquired went back in the box. And I realized, man, that's life. At the end of the day, we acquire what we acquire, and it's good to do that. I hope your life makes a difference, and it makes an impact. It's wonderful to do that. But we're just playing on other people's money, and we're just living on borrowed time. Because at the end of the day, when our heavenly father says, that's it. Game's over. Time to go home. Everything goes back in the box. We're not gonna take one thing with us that we acquired while here on this earth. Make a difference. Yeah. Live a good life. Yes. Leave a legacy. I hope you do have a heritage. Yes, that's all important. But at the end of the day, keep your perspective on that which is eternal, because everything else is just going back in the box. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for a wonderful season of thanksgiving where we can give thanks for those that we've loved and even those that we've lost. Because we don't sorrow as people who have no hope. We have the hope of heaven. We know where our loved ones are. Though they're not with us, we know they're with you. And one day we'll be together again with them. Thank you for the hope of heaven. And I pray for my friends who may not be prepared to go. I pray, Lord, that this might be the moment in their life when they humble their heart and they swallow their pride and they pray a simple prayer like this and just say, lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in my life, and I'll give you thanks and praise. For I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:40:31] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.