Every Christian serves Christ, but none of us serves the Lord as we would like to serve Him. All who love Christ worship Him, but none of us worships as we would like to worship. Don’t you find yourself at times asking, “Why is my heart so sluggish? Why is my response to the grace of God so restrained, so calculating?” Every Christian wants to serve Christ, but we find ourselves in conflict: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). We throw ourselves into serving Christ and into living for Christ, and then we get tired or we become discouraged. We get bogged down in our unsolved problems and our unanswered questions. But it will not always be so. In heaven, you will serve God as you always wished you could. “Day and night” they serve Him. No tiredness there! Here, we go through seasons of feeling distant from God, and we want to have a new and fresh experience of God. But in heaven, you will be before His throne. You will be with Him, and you will enjoy Him forever! In heaven, Christ will lead you into ever-increasing joy.
You may think, “Heaven’s going to be a wonderful place where I’m going to discover all kinds of marvelous things.” Yes, it will be a wonderful place, but John is telling us, “It’s better than that.” What’s missing? Christ is the great Shepherd of His people. He feeds them and that is why they are never hungry (7:16). And He leads them—Christ does this for us on earth, and He will do this for us in heaven, “the Lamb will… guide them to springs of living water!” The great joy of heaven is that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will lead you into ever-increasing delight. Some of you have found a favorite place to vacation. You keep going back, and over the years, you’ve gotten to know it better and better. And after many years, you know most of what there is to know. There’s no restaurant you haven’t eaten at, no shop you haven’t bought something at, and no hotel you haven’t stayed in. You will never get to that place in heaven. Heaven will be an infinite world of new discoveries, and Jesus Christ will unfold them to you. Thomas Boston says:
Donald Macleod, who spent his life teaching in seminary, noticed that some people thought heaven would be filled only with studying book of theology. He points out that life in the new heaven and the new earth will be more than life in the Garden of Eden. He says of the garden:
This joy will go on increasing forever! Think about looking through a photo album: The joys you experience in life remain in your memory so that you continue to derive happiness from them—things that happened ten years ago or twenty years ago. Jonathan Edwards asks, “Do you think it will be any less in heaven?”
Friends, we are talking about exponentially increasing joy! What will that be like after a million, million ages? In heaven, all your wounds will finally be healed.
Every tear! Literally, the tears will be wiped “out of their eyes.” This is telling us God removes, not only the tears, but also the source that produces the tears—even their tear ducts! The baggage you carried—there’s nothing to carry now. It’s gone. The temptations you battled—there are no battles now. The pain you suffered—there’s no suffering now. John sees the glory of heaven, the presence of Jesus, the glory of the new creation, but then like a drumbeat you have this repeated statement of what will not be there: No death; no mourning. No sins to confess; no temptations to overcome. No sickness to suffer; no pain to endure. No crosses to carry; no fears to face. All your questions will be answered. All your doubts will be resolved. These people have been crushed, but look at them now! Their longings are fulfilled. Their needs are met. Their joy is complete. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. If you have been washed in the blood of Christ, it will not be long before you are there too. Longing to Depart, Ready to StayLook at what lies ahead of you, and it will help you to face whatever you are facing today. Donald Macleod reminds us that heaven is our Father’s house, and he says:
He recalls Paul’s longing to depart and be with Christ, which the apostle says is “better by far.” But at the same time, Paul says, “I’ve got to be ready to stay and continue serving the church.” This surely is the healthy Christian attitude: Willing to stay, for the sake of the work still to be done, but longing to get home. Serving Christ will be your great delight in heaven, so find joy by serving Him now. Following Christ will lead you to springs of living water in heaven, so find life by following Christ now. Christ will wipe every tear from your eye in heaven, so find comfort by drawing near to Him now. This article was adapted from Pastor Colin’s sermon, “Set Your Mind on Things Above,” from his series The Inner Story of Your Future Life.Photo Credit: Unsplash
When I anticipate my first glimpse of heaven, I remember the first time I went snorkeling. I saw countless fish of every shape, size and color. Just when I thought I'd seen the most beautiful fish, along came one even more striking. Etched in my memory is the sound of a gasp going through my snorkel as my eyes were opened to a breathtaking underwater world. As believers, I imagine our first glimpse of heaven will cause us to gasp in a similar way—with amazement and delight. That first gasp will likely be followed by many more as we continually encounter new sights in that endlessly wonderful place. Though most of us are in no hurry to get to our final destination, we all have questions about it. After in-depth study of the Scriptures, here are some of the most frequently asked questions. 1. We won't miss our old lives.Have you ever bought an economy ticket for a flight, but because of overbooking, been upgraded to first class? Did you regret the upgrade? Did you spend your time wondering, What am I missing by not being in the back of the plane? The upgrade from Earth to heaven will be vastly superior to that from economy to first class. If we would miss something from our old lives, it would be available to us in heaven. Why? Because we will experience all God intends for us. He fashions us to want precisely what He will give us so what He gives us will be exactly what we want. 2. We won't become angels.I'm often asked if people, particularly children, become angels when they die. The answer is no. Death is a relocation of the same person from one place to another. The place changes, but the person remains the same. The same person who becomes absent from his or her body becomes present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). We won't be angels but we'll be with them. 3. We won't be tempted.Once I was asked if we will ever be tempted to turn our backs on Christ. The answer is no. What would tempt us? Innocence is the absence of something (sin), while righteousness is the presence of something (God's holiness). God will never withdraw His holiness from us; therefore, in heaven we cannot sin. We'll never forget the ugliness of sin, however. Having known death and life, we who experience life will never want to go back to death. We'll never be deceived into thinking God is withholding something good from us or that sin is in our best interests. We'll always know sin's costs. Every time we see the scarred hands of Jesus, we'll remember. We'll see sin as God does. It will be stripped of its illusions and will be utterly unappealing. 4. We will have work to do.The idea of working in heaven is foreign to many people. Yet Scripture clearly teaches it. When God created Adam, he "took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it" (Genesis 2:15). Work was part of the original Eden. It was part of a perfect human life. God Himself is a worker. He didn't create the world and then retire. Jesus said, "My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working" (John 5:17). Jesus found great satisfaction in His work. "‘My food,' Jesus said, ‘is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work'" (John 4:34). We'll also have work to do, satisfying and enriching work that we can't wait to get back to, work that'll never be drudgery. God is the primary worker, and as His image-bearers, we're made to work. We create, accomplish, set goals and fulfill them—to God's glory. 5. We will still experience emotions.In Scripture, God is said to enjoy, love, laugh, take delight and rejoice, as well as be angry, happy, jealous and glad. To be like God means to have and express emotions. Hence, we should expect that in heaven emotions will exist for God's glory and our good. We know that people in heaven have lots of feelings—all good ones. We're told of banquets, feasts and singing. People will laugh there (Luke 6:21). Will we cry in heaven? The Bible says, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes ; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying or pain" (Revelation 21:4). These are the tears of suffering over sin and death, the tears of oppressed people, the cries of the poor, the widow, the orphaned, the unborn and the persecuted. Such crying will be no more. We might, though, shed tears of joy. Can you imagine joy flooding your eyes as you meet Christ, for example, and as you're reunited with loved ones? I can. 6. We still won't know everything.God alone is omniscient. When we die, we'll see things far more clearly, and we'll know much more than we know now. But we'll never know everything. In heaven we'll be flawless, but not knowing everything isn't a flaw. It's part of being finite. Righteous angels don't know everything, and they long to know more (1 Peter 1:12). They're flawless but finite. We should expect to long for greater knowledge, as angels do. And we'll spend eternity gaining the greater knowledge we'll seek. 7. We will recognize one another.Scripture gives no indication of a memory wipe causing us not to recognize family and friends. Paul anticipated being with the Thessalonians in heaven, and it never occurred to him he wouldn't know them. In fact, if we wouldn't know our loved ones, the comfort of an afterlife reunion, taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, would be no comfort at all. In heaven we probably won't fail to recognize an acquaintance in a crowd or forget people's names. 8. What will we do to avoid boredom?People sometimes say, "I'd rather be having a good time in hell than be bored in heaven." Note the assumption: sin is exciting and righteousness is boring. Believing in this assumption means you've fallen for the devil's lie. In reality, sin robs us of fulfillment. Sin doesn't make life interesting; it makes life empty. When there's fulfillment, when there's beauty, when we see God as He truly is—an endless reservoir of fascination—boredom becomes impossible. In heaven we'll be filled—as Psalm 16:11 describes it—with joy and eternal pleasures. 9. If our loved ones are in hell, won't that spoil heaven?In heaven we'll see clearly that God revealed Himself to each person and that He gave opportunity for each heart or conscience to seek and respond to Him (Romans 1:18-2:16). Everyone deserves hell; no one deserves heaven. Jesus went to the cross to offer salvation to all (1 John 2:2). God is absolutely sovereign and doesn't desire any to perish (1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9). Yet many will perish in their unbelief (Matthew 7:13). In heaven, we'll embrace God's holiness and justice. God will be our source of joy. Hell's small and distant shadow will not interfere with God's greatness or our joy in Him. All of this should motivate us to share the gospel of Christ with family, friends, neighbors and the whole world. Article excerpted and adapted from Heaven by Randy Alcorn, Tyndale House Publishers. Used with permission. |
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