Heaven 2 Relationships and Responsibility
“A little girl was walking with her father in the country. No neon signs, no automobile headlights or street lights marred the stillness of the crisp evening. As she looked into the deep blue velvet sky, studded with an array of diamonds which put the most dazzling Tiffany display to shame, she said, ‘Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what do you think the right side will look like?’” (Death and the Afterlife Billy Graham, 167, W. Publishing, 1987)
- Read Revelation 21:1-5
Look again please at verse 4. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.”
Can you imagine? No more grief. No more crying. No more pain, and the Lord wiping away every tear.
In heaven there will be no fear. There won’t be certain parts of heaven that we are afraid to walk through by ourselves. There will be no locks, no bars on doors or windows, no barbed wire around parking lots. There will be no alarm systems. Martial arts will be unneeded. We will need no weapons nor conceal carry permits.
In heaven no presidents will be shot, no elections will be rigged, no babies will be aborted.
In heaven there will be no cancer. There will be no traffic nor traffic accidents. In heaven there will be no middle-of-the-night phone calls nor surprising knocks on the door. In heaven there will be no fear nor anything to be afraid of.
In heaven there will be no darkness. There will be no night. Today we may fear the dark, or we may fear ignorance, and when we understand we say, “Now I see the light.” In Psalm 27:1 , David says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom should I fear?”
In heaven there is no fear and there is no darkness. In heaven there will be no suffering and we will never again have to watch helplessly as disease and death slowly steals a loved one from us.
Vance Havner, that great preacher from years past once said, “I’m homesick for heaven. It’s the hope of dying that has kept me alive so long.” (Christianity Today, Nov. 7, 1986).
I still remember the last song we sang at my dad’s funeral.
Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,?Sing His mercy and His grace;?In the mansions bright and blessed?He’ll prepare for us a place.
Onward to the prize before us!?Soon His beauty we’ll behold;?Soon the pearly gates will open;?We shall tread the streets of gold.
Refrain:?When we all get to heaven,?What a day of rejoicing that will be!?When we all see Jesus,?We’ll sing and shout the victory!
(When We All Get to Heaven, Eliza Hewitt, 1898)
There was a time when the church and it’s members would regularly sing about heaven. There was a time when Christians would think and sing about heaven during the week, not just at church. It was the thought of heaven that kept them going. It was the thought of the prize awaiting them that helps the make it through another week.
“However glorious heaven may be, all too many Christians don’t give it much thought. Philip Yancey wrote, ‘A strange fact about modern American life; although 71 percent of us believe in an afterlife (says George Gallup), no one much talks about it. Christians believe that we will spend eternity in a splendid place called heaven . . . Isn’t it a little bizarre that we simply ignore heaven, acting as if it doesn’t matter?’” (Ibid, 155)
“We are seeing more and more articles about old age, death, right to life, and out-of-body experiences. But rarely do we read anything about heaven in the magazines or find books on the subject. When we go through a gallery of pre-twentieth century art or look at dusty anthologies of poetry and prose, we discover that heaven was a topic of greater interest in the past. What has happened to us today? Why the general lack of attention to heaven in modern thought and preaching?
If we begin to think of reasons for disinterest in heaven, here are a few conclusions. First of all, in America and most of the Western nations, we live in an affluent society. Most of us have pain relievers to rely upon, enough food, and beautiful surroundings. The biblical promises of those advantages seem to have been dulled for us. We areas caught up with the affairs of this life we give little attention to eternity.” (Ibid 116)
Also, we live in a goal-oriented society. We want to do and accomplish, and accumulate. We have goals we work toward, even if tha goal is nothing more than retirement. So, the idea of sitting around and doing nothing for eternity hols very little appeal for us. Just as a child cannot imagine what it might be like 20 years down the road, we cannot imagine a time or place where we live for all eternity. The whole thing seems boring.
And yet Paul writes in Philippians 1:21,
> Philippians 1:21 “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul says, “I will be so much better off when I die.” If heaven is so much better, what is heaven like? Last week we saw 2 R’s regarding heaven. First, in heaven there will be rewards. We won’t all be the same. We will receive rewards for the life we lived here and for the things we did in this life. The lowest person in heaven will still be excited about being there, but we won’t all be the same for some will have received rewards.
Second we saw that as we arrive in heaven there also be some regrets. Remember Romans 14:12?
> Romans 14:12 So then, each one of us will give an account of himself to God."
There’s gonna be some regrets.
My brothers and I did well in school, but both of my brothers are smarter than I am. They both got better grades with less studying than I did. My brother Travis was so smart he got a free ride to the University of Florida. Classes, books, room and board and a stipend.
Unfortunately, on this particular occasion he wasn’t very smart. He went to class the first half of the first semester, and partied the 2nd half, and lost the whole scholarship.
He later went back and got his degree, but the second time HE had to pay for it.
Well let me tell you my friend, we get no do overs for this life. We can’t pay our way and try it again. In this life we determine not only whether we will go to heaven or hell, but we also determine what heaven will be like. Some will receive rewards, but I’m sure all will have regrets.
It is then that Jesus will step in and wipe away every tear.
As has been said many times before. We have only one life. It will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.
2 Rs last week. Regret and reward. We will see them both in heaven. This week we address some more R’s Relationships and Responsibility. Relationships and Responsibility. We will know both in heaven,.
II. RELATIONSHIPS
Gladys sometimes asks me if we will know one another in heaven. I think she’s hoping to trade me in on a younger model, but I assure her we will know one another in heaven. How do I know that?
Turn with me please to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2.
- Read Genesis 2:15-25
God created everything. After each thing He created He said, “It is good.” Only one time in these first 2 chapters is God displeased or unhappy about something. There in verse 18 God says, “It is not good for man to be alone.” It is not good for man to be alone.
God created us to need one another. He created us with fellowship, companionship in mind.
Here was man, in the garden of Eden. He had fellowship with God. He had the companionship of the animals. He had a nice garden and things to do, and yet the Lord said, “It is not good for man to be alone. Let us make another one like him to be his companion.”
This companionship, our fellowship does not end with death.
- Read Matthew 22:23-33
We will not be married in heaven. Can you imagine Shoundra being married to Dan for all eternity? That definitely wouldn’t be heaven for her.
We won’t be married, but we will know one another.
Turn with me please to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17 and verse 1.
- Read Matthew 17:1-9
In this passage we find Peter, James and John going up the mountain of transfiguration with Jesus. When they get up the mountain, suddenly Moses and Elijah appear, and the disciples instantly know them. They’d never met them before. Both of them lived centuries before the disciples did, and yet the disciples knew them.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this event, and all three of them record the disciples knowing who is speaking with Jesus.
Can you imagine talking with Noah and having him tell us what it was like on the ark? I wonder how close the ark they built up near the creation museum is to the real thing Noah built?
Can you see Jonah talking to Omrun about the whale? Jonah says, “Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard about the fish you caught. Let me tell you about the fish that caught me.”
Can you imagine talking with David about his battle with Goliath? I can see Daniel talking to Orleia about her cats. Oh, you like cats? Isn’t that special. Let me tell you about the night I spent with some big cats.
People worry about getting bored in heaven. Are you kidding me? Can you imagine sitting over a cup of coffee and visiting with the saints who have gone before us and hearing their stories.
And before we finish this R, here’s a little lanyap. That’s Cajan for, “Something extra at no additional cost.” So here’s another R i wasn’t planning on covering.
There will be refreshments in heaven. The Bible repeatedly refers to the wedding feast of the Lamb. In Mark chapter 14, during the Lord’s Supper Jesus says,
> Mark 14:25 “Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new[d] in the kingdom of God.”
And we know that when Jesus appeared in the upper room after His resurrection, the disciples were frightened. They thought they were seeing a ghost. So Jesus asked them in Luke 24, “Do you have anything to eat?” They hand Him a piece of fish and He, in His resurrected body, eats it in front of them.”
So, I can imagine going to the back of McDonalds, or whatever they have in heaven, you know, where the old men sit around and tell war stories, and sitting down with a cup of coffee and talking with George Washington about what it was like having every enemy on the other side of the line shooting at him during the Revolutionary War, having several horses killed beneath him, and yet he never being hurt.
I can imagine visiting with Christopher Columbus, and asking him what it was like, looking for land day after day, while his crew was on the verge of mutiny, but He believing according to his journal, that He was no a mission from God and so he would not stop.
I look forward to meeting for the first time, the unborn child Gladys and I lost that we never met.
Oh yes, there will be relationships in heaven.
That old revival preacher Jonathan Edwards writes, “Every Christian friend that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us to heaven. There will be the infant of days that we have lost below, through grace to be found above. There the Christian father, and m other, and wife, and child, and friend, with whom we shall renew the holy fellowship of the saints, which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper sanctuary, and then shall never end. There we shall have companionship with the patriarchs and fathers and saints of the Old and New Testaments, and those of whom the world was not worthy . . . And there, above all, we shall enjoy and dwell with God the Father, whom we have loved with all our hearts on earth; and with Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior, Who has always been to us the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely; and with the Holy Spirit, our Sactifier, and Guide and Comforter; and shall be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead forever.” (Jonathan Edwards, Heaven: A World of Love, pg18)
In heaven there are relationships. In heaven there is Responsibility.
III. RESPONSIBILITIES
Gene, what do you mean responsibilities? You mean we are going to have to do something in heaven? Well, yes of course. In heaven, God will have things for us to do. We will have work to do. Wow will have responsibilities.
- Luke 19:11-27
What was the reward given to faithful servants? They were given greater responsibilities. One of their rewards was the opportunity to do more.
Some people have the mistaken idea that when we get to heaven all we’ll do is sit around all day. If I thought that, I wouldn’t be too excited about heaven either. But no, there will be things for us to do when we get to heaven, we will be given responsibilities, we will be given work to do.
Some ask, “How can it be heaven if we have to work?”
Do you remember when God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? What did He tell them to do? He told them to tend the garden. In Paradise, they had something to do. They had work to do.
In John chapter 5, Jesus and the disciples go to the pool of Bethesda where there are a bunch of disabled and sick people, waiting to get into the water, hoping to be healed. Jesus speaks to a lame man and asks him if he wants to be healed. Then Jesu tells him too take up his mat and walk. He does. He is healed, he picks up his mat and starts walking. No surgery, no therapy or anything.
The Pharisees get all upset because the man is carrying his mat on the Sabbath. Then in verse 17 of chapter 5, Jesus says,
> John 5:17 Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.” This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him: Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.
My Father is still walking and so am I? Why in the world do we think there won’t be work for us to do if God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are working?
There will be things for us to do. The difference is, we will want to do it and won’t be as laborious as it is here.
Let me give you an example. I have been mowing yards since I was a child. My brother and I used to mow my grandparents, several acre place every 2 weeks, with push mowers. I mowed lawns on my days off after I graduated from college. My son started a lawn business when he was 17 and for several years we ran a lawn business. I hate mowing lawns. For me it is work.
Tom, on the other hand, twisted man that he is, enjoys mowing his lawn. Is it work to him?
If I plant a garden, I do so because I want to save some money and because I want to be more self-sufficient. To me, it’s work. Mrs. Nora, who is in the hospital right now, is a Master Gardner. She comes out here and plays in our plants because she enjoys it. Is it then work to her?
If I go down and work on a assembly line at Cobia Boats. That’s work. If Jethro Gibbs goes into his basement and builds a boat as a hobby, that’s relaxation for him.
Work is not the task being done, it is the difficulty of the task, and it is the mindset one has when they are doing the work.
In heaven, we won’t be working stupid hours, we won’t have difficult bosses, it won’t be 100 degrees where we’re working, there won’t be unmeetable deadlines, but there will be things for us to do.
Oh, can you imagine being able to serve God and see immediate results? Can you imagine the honor and privilege of being able to serve the Lord in heaven?
In heaven we will have responsibilities. In heaven we will have relationships. In heaven there will be regrets, oh, but in heaven there will also be rewards. Can you imagine?
Thank You by Ray Boltz
I dreamed I went to heaven
And you were there with me
We walked upon the streets of gold
Beside the crystal sea
We heard the angels singing
Then someone called your name
You turned and saw this young man
And he was smiling as he came
And he said friend you may not know me now
And then he said but wait
You used to teach my Sunday School
When I was only eight
And every week you would say a prayer
Before the class would start
And one day when you said that prayer
I asked Jesus in my heart
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am a life that was changed
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am so glad you gave
Then another man stood before you
And said remember the time
A missionary came to your church
And his pictures made you cry
You didn't have much money
But you gave it anyway
Jesus took the gift you gave
And that's why I'm here today
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am a life that was changed
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am so glad you gave
One by one they came
Far as the eyes could see
Each life somehow touched
By your generosity
Little things that you had done
Sacrifices made
Unnoticed on the earth
In heaven now proclaimed
And I know that up in heaven
You're not supposed to cry
But I am almost sure
There were tears in your eyes
As Jesus took your hand
And you stood before the Lord
He said, my child look around you
For great is your reward
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am a life that was changed
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am so glad you gave
Oh my friend, heaven is going to be beyond our imagination. We are going to have great relationships, and many rewards, but your heaven will be impacted by your life. Please, don’t waste your opportunities.
