Dr.
Gary VanDeWalker
Evangelical
Free Church
Of Mount Shasta
Fall
2009
Week
Three:
What is
Eternity like in the New Earth and Heaven? Part Two
1. The Man in
the Iron Mask
2.
Will
we be ourselves?
A.
We will have physical bodies, Luke 24:39
B.
We have our names, Matthew 8:11
C.
We will not be angels
They
will serve us, Hebrews 1:14; 1 Cor. 6:2-3
D.
We will have emotions
Luke
6:21; Rev. 21:4, only sorrow is removed
Desire
is part of our humanity
E.
We will receive new names, Isaiah 62:2;
65:15, Rev. 2:17
F.
"Until you have given up your self
to Him you will not have a real self.
Sameness is to be found most among the most 'natural men',
not among
those who surrender to Christ. How
monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how
gloriously different are the saints....Nothing in you that has not died
will
ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in
the long
run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and
you will find Him,
and with Him everything else thrown in."
C.S. Lewis
3.
What will our
bodies be like?
A.
They will be perfect, 1 Cor 15:1-58
B.
There will be male and female, nothing
suggests otherwise.
C.
We will wear clothes, Rev. 3:4; 6:11
D.
We don't know what age we will appear.
E.
We will eat and drink. Luke 22:29-30; Isaiah
25:6; Rev. 2:7
F.
We will be like Him, Phil. 3:21
G.
We will not hunger, Rev. 7:16
4.
Will we be
capable of sinning?
A.
Rev. 21:4
B.
Death is from sin, there is no death in
heaven. Romans 6:23
C.
Hebrews 9:26; Romans 6:7
D.
The world, the flesh, and the devil are
all defeated
5.
We will learn.
A.
We will not have absolute knowledge.
B.
1 Peter 1:12, they angels lack
knowledge
C.
Eph. 2:6-7, there are things for God to
reveal
D.
Nothing says we will be the same, knowledge
and skills will vary.
6.
What will our
daily lives be like?
A.
No reason we shouldn't sleep
B.
We will work, Gen. 2:15, Rev. 22:3; Isaiah
65:17 25
C.
We will build, plant, and eat.
7.
Will we only
desire God in heaven?
A.
Matthew 22:37-39; 1 Thes. 2:19-20;
1 Thes. 4:13-14, 17-18
B.
We don't forget, Isaiah 65:17, but read
verse 16.
C.
We remember the cross, John 20:24-29
D.
There are memorials to prior history,
Rev. 21:12-14
E.
We will recognize each other. John
21:1-14; 1 Cor. 15:6
"Shall we know one
another in
Heaven? Shall we
love and remember? I
do not think anyone need wonder about this
or doubt for a single moment. We
are
never told we shall, because, I expect, it was not necessary to say
anything
about this which our own hearts tell us.
We do not need words. For if we think for a minute, we
know. Would you be
yourself if you did not love and
remember?...We are told that we shall be like our Lord Jesus. Surely this does not mean
in holiness only,
but in everything, and does not He know and love and remember? He would not be Himself if
He did not, and we
should not be ourselves if we did not." Amy Carmichael
8.
Will there be
marriage, families and friendships?
A.
There is no marriages, Mt. 22:30
B.
"...the Bible does not teach there
will be no marriage in heaven. In
fact
it makes clear that there will be marriage in Heaven.
What is says is that there will be one
marriage, between Christ and his bride and we'll all be part of it. Paul links human marriage
to the high reality
it mirrors." Alcorn
C.
Eph. 5:31-32
D.
Nothing says that deep relationships
between people will end.
E.
There is nothing to say that our
friendships will be lost.
9.
Whom will we
meet and what will we experience together?
A.
We will meet people from the Bible,
Matthew 8:11
B.
Who is on your list?
C.
We will concur with God's judgment on
the wicked.
D.
We will mostly likely be overwhelmed
anyone made it to heaven.
E.
"...there will be no personal
attacks, no ill-informed biases, and no
prideful
refusal to grant a valid point." Alcorn
F.
There will be racial identities, Rev.
5:9-10
G.
There will be no racial or national
superiorities.
H.
Multiple languages may not exist,
Genesis 11:1, 4, 6
10.
Will heaven ever
be boring?
A.
Hell will not be the good time people
think and heaven more exciting than they imagine.
B.
If heaven is boring, God is boring
C.
Our learning and skills will grow.
D.
We must not look at the curse and
envision heaven that way.
E.
Work will be exciting.
F.
We will probably have new vocations.
G.
Adam shaped culture, Gen. 2:19
H.
Luke 6:21, 23
I.
There will be a child like spirit,
Mark 10:14-15
J.
There may even be sports, competition
isn't sinful; losing
isn't sinful
"He made me fast, and
when I run I
feel God's pleasure....to give up running would be to hold him in
contempt." Eric Liddell
k.
No reason we won't feel excited or take
risks.
11.
Will our dreams
be fulfilled and missed opportunities be regained?
A.
Matthew 5:3-5
B.
God cannot only fulfilled your dreams,
He can expand them.
C.
Our peak in life does not come in the
part of life, but the next.
D.
People without Christ have only this
life to succeed.
E.
We can look forward to what heaven can
give us that this life cannot.
F.
"I meet many faith Christians who,
in spite of their faith, are deeply disappointed in how their lives
have turned
out. Sometimes it
is simply a matter of
how they experience aging, which they take to mean they no longer have
a
future. But often,
due to circumstances
or wrongful decisions and actions by others, what they had hoped to
accomplish
in life they did not. They
painfully
puzzle over what they may have done wrong, or over whether God has
really been
with them.
Much of the distress of
these good people
comes from a failure to realize that their life lies before them. That they are coming to
the end of their
present life, life "in the flesh," is of little significance. What is of significance is
the kind of person
they have become. Circumstances
and
other people are not in control of an individual's character or of the
life
that lies endlessly before us in the kingdom of God."
Dallas Willard
G.
We need to learn to look beyond this
life.
H.
"In heaven 'tis the directly
reverse of what 'tis on earth; for there, by length of time things
become more
and more youthful, that is, more vigorous, active, tender, and
beautiful." Jonathan
Edwards
I.
Your lifetime is forever.
J.
You are not past your prime.
K.
We will be makers; God is a maker and
we are in His image
We will
have creativity
Romans
11:29
L.
There will a new universe to explore.