Gateway Church's Podcast
Heaven - Paradise Found - Part 5
All right, we're in part five of heaven. Paradise found and I want you to open your Bible. One of the things that I wanted you to catch in this series is that when you open the Bible, the Bible is full of explanation and descriptions of life and heaven. Have you seen that more and more as you've read the Bible than the last five weeks? Have you just seen heaven everywhere? Like I have? Three of you, good. Very good. Okay. If you don't have a Bible, we'll get you one, okay? I'll pay for it if you don't have one. I want you to read the Bible and see heaven throughout Scripture. Now, turn in your Bible to Psalm 78 and then to Genesis 25. We're going to go to both of those passages and many more in the next few minutes. But we're going to talk about some questions that still need to be answered about heaven. I'm getting a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls. People have a lot of questions. And surprisingly, a lot of kids, a lot of children are asking me questions about heaven. It's been exciting. A 10-year-old boy emailed me and said that he really was dreading going to heaven. He thought it was boring. But after the series, he said, "I'm more excited about it now. He's going to sign up," he said. So that's good deal. And that's good news. One question I get over and over again is, "Will there be pets in heaven?" Now, listen, the Bible's not clear about it, but I have an opinion. And I'm not going to tell you my opinion, okay? But there are some other questions this morning that I want to answer about heaven. Three, I think very important questions about heaven. And the first question that I want to answer this morning is, "Will there be food and drink in heaven?" That's a very important question. And the reason that we honestly need to answer that question is because some of us have this idea that when we get to heaven that we're going to be just floating around, we're not going to have real bodies, although we'll have glorified bodies, we'll have human characteristics. And a lot of people think that heaven is going to be boring and insignificant. How are we going to spend our time is a big question that people have about heaven. Well, let me tell you how we're going to spend a lot of our time eating and drinking in heaven. The Bible has over a thousand scriptural references to eating, feasting, drinking, being together as a family, over a thousand times in Scripture. The Bible describes eating and feasting food. And it's very important. In every culture, one of the most significant things in almost every culture is when you spend time with your family, spending time eating around a table at the holidays or some special event, taking people out to eat at a restaurant. That's how we get to know one another while eating while breaking bread. This is what the Bible is about. This is what heaven is going to be about. Now, are you in Psalm 78 yet? Okay? Now, Psalm 78 is David's explanation of what happened to the children of Israel when they left Egypt and were in the wilderness for 40 years. And he describes how God provided food for them, but he has a really unique description of where the food came from. Psalm 78 verse 23, but he commanded the skies to open. He opened the doors of heaven. By the way, heaven apparently has doors. And also the Bible talks about windows, doors of heaven. And he rained down manna for them to eat. He gave them bread from heaven. They ate the food of angels. And this is my favorite part. God gave them all they could hold. There is no dieting in heaven. That's exciting news. You don't have to have the smaller lunch-sized portion. You can have the full mega platter if you want. All you can hold. This is exciting because I want you to catch this about heaven. That heaven is a place of abundant food, of rich food. Let's keep reading in Luke chapter 22. This is the famous, one of the famous dinners in all of heaven. It's the Last Supper. You know all the story. Jesus is eating the Passover meal with his disciples before being crucified. And a lot of us think when we think about, because we're Gentiles and we've been raised, most of us have been raised as Gentiles, we think that the Passover meal, if they had those little crackers and a little juice cup. Listen, the Passover meal can go three or four hours in the Jewish culture. And it's food, lots of food. And they look forward to this special meal every year, the Passover meal. It's a real rich display of food in the Jewish culture today. And it was in Jesus' time. Now, I want to show you something in this scripture, this passage of scripture that you may have never seen before. And let's go read in verse 14. It says, "When the hour had come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him. And then he said to them, 'With fervent desire, with fervent desire, I have desired to eat with you.'" This Passover with you before I suffer. In other words, Jesus said, "Listen, not only I want to be with you, but I've been looking forward to the meal. I've been looking forward to sitting with you, sharing this meal with you, and eating is going to be a part of it." He says, verse 16, "For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." And then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." Now, I was raised as a boy in the deep south, and we were raised to have good manners. My kids say, "Yes, sir, no, sir. Yes, ma'am, and no, ma'am." I think that's a lost art. But because I'm from the deep south, I was raised with table manners. Now, I've gotten away from several of them, but I was raised with them. But one of the things we were taught when we were kids is that when you're sitting down with a group of people and your food was put in front of you, you were not to eat until everyone had food. That's good manners, by the way, in case you didn't know that. Write that down for a to-do list. This is what Jesus was saying. Jesus looked at his disciples that night and said, "Listen, I'm going to heaven first, and I'm going to wait for you, and I'm going to wait until all of you are with me, until all of us are sitting down together, seated together, until we all have our food together, and then I'll eat again with you." Now, I want you to know something, in the years to come, these men would look back on that promise, and that would give them great hope in some of their darkest hours, and they would remember we're going to eat again with Jesus. We're going to sit down in heaven with him. He's going to wait until we're all there. We'll all have food in front of us, and we'll eat and drink again together with Jesus in heaven. It was important for Jesus to give them this imagery, because he said, "That's what heaven's going to be like. Tonight, I'm sitting with you. Take a snapshot in your mind of this meal that I'm having with you, because when I'm in heaven, when we're in heaven together, we're going to do this again, and again, and again, and again. This is what heaven's going to be like. Our appetite, there's a difference between being hungry and having an appetite. I'm not hungry right now, but if you throw me some chocolate up here, I'm going to eat it. It's not that I'm hungry, I just always have an appetite for chocolate. And so the point is, is that the Bible says, "Very clear, we're not going to hunger our thirst again in heaven," but that means nothing about our appetite. It doesn't mean we won't have an appetite. It doesn't mean we won't have desires for food, and the curse that is on food now is lifted in heaven. The food that we can put in our bodies now and kill us, because food is poison. A lot of the food we put in our bodies are poisoned to us. It won't be like that in heaven. All the food in heaven will be curse free. Our bodies will be free from the curse of sin and sickness and death, and the food that we place in our bodies in heaven will only give us life and we'll have no curse on them. The food there, the Bible says in Isaiah 25, in fact, that God Himself will prepare the food in heaven. That's amazing that He is going to prepare it for us in heaven. This is going to be a good place. I want to clear your mind of some false misconceptions. Heaven is going to be fun. Heaven is going to be full of food, drink, sitting around, enjoying life together forever with your friends and family. It's one never-ending, thanksgiving feast in heaven all the time. With food, you'll never be full. You'll always have enough. Your appetites will always be satisfied. There will be food and drink in heaven, and that's good news. Here's a second question that I get asked a lot, is will we be married in heaven? Now, Jesus was asked the same question by a group of Sadducees, which are just some religious leaders that did not believe in their resurrection, by the way. These people come to Him and said, listen, there was a man who was married to a woman. The man died, and so custom is that she had to marry, and they had no children, so custom was that she would marry the next brother. She marries the next brother. He dies, and they still had no children, so she marries the next brother. He dies, and it goes all the way down to seven brothers. Now, listen, I'm calling 2020 for an investigative report. If this woman is married to seven men, and they all die, there's a problem here, and I'm asking that question in heaven. This woman is a problem, but Jesus just glosses over that, and answers a different question, but I have that question in heaven. Okay, what's wrong with a woman? If I'm number seven, I'm not saying yes to any marriage. Do you agree? You're on your own. All right, let's look at what Jesus did say, though, in Luke chapter 20 verse 34, Jesus answered and said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage." In other words, he says, "Marriage is a really good earth institution. It's an institution that's absolutely required on the earth." Verse 35, "But those who are counted worthy to attain that age," and he's talking about eternity, "and the resurrection from the dead neither marry, nor are given in marriage, nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and our sons of God being sons of the resurrection." Jesus is very clear here that we will not be married to one another in heaven. Now, that's a real concern. Honestly, there are people who are very godly, who are living right now. Are they a wonderful husband and a wonderful wife? Literally, I've had people come to me and say, "You know, one of the sad parts about heaven is I'm not going to be married to my husband or wife in heaven, and that's bothering me. It's like the enemy comes to them and cast like a cloud of heaviness over heaven, that there's something negative about that." Now, for some of you, that's good news, maybe. Maybe you're like, "That's the reason I'm looking forward to heaven," okay? Maybe you're actually excited about that part. But for a lot of us, it's just so that sounds like bad news. It sounds like sadness or heaviness. And so I want to answer that question today because I don't want you to wrestle with that anymore. You will not have the institution of marriage in heaven with each other, but there will be marriage in heaven, and you will be married. We'll all be married to Jesus. We'll all have the same groom. We'll all be pursued as the bride, and we will be married. We'll be married to Jesus. Now, when we go to Ephesians chapter 5, a lot of times when we read Ephesians chapter 5, by the way, I already understand, you know, when men do not read Ephesians chapter 5, because 2/3 of it is directed toward men, only 1/3 to women, I think you guys got off the hook really easy here, okay? The men really get hammered in Ephesians 5. But Ephesians 5 is, when we read it, a lot of times we think, "Well, it's just instruction to us on how to be married on the earth." But we miss the broad meaning of Ephesians 5 when we read about marriage. You know what Ephesians 5 is? Ephesians 5 is Jesus saying, "Look, follow my example. I'm the husband in heaven. I'm the groom in heaven. Follow my example. Do what I've already done. I want us to read this again, and we're going to read a good portion of it in Ephesians 5 verse 25, and it says, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself far her." Now, I want you to see that in this scripture, Jesus referring to himself as the groom and the church, which is you and I, as a bride, in the female sense, but as a bride. And it says that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he, capital H, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Does this sound like heaven to you? Does this sound like the way we will appear to God in heaven without blemish, holy, without spot or wrinkle? Now, keep reading verse 28, "So husbands, follow my example," he's saying, "so husbands all to love their own wives as their own bodies." He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Now, this is verse 32, as the great scripture says, this is a great mystery. And by the way, if you've been married more than six minutes, you know that marriage is a great mystery, mysterious. But this is what he said, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. When we get to heaven, all of human history can be summed up in five words. Jesus was pursuing his bride. This is what life's about right now on the earth. This is what heaven is about right now is Jesus pursuing his bride. We are the bride. And this is why marriage is so important to God and why Satan attacks marriage so viciously right now on the earth. It's because Satan knows that the marriage institution on earth is simply a type and shadow, a preparation for us in heaven. Why do you think Satan hates marriage so much? Why do you think he attacks it? Why divorce is so prevalent? Because it's a type and shadow of heaven. Satan remembers the fallen angel. He understands the marriage in heaven that's waiting on us. He doesn't want you to enjoy marriage now. He wants to taint your feelings and thoughts about heaven now. And he does not want you to understand that heaven is going to be a marriage. He wants you to have every negative opinion about marriage that you could possibly have. He wants to ruin your idea of marriage because he wants to ruin your idea of heaven. Heaven is about a wedding. Every time you read almost every description of heaven in the book of Revelation has some type of marriage imagery, wedding imagery imparted in it. We miss this many times. A big wedding is going to happen in heaven and it's going to include you and I. Let's read one Revelation 19 verse 6. I and I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering saying hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice in giving glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. Now we just read in Ephesians 5 how the wife is made ready by the washing of the water. This is what Jesus is doing just now even as we read the Bible out loud today. You know what's happening? It's the washing of water by the Word of God. It literally has the power to cleanse us. This is why he gave us the Bible to prepare his bride. Now let's keep reading verse 8 and to her it was granted to be a raid in fine linen. Remember Ephesians 5? He's going to give a linen without spot or wrinkle without blemish and it says clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And then he said to me blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper. There's another meal and by the way you can tell that there's some that some of heaven is going to be reserved for those of us in the deep south because that's the only place where we call the evening mill supper. That's is that right? We call lunch dinner and the evening mill supper. So there we're going this is the part of the heaven is from the deep south okay and we call to the marriage supper of lamb and he said to me these are the true sayings of God. Husbands and wives listen to me you're going to stand in heaven and I hope all of your heaven the marriage of your dreams right now. I am. In fact next week I'll be married 18 years to Pam and it's a great marriage. I love her. She's my best friend but we're going to stand in heaven. Pam and I no matter how many years we're on the earth together and how great our marriage is on the earth. We're going to stand in heaven next to one another. We're going to both look at Jesus and I'm going to look at Pam and Pam's going to look at me and we're both going to choose Jesus. You will choose Jesus in heaven. When you realize that Jesus died on the cross for you gave Himself for you suffered so that you could have heaven. When you realize in heaven how much Jesus has pursued you on the earth as His bride you will choose Jesus in heaven. You will want to choose Jesus. You won't struggle with the idea of not being married. Look at Revelation 21 then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues came and said to me come with me and I will show you the bride the wife of the lamb. Heaven is about one big wedding celebration and you are a part of it. Jesus is going to stand before the Father and say Father look at my bride and we're going to stand there this big multitude of people and Father is going to say to Jesus well done my son and then He's going to look at us and say well done my good and faithful servants come now to the marriage of the lamb and it's going to be an exciting time. You will choose to be a part of that ceremony regardless of how great your marriage is on the earth. Well if we're not going to be married in heaven here's the third question then will we recognize our loved ones in heaven? Will we recognize the people that we love in heaven? Yes we will. Yes we'll recognize people in heaven. Scripture is very clear and I want to show you some passages that when we are in heaven we will recognize each other. You're going to get there and you're going to be a recognizable. A lot of people believe in heaven that we're going to lose some of our characteristics and be unrecognizable. No you're going to recognize me. I'm going to be the redheaded guy in heaven like I'm the redheaded guy here. I think you're going to recognize who I am. Somehow it was going to be some type of identity. I'm not sure if I'll rev red hair or not. I'm kind of asking for a different color but you're going to recognize me. You're going to know who I am. Now look at Genesis chapter 25. I'm going to show you the first passage in the Bible where life after death is mentioned. This is the very first time in Scripture that any reference to life after death is mentioned in Genesis chapter 25. I asked you to turn there at the beginning. Look at verse 7 and this is talking about the death of Abraham and this is the sum of the years of Abraham's life which he lived 175 years and then Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people. This is the first time in Scripture that any reference to life after death is mentioned and it specifically says that when Abraham died that in heaven in this place of heaven that there was a gathering together of Abraham's people that when he was there that he recognized his descendants that there was a connection between him and those in heaven who had preceded him. You will get to heaven and you'll be gathered to the people that have gone before you. I don't think Abraham had to wander around the intermediate heaven looking for people. They were waiting for him according to this Scripture. He was gathered together with them. Look at the first Thessalonians chapter 2 and this is the Apostle Paul. He's talking to the church and Thessalonica and he's telling them he's very upset that he can't see them but I want you to see something in verse 17. Dear brothers and sisters, after we were separated from you for a little while though our hearts never left you, we tried very hard to come back because of our intense longing to see you again. We wanted very much to come and I, Paul, tried again and again but Satan prevented us. Now he's talking about the past tense up to this point but look in verse 19 and he switches tenses. He goes from the past tense and he immediately begins talking about heaven. Verse 19 it says, "After all, what gives us hope and joy and what is our proud reward and crown? It is you. Yes, you will bring us much joy as we stand together before our Lord Jesus when he comes back. For you are our pride and joy." Paul says, "Look, we're going to stand together in front of God and we're going to notice that you're our reward. You're what we work for. Remember last week we talked about sending our rewards to heaven. The reward for Paul that he was talking about, the reward, the treasure in heaven were these people. True riches the Bible says are people and he says, "You are going to be our crown and our reward, the people that we fought for and prayed for and labored for. You're going to stand there with your children, the ones that you're praying for right now, the children, your grandchildren, your friends and neighbors, the ones that you're burdened for now, when they come to know the Lord, you're going to stand before God with them and they're going to be the reward of your work on the earth but you will know them and they will know you. You'll stand together before God. Yes, you will recognize people in heaven and this is very important for married people. I believe you're going to recognize your husband and wife. You'll know that they were your husband. They were your wife on the earth. You're going to celebrate all the good times that you had on the earth. However, you're just not going to want to be married to anyone but Jesus. But you'll recognize them. You'll spend eternity together but the relationship is going to change in heaven and it's going to be a better relationship. You will recognize the people you lived on the earth with. It's very important for you to remember that. That gives us hope for heaven. That's why people are important right now. A lot of people have given up on the idea of pursuing people because they don't think, well, for eternity, I'm not going to know anyone. I'm going to spend eternity in this blissful environment where I have no relationships and that could not be further from the truth. You're going to have relationships in heaven with the people you're pursuing right now. What about the people that are not born again right now? This is what I think about when I read this passage. This is what motivates me to pray. You know why I was born again because Jesus pursued me and people prayed for me. We have to get rid of this false theology that God can do whatever He wants and our prayers are not needed. Yes, God can do whatever He wants but our prayers are needed. We believe that you can pray people into heaven, that you can pray for people right now on the earth. You can't pray for them after they die, but you can pray for them right now, that the Holy Spirit would pursue their heart, that the Holy Spirit would capture their attention, that everywhere they turn that they would have an encounter with God. That's how I pray for people. I want to show you a passage in Scripture in Luke chapter 15. I want you to turn there, but moms and dads, please listen to me. There is a proverb, 22-6 says, "Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are older, they will not depart from it." Now, a lot of us overlook a key phrase there, "When they are older." I don't want you to be discouraged. Some of you are discouraged right now that your children are teenagers or they're in college or maybe they're married. I know I talked to a man this week, he has a 48-year-old son. He's still praying for her. And I quoted this Scripture to him. I said, "Did you train him up in the way you should go?" "Yes, I did everything I knew to do. I know more now than I knew when I was a parent when he was at home, but I did everything I knew." I said, "Listen, in the parable of the prodigal son, the father of the prodigal son had to stand on the same promise that many of you are having to stand on right now. You're having to stand on this promise to believe for this promise, the way the father of the prodigal son had to believe." You know the story, the son came to me, and he said, "Dad, I want all my inheritance. I want it. Give it to me, and I'm leaving." And the father with a heavy heart gave his son a large amount of money. And the son just went off and spent it wildly. And the Bible says that a drought came over the land. And for a Jewish boy, he ended up working on a pig farm, which is the lowest form of work he could have found, eating bread and barely staying alive. And he made a decision, a really smart decision. I think I can go back to Dad's house and get treated better than this. I'd rather be a servant in my father's house than to stay on this pig farm and die of starvation. And the Bible says, "He came to his senses." How many of you are praying for someone right now for them to come to their senses? Or if they're sitting next to you, you don't raise your hand. But you can pray this, "Lord, I pray that they would come to their senses." I pray that the light bulb would snap in their mind. It would come on, that they would understand that they're choosing death right now. "Lord, I pray against deception." This is how we should pray. This is how the father of the prodigal son, because he knew there was an eternal destiny at stake. Heaven was at stake. Or let's read the story here. But as we read the story, I want you to see God the father in heaven as we see this, as we read this. Verse 20, "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, "Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this is my son. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. As a party, a celebration happens. The Bible says that there is great celebration in heaven for every person who is born again on the earth. And it's taught this this parable many times, it's thought of as a parable on the earth. I believe this is the parable of heaven. Listen, the people you're praying for are right now. You may not see any changes in their life right now. But this parable says very clearly that the father, while they were still, he was still a long way off, saw him coming. I was a long way off in 1988. That's when I was born again. And no one could see the changes that were going on in my heart, because all my outward behavior did not change for a long time. But I remember almost to the day where my heart started thinking about God again. And I kept doing the same thing, and I kept having the same bad attitudes, and I was still the same rebellious college kid going through just trying to find my way. But I remember when my heart turned. I remember suddenly I started thinking about God again, and I didn't think of him in the religious church way that I'd grown up thinking about God. I began to think of him as someone who actually loved me and cared for me. And I asked the same question that this prodigal son asked, and many of you are asking the same question, "Lord, I have sinned against heaven and earth or against heaven, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son." Many people are so ashamed of what they've done that they think there's no way God could ever forgive them. And this is what many people that you're praying for are right now. The battle that's going on in their heart is not whether or not should they follow God. The battle that's going on in their heart is this, "Will God love me enough to forgive me?" That's the revelation that they need. Most people know they need God. Most people though believe that God doesn't want them. That's the lie of the enemy we must pray against. We must pray while they're still a long way off. And just a moment, we're going to have a time that we just pray for the prodigal. I want you to begin to think right now of someone that you know that's a prodigal son or a prodigal daughter. They may not be related to you, but as you know that there's someone that you've been burdened for, someone that you're praying for. Listen, I believe if you have gone several months without any burden for someone that's lost, I'm here today to stir that up in you. This is a critical time we're living in. And I believe as believers, we must recapture our burden for lost people. Heaven is at stake. Eternal destinies are at stake. Your prayers are absolutely necessary. You must begin to catch this burden to pray for people, to pursue them, to ask God to pursue them. And here's the best witness. Act like a believer in front of them so that our lives are witnesses. Eternal destinies are at stake. The reason I have preached on heaven for five weeks is yes, I want you to think about heaven. I want you to be encouraged about your destiny in heaven, but I want you to catch a passion to get as many people there as we can with us. I want to spend eternity with all my friends. I want to spend eternity with people that I love and care for. I want to spend eternity with my children. I want my kids and my grandchildren to be there, and so I'm going to pray that they'll come. Could you just close your eyes for a moment? Could you ask the Lord for a new burden for the lost? Could you come up with a name or a face? Maybe you don't know their name. Maybe it's just about you that you're around. You don't really know them. Could God stir something in your heart right now? Could God give you a burden for the lost? And could you right now, while we're sitting in the presence of the Lord, could you just ask the Lord to pursue them? Just say, "Lord, just set pray like this. Lord Jesus and the name of Jesus, I bring this person before you. Lord, would you pursue them right now? Would you send your Holy Spirit to where they are right now? And would you pursue them? Lord, I agree that even though they are a long way off, even though right now they're a long way off, you see them. You're watching them and you will know when their hearts turn. Can we pray together? Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for the prodigal sons and the prodigal daughters that are coming home today. Lord, in Jesus' name, right now, at this very moment, at this minute, we pray that the Holy Spirit would pursue the people. Lord, I'm thinking of three young men right now. Lord, I have called their names out to you repeatedly. And Lord, I'm thinking I see their faces right now. These are three young men that I love. And Lord, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, I'm asking you, Lord, to pursue them. Lord, I pray that the eyes of their heart would be opened, that they would see the majesty of heaven, that they would understand your grace, that they would not be deceived, and Lord, that they would not serve the gods of this world. Lord, I pray that they would serve the God of eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah. Lord, I thank you for heaven. Thank you for heaven today. Lord, thank you that heaven is a great place. Lord, that you are a great God. And Lord, thank you that we're going to live with you for eternity in the new Jerusalem and on the new earth. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.