And if you'd like to join me, we're going to pick up right where we left off last week in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. And as you're turning there, what we've been studying together is we've been pursuing a study theme on the last things as they're described in the scripture, specifically in the last two or three weeks on the theme of heaven. We've been following Paul the Apostle's advice. Actually, more than advice, it's a spiritual exhortation where he says to us, therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on earth. And that's what we've been pursuing together. Setting our minds as a body of people, as a steady group in a sense, on the things above. And we're going to pick up in Hebrews chapter 12. As I said, we've covered so far, established so far, a few basic principles about heaven. We've identified that heaven is a created place with real spatial reality and boundaries, and that it was originally created for a very specific purpose. The primary purpose, certainly not the only purpose of heaven, but the primary purpose is to serve as God's universal headquarters by which he administrates and governs his creation. This universe that we live in, and most specifically the earth and all of the events of all of history, We've seen that heaven is described spiritually in scripture as being a plural reality, meaning there's more than one heaven. There's the heaven immediately surrounding our planet, what we call our atmosphere. There's the second heaven, which is the physical universe that we see with our telescopes. And then, of course, there's the third and highest heaven, which is now also paradise as it is the dwelling place of God and all angels and the righteous saints that have passed on to be with the Lord. We've kind of followed through the history of heaven. We've seen how heaven itself, because it is a created place, has a history. It has changed from the beginning when it was first created to what's going on in heaven now. We've identified that the population of heaven has dramatically changed and altered since the beginning of history, since the beginning of its creation, and we've identified why that is. What we're going to focus on today is what life is like in heaven today. Those of us who, our lives will come to an end before the second coming of Christ, before he returns to conclude and end all of human history as we know it, and those of us who are in relationship with Him, a true spiritual relationship based on the new birth, we will pass from this world into Heaven. And once we pass into Heaven, we believe that our life doesn't come to an end at that point. In a sense, our life is just beginning, our greater life. But what is it going to be like? What is life in heaven like today? There are people, many, many, many people who are alive in heaven today, and they're living life just like we're living life here on this earth, but it's a different kind of life. I think we all understand that without going into the details of what the Scripture describes, but I think it's a profitable thing because for us to focus on that, to answer some of the basic questions we all have about that, Some of which I think you already know and understand, some of which may be new and unfamiliar to us. But it's worthwhile to go through these questions together because the scripture does address them. Whatever the scripture addresses on the subject of heaven, it's for us to know and for us to understand. And it has a shaping and molding influence on the way we live our lives here in this present world. So starting in Hebrews chapter 12, let's dig in together. We're going to read just a couple of verses. from a larger context, but we'll pick up in verse 22 of chapter 12. where the writer of Hebrews has just contrasted and compared the appearance of the Lord and the revelation of the Lord to his people in the Old Covenant from Mount Sinai, where he gave them the law and the instructions on how to build the tabernacle. And now, contrasting that, the writer says, that you have come to Mount Zion, not to Mount Sinai, but to Mount Zion, which is a heavenly mountain. and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel. Every phrase that's described from 22 to 24 is worthwhile for us to study, but there's one phrase in particular that I left off with last time. I want to start with this and focus on it and talk for a few minutes together here about the meaning of this phrase. It's in verse 23 at the very end. where he describes that we've come in a sense here, what's being described as, as if we were visiting heaven to see what was going on there, what life is like there. We've come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. And what we've identified is this, when a person dies, and we're talking about a Christian person, a person that knows the Lord, a person that's been born again of the Spirit of God, a saved person, When a person dies and goes into heaven, and they enter into heaven at the moment of their death, we've already identified that unlike the Old Testament where there was some other place where the spirits of the righteous went to wait for the day of resurrection, for the day of the coming of the Lord. Now, when we die, because Jesus has risen from the dead, because he has ascended to the right hand of God, because he has made a new and living way into God's very presence in heaven, we now, when we die, go directly to be with the Lord and in his presence in heaven. But when we get there, we're described as spirits of righteous people that are made perfect. Now this tells us two basic things about, actually three basic things, about what life is like in heaven now. And we're talking about prior to the final day, prior to the second coming of Christ. Theologians often describe this as the intermediate state, meaning that what we're about to describe is not what our life will exactly be like after the second coming of Christ, because one dramatic thing is going to change that, and that is the day of resurrection, where we will be reunited with new glorified physical bodies. But now, when a person dies and they go to be in the presence of the Lord, they are there as spirits. That means unincorporated beings. What we mean by that is people that are there with some sense of identity and some sense of personal boundaries in reality, but not in a physical form. The spirits of the righteous in heaven are there in a spiritual, not a physical form. There is no physical body for them in heaven at this point. They are described though as righteous, meaning they're there in clearly a right relationship with the Lord. And one step beyond the identification of them as righteous in heaven is the idea that they are the spirits of the righteous, and this phrase is used here. Let me just reread this one phrase. Spirits of the righteous made perfect. Now, some of you are familiar with the biblical terminology of perfection and what it is to be perfect. The word that's actually translated from the Greek language into our English language is perfect. has a range of meanings. And here this specific term means something that is made complete, something that's reached the goal, that has achieved the goal that was previously set before it. The idea is that there's nothing left to be accomplished for that thing that is now perfect. So the idea here is when a person dies, a Christian person dies, and they go to be in the presence of the Lord in heaven, they are described as a perfect spirit. And it's a spirit that has been made perfect. It doesn't mean that prior... because you know how it is in terms of death and the spiritual life with the Lord in heaven. One moment you're here and breathing in this physical body and alive, and the next moment, at the moment that the Lord appoints for our death, we leave this physical body and are instantly taken by the Lord to be with Him in Heaven. Well, the idea is, or the question that that leaves us, is that the moment prior to our death, as we live here in this world and in our lives here in this world, can we say, should we describe our spirits as right at this moment being perfect? And the answer is no, our spirits are not perfect in our present circumstances, in our present condition. Our spirits, the inner man, who we are inside, is in a process. We're in a process of change and continuing transformation. Let's turn from the book of Hebrews to the book of Romans, chapter 8, for a moment. So if the moment prior to our death were not perfect, And the moment we come into the presence of the Lord, we are described as spirits that are made perfect. That implies that in that moment of death, there is some spiritual transformation, a final change that takes place, in which the Lord takes that which is presently imperfect, and He transforms it into that which will be eternally perfect. And let's read what this is all about in Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 28. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Now in verse 29, he's going to begin to describe what that purpose of God for which he called us to salvation and what that purpose is all about. For those whom he foreknew, as Clint was just describing, God knowing us before the foundation of the world and having us in his heart, having an intention and plan for our lives in his heart before the foundation of the world. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son. The intention of God's heart from before the foundation of the world for all of those who will eventually be saved, all those of course who are presently saved but who will eventually be saved, on the final day as we kind of look back over all of history and we see the total number before the throne of those who are truly saved, for every single one of those individual spirits, God had in His heart a very specific plan and purpose. And the goal of that plan was not simply to save a completely differing group of individuals and leave them in all of their individual differences at whatever spiritual level or progress they had made. prior to the moment of their salvation. God's goal is to change all of us, to take us from wherever we started at the moment of our salvation, and to continue to change and transform us until we reach a goal. And the goal is that we would be conformed to the image of His Son. What that identifies is that the goal is to be like Christ, spiritually speaking. And the only way that that can be accomplished, of course, is we first have to be saved, and then following the moment of our salvation, God, by His Spirit, working within our hearts, continues to, He uses the term here, conform us to the image of His Son. And it's a term which means like a potter working with clay, molding and shaping it, changing the actual form and purpose of that clay as he's working with it. a process of continuing change until the potter doesn't continue to work with the clay and work with the clay without ever reaching a goal. A potter has a specific end point to why he's working with that clay. And the specific end point of God in shaping and molding our lives is for us to be made or conformed into the image of his Son. Now what that implies is that there is an end point to that process. None of us, as we're sitting here today, are at that end point. We're all in the continuing transformation process. But there is an end point where you will spiritually experience being like Jesus in the fullness of what it means to be a fully redeemed, fully complete spirit that has been made perfect. Now, what are the implications of that? If you would turn from Romans here back with me into the book of Mark for a moment, the gospel of Mark, chapter seven. Mark, chapter seven, we're going to read a brief portion from an interaction, really a confrontation between Jesus and a group that we're all familiar with, known as the Pharisees, the Pharisees had. a particular concern for the rigid, outward adherence to traditions and laws that they had created, in a sense, around the law of God. as their way of trying to fulfill the law of God. What they ended up doing in their efforts was they actually ended up violating the heart and the core, the spirit of God's law. And that resulted in, when Jesus came to teach the people, many confrontations between Him and them in their misunderstanding and misapplication of God's law. And this is one of those cases that arose around the idea of cleanliness. And we're talking here spiritual cleanliness, not just physical cleanliness, but it touched even the way that the people in those days would prepare themselves and clean themselves for a meal. And in this confrontation, one of the things that had happened is Jesus and his disciples had gone to the local marketplace, they had come back and they had begun to eat food, and they had not gone through this elaborate washing process before eating the food. And the Pharisees confronted Jesus because they were implying that there was spiritual corruption from touching the world and the marketplace of the world that they were actually taking within themselves by eating their food without going through this elaborate washing. And let's pick up and read what Jesus has to say about this, starting in verse 14. After he called the crowd to him again, he began to say to them, Listen to me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him. But the things which... and he's talking not here about health, and physical concerns, because I think we all understand, and this is not something Jesus is contradicting here, there are certain physical substances that you can eat that will defile your physical health. Here he's talking about and addressing the Pharisees' concern about eating certain things physically causing spiritual defilement. And he corrects that misunderstanding saying there's nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him. But the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples questioned him about the parable. And he said to them, Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart? but into his stomach and is eliminated. Now, Jesus is using physical terms to make a point here, but he's not talking about the man's physical heart. He's not saying when you eat food, it doesn't go into your physical heart. He's talking about when you eat food, even unclean, defiled food, according to the Pharisees' rules and regulations, it doesn't go into the man's inner man. It doesn't go into his spirit. It only goes into his stomach. And going into his stomach, he goes on to describe, and it is eliminated. Thus, and this is Matthew's conclusion, thus he declared all foods clean, or Mark's conclusion. And he was saying, that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. Now, the things that Jesus lists here in verse 21 and 22, what he calls in the next verse, all these evil things, he identifies these things as belonging to the heart of mankind. And what he's really describing is all of our life experience. He's describing a circumstance in which we all are familiar with if we're honest with ourselves. in that we all experience the presence of these spiritual elements within our inner man, within our heart, within our spirit. And he's saying the presence of these things spiritually within the heart or the spirit of an individual is what defiles, spiritually speaking, that individual. No unclean food can defile your spirit, but having and fornication, having, as he says, theft, or murder, or adultery, or the inclination to covet what belongs to someone else, or deceit and sensuality. or slander of another person, or pride about who I am and what I am. All of those things in my heart are what defile me, not anything that I take in from outside. Now, what does this have to do with heaven? It has everything to do with our present experience of heaven at the moment of our death, because the question is this. When you die, your body stays behind here on earth and turns to dust eventually. But what goes to heaven is what Jesus is describing here. Your inner man, your heart, your spirit leaves your physical body and goes to heaven. Now, what is heaven going to be like as a society of people? And we'll see in the weeks to come that heaven is a real society of people. What heaven would be like if we took these elements in our heart with us into heaven? In other words, I am an inner man. I am a spirit. I have a heart. And in my heart are all of these elements. Now, if I die and I take that heart condition into heaven with me, and I'm now before the throne of God and living as part of the society of heaven until the second coming of Christ, and I live out my life in heaven with In my heart, evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of covening, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, pride, slander, foolishness, and I live out my life daily in heaven with all of those elements present in my heart before the throne of God, then what kind of society are we looking at in heaven? What we'd be looking at is the same exact society as we're living in right here. It wouldn't be much better other than we're physically, so to speak, in closer proximity to the Lord. The idea is, none of those elements are in heaven. None. Not a single one. In heaven today, around the throne of God, spiritually speaking, there is no evil thought that is being thought in the presence of God in heaven. There is no inclination or intention or even consideration of fornication. There is no one in heaven that's inclined to or considering stealing from anyone else in heaven. You know, since the day that Jesus ascended and returned to the right hand of the throne of God and brought all of the righteous from the Old Testament along with him. And since then, all of the righteous of the New Testament who have died have gone to be with him. There's been, believe it or not, not a single theft in heaven. How many thefts in that same time period have occurred here on earth in human society? How many? I mean, let's count them up. Let's take a guess. How many since approximately the year 30 AD? How many thefts have occurred on earth in the last nearly 2,000 years in all human societies? Yeah, there's no way to count there's so many. Right now, in society, here, just within the neighborhoods surrounding us, there is probably at least one theft, at least one fornication, at least one slanderous word that's being spoken, that's taking place. If not dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions. Because we're not just dealing with the deeds of these things, we're talking about the internal secret most thoughts and intents. and inclinations of the heart. And the idea is there's a glorious thing that takes place at the moment of our death in which Jesus makes our spirits perfect before He brings us into His presence. He eliminates all of that influence, all of that inclination, all of that intention toward sin, so that as we stand in His presence, we're described as the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Now, the implications of that for that day, when we experience that, is this. Even though, as believers, and thankfully, praise God this is true, we are set free from sin. And the scripture describes that we are set free. That means that none of us are obligated to sin any longer after we've come to know the Lord. None of us are forced to sin. There is no requirement that we continue to sin. Otherwise, the simple but very powerful words of the Lord to, for instance, the woman that was caught in adultery, have no real meaning when he says to her, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. The idea is that the Lord, when he comes into our hearts, when he comes into our lives, he does change our relationship to sin and not just in a kind of a theoretical change. He really changes our relationship to sin so that we are set free and now we are not obligated to continue to sin. But, as believers, if we're honest with ourselves and if we're spiritually discerning about what really goes on within our hearts on a daily basis, we all understand and we all know. I mean, since the day you were saved, since the day you really came to know the Lord in spirit and in truth, have you experienced a single moment of coveting what didn't belong to you? where you wanted something that belonged to someone else, even though you knew that the Lord hadn't given it to you. Have you ever experienced a moment of coveting since you've been saved? Have you ever experienced an inclination toward any wickedness? Have you deceived anyone or even thought about wanting to? Have you indulged in a moment of sensuality? Have you envied what you shouldn't have envied? Have you slandered anyone? spoken, acted, or even thought in pride about your own life? Have you indulged in any foolishness at all? You know, we all, even though we're freed from sin, we all understand that sin still is so much part of the fabric of our life experience here in this world. And yet, at the moment of our death, we're described as the spirits of the righteous, made perfect. And God will not allow any of that defiling influence that's so much a part of the fabric of our lives to be part of the fabric of His society in heaven. And that's a glorious and awesome thing. And the implications of that for the future, not just for the present, are this. I don't know if you've ever considered this or thought about it. But, you know how it is, the Lord, when He first created all things, when we read the story of the original creation, He established this awesome garden circumstance with everything a human being could ever possibly want, dream, or desire as their life experience. No thorns, no sweat of the brow lifestyle. We're talking about the perfect Edenic garden circumstance. Better than Hawaii by a hundredfold, okay? And he made a perfect man, and he made a perfect woman, and he placed them in this garden, and then what happens? I mean shortly, we're not talking about generations later. What happens? They sin. I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but heaven is described as a perfect environment. But it's a more perfect environment than the Garden of Eden, and that's critically important. And the reason it's a more perfect environment also includes the fact that while Adam and Eve can be described as being created perfect, There is a sense in which the new creation and the fulfillment of that goal of the new creation at the moment of death, when a believer passes into the presence of the Lord, is a more perfect creation than the first creation ever was. Because Adam, while perfect, was created with the full potential and possibility of sinning. When we go to be in the presence of the Lord, we will never, ever, ever sin again. Not once, not even for a nanosecond, where we entertain thoughts and intentions and inclinations, let alone actual words and actions of sin. And that's not because we are going to be so on top of things. that we just can't possibly fail because of how great we are. It's because we're the spirits of the righteous made perfect. We're not going to be self-made perfect beings in heaven. We're going to be made perfect by the power of God. who will have extended and expressed the measure of His transforming power within our spirits to such a degree that we can confidently say, not in ourselves but in Him, that I will never, ever sin again, in thought, in word, and in deed. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to that. I really am. Too much of my life experience now has the flavor and the echoes and the memories and even the present indulgences in sin. And that's all going to change once and for all and forever. I mean, it's something that we can anticipate and think about and consider, but none of us have ever experienced what it's like to actually live for five minutes, let alone for five million years, without sin's influence even being present in our lives, in our hearts, in our spirit. But it's going to be awesome. It's going to be awesome. And that's what the scripture encourages us to consider and to set our minds on the realities that await us in that day. The spirits of the righteous made perfect. That's the first and the core, I think, principle of what I want us to understand about what life will be like in heaven. Let me address some very practical questions that are often asked about life in heaven today. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Matthew, chapter 17. This question often arises, will, when we arrive in heaven, will we recognize each other in heaven? Will, if you and I both pass to be with the Lord, will we recognize each other? If I go to be with the Lord, will I be able to find Creighton in heaven and know that it's Creighton that's there? Will he be able to find me? I mean, the scripture describes that there is a multitude so great that no man can number of people that are in heaven. So I don't know about you. Have you ever been in a really, really, really large crowd and you were supposed to find a friend? Unless you have some kind of landmark that you know we're going to meet at this spot at this specific time and I'm going to be wearing this kind of hat and this color shirt, it's very difficult to even find someone that you know here. will we be able to find and recognize each other in heaven? I believe that not only will we be recognizable in heaven, I think we'll be much more recognizable. We won't have to wonder by way of, okay, be sure, Creighton, that you wear this color robe in heaven so that I can, you know, I can recognize you when I get there. Matthew chapter 17, This is a well-known account of what is considered to be the transfiguration of Christ, where Jesus took three of his disciples with him onto a mountaintop and revealed what he is really like in his inner man, starting in verse 1. Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And while he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out of the cloud said, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Now, of course, the focal point of this account and this event is on the revelation of who Jesus really is and what God chose to unveil to these three disciples for them to later record for our benefit. But there's a detail in the story, of course, that's included that speaks to this issue of whether we will recognize one another in heaven. Jesus was not at the beginning of the event alone on the mount with only his three disciples with him. There appeared with Jesus and with the three disciples two other individuals. These two other individuals are named for us in verse 3, Behold Moses, And Elijah appeared to them, talking with him, and then Peter, you know, speaks up in his super-helpful way, you know, he's got a plan here, I think the idea, the impression here is that he wants to extend the duration of the event, he's enjoying what he's experiencing, and so he offers to make a tent. so that Jesus can stay for a while, Moses can stay for a while, Elijah can stay for a while. But as he is making this offer, Peter himself in verse 4, it's not just a matter that Jesus recognized Moses and Elijah, but without Jesus even speaking to Peter, Peter says, And it's good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three tabernacles here. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Now, what's important about this little detail is that Jesus and Peter haven't spoken about who these individuals are. And this is an obvious point, but it's an important one. Peter's never met these guys before. These guys, Moses and Elijah, you know, were hearkening back to ancient Israelite history. And there's the declaration just in their presence of their ongoing life in the presence of the Lord, and how they're still serving God's purposes in their afterlife, but their real and fuller spiritual life with the Lord. But, Peter's never met them, and yet as soon as he lays eyes on them, he knows. This one is Moses, and this one's Elijah. He's not getting them mixed up. He's not calling them Isaiah and Jeremiah. He knows exactly who they are. How does he know that? He just knows. So, will we recognize each other in heaven? Absolutely. We'll be more instantly recognizable. And more so than we are here on earth, because we could walk into a number of different church services this morning, filled with people that truly know the Lord, and really we have no clue who those people are, other than we think they're probably Christians. In heaven, we'll know exactly who they are, and they'll know exactly who we are, and we'll be able to share fullness of fellowship with them, just like we do the believers that we take the time and the effort to spend time with here now in this world will experience that measure of fellowship and so much more with every single believer knowing exactly who they are in the heavenly circumstances that awaits us. Turn with me from there if you would to the book of Matthew chapter 22, a few chapters later. Second practical question, will we have families in heaven? What I mean by families are, when we arrive in heaven, will we have father and mother, as many of our fathers and mothers have already passed, and hopefully are in the presence of the Lord, in relationship with Him there. Will we have husband and wife in heaven? Will we have children in heaven? Will we have brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins? Will we have those kinds of relationships? In our life here in this world, it's not as much today in our present modern society as it was in older times, but it still should be this way. In our lives here on earth, our families and our family identities and our family relationships define our lives, for the most part. We identify ourselves by our family relationships. I'm so-and-so's son, I'm so-and-so's father, I'm so-and-so's husband, I'm so-and-so's uncle, I'm so-and-so's cousin or nephew. And that's a good thing. It's a holy thing. It's what God has designed in terms of creating the human race and intending for the human race to organize itself according to family groupings. And that serves God's purpose here in this world. However, that in one sense is going to be true of our life in heaven, and in another sense it's not going to be that way any longer. Is there any family in heaven? Answer, yes, of course. But what family? the family of God. That's the only family that's going to matter. Here on earth, families unite us within small groups, but in another sense, they distinguish us from each other and separate us on purpose from each other. And that serves God's purposes in a couple of different ways I won't get into for this particular teaching, but understand this, that in heaven, we're not going to need to be, and God does not intend for us to be, distinguished and separated from one another in that way. There's only one family in heaven, And one family matters alone, and that is the family of God. Whether or not you are part of that family has everything to do with whether you even gain entrance to heaven. But once you gain entrance there, you will be in family relationship with every other human spirit that is there in heaven. Now, what about, though, the relationships that we share now, and how important they are to us now? And are you telling me I won't recognize, for instance, my father, or my mother, or my husband, or my son, or my nephew, or uncle in heaven? No, you'll recognize them. I believe you'll recognize the relationship that you had with them on earth. But your relationship will be transformed so that you won't have the same relationship in heaven. You will have a greater, more heavenly relationship. In Matthew chapter 22 verse 23 to 30, this is one passage I'm sure you're familiar with, in which Jesus was in another confrontation here with a different a group of spiritual leaders, or religious leaders, I should more properly say, in Israel at the time, the Sadducees. The Sadducees struggled with some very core doctrines of the faith. For instance, they rejected the idea that there was ever even going to be a resurrection from the dead. And as part of Jesus correcting and confronting them, he answers a challenge that they issued to him. Let's read from verse 23. On that day, some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned him, asking, Teacher, Moses said, If a man dies, having no children, his brothers, as next of kin, shall marry his wife and raise up children for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers with us, and the first married and died, and having no children, left his wife to his brother, and so also the second and the third, down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died, In the resurrection, therefore, which, of course, they didn't believe in, they're just trying to trip Jesus up by creating a scenario that He couldn't possibly answer. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? In other words, they're saying, look, this woman has been righteously married to seven different individuals. Therefore, when we get into this resurrection that you talk about, which one will she be the wife of? And Jesus responded in verse 29, answered and said to them, you are mistaken. Not understanding the scriptures, nor the power of God. Meaning, that had they paid spiritual attention to what God had previously revealed in his word, there's enough information about the future life, and about the heavenly realities of that life, that is contained just in the Old Testament alone, that they should have drawn a wiser conclusion from that information. They're not understanding the scriptures, nor the power of God. Meaning, what they really are not getting is the transforming power of God in the future life to change and transform society as we know it, our lives as we know it, even our relationships as they presently are experienced and how it will be in that day. Verse 34 in the resurrection. They neither marry nor are given in marriage. Now this is of course speaking of the second coming of Christ in life as it will be experienced following that, but it encompasses and includes the way life is today in heaven. In heaven today, of course, human beings that are in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. Now, what's meant by that, of course, is not that they are angels. Human beings and angels are separate categories of existence. Those boundary lines are never to be crossed. They never will be crossed. It's not like, you know, we've had some famous movies and some famous television shows in our culture that portray the line between humans and angels is being blurred or obliterated. For instance, great movie, famous movie, actually I do love the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart. How many of you have seen it at least a dozen times, I'm sure? You know, they show it every year around Christmas time. And, you know, the basic, other than the story of Jimmy Stewart himself, the basic point of the story is it's about this angel, Clarence. who has to come back and help Jimmy Stewart through his life crisis, and by doing so, what is Clarence's goal in the movie? He wants to earn his wings. And Clarence is, at the moment of the unfolding, the beginning of the story, he's not a full-fledged angel because he doesn't have his wings. He's what? He's a human being who's died and gone into heaven, and is there in his training to become an angel status. And once he accomplishes the good deeds that he's supposed to accomplish as a human being, then he will earn his wings and become a full-fledged angel. You know, that's all a nice story, of course, but it's not true. We're all clear on that, right? That we don't go to... We don't go to It's a Wonderful Life for our theology. We go there for our entertainment. And it doesn't mean that God can't speak through a movie like that. God can speak. He's just not speaking to us about the nature of angels and human beings after they pass from this life. So what happens? In heaven, we're described as being like angels. We're never actually to become angels. We're like angels in the way that angels neither marry nor are given in marriage. Angels don't experience the same categories of relationship that so define our lives here in this world. Angels are nobody's brother, they're nobody's sister, they're nobody's aunt or uncle, they're nobody's nephew or cousin, they're nobody's father or mother. They're just servants of God, whose only defining relationship in life is their relationship to God Himself. And in that way, we will be like angels. We'll recognize each other in the sense of, when Sandy and I both pass to be in the presence of the Lord, I believe that I will forever know that she was on earth my wife. But she won't be my wife in heaven. Whose wife will she be? The wife of Christ himself. She's part of, as I will be, the bride of Christ. The only defining relationship in heaven is our relationship to God. Now, I'm going to stop with that point this morning. We're going to pick up next week with the question, will there be gender in heaven? Will there be such a thing as male and female? And we have some other questions to consider together that the scriptures do address and describe sufficiently for us to get our minds and hearts around those concepts. So let's stop, let's pray, and we'll entrust our study to the Lord. Father, I do want to thank you again for your exhortation to our hearts, through the Apostle Paul, to set our minds on the things above. And just in those words alone, Lord, we believe there is promise that if we do so, if we obey You, if we follow You and we set our minds on the things above, that You are there in that consideration to meet us and to use that very time to change and transform and continue to fulfill Your plan and purpose in our lives to carry us toward the goal of being conformed to the image of your son. I thank you for that. And I pray, Lord, that you would continue to prepare us to be a heavenly people, make us more heavenly in the rest of our lives here in this world. I thank you for that grace and trust you for that. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. The copyrighted product of Tree of Life Christian Church of Canoga Park, California. You are welcome to pass this message along to others as long as it is not sold and it is passed along unaltered in its entirety with source credit given to Tree of Life Christian Church.