Will We See Jesus but Not the Father in Heaven?

Will we see Jesus, but not the Father in heaven? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, hi, I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We'd love to hear from you, and our phone lines are open for the next 25 minutes or so. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com, and you can post your question at one of our social media sites. And watch Adriel right now live in the studio on YouTube and message us that way. Let's start off with one of our callers in Springfield, Missouri. Let's say hi to Jacqueline. Jacqueline, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes, hi. My question is about purgatory. I believe it is true that we have to be pure and holy before standing in the presence of the Lord. My mom believes that there needs to be a purging or purifying of ourselves when we enter heaven. So my question is, what does it mean for the person who believes that on one hand Jesus died for all of our sins, but on the other hand there's still a purgatory?

Yeah, thank you for that question. You know, the reality is, I think, when we approach the Lord, praise God that we're not saved by our perfect understanding of how salvation works, but by Jesus Christ. Faith is what saves us, but it's not the the strength of our faith or the perfection of our faith. It's the object of our faith. It's Jesus Christ. And so even if we were confused about certain things with regard to how salvation works, so long as it doesn't, you know, strike at the vitals of the gospel, well, we can still be saved even if we're confused about certain things.

And it sounds like there's some confusion here. This idea of, you know, the need for the purgation, the need for cleansing beyond what Christ has already done to make us fit to enter into the presence of the Lord isn't something that I think that we find in scripture. Jesus himself said in John chapter 5, truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. That is, when we believe in Jesus Christ, when we receive him by faith, we're already justified.

We have, we're presently in possession of eternal life. And we have the hope also that we're not going to enter into judgment. What that means is not that we're not going to stand before God on the day of judgment, but that we're not going to be condemned. And this is why John can tell us in 1 John that we don't have to have fear in the day of judgment because of the love of God. God's perfect love casts out all fear. And I find that for people who are afraid, thinking, oh man, I just have so much more cleansing that needs to be done before I can really enter into God's presence, there is that great fear, the fear of punishment. And so for that person, I think it's having a right understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the grace of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ to make us fit to stand before God on the day of judgment in his presence. I think of what the author of the Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14, speaking of Christ's priestly work and of his sacrifice for our sins, he wrote, by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Now, again, specifically to your question, does your mom's belief in purgatory, this thinking that, you know, I still need to go through this cleansing before I can really enter into the presence of God, does that mean that she isn't saved? No, I don't think that I would say that. I think I would just say that there's some confusion here and that you want to be able to communicate to her just how amazing the gospel is, that Christ's once for all sacrifice has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified, that we can stand in the presence of almighty God with confidence, coming to his throne of grace, not on the basis of our perfection. It's not that, you know, we've really purged all the sins out of our lives and so we're good.

No, it's solely on the basis of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, and if we have faith in Jesus, if your mom has faith in Jesus, she has that righteousness, and so that's a great comfort. Jaclyn, thank you for your question. God bless.

Great explanation. Thanks so much for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity, and we would love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life or maybe doctrine, theology, maybe you have some doubts about the Christian faith. We are open to any and all questions, and our phone lines will be open for the next 20 minutes. Here's the phone number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Brandon, who's calling in from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Brandon, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hey, thanks for taking my call. So my question is this.

Until recently, I was friends with somebody who is in the prosperity gospel or word of faith movement, and I told him that he needs to repent of this false gospel, and then I shared the true gospel with him, as well as some warnings of false teachers from scripture. Long story short, he ended our apprenticeship because of my rebuke, and although I'm fairly educated in this area, I wasn't really confident in my ability to have a conversation with him verbally, so I initiated this conversation over text message, which I don't think really helped the conversation. So my question is, how do I prepare myself to have these conversations face to face? Yeah, yeah, excellent question.

And, you know, I've been in similar situations where I've tried to talk to somebody over social media or something like that, and it's so hard to communicate the way you want to communicate when, you know, you're just behind a computer, you're sending somebody a text or leaving a message on Facebook. I understand that, you know, sometimes that's just the only way that you can go about it, and it's really convenient, but as much as is possible, especially because, as you noted, this is a real serious error. This is a heresy in the church today. The prosperity gospel movement and people who embrace this theology are headed for destruction.

I mean, really, if the gospel, quote unquote, that you believe is the prosperity gospel, then you don't understand the true gospel of Christ and what it's about. And so wanting to have these conversations face to face and to plead with brothers and sisters, with people who are confused, people who are deceived, I think is so important, but we want to do it, as Peter said in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, with gentleness and respect. And so I think in terms of preparing for these conversations, I think first and foremost, prayer is key. Prayer, ultimately, that the Holy Spirit would work in an individual's heart, helping them to see the error of their way so that they might come to repentance. I mean, it's what the disciples told Simon the Sorcerer in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 8, pray.

You need to pray. The reality is this is the work of the Holy Spirit. And so you pray for this person, but you also pray for yourself, that as you're confronting false teaching, you can do so in a way that communicates the love that you have for this person. This isn't just about having a theological argument or trying to win a debate. Too often, I think today, when we get into discussions or when people are getting into discussions, whether it's about politics or theology or whatever it is, it's almost like sport. We really want to just sort of beat the other side, show them how wrong they are, get them embarrassed and whatnot.

And I know that you weren't doing that at all, but we have to avoid that. We really want to communicate in a way that exhibits the love of Christ for people and the seriousness of bad theology. You know, I've been thinking recently, Brandon, about the prosperity gospel because I'm preaching through the book of Revelation. And this week, I'm actually going to be preaching through Jesus's letter to the church in Smyrna. And it just strikes me how even this little section of scripture right here totally contradicts the idea of the prosperity gospel that we read in Revelation, chapter 2, verse 8, to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, the words of the first and the last who died and came to life, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. And the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan, do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and for 10 days you will be tested, and for 10 days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. You know, it's so interesting about Jesus's letter to the church in Smyrna is he doesn't have anything bad to say about them. They're one of two churches in these churches that Jesus addresses that only receive commendation. There's no rebuke. There's no, hey, you need to do this. You need to repent.

No. This was a faithful church, and yet it was suffering. It was experiencing tribulation. It was experiencing poverty, and yet Jesus says you're rich. You see, the prosperity gospel teaches that when you're faithful to God, you know, God just wants to bless you. He wants you to have health and wellness.

If you don't have that, maybe it's because you're not faithful, but that's the exact opposite of what we see in scripture and there specifically in Revelation chapter 2 verses 8 and following. You can be faithful to Jesus and still suffer with sickness, with disease, with poverty, and yet you can be spiritually rich through the gospel, and that's what we want to help people understand. May the Lord help you, brother, in your conversations with your friend. I hope that the lines of communication can be opened again so that you guys can continue to have this very important discussion. God bless you. So important. Thank you for that, Adriel, and Brandon, thanks for listening to CORE Christianity there in Edmonton.

We really do appreciate you. By the way, our phone lines are open. If you have a question for Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life, give us a call, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Of course, you can always email us your question at questions at corechristianity.com. By the way, we have a great new free resource that we want to tell you about today. Yeah, it's a downloadable resource called Five Themes to Help You Understand the Bible. One of the things I've seen again and again as we're getting questions here on CORE Christianity, just in my own ministry as a pastor, is that people have a hard time understanding the big picture of the Bible, how it all relates. When you're looking at the Old Testament and the New Testament, the various themes in scripture that we see woven through the entire book, woven through the entire Bible, it's so important for us to see those things there and to understand where they point us ultimately to Jesus Christ.

This resource, Five Themes to Help You Understand the Bible, is going to dig into some of the most important themes that you see in scripture like covenants, law and gospel, the kingdom of God, and so forth. We hope that you get a hold of this resource. It will really bless you in your own study of the scriptures, and it'll deepen your understanding of the Word of God.

And again, it's absolutely free. You can find it by going to our website, corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, that's corechristianity.com forward slash offers, and look for Five Themes to Help You Understand the Bible.

This would be a great summer read for you and your family or maybe your small group from church. This is CORE Christianity, and we'd love to hear from you if you've got a question about the Bible, the Christian life, or theology, doctrine, how your Christian faith intersects with what's going on in today's culture. Give us a call 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

By the way, you can also leave us a voicemail here 24 hours a day, and here's a voicemail from one of our callers named Lorna. I want to know if when we get to heaven will we be able to see God or just Jesus because 1st Matthew 6 chapter 16 says, He alone can never die and He lives in light. So brilliant that no human can approach Him. No human has ever seen Him nor ever will. So I wanted to know if God will be there and we'll be able to see Him.

Thank you for your answer. Yeah, excellent question. There's something that theologians have talked about that you see in scripture because the Bible does say very clearly that we are going to see God. You think about Jesus, you know, when He gave the Beatitudes, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be sons of God. There are going to be some people, right, the pure in heart, who Jesus says see God. Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 said, Now we see through a mirror dimly, but then, that is when we're in heaven, we're in the presence of the Lord, we will see face to face. Or my favorite verse to go to when thinking about this is in 1st John. Listen to what John said in 1st John chapter 3 verse 2. Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is and everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. In other words, the people of God have this hope that one day we will see God and it's what theologians referred to as the beatific vision. We will see have a vision of God the Holy Trinity in the presence of God in heaven. Now is that a contradiction from what Paul says in 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 16, the passage that you brought up? Speaking of God, it says, Who alone has immortality, who dwells in an approachable light, whom no one has seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen. Well, when we see God in heaven, when we experience this beatific vision, the vision that brings happiness, joy, fullness, it's not in the sense that we're going to see God, you know, in His essence with our eyeballs, you know, with our physical eyes. It's just a spiritual experience through the grace of the Holy Spirit. It's only by the grace of the Spirit that we're going to experience that vision that the scriptures speak about. And so we will have an experience of the presence of God, the vision of God, not a physical vision, but this spiritual experience.

And I think with regard to, you know, certainly, I mean, we believe that Jesus Christ has a body even now, resurrected body, the new creation. We're going to be with Him. We're going to see Him and experience Him and worship Him. And so, yes, we are going to, we're going to have this vision of God. It's in one sense a great mystery, but it's ultimately the great hope that we have through the grace of God. And through that vision, we're going to experience everlasting joy and happiness.

And so it's what we look forward to. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Melissa, who's calling in from Kansas City, Kansas. Melissa, what's your question for Adriel?

Hello, thank you for taking my question. I was wondering about when it comes to leadership in the church. Classically, you know, you hear for Christian churches, non-denominational churches, that you would have the lead pastor, along with the associate pastor, and then a board of some kind. Well, what about when you have a church where there's the lead pastor that makes all the financial decisions, and what he says goes, and there's no board?

Hey, Melissa, well, I mean, that sounds like it could be a recipe for disaster. I think ultimately what we want to do is look to the scriptures to determine how local churches should be governed. And in the New Testament, the local churches were governed by a group of elders, by a plurality of elders. And these were men who helped to oversee the spiritual matters in the church, the care of the church. You had deacons also who were helping to distribute resources, money to those who had needs. And that was the structure of the church. It wasn't that you just had one pastor all by himself who was in control of everything and sort of held everything with a tight fist.

No, ordinarily what you're supposed to have is a group of called qualified men who are serving the church in this capacity. And this is why Paul wrote to Titus saying, this is why I left you in Crete. This is Titus chapter one verse five, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

Very clear right there. And then he goes into the qualifications for these elders. And one of the qualifications that you get in Titus and also in 1 Timothy three is that they cannot be a lover of money.

In other words, this is not someone who's known for greediness, stinginess, love of money. Now there are instances where say you have a church planter who goes and plants a church and doesn't have time to raise up elders. Usually it's really helpful in those contexts to have kind of an outside elder board or group of people who are helping to give accountability. So, you know, in extraordinary circumstances you might have a situation where a church is, you know, a lot of the work is being done by an individual, a missionary, or a church planter. But the way it's intended to be in scripture and what we should pursue is that plurality of governance within the local church so that you have accountability, oversight. And frankly, I'm just speaking now as a pastor myself, I lean on the elders of our church so much for a lot of what happens in the life of our church because one person can't do everything and shouldn't do everything. I mean inevitably that's when things start to go south because you just don't have the gifts, you don't have the capacity, you don't have the ability to be the lone elder in a church, especially if it's a larger church, but also doing everything else as well.

And so we need each other. We have different gifts in the body, and we should pursue that structure or that model of church I think that we see in the New Testament. Melissa, God bless. Thanks so much, Melissa, for listening to Core Christianity. Just a reminder, we have that wonderful free resource available for you today. It's called Five Themes to help you understand the Bible. It's our new Core Guide.

We have several great Core Guides available at our website. If you want to get this one, just go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers and look for that new one, Five Themes to help you understand the Bible. Well, let's go back to the phones. Ron from Oklahoma City is on the line. Ron, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Ron, are you there? All right, I guess Ron hung up.

Let's try going to Dennis in North Lake, Illinois. Dennis, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor. My question is about I haven't been studying. I haven't been feeling well lately, but I have studied diligently for many years.

I'm 72 years old right now, and I intend on going back as soon as this aggravating condition leaves me. It kind of debilitates my thinking and my concentration, and it's in my ear constantly, so you could figure out what I'm talking about. But the question I have is about the verse. You could tell me where it's found because my memory is fading lately, and I used to know where it's found, of course, but the verse has something like, I'm not sure it's exactly what I'm saying, but meditate on my word. You're talking about the church, you know, God's people meditate on my word day and night that might not sin against me.

I don't know if I'm saying every word perfectly, but if you could expound upon that and kind of explain your view of it and how it helps the Christian to follow that commandment. Yeah, I think what you're getting at is Psalm 119, verse 11, where the psalmist says, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you, especially Psalm 119. There's so many beautiful meditations on the law of God, on the word of God, and these repeated calls to meditate on the word, to memorize scripture, to focus on God's law.

You see this also at the very beginning of the book of Psalms. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. If we want to be rooted in life, if we want stability, if we want to not be blown around by all the winds of doctrine that are out there, well, here's what we need to do. Meditate on God's word.

Meditate on scripture. That's exactly what the Psalmist is saying there. You're going to be like a tree deeply rooted by streams of living water. Yeah, the winds are going to blow, earthquakes are going to happen, trials are going to come, but you are going to be grounded in the law of the Lord. The wicked are not so. They're like dandelions, if you will. The wind starts to blow, and they're going here, there, and everywhere because they're not rooted.

They don't have any stability. You see this over and over again in the Psalms. How do we go about doing this, memorizing the scriptures? I think it's simple.

I think it takes consistency. I think there are different ways we can approach the Bible. I think just reading scripture every day, having a steady diet of reading the Bible is important. Maybe where you're just going through books of the Bible, you have a Bible reading plan, but then also stopping and saying, hey, I'm going to pick some passages to really meditate on, to focus on, to memorize so that I can repeat them to myself. I was talking to someone the other day who's shut in, who's not able to come to church, and she told me, you know, I haven't really been able to go to church. I haven't been able to even read the Bible because of my condition, but those passages that I've memorized have become treasures to me because I'm repeating them in my mind over and over again, and God is nourishing me through his word.

She's struggling, but you know what? She's grounded in the law of the Lord and experiencing God's grace, and we all want that for ourselves as well. And so may the Lord help each of us and help you, Dennis, to meditate on the law of the Lord. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.