View from Death's Door - Part 2 - Part B

So death is the great separator, but Jesus is the great reuniter.

What a what a great thought. I was thinking this week, and I mean this, one of the greatest things in heaven that I'm going to enjoy is being with you without limitation. You know, we get to connect sometimes after a service and exchange hello and pray for one another. But then we have to go home. Well, there's another service to do, but there we'll be home.

We can hang out for two, three hundred thousand million billion years and move on to the next person because we got forever. Do you have any prized possessions? Perhaps a collection of baseball cards or rare coins or maybe it's that fancy new car in the driveway. But whatever your favorite possession may be, one day you'll have to leave it behind.

The saying is true. The only thing we'll take with us when we die is our relationships. And today here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, as Skip Heitzig continues our latest series From the Edge of Eternity, we'll find out why that's a good thing. But before we get started today, here's all the info about our Connect with Skip resource this month, The Biography of God. Does God exist? And if He does, is it possible to know Him? Your answer to those two questions shapes how you see the world.

Skip Heitzig once wrestled with those very questions himself. You know, I've been teaching the Bible for over three decades before I became a Christian. And when I was new to the faith, I studied science and philosophy alongside the Bible. As I studied, I grew confident that God does exist. And yes, we can know Him. In Biography of God, the brand new book by Skip Heitzig, you'll learn to remove the limits you may have placed on your idea of who God is. Everything changes when you acknowledge and believe that God is who He says He is. Biography of God is our way to thank you when you give $35 or more today to help expand this Bible teaching outreach to more people.

Request your copy when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. If you're following along today, you'll want to turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 as we join Pastor Skip to wrap up this message. The most important thing to remember, since it's sketchy, is that you will be fully conscious and the relationship gets really good. However you imagine that is how you imagine that. Now, perhaps the moment you die, you will see angels escorting you into God's presence. Because in Luke chapter 16, the story Jesus gave of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus, it says the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's bosom. Maybe you'll see that at the moment of your death. Perhaps at the moment of your death, you'll hear Jesus call your name and maybe you'll see Him as He stands to receive you in His presence. When Stephen was being pelted with stones before he died in Acts chapter 7, he said, look, I see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father, welcoming Him in heaven. And maybe you'll hear Him call your name because Jesus said in John chapter 10, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep. They hear my voice and I will call them by name.

What could be cooler than that for you to hear the Lord Jesus Christ announce your name as you enter into His presence? I heard of a pastor who had a friend and the friend lost his wife. And the pastor came up to his friend and said, I'm so sorry, I heard that you lost your wife.

And the man turned to the pastor and smiled and said, come on, pastor, you know better than that. Something isn't lost when you know where it is. She's not lost. I didn't lose her.

I know what you meant by that, but I know exactly where she is. That's the most important truth. The third truth here that brings assurance to the believer is what death leads to. It leads to resurrection. Look at verse 15 and 16. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. Keep in mind, Paul is writing to the Thessalonians who thought, oh, what about my loved ones who died? They're going to miss out when Jesus comes back.

He's saying they won't miss anything. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise. There's the resurrection, will rise first. So when Jesus comes back for the church, we call that the rapture. That will be the resurrection day for the dead believers in Christ. That's resurrection day. And it will be transformation day for all those who haven't died, who are alive when that happens. Listen to Paul's writing in Philippians 3 20 and 21. He says, for our citizenship, literally our politics, is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he's able to subdue all things to himself. I don't know if you agree with Paul's description about your body.

Notice what he called it? Who will transform our lowly body. Now, you may not agree with that, but I'll dare say the older you get, you'll start nodding more and more with text of Scripture like this.

You go, yeah, I think he had it right. Especially when you think where it's going to end up in the resurrection. He's going to transform our lowly body into his glorious body. Ever see Extreme Makeover?

This is the ultimate extreme makeover. Your body will be totally changed at the resurrection. And it says here in our text that the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. Remember when the Lord stood before the tomb of Lazarus? He didn't whisper, did he? He didn't say, Lazarus, it's me. He shouted, Lazarus, come forth. And why did he shout? Because Lazarus was dead and he couldn't. No, that's not why he did it.

He did it to announce the event. For the presence of everyone standing around, this will be a shout from heaven. So here's the sequence. At the coming of the Lord for the church, the rapture, the first thing that will happen is all those who have died in past history, who are believers in Christ, at that moment will be a resurrection. That's where they are joined to their newly redone body. Immediately after that event, and probably almost simultaneous to it, immediately afterwards will be a total physical transformation of believers who are alive. It's like a transformation, a resurrection, without having to die for those who are alive.

So a combination of the descending Lord from heaven and the ascending saints on earth. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51 through 53. Now, 1 Corinthians 15, it'll be a passage we'll look at more in the future, but let me just whet your appetite.

Because you got to pull in a lot of these to understand Paul's and the Lord's theology on these truths. Paul writes this, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, which means die. I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

I hear there's a church somewhere that has that over their nursery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. But that is not what it's referring to at all in this passage. He continues, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So imagine what's included in these verses. The earth and the sea yielding up the dust, the particles of all of the dead who have ever died, who are believers in Christ. And that transforming miracle whereby all of those particles are transformed into a body that will see no death, no sickness, no pain, no disease. And then a quick space trip up to heaven where we're always with the Lord, all in the twinkling of an eye.

That's the resurrection that we look forward to. There were a couple guys who were raised in the jungles of Indonesia. They had never seen a large city before. They had never been to America. They were saved by a couple of missionaries who went there and they brought these guys back to New York City.

Imagine being raised in the jungles and seeing New York for the first time. So they walk into a large hotel. They'd never seen an elevator. They just see these doors open up and these two elderly women walk through the doors of the elevator.

The doors close. They just see they go into a room and then the numbers move up and back and then five minutes later the doors open again and out walk two young beautiful girls. Now they'd never seen this before. So imagine what they're thinking. The guy turns to the other guy and says, oh man we've got to bring our wives to ride in that machine.

Nah, you don't. We'll all have an extreme makeover at the resurrection, coming of the Lord. Now all of this, again go back to verse 14, all of this is based upon what already happened. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead because he raised will be raised. Our bodies will also be raised and totally, totally transformed. I read something that was a very helpful analogy to me.

Maybe it will be to you. There was a scientist working in his lab and he had a beaker of very strong acid. And as he was working and there was the beaker of acid on the table, an object made out of silver fell into the acid and it immediately dissolved. So the scientist placed some chemical compound into that solution and after a period of time all the particles of silver came together at the bottom of the vase in a formless mass. He drained the beaker, washed off the silver, and sent it to a silversmith where he reconstructed it and made it a beautiful, shiny, silver goblet.

Total change from those existing materials. And that is a good illustration really of the resurrection, what will happen to our bodies as they get reconstituted, resurrected, exchanging the old for the new. More on that later, but look at verse 17. Here's the fourth truth that brings assurance. It's going to end in a beautiful reunion. Verse 17, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Notice those words together with them. Who's the them? Those who have died and are now resurrected. Those who are alive, let's say the Lord comes back tomorrow.

All of that instantaneous change occurs and then you're together with them. No wonder, he writes in verse 18, comfort one another with these words. There's going to be a reunion with your father who's in God's presence today or your mother who's in God's presence today or your brothers or your children and your heart has been aching so long because you miss them so much you will see them again if they are believers in Christ and you are a believer in Christ. I love the story.

It's in Luke chapter 7 where Jesus is in the little town called Nain and there's a son of a widow who dies and Jesus goes to that town raises the boy from the dead and then it says Jesus presented the boy to the mother. I think he took great delight in that tender here. Here's the reunion.

Here's your son back. You can now enjoy life together. Jesus will have that same tender ministry in heaven of reuniting families and spouses and friends together. So death is the great separator but Jesus is the great reuniter.

What a great thought. I was thinking this week and I mean this, one of the greatest things in heaven that I'm going to enjoy is being with you without limitation. You know we get to connect sometimes after a service and exchange hello and pray for one another but then we have to go home or well there's another service to do but there we'll be home. We can hang out for two, three hundred thousand million years and then move on to the next person because we got forever.

Just endless joy in that reunion. Now that brings up a question that I want to address here before we close. It's often asked especially as we think through all of these truths we've heard so far. Spirit or soul leaves the body, we're in God's presence, what's that going to be like?

And here comes the inevitable question. Will we recognize each other in heaven? Will we recognize each other in heaven? After all Jesus said in heaven there's not marrying or given in marriage but we're like the angels.

We'll discuss what that means at a later date. Will we recognize each other in heaven? Well remember when Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were transfigured before the disciples and Peter, James, and John were there to see it? Did they recognize Moses and Elijah though they had been dead 900 years?

Yeah instantly, intuitively they did. I don't think Moses wore a name tag or Elijah, Elijah. I don't think Jesus had to give a formal introduction. Moses, Peter, Peter, Elijah.

I don't think he had to do that. There was just this intuitive knowledge in that event and I believe in heaven on the other side of this earthly existence. Since we have such limited knowledge now, our knowledge will be greatly expanded so that we'll immediately know those that we've known, pick up where we left off, and recognize others who we've heard about but have not yet met.

And that's because in 1st Corinthians 13 verse 12 Paul writes, for now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face, now I know in part but I shall fully know, is the translation, even as I am fully known. I've always loved, I think he did it the best, the way Charles Spurgeon answered this very question. Someone came up to him and said, Mr. Spurgeon, will we recognize each other in heaven? And he simply said, well do you think in heaven we'll be more stupid than we are now?

I mean if you can do it here and now, don't you think in heaven you'll have at least that same ability? Well, there is great assurance and confidence and enough, as it says in verse 18, comfort one another with these words. I'd like to close with a story. Philip Yancey likens death to birth in a very inventive way.

Listen to what he says. Each of our individual deaths, writes Yancey, can be seen as a birth. Imagine what it would be like if you had full consciousness as a fetus and could remember those sensations. Your world is dark, safe, secure. You're bathed in warm liquid, cushioned from shock. You do nothing for yourself. You are fed automatically. And a murmuring heartbeat assures you that someone larger than you fills all of your needs. Your life consists of simple waiting.

You're not sure what to wait for, but any change seems far away and scary. You meet no sharp objects. There is no pain, no threatening adventures.

It's a fine existence. But one day you feel a tug. The walls are falling in on you. Those soft cushions are now pulsing and beating against you, crushing you downwards. Your body is bent double, your limbs twisted and retched. You're falling upside down. For the first time in your life you feel pain.

You're in a sea of rolling matter. There's more pressure, almost too intense to bear. Your head is squeezed flat. And you are pushed harder and harder into a dark tunnel. Oh, the pain, the noise, more pressure. You hurt all over. You hear a groaning sound and an awful sudden fear rushes through you.

It's happening. Your world is collapsing. You're sure it's the end. Then you see a piercing, blinding light and cold rough hands pull at you and a painful slap.

Congratulations, he writes, you have just been born, writes Yancy. Death is like that. On this end of the birth canal it seems fearsome, pretentious and full of pain. Death is a scary tunnel and we are being sucked toward it by a powerful force. That's a really brilliant description of death because to a child about to be born, what is birth and wonderful life must seem horrible and cold and foreign and painful. But then life, and so it is in our death, what seems painful will give birth to immediate full satisfying relationship with Christ, future resurrection of our body and reunion with those that we miss so dearly. No wonder he says, comfort one another with these words.

Well, there's so much comfort for believers in Jesus, isn't there? And that's a warm reminder we'll all hold close to our hearts today. This is Connect with Skip weekend edition and the message you heard today was titled View from Death's Door and just one of 17 teachings from the Edge of Eternity series. You can pick up all 17 messages on CD for only $39 plus shipping. Order now online at connectwithskip.com or when you call us at 1-800-922-1888. And as we finish up today, let's take a moment to discuss today's topic with Skip and his wife Lenya in studio now.

Lenya? Skip, today you reminded us of the most amazing part of heaven, at least that's what so many of us look forward to that have a faith and have seen friends or family pass, and that is seeing a loved one again, being with the people that we have missed. And you can't take things to heaven, can you?

You really can't take any property, and you really can't take someone with you as much as you might like to. We can't take relationships. They have to come to Christ and to be there with us in heaven. So how could we intentionally cultivate relationships or witness to friends and family so that they could be with us in heaven? Well, you hit the nail on the head. First of all, we need to share our faith with them, and hopefully they'll receive the Savior that we're talking about and know.

And that's why we live with the angst that we live with. We have a joy, but we have this kind of gnawing knowing that there are people out there that don't know Jesus Christ, some of our own family members, some of our dearest friends, people that we go to the store and see when we're shopping, and that should provoke us enough to somehow want to expose them to the gospel, because without the gospel of salvation, they won't be in heaven. But then, beyond that, let's assume the people in your circle that we're talking about are all believers.

You want to edify them. You want to prepare them, in a sense, for heaven beyond just getting them saved. You want them to enjoy the comfort and the fellowship with the Lord. And yes, heaven is going to be a reunion with those whom we love and who knew Christ and passed away. It's not just everyone that we love will be in heaven, but it's everyone who knew Christ that we love will be in heaven. So there will be a reunion with those people. And it's interesting, because you're even asking your question, I think it's true, that a lot of people see that as sort of the paramount experience of heaven. We're going to be reunited. No, the paramount experience in heaven won't be the reunion. It'll be the union that we have with Christ. We get to see him for the first time, and like face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball, and be in the presence of God and get overwhelmed.

And then that theater, that arena of the saints and the angels worshiping him, it's going to be so magnificent. The only way we could do that and be equipped to do that is to die and get a whole new constitution to be able to handle it. So that's where death does us a favor. Well, thanks a lot for that, Skip and Laniya. And remember to add Skip to your social media accounts for regular updates. And the hub for all that is at connectwithskip.com. What happens between death and the resurrection of our bodies? We'll consider that next time as Skip begins this teaching, Groaning for Glory. Connect with Skip, weekend edition, is a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never changing truth, in ever-changing times.