Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. So, what's it going to be like? Will Heaven be like all those movies show it, clouds, gates, angels, harps?
Will there be a check-in desk? One day believers will cross the ultimate finish line. Today, a first glimpse at what that will be like.
Get ready. In a moment, the grand tour begins. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, we are learning from you what happens one minute after you die. Will St. Peter be at the gate checking who makes it in and who doesn't?
Tell us about Welcome, You Have Arrived. Well Dave, I certainly expect Peter to be in Heaven, but I don't expect him to be at the check-in desk. That's a responsibility that belongs to Jesus. The Bible says that everyone who dies ultimately encounters Christ, either as Savior or as Judge. Now, I need to emphasize that I believe that in Heaven we won't even need name tags. I think we are going to know each other intuitively. But Jesus is the one who will welcome us.
Just think, for example, of the death of Stephen. Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father, ready to welcome him into glory. Let me ask you a question. Have you been blessed as a result of the ministry of Running to Win?
Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? You say, well Pastor Lutzer, I need more info, of course. At the end of this broadcast, I'm going to be giving you some info that you can check out. It's because of people just like you that we can continue to expand this ministry. This is the fourth message in a series entitled One Minute After You Die. One Minute After You Die. So what happens one minute after you die? Well, first of all, I think it's safe to say that if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you will see angels. Luke chapter 16 talks about Lazarus who died, and it says angels carried him into Abraham's bosom. It makes sense because in the spirit world there are both angels and demons, and if you belong to Jesus Christ, of course, it is the angels that will welcome you into your eternal home. You recall back in 1956 when those missionaries were killed, those five missionary martyrs. It is now said by those who have told the story since that event so many years ago that they actually saw angels above the trees singing.
One woman said that she did not recognize the sound until years later she became a Christian and she heard the singing on Christian records. There were beings there. There were beings there that were cited by a number of the people who were involved in the killings. Again, it makes sense because angels who guard us and whose responsibility it is to protect the people of God and to be involved in our lives, they would be very interested in something that would be that dramatic and, in a sense, so wonderful if looked at from the standpoint of heaven.
What else? Well, one minute after you die, you'll see Christ and he will know your name. The Bible says that he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. I'm so glad that he keeps all those names straight.
Those of you with the name Smith, I thought that possibly there'd be something that you might worry about but you need not. He'll keep them all straight and he'll distinguish all of those who are his. The Scripture assures us of that. Well, when we die, people bury our body but they do not bury us. They can't bury you because you will live on. And so I want all of you to have a good time at my funeral because I'm not going to be there. You understand? I'm not going to be there.
I hope that the clapping didn't mean that you wish that this would happen a lot sooner than I was planning to have it happen. I want you to take your Bibles today and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and we will be looking at the text in a few moments. But first of all, I want to discuss with you briefly what it is that stays the same when we make that transfer from this life to the next. We will talk about the differences and specifically the resurrection body but let us ask this question. If it is true as the Bible teaches that we go from this world to the next without a break in consciousness and that really one second after we die, we are already in the presence of Christ. If that is true, what is it that stays the same? Well, first of all, personal knowledge continues.
Personal knowledge, the knowledge that you had here is transferred over there because you're the same person. You remember the rich man who died? The Scripture says that – and this was part of our message several messages ago – there he is in Hades and he remembers that he has five brothers. He knew who he was on earth. He knew his family structure. He knew his mother and his father. He remembered the good times that the family had together.
All of these things were present to him. You take for example on the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter, James, and John had the privilege of meeting Moses and Elijah. They were aware of who they were.
There were no need for name tags. Everyone knew what was going on up there and they became aware of themselves and certainly that was true of Moses and Elijah because they are the same people as they were here on earth. Oh, I know sinless now, but the same people. Here's what the Scripture says. We shall know even as we are known. We won't know everything.
We won't be omniscient, but we'll surely know more in heaven than we do here today. So personal knowledge continues. Secondly, personal love continues.
You'll notice again the rich man said, I have five brothers and he said, send someone to warn them that they don't come to the same place. This man was willing to endure eternity without ever seeing his brothers again if only they would be exempt from the torture that he himself was experiencing. But it was the natural human love, the natural affection that someone has for his family.
Of course that continues to the other side. I speak today to a widow and your husband has gone on to glory. Does he still love you today? Of course he loves you. He loves you with a purer love. He loves you in a way that perhaps he was not able to love you here on earth because he is the same person. Is he interested in what you are doing on this earth?
Yes. Can he see you and your actions? Probably not. I don't think the redeemed in heaven are looking down and watching us. They're going to have a lot better things to do than to do that, but it is possible that they can receive regular updates if they so wish.
I can't imagine that such a request would be denied them. I like what Chet Bitterman said. You remember he had a son who died as a martyr. He said, we have eight children. All of them are living. One of them is living in heaven and the other seven are living here on earth.
Yes, his son is living and he still is Chet Bitterman's son. That's another mistake people make. You know, because Jesus said on one occasion that when we die, we are like the angels who neither marry nor are given in marriage. They think that somehow when we get to heaven, we are going to be sexless like the angels are, that we will be neither male nor female. That's not what Jesus meant. Jesus meant that in heaven there is no marriage.
There is no procreation. There are no baby angels, but Jesus didn't mean that your mother in heaven would no longer be known as your mother. Of course she will be known as your mother and of course you will know her again. You will not know less in heaven than you certainly know and feel and understand here on earth. I refer again to the story I told you perhaps a year and a half ago about Natalie Worley, Pastor Worley and Jean Worley's daughter, who when her grandfather died asked Pastor Worley this question. Daddy, is it okay if we pray to Jesus to get a message to grandpa? And Pastor Worley told me that he struggled with that a while and then realized that there was nothing in his theology that would prevent someone praying to Jesus to get a message to grandpa and just think of the wisdom of this little girl because she knew much better than millions of other people. She knew that one thing you don't do is pray to grandpa to get a message to Jesus. You don't do it that way. So let's remember that when people die, they are the same people on the other side and don't you dare, don't you dare try to communicate with them in any direct way. The Bible forbids that and there's so much deception in those areas because of evil spirits that take the names and the knowledge of departed ones and these apparitions sometimes can be very, very deceiving.
The Bible forbids that. But personal love continues. Thirdly, feelings continue. The feelings, we've already talked about feelings of love, but just think of the purest joy that you have ever had. How would you experience, how would you describe the most blessed experience that you've ever had? Free of guilt, free of care, the peace of God filling your heart.
Now multiply that many times over. In thy presence there is fullness of joy at that right hand. There are pleasures forevermore. What about feelings, a desire for justice?
Will that still be there? You say, oh no, you know, once we die, we're so perfect we won't even think about such things. Of course we will because I shall say it only one more time.
We are the same people over there as we are here. Notice this and I want you to take your Bibles, keep it in your finger in 2 Corinthians 5, but turn to Revelation chapter 6. This passage will become important for another reason as I shall show you in a moment. But Revelation chapter 6, it says in verse 9, when he broke the fifth seal I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the fruit of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, how long, oh Lord, holy and true wilt thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? They, they desired vengeance. And if you don't like that word, then let me change it and say they desired justice. It's a human desire and justice had failed them and there was still a day coming when justice would be brought to their situation. And they said, how long, oh Lord, until justice rules.
They had died, but that's the way they were feeling. So personal feelings also continue. Selectivities continue. I can't prove it scripturally, but my suspicion is that if you're a scientist here on earth, you're going to be a scientist in heaven exploring all kinds of new ideas and all kinds of different ways of God's miraculous, great creation. You can certainly continue to do that. If you're an artist, you will see beauty and participate in beauty as you've never known it. Certainly if you're into music, you're going to have something to do in heaven, but there are some professions that won't have anything to do and that is preachers and nurses and doctors. We're going to have to be retrained when we get to heaven because we can't continue what we're doing. Jonathan Edwards says that the ideas of the saints will extend to eternity. He says they will begin by contemplating the providential guidance of God in the lives of his people and then having contemplated that, they will begin to contemplate the various attributes of God and the ideas of God are vast enough and eternal enough to go on forever.
Yes, some things will change, but some things will remain the same. Now let's look at the passage of scripture in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 because we'd like to discuss the present body that those who die now have and we wish that the scriptures were clearer about this, but Paul says, for we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1 verse 2, for indeed in this house we groan longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven in as much as we having put it on shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent we groan being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up in life.
What does Paul mean? Now let me say that there is a debate here as to what Paul meant when he said that if we die and if this tent gets put away, we have a building of God eternal in the heavens. And the question is, is he referring to the body, and we'll put that word in quotes for now, the body that people have when they die now? Or is Paul looking forward toward the resurrection body, our permanent eternal dwelling place?
Now you must understand that there are really only two possibilities here. One is that when you die, your body of course gets put into the grave, and then your soul or your mind, we sometimes refer to it as the spirit, goes to God. And some people say that God has a body prepared for you up there, a temporary one. And then after Jesus Christ comes and the resurrection takes place, that one gets discarded and you get your permanent eternal resurrected body. The problem with that view is this, why all this great emphasis in the scriptures on resurrection? Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 devotes verse after verse and paragraph after paragraph to the fact that we shall be raised, we shall be raised, it is the great hope of the church. If you already have a body in heaven, then why all this emphasis on getting your permanent one?
The intermediate one may serve just as well. So there's another possibility and it's the one that I prefer, and that is that the soul takes on the characteristics of the body until the day of resurrection when we get our permanent body. That is to say that the soul is able to think and communicate and talk. Remember the rich man in hell said, would you send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and touch my tongue?
Communication, hearing all of the things that are necessary for us to communicate in this world and in the world to come. Now what makes me think that souls may have that ability? Well I hope that you still have your Bible turned to the book of Revelation chapter six. A moment ago I read about the souls of those who were beneath the altar who are crying out and saying, how long, O Lord, wilt thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood? Verse 11. And there was given to each of them a white robe and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been, should be completed also.
Parenthesis. Notice how when people die, they die according to God's schedule and according to God's will. Those who yet should be slain and put to death had to be put to death before vengeance would be brought to that situation. But my point is in the beginning of verse 11 there was given unto them white robes. I saw the souls of those who were beneath the altar.
They are communicating, they are listening, and they can even symbolically at least wear a white robe. So I take it that when you leave this life and you go into the next, your soul begins to take on these characteristics so that you recognize Christ, so that you can think, so that you can feel, so that you can communicate. But what about the future body that we're going to have? The permanent resurrected body.
What a glorious, glorious experience that is going to be. Now some people think that God is going to create it ex nihilo, that is to say out of nothing. They say God is just going to create all these bodies for us and they won't have any connection with the body that we had here on earth. Listen, if that were true, why wouldn't Christ's physical earthly body be still in the tomb and then God create a brand new one for him and he use that?
No, there's continuity. That's why in the Bible and the early Christians, they always buried their dead because the body was sown into the ground as a seed expected to bear fruit eventually in the day of resurrection. We don't have time to turn to it, but you know, in first Corinthians chapter 15, the Bible Paul says it is sown a perishable body and our bodies are perishing.
From the moment we are born, we begin to perish. He said it is sown in dishonor. You'll notice that whenever a body is removed from a building, it is always wrapped in a shroud or a blanket is laid over the body so that you can't see it. That is out of respect and the shame of the body, the humiliation, the weakness of the body.
Let me say it that way. The weakness of the body, you don't even want to see it with a human eye. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in strength. It is sown in dishonor.
It is raised in power. All right, you want to ask the question, Pastor Luther, when is that going to happen? Well, that's going to take place in the day of resurrection and we can be assured that that day will happen.
We are all going to be raised, some onto life and some onto everlasting death. We here at Running to Win rejoice in the fact that this ministry is heard in many countries of the world, including Nigeria. By the way, I have in my hands here a letter from someone listening in Africa.
There is a boost I get in my faith every time I listen to your ministry. Keep it up. You know why we can keep it up? It's because of people just like you.
Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? Here's what you do. I sure hope that you have a pen or pencil in your hands.
Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com and of course, RTWOffer is all one word. RTWOffer.com and when you're there, you click on the endurance partner button or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337.
Thank you so much in advance for helping us. It's because as I frequently mention, people just like you who are a part of this ministry. Right now, go to RTWOffer.com, click on the endurance partner button. It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Steve listens to Running to Win in Camp Point, Illinois.
He has this question. What is your opinion of God calling someone into pastoral ministry during midlife and the best way to confirm that call? I know I can preach and teach, but is that the only indication of a call into vocational ministry?
Steve, just a couple of things. First of all, the call, I believe, begins with an inward unction. You know, the apostle Paul said, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. I think that there is a divine call that begins with the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Secondly, we have to have the right gifting, and apparently you do, to be able to preach and to teach.
But third, this is very critical. I believe that a call has to be confirmed by the body of Jesus Christ. I've known situations in which someone said that he was called to preach, but apparently nobody was called to listen because he didn't have the gifting to be able to preach.
So what we need to do is to consult the body. The fact that you are in midlife does not trouble me. I think that God can take someone in midlife and lead them indeed into vocational Christian ministry. But the point that I think is missing in your question has to do with a confirmation of those who know you best and the body of Christ where you serve. Next time, a closer look at the brand new body believers will have in the life to come. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
