Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Once I reach heaven, will my body pass through solid matter?
Will my scars be gone and will others recognize me? Believers want to know what we'll look like after crossing life's finish line. Since most of us could use some improvement, today we'll take a likely look at what you'll look like up there. 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, one minute after you die is your current series. As you talk further about believers arriving in heaven, you'll be taking us again into 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
And you know, Dave, the Bible doesn't answer all of the questions that you have posed with a great deal of clarity, but it gives us the kind of hints that we need to begin to envision the glories that await all those whose faith is in Jesus Christ. You know, to our many listeners, some of you perhaps have heard a few of these messages, perhaps you've had to miss some of them. Would you like to have them in permanent form so that you can share them with your friends? Well, for a gift of any amount, we're making these messages available. Of course, the title is One Minute After You Die. Here's what you do.
Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. We'd love for you to have this series of messages. We believe that it will be transforming for you and for all who listen. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in strength. It is sown in dishonor.
It is raised in power. Come with me to a hospital room and we go through the hallway. Here's a young woman, 34 years old, but nonetheless dying of cancer. Here's a man with heart disease. And if we go to another part of the hospital, here are children dying of every disease known to man, including some rare diseases that have never been fully analyzed.
There are so many different ways to go. And our bodies are weak and perishable, but it is raised in honor. It is raised in glory. Paul says it is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. Some people have thought that means that when we get to heaven we are going to be spirits or our new body will be a spiritual body.
No, not quite. You see, a spirit like an angel, so far as we know, they don't eat any food. Those are spirits.
Those are ministering spirits. But Jesus after the resurrection said, come and touch me. He said, handle me because a spirit does not have flesh and bones. So our body is going to be a physical body with flesh and bones, but it will be recreated so that it will be eternal and indestructible and we shall have it for all of eternity. This is the promise. This is the promise that we shall be like him, the scripture says, for we shall see him as he is. You're going to be like Christ. It's so easy to pass over these truths quickly, isn't it?
But think it through. No more heartache and no more death and no more expressways and aches and pains and all the things that contribute to our own existence that oftentimes make us miserable people with migraine headaches and people discovering that they have back problems and and all of that is gone and a body that will be like that of Christ. The next message is on heaven, but let me just tease you a little bit and tell you it's going to be a great place.
It is absolutely going to be great. I can't speak from personal experience, but I do read the text of scripture and it lets me know how wonderful it's going to be. And one of the things is that the very desire to move from one place to another will be the ability to do it. When Jesus was in Galilee, he could speak the word after the resurrection and he would be in Jerusalem. And if they closed the door, he just moved right on through and he came right in and you shall be like him for you shall see him as he is.
Continuity, absolutely, but with a difference. They noticed the nail prints in his hands and yet of course in one sense it wasn't the same body because of God's sovereign recreation of it. And I assume that in heaven we're going to look a little bit like we did here on earth so that we can recognize one another and talk about the good old days back at Moody Church, which will really not be the good old days once we're in heaven, but, but like Christ and like him forever. You say, well, what about children? What about children?
What about babies? David of course expected to see his child. I shall go to him.
He shall not return to me. Jesus said regarding children that their angels behold the face of my father who is in heaven. So children will be in heaven. Will they always be children? You know, James Vernon McGee believes that at least he suggested that maybe they will be babies until their parents get there and then they'll have the opportunity of growing up, becoming adults.
That's possible so that the hands that never had the opportunity of holding that baby will eventually have that privilege. Certainly God will recreate them. They will have eternal bodies. There will be no limitation in heaven.
We need not worry about that. Many women who have had abortions struggle with a question of how they will be reconciled to the little ones whom they aborted. God will make sure that reconciliation takes place so that throughout all of eternity, the matters that concerned us here on earth will be taken care of and a child will be complete, will participate in the full blessings of all that God has prepared for them that love him. And sometimes those of you who have lost a little one, you say, well, why does God, why does God take a little child? And I've explained before how that when a shepherd wants to take the sheep to a part of the mountain, perhaps up a high precipice where the sheep do not want to go, he will simply reach into the flock and take a little lamb, one on one arm and another one on the other, and then he will begin to walk.
And as he does, the two mothers begin to follow the little lamb and after they begin to walk along, the others reluctantly begin to follow too. And sometimes what God does is he gives us little ones and then he reminds us through their death of the fact that heaven is so real and it is the place where all of us are going and the affection that we have for this world is lessened as we anticipate meeting on the other side. Remember that story of the man whose little one was buried in a cemetery and only he and the minister went to the little grave and it was a rainy, dismal day. And as the man was weeping over his little daughter who had died and whom they now tenderly laid away, he then took the key of the casket and gave it to the keeper of the cemetery. And the minister said, you know, you think that you've given the key of this casket to the keeper of the cemetery, but really that key is on the girdle of the son of God, the one who has the keys of death and of Hades.
And someday he will come and that casket will open and your little girl will be raised. Folks, that is the teaching of the scriptures and that is our hope. Some things stay the same, the knowledge that we have, the love that we have, the interaction that we remember here on earth. Some things are different.
Certainly our bodies are going to be radically different, but in the end we shall be with Christ and be like him. Let me make some very important conclusions. Number one, death, when you stop to think of it, is really not the enemy. It appears to be on this side of the curtain. This side of the curtain? Mystery? Yes. Fearful?
Yes. Entering, as the song says, that vast unknown. And you remember Hamlet wrestled with the possibility of suicide and then he concluded that in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil. And what he's saying is we'd like to commit suicide, but the problem is we don't know what lies on the other side.
It could be worse than what we're experiencing here. What lies on the other side? For the believer, fearsome though death is, the fact that it is still our enemy, it ruptures relationships, it brings tears, it brings loneliness, it brings heartache.
That's on this side of the curtain. On the other side of the curtain, happiness, bliss, being with Christ, being with him forever. And by the way, those who do wish to commit suicide, always remember, always remember that what you encounter over there may indeed be far worse than it is here. Certainly there are believers who have done that and they have, I believe, gone to glory, but it is a fearful thing to show up in heaven at your decision rather than the decision of Christ. Death for the believer though is indeed not a fearful event.
We will all fear it, absolutely, because on this side, terror at times, but on the other side, bliss and joy. And of course, as we've emphasized, it is the means that God uses to take us to heaven. You see, the scripture says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. In other words, the way you are now, you can't go to heaven. Could you imagine being in a place that is eternal and having a corruptible body? And so you go to heaven as you are? That would be a really terrible, terrible experience. Here we are, we're in this wonderful eternal place and here our bodies are aching and filled with pain and weakness.
Impossible. So the way in which we inherit the kingdom is God comes for us and the promise is a new resurrection, a body that fits in with the eternality of our heavenly home. Death, if we see it properly, is a friend on the other side of the curtain. Second, death is a bend in the road, but it is not the end of the road.
It's just a bend in the road. Your consciousness continues from this part of life to the other. If you are conscious, of course many people may not be on this side, but if you die in an accident, let us suppose you die very, very quickly, the consciousness just continues. There's a continual stream and suddenly you are there, you're the same person, but you meet Christ and the angels, as we have explained. Do you remember that story of Dr. Sandhorn, a minister in Iowa. He went to visit this little girl who was dying one Saturday morning and the little girl was there in the bed mumbling and she said, as soon as they open the gate, I will go in. And then she said a little while later in discouragement, at least the tone of her voice seemed to indicate that, they let Mamie go in ahead of me. And then a little while later, they let grandpa go in ahead of me. Well, the pastor left and returned a little later and discovered that the girl had died, but he was so interested in who was Mamie and who was grandpa. So he got the family and he asked them and he wanted to follow up.
Mamie was a little girl that had lived with them there in Iowa, but had moved to New York and grandpa was a friend of the family who lived in the Southwest. Pastor Sandhorn wrote letters to try to find out the whereabouts of those people and discovered that both of them had died that Saturday morning on September the 16th. How far is heaven away? Just as far as a heartbeat, boom, you're gone.
Just as far as an accident, just as far as that report from the doctor, which says that you have six months to live and it may turn out to be three years, but nonetheless, at the end of the road, you die. That's how close heaven is. How can Christ be with someone who dies in New York and Iowa and China at the same time?
Do not ask me that question because I do not have an answer. All that I know is that Paul says here in 2 Corinthians chapter five, and we did not comment on it, but that's why he speaks about not wanting to be unclothed, which is another hint that really he is looking forward to the resurrection to have his permanent body and there is no intermediate body, but you'll notice it says verse six, therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith and not by sight. We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be home with the Lord. That's his preference, but nevertheless he says we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent to please him. That's a choice that God makes.
It's a choice that God makes. All of us want to live as long as we possibly can, but I want you to know today that when God's number strikes, when the clock comes to get you, if you're a believer in Christ, if you have embraced his promises, he will be there. He will be there to meet you and all will be well. All will be well. Yesterday, some of us attended a symposium on the city, the changes taking place in the city of Chicago, the poverty, all of these issues that are so important and it was very helpful for us to be there, but one of the things that we did not get a chance to emphasize is that it is a responsibility of the ministers not only to be involved in these issues, but to prepare men and women for eternity. There is a life to come that you will die and stand before God is as certain as the sunrise. I wish I could say that everybody's going to be in heaven. No, Jesus said the way to heaven is narrow.
Few there be that find it. Why? Because you have to admit your helplessness and your sinfulness and a cleave to Christ.
And people say, I don't want to do that. I'm a good person. Not realizing that many good persons will be in hell.
And a message on hell is a part of this series. Let me ask you today, is your trust in Christ alone? Have you given up all hope of impressing him with your good deeds? Do you see how trivial they are in the presence of God?
The Bible says that if you believe on him, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ, in Christ. But those who die without him, it is so fearful. It is so fearful we can scarcely speak about it. Think of Paul. Think of Paul. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain, to abide in the flesh is nateful, to be absent from the body is to be at home, at home with the Lord. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the revelation that you have given us and though the curtain that separates us from eternity seems to be thick and veiled, you have in your grace enabled us to take at least a brief glimpse of the other side. Thank you, Father, for those who are even now in your presence, friends of ours, wives and children and husbands and uncles and aunts and cousins.
Thank you, Father. And we pray today that we might live in light of coming eternity. Before I close this prayer, I want to give you an opportunity to receive Christ as your Savior, even where you are seated.
If you don't know him, why don't you just pray right now and say, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. Save me. Save me from my sins.
I trust you alone at this moment. You tell him that, would you? Father, we pray that the work that you begin in the lives of people will not end until it has been completed. We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. You know, my friend, if you and I actually grasped something of what heaven is going to be like when it's time for us to die, I think we could look forward to death. I remember speaking to one man who is dying of a terminal disease, and he says, just to think, I get to see Jesus before you do.
And of course, that was a few years ago, so he has seen Jesus over a period of time. And in heaven, there is no boredom. God will keep us busy.
And of course, we delight in worshiping our Savior forever. As you listen to this series of messages, I'm sure that you have thought to yourself, you know, I have missed some. There are some messages in this series I'd like to hear again. There are messages I'd like to share with my friends. That's why we're making this series available for you in permanent form.
Now, we here at Running to Win are deeply committed in putting resources into your hands that will help you in your Christian walk and in the race of life. For a gift of any amount, you can receive these messages in permanent form. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Remember the title of the series, One Minute After You Die. You can have all of them and listen to them often.
Once again, go to rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And from my heart to yours today, thank you so much for your prayers. Thank you for helping us. Running to Win is in many different countries, in different languages, all because of people just like you. And the messages that you are listening to, such as this series, are being broadcast around the world.
We're deeply appreciative of all those who stand with us because, as you've heard me say, together we're making a difference. Time now for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. The sequence of events for a believer at death is something it's hard to be dogmatic about. Believers have differing opinions on what lies ahead. Robert listens to Running to Win and has this question. If I die today, or before the rapture, the scripture says that a believer is present with the Lord and is immediately judged.
Am I right so far? Next, what are we doing while in this condition until we receive a resurrection body? Two very good questions, Robert.
A couple of comments first. It is true that Christians are going to be judged after they die. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10, for we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account for the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad.
There it is. I'm not sure, however, that it will take place immediately after death. There seems to be some evidence that maybe it will take place at the rapture.
But your second question is even more intriguing. What will we do until we receive our resurrection bodies? This becomes very personal because my father died last year at the age of 106, and I've often thought, I wonder exactly how my father looks now in heaven. Fact is, he does not have his resurrection body. No one in heaven today does. I believe that in heaven, the soul takes on the characteristics of the body.
I believe that they can recognize one another, they can talk to one another, but they are always incomplete. Paul talks about that. He talks about our desire to be clothed, and I think he's speaking of the resurrection. So let's remember today that this is an intermediate place, heaven today.
It's a place of bliss, communication, recognition, joy, and all that, and yet the resurrection awaits. I think that's the best I can do in the two or three minutes allotted me today, Robert, and thank you so much for thinking about this, and God bless you all the way to eternity. Thank you, Pastor Lutzer, for handling Robert's question so well. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at 1-888-218-9337.
That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 N. LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time, a first look at the real Eternal City, the gigantic residence of the redeemed for all the ages to come.
Don't miss Living in the New Jerusalem. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
