Slides: Resurrection Relationships

Resurrection Relationships
by David Feddes

A world of love

• "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death... When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all." (1 Corinthians 15:25-28)
• What is a world where God is all in all? A world of love; “God is love.” (1 John 4:16)
• Love lasts forever. “Love never fails,” is “most excellent,” the “greatest of these.” (1 Corinthians 13)

Resurrection Relationships

• Relationships with animals
• Relationships with people
• Relationships with angels
• Relationship with God

Relationships with animals

Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:6-9).

Will pets be resurrected?

• We’ll have better things to do in glory than play with pets.
• Still, the better doesn’t rule out the lesser.
• When we think of heaven, we should be more eager to see God than to see Rover--but why not both?
• Possible hint of resurrecting individual animals? “When you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created.” (Psalm 104:29-30)

Why start with animals?

• To move from lesser to greater!
• “You are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:31).
• "How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!" (Matthew 12:11).
• If God cares about relationships among animals in the new creation, if it's great that lambs and lions will lie down together, it's far greater that people of all nations will be united in loving relationships with each other, with the holy angels, and with the living God.

Relationships with people

• They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
• All will be perfectly loving and loveable.
• Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. (Rev 21:27).

Reunion with loved ones

• Will we know each other in glory? We won’t know each other… UNTIL glory.
• Our bodies are resurrected, not replaced. Our personalities are perfected, not wiped out.
• I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 8:11)
• We do not grieve as those who have no hope… The dead in Christ will rise… We will always be with the Lord… Comfort one another with these words. (1 Thess 4:16-18)

Life beyond marriage

• “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Matt 22:30)
• If you tell small boys making mud pies that they won’t do that when they’re older, and that they will like girls, they might protest, “Never! We love playing with mud pies! We hate girls!” But they grow up.
• In the resurrection, we’ll grow up even more. We will love all with a love that even the best marriage on earth could only dimly point to.

Reunion with other saints

• Bible heroes: Noah, Deborah, David, Esther, Mary, Peter, Paul
• Faithful ones who passed the faith to us: godly ancestors, missionaries, martyrs
• Rejoice in recognizing how others helped us, and how we helped them
•  No hurry or time limit; visit with someone for 100 years and not run short of time
• No envy if some get greater rewards. Instead we will be glad for them.

Relationships with angels

• You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly. (Hebrews 12:22)
• I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. (Revelation 5:11)
• Few of us have met or know an actual angel, but we are fascinated with alien life.
• Angels already love God’s people more than we know.

Relationships with angels in the new creation

• We can meet and thank the angels who were assigned to protect and help us.
• We will worship with angels and work with angels as we rule on Christ’s behalf.
• We may have rank and authority above angels: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? … Do you not know that we are to judge angels? (1 Cor 6:2-3)
• “It was not to angels that God subjected the world to come.” (Hebrews 2:5)

• Relationships with animals
• Relationships with people
• Relationships with angels
• Relationship with God

There, in heaven, this infinite fountain of love—this eternal Three in One—is set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it, as it flows for ever. There this glorious God is manifested, and shines forth, in full glory, in beams of love. And there this glorious fountain for ever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love! (Jonathan Edwards)