Video Transcript: Resurrection Relationships

You've probably heard that you can't take anything with you when you die. And it's true that there are an awful lot of things that you can't take with you when you die. You can't take along your money. You can't take along your car or your computer or your house or a lot of other stuff. You can't take along with you your positions or your titles of importance, or you can't even take along with you in some respects the spiritual abilities that you were given to help people out here on earth while we're living here in this world. Because even though those spiritual gifts are great gifts such as prophecy and others passed away. Gift of preaching aren't needed in that heavenly realm. And so your stuff, your titles, even some of your spiritual abilities aren't things you can take with you when you die. But there is one thing you can take with you. The greatest thing of all, the most important thing of all. The one thing that you can take with you when you die is love. Because the new creation is a world of love. 

Let me just show you the logic of that for a moment. Scripture says at the time of the resurrection, First Corinthians 15 he must reign. Jesus must reign, until he has put all his enemies under His feet and the last enemy to be destroyed his death and death is destroyed at that time of the resurrection when Jesus brings everyone's bodies back to life again. And at that point, when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under subjection under him that is the God the Father, that God may be all in all. So at the time of the resurrection, Jesus hands over the kingdom to the Father, and God is all in all. Now, what is a world where God is all in all. Well, it's a world of love, because God is love, and where God is all in all it is a world of love. And First Corinthians 13 says that if I spoke with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I'm nothing. If I give my body to be burned and have not love, I'm nothing. And it tells us that anything without love comes out to a big fat zero. But it also says love never fails. That means love never ends. It goes on and on and on. It says that love is the most excellent thing. When everything else passes away, three things remain. Faith, hope and love and the greatest of those is love. And so when we look forward to the future to God's new creation, it's a world of love. And a world of love is a world of relationships and that's what I want to focus on with you today. A resurrection relationships. 

The first kind of resurrection relationship we're going to think about is relationships with animals. That's kind of an odd way to get people's minds on things above where Christ is and think about love involving animals, but we're going to do that. And then relationships with people, relationships with angels, and finally, and most importantly, our relationship with God. So let's think about those four kinds of relationships. 

So let's begin with our relationships with animals. The Scripture says in Romans eight verse 21, creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Now it says this is going to happen at the time when we get the redemption of our bodies that we longed for. You see God, when it says God so loved the world, that's even bigger than God loved people. God loved the rulers of the world, that is the people He had appointed and when those people have been appointed to rule the world fell, we took everything down with us, and the creation was broken and poisoned and corrupted by the human fall into sin. But when humanity is resurrected and perfected and put in its rightful place, then the whole creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay, and all the beauties and glories of creation will be restored to what God originally intended them to be, when heaven comes to earth. And the animal kingdom will be what God intended it to be when heaven comes to earth. Right now creation is longing says Romans for the day when it's set free from that bondage to decay. And the day is coming when it will be set free and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 

Now, that's the logic for saying that if you if you set your mind on heavenly things, and on heaven coming to earth, a part of that is what's going to happen to just the whole creation, including the animal creation. Isaiah 11, says 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 knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. What a beautiful vision of humanity and the animal kingdom all living in perfect harmony together. 

My family and I love to go to the zoo together because it's wonderful to see that variety of animals that God makes them. Let's face it, they are pretty weird and I'm even thinking pretty ugly. But still very interesting and fascinating to look at them. And others are fierce you know they've got those huge teeth and it's so impressive to see the mighty lion or the tiger. But going to the zoo is fun exciting to see all those animals. Well, in the new creation there won't be any zoos, but not because there won't be any animals. But because there will be no longer a need for barriers and bars to keep people and animals separate from one another. Without those kind of areas that lion will either be coming after us or heading out. You know the animals leave or come after us or run away or they'll go after each other. And that's why you have zoos to be able to look at them with while protecting us from them and them from each other. But in that new creation there won't be a need for that because we and they will live together in harmony. 

Now in the original creation, if you read Genesis chapter one, it says that God originally gave the plants even to the all the animals to eat. And it says that in the new creation the lion will eat straw like the ox again. And there'll be no more animal bloodshed and no more people consuming and killing of animals either. Now, in the time until then, God clearly gives permission in the Bible to use animals and sometimes even to use them for food. But even with that permission, the Bible says while the righteous man cares for the life of his animal. To abuse animals and that same verse, By the way, it's the righteous man treats the animals better than the wicked treat people. You know, that's part of the scriptures revelation and so we ought to even now though we're not in the new creation, yet certainly not mistreat livestock or pets, not just needlessly to destroy the habitats of wild animals. That's a part of of anticipating that vision of the new creation. 

Now, a big part of this is simply the affection animals have for each other. If you've seen bear cubs playing or kittens messing around together or you've seen a mother cow nuzzling her calf and licking that calf. You have to admit that animal love for one another is a pretty neat thing. It's not the greatest thing. It's not as great as the love of God or as great as human love for one another. But animal love is still a wonderful thing. And the love between animals and humans is also a wonderful thing. If you've owned a pet, whether a cat or a dog or some other kind of pet and you really come to like that animal it comes to like you quite a bit, there's something really beautiful and wonderful about that. Or if you had a horse, a well trained horse that's very responsive to you. You really appreciate just the affection that grows between an animal and a human. And that's part of the beauty of how God created the world. And it's only a small taste of what God has in mind. Because very much of the animal kingdom he is afraid of us and alienated from us and even the animals that we kind of get along with. We don't always treat them right and they don't always get along with us so well. And so nonetheless there's love between animals and people is something to really look forward to in the new creation. 

Another thing that I wonder about is whether we're gonna be able to talk back and forth with animals. You say man, he is really over the top today. Maybe it is. You know, there's not a definitive answer on whether animals and people will be able to talk to each other. But do think about it a little bit. One of the sad stories of the Bible Genesis chapter three, the subtlest or smartest of the animals comes up to Eve and starts talking – a snake. Now we know that it was Satan who was using that snake as the mouthpiece. But there may have been a reason why Eve wasn't that shocked when an animal started talking to her and may well be that she'd had such conversations before. Only this time of course, it was Satan speaking through the snake, just as he later to talk to Jesus through St. Peter. I mean, Satan can kind of get his message across through anybody when he's making an effort to do so. At any rate, there was a talking snake. You remember talking donkey? The Bible says the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth so that it could talk to Balaam. Well, we know Balaam was pretty dense because he talked back and argued. Never argue with your donkey when it’s starting to talk. Okay, but we have these kinds of incidents. 

And not only that, we know that from what our studies are that there is communication between animals. Bees have these elaborate dances and we don't know exactly how it works. But what we do know is that they do these elaborate dances and somehow they know from those little dances where the honey is and where to bring it and what to do. If you consider the beavers they're able to work together and build dams. They signal danger by slapping their tails to each other. There's a variety of things that animals do that have their own kind of basic language. You can teach gorillas some basic sign language. Of dolphins will obey commands. My brother trains dogs. He gives the orders they know which way to run. They know what he wants hi  to do. They know he wants him to hold back, when he wants to round out the cows. Those dogs, they know some language. I’ll guarantee you. Parrots can speak human language. How much they understand that we don't know. But they have the ability to mouth and voice the words. 

So there's something about the animal kingdom that I suspect is going to have a lot greater ability to understand our communication to them and they to communicate with us. I don't know for sure what it all means. But I'm pretty sure that there's going to be more communication among animals and people than there is now in our fallen state. Well let it be that as it may. It's not the most important thing about the new creation, but I still think it's a point to think about. Because if we think about heaven just purely as dwelling in the realm of light, we forget what we were created for. We are created for God, first of all. But God made us earthly bodily creatures not have our minds stuck on earth and not on him. But once our minds are on Him, we are still people who relate to animals and relate to people and who relate to a whole earthly realm that God designed for us to rule and that's part of our destiny again. 

Oh, here's a question that some kids in particular but maybe even some grownups have. Well, will pets to be resurrected? Because it's one thing to say there are going to be animals in the new creation. It's a different thing again, we again, we know there are  going to be animals a new creation with almost great certainly because of the kind of passages I just showed you. Will animals of this creation be resurrected and live in the new creation. That's not as clear from the Bible. One thing is for sure, we will have better things to do in glory than play with our pets. You do need to get that into your head, you know that your pet is not the ultimate reality in the universe. So it is good to take that fact to heart. But the better doesn't always rule out the lesser. It's better to praise and adore God. But that's true even in this world. It's better to praise and adore God than it is to pet Sparkles on the way out the door. But I don't think it's necessarily wicked to pet Sparkles on the way out the door just because it's a greater thing to glorify and praise God. And so 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 you know, that doesn't leave the question, why not both? We just don't know for sure. 

There's maybe a possible hint or two in the Bible. Here's one, where it talks about God's care of all creatures in the world, and how he gives the various creatures their food. And then it says when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send forth your spirit they are created. Now, does that just mean that God has some animals die and then he brings new animals into existence in this world? Maybe so. But do keep in mind what kind of God he has. He is a God who does specialize in resurrections. And so it may be that even the very animal creatures who have lived in this world will live again. I just don't know. But it may also be that some do. Those who are mostly most closely connected with their human masters, and were part of the redeemed creation. I'm not sure exactly what God's answers are on all this. But I just think that it's worth at least a little more time to think about that. 

Now, why would I start with animals in urging you to think about the glorious things of God and of the new creation? Well, sometimes maybe we are in danger of overshooting on heaven. And we make it so much less physical and and less beautiful. When the Bible says to focus on things above, not things that are on the earth, it's not saying that things that are on the earth, that God created is bad. It is saying that when we get bogged down and attached to earthly things only it's calamitous. Why start with animals well, I want to move from the lesser to the greater. I started with then not because they're the greatest but because in a sense, this is the least of the relationships and still pretty wonderful one. Jesus in talking to His disciples told how God cares for the sparrows. He says not one sparrow can fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father in heaven. And that's true. God cares about every little bird. 

And Jesus, now if that's true, think how much he cares for you, because you are worth more than many, many sparrows. He was talking to some others who were thought that they would need to rescue their animal on a Sabbath that fell into a pit and Jesus was healing on the Sabbath. And so Jesus said, how much more valuable is a man than a sheep? He's not saying that sheep isn't valuable. He's saying that a human is far more valuable. Now God cares about relationships among animals in the new creation. Here’s the logic. 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 and with the holy angels and with the living God. So it's an argument from lesser to greater. Animal life and animal relationships is one wonderful and minor feature in a sense of the new creation. One to delight in and then one to move beyond. 

So let's talk about relationships with people. The Bible says 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. No more conflict and strife and warfare among humanity. Everybody in the new creation will be perfectly lovable, and perfectly loving. Scripture says, Not anything 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. If a person's heart is set on wickedness and turned against God, that person is not in the new creation. They are not there to wreck it and to spoil it. And all of us, even when we are redeemed have things about us that are unlovable. Things about me that just plain bug you and things about us that just bug each other and bother each other and things that are wrong with us, and they aren't ironed out on this side of glory. But in the new creation all will be perfectly lovable. There'll be nothing not to love and within the other problem of course we have on this earth, it's not just that other people aren't perfectly lovable, but even more so. We're just not all that loving. We've only made a beginning in the ways of love and when we're made perfectly loving, as well as perfectly lovable, then what we only experience now as a spark will be a tremendous flame of love there. One of the things that a lot of us look forward to in resurrection relationships is a reunion with loved ones. The fact that they will live again, that we will live again and that we'll be together with them. 

The question that comes up sometimes is will we know each other when we get to glory? And the correct answer is we won't know each other until we get to glory. That's how you always have to think about this particular question. Will we know each other? No, we won't know each other until we get to glory. Because right now, we all wear masks. That's one of the burdens of living in a sinful world, is we all pretend and we don't know each other. And there at least two main reasons why we pretend. One is there are things that we don't want others to know about us because we're ashamed of them because they're bad. And we will just assume keep those matters under our hat or behind our mask, and they don't know that about us. In the new creation, there won't be any sinful or shameful things that need hiding. And those things are not part of the true us, the redeemed us, anyway. They're part of the clutter that needs to go. 

There's another thing too, that we often mask and hide while we're in this world. Not just the wicked and sleazy things. But the most beautiful and glorious things about ourselves are also sometimes things we find very hard to talk about. And not just with unbelievers, but even with fellow believers. Some of the deepest yearnings of our heart. We have a hard hard time talking about or showing our tremendous love for the Lord or maybe even showing the love that we have for another person. You might love your kid with all your heart. And I've known people who have a very hard time ever giving their kid a hug and from whom the words I love you haven't passed their lips for 20 years. Do their kids actually know how much their parents love them? We won't know each other until the masks are gone. Now, it's a good thing even now to pull the mask down a bit. Certainly on the matters of the beautiful things in our heart for God as well as the heart that we have for loving others. It's also okay to drop the mask just a little bit as the Bible says and confessing our sins to one another. And finding help and finding part and finding love and grace from others when we admit what we're struggling with. It did something wrong here and you guys have that figured out here we go. 

Now another part of the logic of our union with loved ones. the fact that we will know each other is that our bodies are resurrected and not just replaced. It's not that the old you was just totally wiped out and then there's some other critter that comes along, you know, that's resurrected but it's not you anymore. Our personalities are perfected. They're not wiped out or blotted out. You're still you and proved you. I'm still me only a transformed and improved me and so we will know each other because we still have an identity. Jesus says I'll tell you many will come from east and west and recline at the table of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God. Now, what I'm talking about, here is that they are Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. It's still those guys who were loved by God and are there in the kingdom of God. Abraham will still be Abraham. Isaac will still be Isaac. Jacob will still be Jacob. You'll still be you. The people you knew and loved who are in heaven will still be themselves. 

Scripture says in a great passage about the resurrection of believers who have passed on, 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. What comfort would there be if we wouldn't know each other or be at all reunited to each other in the resurrection? That comfort comes in the fact that we know that they are with the Lord that they will rise again and that we will be together with them and the Lord forever. And so our union with loved ones is one of the great and encouraging resurrection relationships. One thing that the Bible does indicate is that at least one of those relationships will shift significantly. Jesus says in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And so there is there is a shift in which husbands and wives here on earth are no longer in a relationship as husband and wife in heaven. They'll still know each other and still treasure and value each other and  still love each other more than they ever were able to love each other here on earth. 

But a couple of things will have happened. One is that marriage is always intended as a preparation and as a pointer to the supreme relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church. And when that relationship reaches its absolute fullness, then the purpose of marriage has been fulfilled – a displaying of mutual love and sacrificial love. Another aspect is that I think marriage here is a training ground. To learn to get to know each other, to know at least one other person really, really well to learn to put up with each other, to learn to treasure and value each other and kind of have almost a laboratory of love. Of really getting to know somebody and loving each other through all of that. In glory that love maybe broadened very significantly, where it's not just a couple of people who really matter and on whom a great deal of our life depends, but who we had learned to love much more broadly. 

Now, for some of us who maybe have a struggling marriage or a marriage that you know that was a calamity then no marriage in heaven may sound like a kind of a Phew moments. You know, wow, that's over. But for many of us who have really delighted in marriage, it might be kind of a downer. And one way that I've mentioned this to you before to think of is simply this. You tell a little boys who are making mud pies, that they're not gonna be able to do that or they won't even want to do that when they're older. And in fact, they are going to be interested in girls. Oh, man, what a horrible thought. Yikes, girl, I hate girls. I love my pies. And so you know, you're delivering really bad news when you say no more mud pies. It’s just girls. But they grow up and in the resurrection, we'll grow up another notch again, and we will love everybody with a love that even the best marriage on earth could only be a partial and very dim pointer to. 

Now, in the reunion in heaven, it's not just going to be a reunion with loved ones whom we knew on earth or whom we were very close to here on earth. I think one of the really exciting things is sitting down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at that feast in the kingdom of God or with Noah or Deborah she was in a crossword puzzle today. David, Esther the queen who dared to approach the king and rescued her people or Mary, the mother of Jesus or Peter you know the man who walked on water and denied Christ and had all of these adventures with the Lord or that great Apostle Paul who wrote this letter to Colossians and so much else who had been a killer of Christian became a mighty missionary. It’ll be exciting to meet these various Bible heroes and to speak with them and to learn from them and to hear more firsthand about what their life on earth was like and to see what their heavenly life is like. 

Another part of it is meeting those faithful ones who are responsible for bringing the faith to us. Some of us come from a fairly long line of godly ancestors where the faith was passed down from generation to generation, and we can be thankful for godly ancestors who kept passing that faith along. Others of us, maybe were converted as grown ups here and we left behind the empty way of life handed down to us from our fathers and started the new line. And we may have the opportunity to meet some godly descendants, if the Lord should tarry that long. We can be thankful for some of the missionaries and martyrs who lived and died to bring the faith to others. Some of us don’t even know who they are. If you never learn much church history, you may not know anything about it. So one advantage of studying at least a smidge of church history is finding out what missionaries were first carrying the gospel to the lands where your ancestors came from. 

And you say, Boy, I know from that case, I think boy I'm so glad St. Barnafas, you know, who carried the gospel, those Germans and the last bit for Doug horn, and then in the elder years decided, well, I'm gonna die or something I might as well die, you know, really barbarian wicked people who don't know the Lord. So they went to the Dutch. He went to the Friesians. And there he was killed. The Germans were nicer. All he did was chop down their sacred oak tree and offend them and so on. But the Dutchman they were too nasty. But the fact is he you know, he's just an example of what is true again and again and again of missionaries who went where the gospel had not gone before. Someone who paid with a great price. 

Raymond Lowe was another of these guys who was hit about 80 years old and he'd been a pastor and he ministered in various places and thought, you know, I'm probably gonna die pretty quick. And what better way to die than to go get a whole bunch of Muslims mad about Christ. So he sailed off to the hardest Muslim territory and started preaching the gospel in the middle of town. Now, that may not have been the shrewdest method of evangelism cause he did get his martyrdom. But you know, a person with this passion for the Lord to just to carry the gospel to others, you know, what a blessing and those are the kinds of people that we get to meet there in glory. We're gonna rejoice and see how they helped us and maybe we'll have some joy in seeing people whose lives we blessed and helped and lead to the Lord. 

One great thing about the eternal life and life in the new world is you don't run out of time. You can visit with your favorite character for 100 years and you're not going to run short of time. There'll be plenty more to visit with others and you know, you're here in this life, even your best conversation even that meal you enjoy the most with somebody or that lunch meeting you're having. You’re like, Man, I wish we could do this longer and then you look your watch, gotta go. You don't have those time limits on you, when time is no longer a factor. 

Another great thing about this reunion with other Christians and saints is there's not gonna be envy. Some saints says the Bible are gonna get greater rewards than others. And the very thought of that you say, Boy, I'm probably gonna be pretty grouchy about those who have a bigger reward than I got. You know, why not me? Well, when love is perfected, then you're glad for others when they're blessed and flourishing. Maybe the best taste of that right now is if you have children. Parents, at least good parents are in a sense, happy if their children turn out happier and more prosperous and more virtuous than they are. Because that's what you want the best for somebody you love that much. And the reason we envy anybody is because we don't love them enough. That is the simple fact of the matter. 

The only reason we resent someone else's blessing and joy is because we don't love them enough. If you love them with the perfect love, the happier they are, the happier it makes you. And so the interesting thing about living in glory is the happier somebody else is and the more reward they have received, the happier it makes you because you're so happy for them, because you love them. And so in a sense God can't really go wrong by blessing somebody because the more blessing pours out of one, the happier everybody else gets about it. And that's a beautiful thing. Because in a sinful world if the blessing is poured on one the others go hmm, you know, why not me? That's one reason Bible says, thou shall not covet. In the new creation, we will finally be able to obey that command. 

We've looked at relationships with animals and people. How about relationships with angels? That's something that I look forward to a lot. I think that's going to be very exciting. The Bible says you've come to 1000s upon 1000s of angels in joyful assembly. In one of John's visions, he says, I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and 1000s of 1000s. So you have all these millions of angels that are part of this great company of God that you've come to when you've been saved, and they're a part of life in the new world. Now, very few of us have personally met an angel or conversed with an actual angel, but we're still fascinated with alien life. There are people who do have those huge transmitters and huge receivers out there just hoping not just to detect radiation from stars but there are some of these that are targeted, just trying to detect any signal that might be coming from life outside our world. We're very fascinated by that. Well, there is life outside our world and not just God, but all of the angels that he created and then in the new creation, we're gonna be able to perceive them and communicate with them more directly. 

Now, it's a wonderful thing that angels already love us more than we know. The Bible says that even the littlest child has mighty angels who stand before the face of God Himself. I'm speaking on behalf of those little children. And that when the lowliest sinner is converted, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God. So angels already have parties about us. But at that point, we'll be perfected maybe learn to party along with them and communicate with them. You can meet and thank the angels who were assigned to protect and help you. You have no idea how many angels and what they have done in your life because they work behind the scenes. Sometimes I'll joke to Andy boy, the angels had to be working overtime today when you hear some of the straits your kids were in or the difficult and the close calls they had and and they came through and said boy, the angels were really on overtime. But the fact is the angel probably been on overtime a lot more than we realized and to be aware of that and to be able to see these great guardians and friends of God and friends of us will be a tremendous pleasure in the new creation. We will worship with them. That's one of the great visions of heaven is God's people joining with God's angels and all praising God together. 

We will work with them in the work that we'll have to do in governing and ruling the new creation. The angels will be our partners and co workers. And we I think we will I write here 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? This is a very staggering thought to be promoted higher than the mightiest angels of God. And yet it does seem to be what the Bible indicates. And the logic of it is in Hebrews chapter two, it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come. It said, what is man that You were mindful of him? He made him a little lower than the heavenly beings but you crowned him with glory and honor and it says we don't see all things submitted to man yet but we see Jesus who has been made higher than everything else. Because Christ who was a man has been made higher than everything else. He pulls all of his people along with him and his people reign on thrones with him forever and ever. Now, that's pretty staggering to think about, especially in our current state of what we know about ourselves and what we know about angels. 

Look at this picture, for instance. You've got two persons. One is a slimy bloody bawling little baby and the other is a very well dressed and important and powerful military officer. And if you're asked, Now which of these two is more capable and important? The answer seems rather obvious, you know, the guy who's got, who's giving orders to 1000s of people and running important things. The other one is just a newborn baby. That baby you know, as soon as they get the baby dried off and cleaned up, it's gonna be in diapers and it'll be dirty and it's diapers is stinking and falling and yapping and doing a whole variety of things that aren't all that impressive. I mean, your parents love it, but some of the time, but the fact is, little babies don't seem all that impressive. But it's pretty decisive if somebody tells you Well, yeah, but that baby is the newborn son of the king. Then you say, Well, I guess whatever it looks like that kid is a prince in God's kingdom and is headed for the throne someday, and he's going to be even more important than all of the other officials who administer on behalf of the government. And so it is with us. 

The Bible tells us the angels are holier than we are right now. They are far more powerful than we are, far more impressive, but we are adopted as sons of God in a way that goes beyond what the angels are. And Jesus shares our very nature and so we are to be promoted even above the holy angels of God. Now that day is a long ways off and still we often act like babies. We bawl a lot and complain and we want our bottle. Even in our relationship with God we bawl a lot and pray the hardest when there's something we want. We want it now. We fight with each other sometimes like little kids you over a piece of wrapping paper or just something totally trivial that is of almost no importance. Well, when we look at the kinds of things that people fight about in this world, we find that just about all of them matter zero in light of eternity. So we might want to quit fighting about some of those things. 

And even when it comes to dirty diapers, Christians think a little bit like babies. You know, the baby's got a dirty diaper and it's getting uncomfortable. The baby will go waah…Once its diaper is changed, yeah, it's good thing change a baby's diaper. But there is more to life than a full stomach and clean diapers. And there's more of a relationship with Jesus Christ than getting your sins cleaned up and forgiven and getting a few of the things that you want. You're destined for something a lot greater than clean diapers. You're definitely something a lot greater than just being forgiven and cleaned up. You are destined to reign with the Lord of the universe and to be exalted about angels. And that shouldn't give you exactly a big head just yet, but it does give us incentive to say we ought to act us a little bit more in the dignity that we have as the exalted children of God and not just be crawling around in the gutter or fighting over the trivialities of life. 

Well, those are three kinds of relationships that we need to think about. Our  relationships with animals, with people, with angels, but the ultimate relationship of course, is our relationship with the Living God Himself. Before there were any animals, before there were any people, before there were any angels, there was God and God is love. The other loves aren't just beams or rays, but God is the Sun. These other lives are little droplets. God is the ocean. These loves that God brought into being were preceded by the great depth of love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When the Bible says God is love. It's not just saying God loves, it's something he does, but that God is love, in his very being as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Before He ever made anything God was and his love as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And scripture says that by faith we become partakers in the divine nature. We get to taste of that love and in glory we taste of that love more and more fully all the time. And not only that, we love him back. To me, the two greatest frustrations in my life are that I don't know God as clearly as I would like to and experience his love nearly so fully as I wish I could. And the other great frustration is that I know that I don't love him back the way that I should I know that. 

Now, one of the great joys of that new creation is having our hearts desire. One thing I asked the Lord this is what I seek Psalm 27 That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days in my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. My heart says of you seek His face. Your face Lord, I will seek. Psalm 37 says Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. If you delight in God, if you long for God, if you want more than anything else, to see his face, to receive His love and to love Him and return more directly than you ever had you will receive that desire of your heart. First Corinthians 13 the great love chapter says, now we see in the mirror dimly, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully even as I am fully known. And now faith, hope and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love. When you see face to face, when you know fully and are fully known, then he will know that love is the greatest of all. And when you are united with animals or with your loved ones, that's one thing but to be united with love himself. Now that is the ultimate thing. They will see his face. Revelation 22 Verse four, they will see his face, the ultimate promise in the Bible. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 

And when we see God what is that? Well, Jesus prays in the last prayer that he offered before he went to the cross. This was at the very end of that prayer Father, I want those who have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me maybe in them and then I myself may be in them. This is what Jesus prays is that we will be with him and see His glory. And at the very love that God the Father has had for his son for all eternity will be in us and that in some mysterious way by the Holy Spirit, the living Christ is in us loving God back fully and receiving God's love. And so we're caught up into the divine life. Or as Colossians three verse four puts it when Christ who is your life appears you also will appear with Him in glory. This resurrection relationship is one of glory and of love. 

Remember what happened when Peter and James and John went up on the mountain with Jesus and Jesus received at least a glimpse of his glory right before their eyes and he was changed into a brightness that they could hardly even look at it and they almost went into a trance and a slumber. And then Jesus was talking up there on the mount with Moses and Elijah. Now, Peter, James and John had only a small glimpse and only a short time up there on that mountaintop, beholding, at least something of the glory of Christ. But what did Peter say? He wanted to stay there. He wanted to set up a place where they could camp and settle down and not go back down there into the world. If you had even just a glimpse of the glory, and just a taste of the love of Christ, and of His saints in glory as Moses and Elijah were glorified, you too would. And Peter didn't know what he was saying says the Bible. But you too would say Lord, I really don’t want to go back. And that is still just a hint of the glory that's coming when we won't have to go back. Remember when Moses was up on the mountain, Mount Sinai with God and he says, Lord, show me your glory. At that point of course, the fullness had not yet come and God said to Moses, nobody can see me and live. But he said, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll put you in a cleft in the rock, and then I'll have my glory pass by and then you can pick out from that cleft in the rock after I'm past and catch a glimpse of my back parts. And that's how it's pictured in the Bible. Now, so he's hidden in the rock and he gets just a little teeny glimpse of the glory after it's gone by. And when he comes down from the mountain, he has to wear a veil so that nobody else will be smitten with how dazzling the glory is. 

So these hints that we have in the Bible, people who've gotten just a taste or a glimpse of the glory is that they say wow, is if we're able to see him face to face the one who no one can see and live forever, and not die what a glory that'll be. The glory and the love that awaits us. If everything else that I've said in a sense leads up to this. Every animal that you love in the new creation will be loved for the sake of a God who made them and created all that glory and splendor and gave each one its own kind of glory. The love that you have for humans, you'll be loving God's image in them and you'll be loving them for God's sake. And you will always love love himself more than any of the loved ones that He gives you. When you look at the glory of those millions upon millions of angels, it will seem as as though they're just kind of ordinary and plain compared to the splendor in the glory and the love of God Himself. And so this is what God has prepared for those who love him. 

You're going to see many amazing sights in heaven, but nothing will compare to the sight of seeing the face of the one who loved you and bled for your salvation. And see that face and knowing that he's smiling at you and welcoming you. You're gonna hear many sights, the sounds of angels and you're gonna hear the sounds of angels and other people and of all the other sounds of the creation and no sound is gonna be as good as the sound of the voice that created the worlds. The sound of the voice that whispered faith in your cold heart when you didn't know him at all. The voice that's going to call the dead from their tombs and bring them all back to life, the voice that is going to recreate the universe in the way he wants it to be and hear that voice saying to you well done good and faithful servant. Come and share my happiness. Just think about those words my happiness. Next time I preach I think I'll talk about eternal pleasures. But what does it mean when the creator of the universe the fount of all joy, who just overflows with unlimited joy says common share my joy, that's heaven indeed. 

Jonathan Edwards wrote a book called Charity and its fruits on First Corinthians 13. A book I love very much. In the last chapter of that book is on the text love never fails. And the title of that sermon is heaven, a world of love. And Edward says they are in heaven, this infinite fountain of love, this eternal three and one is set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it as it flows forever. There this glorious God is manifested and shines forth in full glory in beams of love. And there, this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea rivers of love and delight in these rivers swell as it were to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment in their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love!