What Are We Going to Be Like in the Resurrection?

Well, he would turn to John 14. I'm going to read a few verses here that are well-known verses from Jesus' teachings there on the last night at the Passover. He says in verse one in chapter 14 of John, he tells his disciples, Let your heart not be troubled. You believe in God, and believe also in me. In my father's house were many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there you may be also.

It's a remarkable, hope-filled statement made by Jesus Christ. He says, You believe that God the Father, he says, believe I am his Son, and believe that I am going to go away. He was telling them at that time, because I have a job to do in preparing a place for you, and I will come again. One of the most comforting truths that you and I have is the understanding that we don't die and become some kind of disembodied spirit that goes to heaven or hell or floats around like some kind of ghost on this earth. And we understand that when we are dead, we are asleep, and we are awaiting the resurrection and when Jesus Christ returns for all those that are his. A couple weeks ago, when we all found out that John Thome had died, people were very disappointed. I know I had a number of people call me and talk to me at church about how disappointed they were that we weren't going to be able to have a funeral service. The family, of course, cremated, even sent the remains to the West Coast where his family's from, and so we weren't able to properly say goodbye in a way. I mean, there's a sense of closure that we can get by going to a memorial service or a funeral service, and we didn't get to do that.

What I want to do today, just because of those conversations I had with so many people, I want to talk about what are we going to be like in the resurrection.

We're all looking forward to Christ's return. We're all saying, yes, I want to be there. I want to be changed. What's hard to understand that's interesting when you're younger is that, oh, I don't want Christ to come back. I haven't had a chance to really live my life yet.

As you get older, there is a point when you say, I can't wait for him to come back, you know, because my body's all worn out.

What is it that he's offering us that is so great that we should be willing to sacrifice our lives now to obtain it? What is the offering that when Jesus told it to these men, they believed it so deeply that 11 out of the 12 men there spent the rest of their lives dedicated to teaching it and obtaining it. In fact, when you remove Judas Iscariot from this equation, the other 11 men there, 10 of them, died for this truth of who Jesus Christ is. He said, believe in the Father. You must also believe in me. They died for the understanding of who Jesus Christ is and for his message. Part of his message is, you can obtain a resurrection. You can fulfill what God made you to be.

What will we be like in the resurrection? It's interesting that John later on in his life discusses this very same thing. Let's go to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3.

We'll start in verse 1.

The whole manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God, therefore the world does not know us because they did not know Him.

We know that right now we are in relationship with God as a child to a father. That is a relationship you have right now. We forget that sometimes that we still see God as some distant being or maybe as a judge or something, but He is our Father. We have a relationship with Him right now as Father. And John says, because of that, you will not fit in the world. You will fit in the world any more than Jesus Christ fit in the world. So we think, well, why is it so hard? Why don't we fit? Jesus Christ didn't fit. The world killed Him. Then notice too, beloved, now we are children of God. He drives home the point He wants us to remember who we are.

You know, you will never know who you are. You will never understand yourself. You can go to a psychologist for the next 20 years and you will never understand yourself. You will never know who you are until first you understand who created you and secondly, why He created you. Until you know that, you'll never really know who you are.

God created you so He could be your Father. He used Jesus Christ to create you because Jesus Christ says, I want to be your brother. That's why He came as a human being, to actually create a brother-brother-brother-sister relationship with us. It's one of the reasons He came.

So now we have this relationship, but as He says here in chapter 2, beloved, we are now children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.

We might be in a relationship with God as a child now, but what is it going to be like in the resurrection? And John says, but we know that when He is revealed, so when Jesus Christ is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We will see Jesus Christ as He is. Now, the minute we're going to talk about what is Jesus Christ like, because we will see Him in the glorified state. You and I could not see Jesus Christ right now in the glorified state. It would kill us. Remember what was told to Moses? I will put my hand over your eyes and I'll walk my back.

My back will be shown to you, because if you see me, you will die. The human mind and the human body cannot survive being in direct contact and seeing God as He is. We will see Him as He is, which means we're going to have to go through a dramatic change in who we are.

And, of course, John uses this as a motivation. This should be part of our motivation. It is, we should want this. We should want to see Christ as He is. We should want to see our Father as He is. Because in verse 3 He says, "...that everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure." In other words, if this is our hope, if this is our dream, this is our goal, this is what we wish to obtain at the end of your life, what do you want on your tombstone?

It's an interesting exercise. I've done that some time with men's clubs and different things. Write what you want on your tombstone. You can't put a lot on a tombstone.

And then live your life so that you get there.

Live your life so you get there, that that's what they say about you.

On our tombstone, we shall see Him as He is. Is that where we want to be?

Is that where we want God to take us? Because if we do, we will live pure lives. We will let God prepare us for that moment. You and I can't obtain that moment unless we're prepared for it. That's why God gives us His Spirit, so that we are prepared for that moment in time, when we're no longer in time, where we are changed and we see Him as He is.

Now, it says we will be like Him. We're not going to be totally like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has lived for eternity. Jesus Christ has never sinned. Jesus Christ has all power with the Father. You and I don't...we're not going to be all powerful. We're not going to be all knowing. We're not going to have sinned in our experience as human beings. But we will be like Him. We will be like Him in that we will be Spirit beings, and we will be like God and like Christ in that way, different than the angels. Different than the angels. We're like God.

It was mentioned in the Sermon at the God is creating a family.

He's creating a family of beings that will be like Him, not exactly like Him, but they will be like Him. Not exactly like my Father, but I like Him in many ways. We're going to be like God in more ways than we realize. It's important for us to understand what is being offered to us and how lightly we sell this. How lightly do we sell this opportunity? For what? What God is giving to us. You're going to have to use your imagination today.

Use your imagination a little bit today and try to capture the little bits and pieces we have in here on what it's going to be like in the resurrection. If you're a younger person, you think, oh, I don't know, I don't want any of this, I want to live my life, you know. Yeah, when I'm old and ready to die, when I'm old, decrepit, and have nothing left to live for, because I'm just depressed all the time, you know, and I'm like 32, then I'll be ready for this.

Boy, this is a dream that goes beyond anything you can have right now.

What is it like? 1 Corinthians 15. Now, we do read this, at least I do it, I think, at every funeral I've ever done, read at least part of 1 Corinthians 15. So, let's look through a little bit of 1 Corinthians 15 here. You know, this is the resurrection chapter, where Paul explains to a Greek audience what the resurrection is. They don't know. They believe you die and become a disembodied spirit. For many Greeks, they thought the stars were people who had died. Good people became trickling stars. That's why they followed astrology, you see. That might be Uncle Jim up there, and he moves across the sky, and he's telling me how to live my life.

Or that's what the gods, the goddesses, you know, you could see them sparkling, and they could tell you what to do. Their lack of understanding of any basic science in that terms led them to some very strange beliefs. 1 Corinthians 15.35. So, they asked Paul the basic question, but some will say, how are the dead raised up, and with what bodies do they come? The idea of a body was absolutely foreign to them. It's interesting that in the Greek mythology, you had different types of people in Hades receiving different kinds of punishment, and some people were just called shadows.

They were so thin and so empty that in Hades they were just shadows. They really couldn't communicate. They really weren't alive, as we know, and just somehow barely conscious, floating through Hades as shadows. The idea is that you get a body? Okay, well, what kind of body do I get?

You know, do I get another? I resurrected to get a body, I die again. I resurrected to get another body, I die again. Come on, what kind of body do you get? Verse 36. Paul says, this is the foolish question. You don't understand. When I'm talking about body here, I'm not talking about what you mean as body. He says, that's a foolish one.

What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body which it shall be, but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases to eat seed in its own body. He says, no, no, no, he says, let me look at some analogies here to help you understand. If you put, if you plant a seed, it grows into a plant. You know, you put it in the ground, it's a seed.

What comes up is totally different. I mean, it's the same that genetic makeup is there. But, you know, if you plant a corn, a corn stalk comes up and an ear of corn comes on that corn stalk. You just don't have one little piece of corn come up.

Okay? So, look at the analogy. Plant something, look what comes out of it. Something greater. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there's one kind of flesh of men, another fish, another flesh of animals, another fish, another of birds.

Just look at the animal world, he says. There's different kinds of, you know, fish are different than mammals. So, God has designed the world that there's even different kinds of flesh. Now, you know, we can argue with our science today what that means, but remember, he's not arguing this strictly. He's definitely not arguing this in 21st century scientific understanding. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies. This, I think, is the most amazing of all his analogies.

But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. One star differs from another star in glory. So, also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, is raised in incorruption, is sown in dishonor, is raised in glory, and is sown in weaknesses, is raised in power. He says, okay, maybe this analogy will stick with you. Look at the moon and look at the sun. I don't think Paul understood, and this analogy even means more today, I don't think he understood that the moon reflected the sun.

I'd have to look and see what the Greeks understood at the time, but I don't know if they understood that. We know today that all that moon is is a big rock, but the sun generates energy, its own energy. One time Kim and I went to the observatory up on Mount Davis, and they had telescopes at night. You'd go out and see stars and so forth, but they have a telescope that watches the sun all day long.

Now, you can't go look through the telescope. I mean, the human eye couldn't take that intensity, but they'll project what that telescope is looking at on a wall, and you can go in, and for a couple of bucks you can sit there and watch the sun. Now, they were so excited the day we were there.

All the scientists, the people that worked there, the astronomers, and they're like, wow, you can't believe it! Look at this giant, this sun, it shot out a, what do they call it? Solar flare, but it didn't come straight out. It looped back around and went back in. And so, we're sitting there watching this, you know, a wee little patch of the sun, because they zeroed in on it so you couldn't see all the sun. And there's this little patch of the sun, and there's this solar flare that comes out and creates this, this looks like a tube that goes around and goes back in. They said, do you understand this is the explosions of, or like the explosions of hundreds and thousands of hydrogen bombs exploded out, looped around, and now the energy of the sun is being generated out and right back into it.

Oh, that's cool. They said, no, you don't understand. That loop, okay, it's going out, looping around, that hole in that loop, you can set the earth right in that. That's how big that is.

It's shooting out between 25 and 30 thousand miles of the space, looping back around and feeding back into itself. Now I understand why you people are excited.

Of course, what's really weird, as mentioned in the sermon, we're watching it eight minutes after it happened. And Paul says, okay, spirit, body, sun, our body, rock. Okay, this is the difference. This is the difference. He says in verse 45, well, verse 44, because this is very important, because I've had many people tell me there is no such thing as a spirit body. Spirit and body cannot be the same. Spirit means the opposite of body. Spirit means no body. That's what it means. Well, what did Paul say? It is so natural body is raised as spiritual body. There is a natural body. There is a spiritual body. That's all hard. You know, there's a lot of things to interpret in Bible, but I love definitive statements. There is no such thing as a natural body, or spiritual body. There is a natural body. There is a spiritual body. Definitive statement. It is what it is. So we know here that they're easy spiritual body. You're not a disembodied spirit in the resurrection, just sort of floating around like a shadow. You will have four, but you're not going to be like this anymore, either. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last man became a life-giving spirit. Let's get down to verse 450 where he says, now this I say, because he talks about the natural and spiritual body here, and the rest of this. I'm going to skip through because I'm going to get to something else. But 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, these verses, he talks about the natural body and the spiritual body. The natural body comes first for us. The spiritual body comes second. Now this I say, brother, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Nor does corruption inherit interruption. This body can't be taken into eternity. It's not designed for eternity. Or as many of you as I've, when I anoint you, many of you have heard me say this, we were designed to live in Eden, and we don't. So we get sick. We were designed to live in this world. But this body wasn't designed to live in eternity, either. Spirit bodies are designed to live for eternity. And you can have one. That's what the resurrection is all about. So what do we know about a spirit body? Well, we know Jesus Christ has one, right? The whole argument here is, look, Jesus Christ shows us this pathway. He shows us. You know, if we just had to say, well, let's look at God the Father, we'd have a hard time understanding that. It's easier for us to understand, okay, Jesus Christ came, He had a physical body, and now He has a spirit body.

So let's look at Philippians chapter 3, what Paul says here.

We have to piece together these verses to begin to understand what is taught about the spiritual body. Philippians 3 verse 20. Paul says, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior to Lord Jesus Christ. We wait for Him. Why? Well, John, he said, I leave, and I'm coming back for you. Notice in verse 21, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body according to the working by which He is able even to do all things to Himself.

He says He's coming back to take this and transform it into a body like His.

Okay, what do we know about the body of Jesus Christ? We know He was resurrected.

What's interesting is they went to the tomb and the body wasn't there. You know, He could have just appeared as a spirit.

That body had changed into something. They began to appear to people.

Was it physical anymore? Let's go to John chapter 20. John chapter 20.

So what kind of body is God going to offer you? How do you explain it? Well, okay, let's look at what Jesus Christ is like, because it says we will be like Him. What's interesting, John in 1 John said, now we don't know what entirely we'll be like, but we know we'll be like Him because we'll be able to see Him.

We'll be able to talk to Him. We'll be able to interact with God the Father and Jesus Christ directly. I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more I look forward to that. Not because I'm all tired and bored out, still feel pretty good. Just to sit and talk. Well, just to sit and listen and be right there.

To have God speak your name.

And you hear it because you're right there. You say, well, I can't do that. God, there will be billions of people before God. He won't even know who I am. I truly believe, now this is Gary Petty's theory, okay? So don't write this in your margins. Don't put it in your notes. I believe God will interact with each of us in such a way that when need be, we will feel like we're the only person in front of Him. Because He does that with prayer.

Sometimes you and I now go before God, and in that moment we think we're the only one He's talking to. And the truth is, who knows how many people are talking to Him? And all of our feelings the exact same way. I believe God will do that. Oh yes, there will be times where before He's thrown with everybody else and they'll be singing and all these things are going on. But I believe there are times where you will feel so intimately in contact with God. He has the ability that you will believe you're in a personal conversation with Him and nobody else is around. And it will be that way to you. I only say that because it's that way now.

In fact, what we'll show in a little bit, this is very personal. Well, look at John 20, verse 24.

This is after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Thomas called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples there foresaid to Him, we have seen the Lord. So He said to them, unless I see His hands, the print of the nails, I put my finger into the print of the nails and my hand into His side, I will not believe. After eight days, His disciples were again inside and Thomas with them, and Jesus came, the doors being shut. Now, I want you to understand, John makes a pointer, the doors were shut. So Jesus was not visible to them, and then He was. This is what you do with the Spirit of body. He was not visible to them, and then they looked, and there He was.

He was now visible to them, and He says, Peace! Peace to you! I guess, I don't know what is an Aramaic. Is it Shalom, like Hebrew?

He doesn't show up and say, Hey, you guys, what are you doing here? I've got a list of sins we need to deal with. He shows up and He says, Shalom!

So He said to Thomas, Thomas, take your finger and stick it right there.

Okay? You want to see these nails? Here. I will show you my body in that form.

Now, it says He was beaten to the point you couldn't recognize Him as a man.

He doesn't seem to be in this state here, but He can show you. He can use that body to show you what it was like. So, reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said, Thomas didn't even do it. He just said, My Lord and My God.

People think, Well, with a spirit body, nobody will be able to recognize me. I want you to understand they recognize Jesus Christ. Will you know who you are? Yes, you'll be the consciousness you have now. Will you know who your family members are? Yes.

You'll know each other. We all know each other.

We'll all be a little amazed. That's Paul. He's a lot shorter than I thought he would be. It says he was a short guy. Biggles, bowlegged, bald and short.

That's the only description we have of Paul. It was written sometime after he died, so I don't know accurate. We're going to think, that's Paul. We'll see him in that sense, but that's not all that his body is. A little later here in chapter 21, he appears there a while fishing, and they look, and he's on the shore cooking some food. I find it interesting. He's interacting with the physical world. He's cooking some food. Come on, let's have something to eat. It appears that he ate with them.

He enjoyed interacting in the physical realm. I find that amazing, because he sure doesn't need food. Right? He's interacting with his disciples where they are. And then, which would appear that he had a physical body, to them he had a physical body. Here, touch the holes. And then he walked through the walls again. That's a little tough, right? You realize that's not a spiritual body, not a physical body. It's a body, but that's not physical the way you and I know. Touch the holes. Yeah, I gotta see you later, guys. And you just disappear?

We will be like him!

How in the world do we even imagine this? But what is Jesus Christ? If you were before the throne, what does he actually look like in that realm? Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. It's so sad that verse 10 is almost misquoted verses in all the Bible. It was Sunday. See? It was Sunday. Show me any place in the Bible where Sunday is called the Lord's Day. It's just not there!

Of course, we have the Day of the Lord over and over and over again in the Bible, which is time of God's judgment. And the time of Christ's return is called the Day of the Lord, and that time right before it culminates in His coming. So this is the Day of the Lord. This is the Lord's Day, the events of His coming. I was in the spirit of the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice as a trumpet saying, I am Amalfa, the Omega, the first and the last. He tells me to write these things down. John says in verse 12 that I turned to see the voice that spoke to me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. And He talks about what He saw here in the throne of God. That's the throne of God. And He says in verse 13, in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to His feet and girded by the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a flame of fire. Now, Jesus could appear this way to the twelve or the eleven men in that room, too. You think of them seeing Jesus this way, cooking food on the shore.

They'd have been rowing that boat to the other end of that lake as fast as they could.

And this body, the spirit body He has, because it says He has one, remember? We just read that in Philippians. This is what He does with it. This is what you will be able to do. Oh, of course, in a limited way. I mean, we're not going to be just like Jesus Christ.

But as children, we will be like our Father in certain ways. We'll be like our elder brother.

We will always worship them. They will always be greater and smarter. Oh, I'm glad for that. I'd hate to think I was the smartest being in the universe. We're all doomed, if that's true.

God's always got to be worthy of worship, but we'll see Him as He is. This is what we'll be like. It just goes on and describes, I mean, John, when he saw Him, in fact, he says here at the end of verse 16, His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And it says He just fell down. It's like, I'm going to be killed. I'm going to die. I find it interesting. Here's the one that was so close to Jesus that on that last night, you know, He's got His head leaning over on His shoulder. He's probably got His arm around Him. Now, I don't want you to go. What's this trial you're talking about? He doesn't understand. And He leans over, you know, He puts His head on His shoulder, and now He sees Him the way He is in heaven, and He just collapses.

This is the same John that says, we don't know what He's going to be like, but we'll be or what we'll be like entirely, but we know we'll be like Him.

This is the resurrection that we're waiting for. This is what is being offered to us.

You know, at the end of the millennium, we have the Great White Throne Judgment. We know the Great White Throne Judgment isn't just an event because there's all kinds of things that happen. At the beginning of the Great White Throne Judgment, Satan is loosed. There's a rebellion on this earth. All human beings are judged. And then it culminates in the earth being destroyed by fire and recreated by God. That Great White Throne Judgment period ends with the earth being destroyed by fire and recreated. And God brings heaven to earth. You know, He says, I will return. I will come again. The next time Jesus Christ comes, He begins a series of events that lead up to this. This is what it's all about. We say, well, what is God doing? Well, I know what the end game is. I just don't know what He's doing in the moment at times. I can't figure out what God's doing today. Right? My little brain can't grab it. But I know what the end game is. I know what is accomplished at the end. Let's go to Revelation 21. Let's go to the end of the Bible.

Revelation 21. Now, this is also a passage. I'll always read it at funerals. First Corinthians 15 and in this passage here.

This is where there'll be a point. Will there only be two kinds of human beings? Well, that statement isn't true. There'll be one kind of human being or class of human being that no longer exists. They'll be destroyed and they're like fire. They just don't exist anymore. They're gone forever. These are the incorrigibles that will not follow God. There'll be another class of human beings that'll be living with spirit bodies and the family of God. Verse 1. This is the end of the last grade day. Now, this is what happens. John says, I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adored for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will dwell with them and be their God. We will be living with God, and the throne of God is coming to heaven. Verse 4 is very important. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things that passed away. He's going to change the way we think and the way we feel. When we're changed, this isn't just a body. Oh, good. I get a body that can run real fast now. Okay? I get a body that can walk through walls. I get a body that can go to the moon and doesn't have to worry about oxygen. Because, obviously, Jesus Christ is not limited by physical things. Oh, good. That's my change. The very core of who you are will have been changed. This is why this is so important right now, this Christianity. If we cannot now submit ourselves to God to let this change take place, He will not give it to us. Oh, someday I'll obey God. Someday I'll do it right. Someday I'll live this way. Someday there is no someday. There's now.

If we die today, we're either in the first resurrection if you have God's Spirit. You're either in the first resurrection or you're not. There's no second chance for us today.

Look at what's being offered to us.

Look what's being offered to all humanity.

A change. You will not feel sorrow the way you feel now. Now, I know God feels sorrow because He feels sorrow for others. God has never felt sorry for Himself.

There's no self-pity with God. There's no depression with God. There's no angst, no anxiety, no fear. He felt grief. It talks about grief.

We know He feels sorrow for others.

There's no uncontrolled hatred. There's no hatred in God. There's anger, but there's no uncontrolled anger. Anger can actually be good if it produces good. Most of our anger is bad. It ends up hurting us. Our emotions are changed the way you think. That's why you have to learn it now.

We're learning now. We just went through all the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Those fruits are the qualities that give eternity purpose and gives life worth living. I do not want to live life as Satan. And I've told God, if I can't get it, please put me in the lake of fire. Do not let me live forever like Satan. I don't have insanity. I don't want to live and save forever. I would rather die. I'd have the fruits of God's Spirit to have that forever as who you are. Everything you've ever wanted would happen because it happens inside of you.

He says, this is what happens. God not only changes everything around us so that bad things can happen, He changes us. Very important verse. Verse 5, that He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. He said to be right, for these words are true and faithful. He says to John, It is done. I am the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of water of life freely to him who thirsts. We just don't thirst enough sometimes. We sell this dream. We sell this dream so cheaply.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son.

Everything that God has can be yours. Inherent all things.

Everything that God has... There's a whole universe out there. I don't have any idea what He plans to do with it, but it can be yours. It's part of the family inheritance. Everything that God has, He's willing to share. It will be His children. I will be His God, and He shall be my Son. Whole purpose for humanity is what God is doing.

He goes on and describes how He brings this new Jerusalem to the earth. This new Jerusalem is described as a huge city.

Now, some people say, well, okay, let's figure out chemically or physically the molecules of the city. It's not a physical thing in what we know. Well, how do you know that? Well, you figure up how big it is. It's 1,500 miles square and 1,500 miles high. Mount Everest is five and a half miles high. The tallest building on earth is just about half a mile. They can't make it much higher. They fall down. About 1,500 miles. Okay, that's from Los Angeles to Minneapolis.

Square that. And you've covered a whole bunch of the United States of America.

A city that big and 1,500 miles high, it can't be physical. It would knock the earth off its axis and be spitting into the sun. Physical laws are going to be changed. I say it may be physical. I have no idea what this is constructed of, but for this to happen, the physical laws as we know it no longer apply just like they don't apply to Jesus' body. So, what's it made of? I don't know. Maybe God changes all the physical laws. He doesn't even want you to do that.

Maybe it's made out of spirit. I don't know. I don't even want that. You know, as I say that, I don't even have to describe that. What's the sea of glass made up at God's throne?

I don't know, because He's bringing it here, though. Does the sea of glass have weight? Does it have dimensions? I don't know. What's it made of? Is it glass? I sort of doubt it.

Right? What is it at God's throne? How are these things made of? Does an angel have weight? It's spirit. How do you measure that? I don't know. I don't know.

This is what is being offered to us. If we can just grab this imagination sometimes of what God's doing, and He only gives us these little bits and pieces of it.

1,500 miles square. I've seen artists try to create images of what this would look like. Some make it look like a giant pyramid, which I always find interesting, because when you set the thing on a globe, it's so huge it makes it look like the globe would just tip over.

Others have it like a cube. I call it the Borg representation. For the Star Trek fans out there, it looks like a giant Borg ship coming down to Earth. Okay? 1,500 miles square. 1,500 miles high. And it says it's solid gold. I don't know what that means. I just know it's true.

I just know it's true. I just know this is going to happen, and God lets you have a chance to be part of it. We shouldn't feel so bad about not having a funeral for John. It's what waits him. You and I just have to still live in this mess.

Revelation 22 here at the end of the very end of the Bible.

John said he showed me, verse 1, a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The throne of God is now on Earth.

In the middle of the street, on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits. Each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Healing is what God is all about. Healing of everything that was broken physically. Healing of our spirit. And there shall be no more curse for the but of the throne of God, and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. Verse 4, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads forever. That they shall see his face. Every one of us will be in that father-child relationship with God that you and I were designed to need. We need that. We want that. Much of our lives we destroy ourselves because it's what we need, and we try to fill it with all kinds of other things. You will have a personal relationship with God. It's not a matter now of ballad on your knees and praying to God and feeling his presence. You will be in his presence, and he will know you by name, and you will talk with God. And then you will go do things.

I don't know. We got a universe as a playground here, so I'm not sure what we're going to be doing, but I can imagine a lot. Of course, I'd be happy just to hang around. I'm hoping I was like Jesus's ballet. I'm serious about that. What would you like to do in the kingdom? I'd like to be Christ's ballet, just sort of there, putting on his spiritual shoes or whatever, watching what goes on forever. That would just be amazing to me. Serving and watching it, hearing the conversations, hearing how he interacts with every child that has value to him, watching each person interact with God in their personality. We keep trying to make ourselves all the same, but we're not. God didn't make us all the same. He didn't want us all the same. I wouldn't want all my three children to be exactly the same. They're all quite different, and my wife and I have just marveled at the differences. Each one is so uniquely incredible in their own way.

And none of the three of them are exactly like us either.

God designed it that way.

How does God guarantee this? I used to worry about this when I was younger. But what if I become a spirit being and I rebel against God?

What if I'm going to happen and I'll end up, what, like Satan? I mean, we're going to have another rebellion and then another rebellion and then another rebellion until the majority of the family is thrown into the pit. And God says, I guess we're going to start all over again because everybody's rebelled. But that's not going to happen. You know why it's not going to happen? First Corinthians chapter 15. Let's go back to the resurrection chapter because he tells us.

First Corinthians 15.

Verse 24. Then comes the end. It's talking about, in verse 23, it's talking about the first roots, or those, I'm sorry, Christ is the first roots, and then the resurrection and His coming. And there's this resurrection. Now Paul, writing the way Paul does, he just skips over a whole bunch of other things. He says, okay, then the end comes. There's things in between, but I'd like to talk about them right now. The end comes. Verse 24. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. You know what happens at the end of the last great day? Christ takes this family of billions of beings, and He goes to the Father, and He says, it's done. Here they are. Now, I wonder if it's like a graduation ceremony, one by one, when you appear before God in Christ is. Joe Smith, you know, come on, get your diploma, present you to the Father. He gives the whole thing. All this work that God did, remember, the Father created all things through whom? Jesus Christ. This is the plan, and this is what you're going to do. Yes, Father, and He did it. And in the end, He presents the whole family to God.

He delivers it to God. Verse 25. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

Everybody will either be subject to Jesus Christ or go to the lake of fire. It's that simple. You and I are now being trained to be subject to Jesus Christ. If we can be subject to Jesus Christ now with God's Spirit in us, then we will go to the lake of fire. How can we sell this dream? What price are you willing to pay to sell this? This opportunity.

Verse 26. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For when He has put all things under His feet, but when He says all things that are put under Him, it is evident that He should not put all things under Him that He who put all things under Him is accepted. In other words, the Father will always be over Jesus Christ. The Father says, I will put all things under His feet, except, of course, Himself. Jesus Christ delivers it to the Father and then submits to the Father. As an example for all of us to submit to the Father.

Verse 28. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him that God may be, now this is very important, all in all.

Why is it that we won't rebel? Do you think when we're changed, God takes His Spirit out of us?

How do you and I have a relationship with God forever? Because God's Spirit is in us forever. He can take it from us now, when we're changed, it will be permanent. Can God sin? No. Will we be able to sin? No. Because God will be all in all. I find that incredibly comforting. I find that incredibly comforting. Good. Take my will away. I wish I could figure out how to do it. As a human being, I've never figured out how to give up my will. But boy, if I could in a moment of time say, take it, it would be gone. And be all in all. That's incredible, isn't it? This is what is being offered to you. God has created a universe. This is just the beginning stages of what He's doing. We're the beginning of a story. And our little time here, we think, is the story. Yay, it's one, one little piece of this giant story that God is doing as He creates a family. Let's conclude by going to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Verse 14.

For as many, Paul says, as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. When we let God's mind into us. So we have to be careful. Sometimes we almost create a Trinity concept that the Holy Spirit is separate from God. It is God. It is His mind and His thoughts and His love, and it comes into us. Both God, the Father, and Jesus Christ are living in us. They're inside our heads. I don't know about you, but sometimes I think I'm a little embarrassed to have them inside my head. For you do not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the Spirit of adoption by which we cry out, Abba, Daddy, Father. That's the relationship we have now. Can you imagine what the relationship will be like when you can go before Him all the time, anytime, there, with Him, before Him? So I said, when I get there, I don't want to go anyplace. Gary, would you like a galaxy? I'd rather just stay here.

Just stay here. I'll shine shoes.

Now, if He says, go to galaxy, I'll say, yeah, and I'll go, yes, sir, I'll go do it.

He says the Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit, and we are the children of God. The Spirit Himself, He makes such a big thing out of the Greek there, but the bottom line is, you could just rephrase this into God Himself and get the same meaning. God Himself, we are His children. It's His Spirit that makes us His children. That's why He's not going to take it away from us. We don't get changed and say, oh, good, I'm now an independent being. I'm my own God. We're not going to be created into individual gods. We are created into the children of God, and His Spirit will be in us forever and ever and ever and ever in a way that we can't even imagine now, in a way that we can't even imagine. It is His Spirit that bears witness with our Spirit. And if children then heirs, and we just read more heirs of all things, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, and if, indeed, we suffer with Him, then we may also be glorified together. We are going to have to reach the point we are willing to suffer for Jesus Christ because we want to be glorified with Him. We love Him that much.

You know, we talk about our love for God the Father because that is our primary. God, Christ leads us to the Father, but we forget we are also supposed to love Jesus Christ.

We think about it as a Passover, but we forget it sometimes throughout the year.

That is why when Jesus said, when you prayed to the Father, the Father will listen to your prayers, and the Father will answer you. He says, I won't.

That is amazing. In John where Christ says, I am not going to answer your prayers. You are going to pray in my name and He will answer you. And He says, you know why He will answer you? Because you love Me. Every time you go to the Father and say in Jesus' name what you are telling the Father is, I love my older brother that much.

I didn't make that up. Jesus said that. He will respond to you. He will answer you because you love Him. And Jesus says, me. That is to say the Father says Himself. This is a family.

This is what John has to look forward to. This is why you and I have to fight so hard to be that now. We cannot discount the importance of Christian unity because that is what a family must be. Do you think we are going to be dysfunctional forever?

You think this is what eternity is like? No, it is not. That is why Christian unity is so important. He says, For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The glory that shall be revealed in us.

This is what He is talking about. This total change of what will happen to us.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of what the Son of God, a whole universe, is out of whack. It doesn't work right because it is waiting for the point where God brings and creates His family and the children of God are created and the new heavens and new worlds are created and His throne comes to this earth and then there can be peace in the universe. There will never be peace in the universe until this happens. The whole creation is in turmoil until this event.

For the creation was subject, verse 22, to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bodies of corruption and to the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth-bangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. If there is no spirit body, that doesn't make a lot of sense.

The reconstruction, the recreation of who we will be. This is the training ground. This is where we train and learn for eternity. Verse 24, I'm going to conclude with verse 24-25. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, the New Jerusalem, we hope for what we yet do not see. We believe it. We know what's going to happen. We know what's there. Do you believe the sun will rise tomorrow? Well, of course you do. We would think somebody's crazy who believes the sun's not going to rise tomorrow. You have to have that much belief in the New Jerusalem.

You have to have that much belief in the return of Jesus Christ and the change of your body so that you will do whatever it takes and pay whatever price today to get that, to be there, to be part of it. This has to be that real to you. And if it is, verse 25 says, but if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

We will withstand whatever happens. We will go through whatever happens, because God will get us there to the point where God will be all in all.