12 FOUNDATION STONES—CLASS 9B NOW AND FOREVER HEAVEN, PART 2.1 ------------------------------------------- Section 1: What Will You Be Like in Heaven? ------------------------------------------- You can hardly appreciate Heaven and what it will be like unless you know what you're going to be like! Of course, we don't know all the details, as it is somewhat a mystery, but here are some verses and ideas on the subject. > The mystery of the resurrection 1 Corinthians 15:51–52—Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— (52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. When the Lord created the life cycles of butterflies and moths, He was illustrating resurrection. They hatch from eggs into little worm-like caterpillars. Then they wrap themselves up in a cocoon called a chrysalis, almost like a coffin, and it seems they die. But then spring comes and suddenly the coffin splits open and out comes a beautiful butterfly or moth! Once it was just a little crawling worm, and all of a sudden it breaks out into a beautiful butterfly that flies in the heavens!—One of God's prettiest creatures. Like the difference between the grain of wheat and the full-grown, full-blown stock and head that comes from one grain, or the flower and the tiny seed it comes from, that's how much better your new Heavenly body is going to be! It will be so much more wonderful; it will be like the difference between the seed and the flower! Paul writes: 1 Corinthians 15:35–38—But someone will say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?" (36) Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. (37) And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. (38) But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. Paul says it's such a mystery you can hardly understand it, just like most of us do not understand how a seed buried in the ground comes to life and springs up and becomes a whole new plant. That's how much more wonderful your new body's going to be, and how different! He says there's one kind of this and one kind of that, and if you bury a grain of wheat in the ground you're not going to get apples. What comes out, the final end product, is going to look like the grain of wheat you buried. In Heaven you're going to look like yourself, but with a marvelous new body! > Spirit bodies until we receive our new bodies at the resurrection When we're talking about how we will be in Heaven, it's important to understand there are two stages. If we die now, before Jesus returns, we are given a type of spiritual body. When Jesus returns, then the bodies of the saved believers (who were already in Heaven) will be resurrected. Those who are still alive at His coming will be instantly transformed to receive their resurrected bodies: 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17—For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. (16) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. (17) Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. The Bible doesn't say much about the present state of those who die now (before Jesus returns) but tells in some detail our state when resurrected. So now let's look at what we will be like in our resurrection bodies. > When we are resurrected, we will be like Jesus after His resurrection Philippians 3:20–21—For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (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 subdue all things to Himself. We're going to be like Jesus! We're going to look like Jesus did when He rose from the dead. We are going to be much the same as we are now, except that we're going to have supernatural bodies. We will look like we do now, just as Jesus did after His resurrection. He could even eat and drink and they could feel Him and touch Him as well as see Him. Jesus took on a physical form, which means it is some kind of a form of flesh. Theologians call them theophanies, a word literally meaning "God body," the fleshly physical embodiment of a spirit being. We'll be like Him—God's Word says so! 1 John 3:2—Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. He was born of woman, of flesh. He died like a man, like flesh dies, but He was resurrected like we'll be resurrected, being in a sense part spirit and part flesh. 1 Corinthians 6:14—And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Romans 6:4W–5—Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. ------------------------------------------- > The qualities of our new heavenly bodies Let's look at the qualities that Jesus had when He was resurrected. * A new kind of body When Jesus was resurrected, He was not purely spirit. Luke 24:36–40—Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you." (37) But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. (38) And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? (39) Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." (40) When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. Jesus was still human and still had a body of flesh and bone—He says so! Flesh and bone! You notice He doesn't say blood, because "the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11). Corruption comes through blood and the carnal nature of our present physical bodies that are from the dust. We're going to have flesh that looks like this flesh and feels like this flesh too, but it's not going to have the kind of life that blood gives, which is not eternal life. We are going to have a new kind of a spiritual, resurrected, marvelous, eternal, glorified body; and yet it's going to be material enough and natural enough and recognizable enough and seeable, feelable, enjoyable enough to actually be constructed as we now are of flesh and bones—but eternal flesh and bones, incorruptible, immortal flesh and bones.—Flesh and bones! Think of it! And that kind of marvelous glorified Heavenly body is going to be able to enjoy all the pleasures that our body enjoys here and now. * Recognizable 1 Corinthians 15:49—And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. Even as we have looked on Earth, we will resemble that same image in Heaven. We will bear the same looks and general appearance—here called "image"—as we have here on Earth, but much more glorious. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that it's going to be like the difference between sowing a seed, and then what comes up out of the seed. He says it's going to be new and different, and yet we'll recognize each other; we'll "know even as also we are known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). * Powers of movement When Jesus was resurrected, He was not only able to do all the normal natural things we humans do, but when His disciples were in a locked room with the doors all barred, all of a sudden He came walking right through the door without unlocking it! Jesus could appear or disappear; He could walk right through walls or locked doors. John 20:19—Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." John 20:26—And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" In your new body, you'll be able to walk through walls, doors, and appear and disappear just like Jesus did. Perhaps we'll even fly! Isaiah 60:8—Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their roosts? > The pleasures of life continued All of the pleasures of this present physical life can be continued into the next life as well, since we will have a body which is similar to our physical body, but so much more glorious and wonderful and supernatural that it's even called spiritual. Yet it can actually materialize and eat and drink and be merry, have fun, love and all of the present pleasures of this life extended into the next. We will have an immortal, incorruptible, all-powerful body that can enjoy these pleasures even more there than we do here, and forever without ever suffering pain or sickness or weariness or death. It will be absolutely marvelously heavenly forever! * Still able to eat, although it won't be necessary Luke 24:42–43—So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence. Jesus ate with His disciples several times after He was resurrected. In Luke 24 we read how He sat down and ate with them. Another time He broke bread with the disciples after the walk down the road to Emmaus. They didn't recognize Him until after He broke bread. Luke 24:13–17, 30–31—Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. (14) And they talked together of all these things which had happened. (15) So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. (16) But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. (17) And He said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?" … (30) Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. (31) Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. ------------------------------------------- * For more on this subject, be sure to read 1 Corinthians 15, if you haven't already. ------------------------------------------- (continued in part 2)