I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone– for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men– the testimony given in its proper time (1 Timothy 2:1-6).

 In that spirit, we pray today that God would give our new President Elect the wisdom and godly focus he’ll need to lead our nation in a way that brings glory to God.  And, as Paul instructed Timothy, we pray for a government that would allow us to live peaceful, holy, lives, so that all men might be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

As I prepare for the upcoming series on Death and the Life after that, I wanted to briefly meditate on one connection between ourselves and President-Elect Obama.  Now that the votes have been counted, President-Elect Obama finds himself in an interesting place, living in the tension between the “already” and the “not yet.”  On the one hand, he has been elected President.  But on the other hand, he has not yet taken office.  He has been chosen already, but he is not yet Commander-in-Chief. 

Those who have come to saving faith in Jesus Christ find themselves in a similar predicament.  On the one hand, we have been saved.  We have been marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession (Ephesians 1:13-14).  We have been given eternal life (1 John 5:11-13).  We are seated in the heavenly realms with Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6).  Our place in heaven is secure, and we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20).  But we’re not in heaven yet.  Like President-Elect Obama, we live in the already-not yet tension.

The big question is, how should we then live?  Should President-Elect Obama live as if he were not the president, since he is not technically the President until January 20th?  Or should he begin to live as if he is the president?  Should he wait until his inauguration to act Presidential, or should he begin now to learn all he can so that he might be best prepared to take office on that day?  I think the answer is clear – since he is going to be President, the wisest thing Mr. Obama can do is to prepare to be President until the day he takes residence in the White House.  The old Obama is passing away, so to speak, and the new one is coming.

We who have come to saving faith, whose citizenship is in heaven, who are heading towards an eternity with God, likewise should recognize that it makes no sense to live according to our old selves.  We are a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Our future reality is as a resident of God’s kingdom.  That is where our treasure lies now, and therefore we would be wise to live in preparation for that place, not spending our money and time on what will not last, but giving ourselves wholeheartedly to that which will last forever.  As Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  We are encouraged to “put off our old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, [and] to be made new in the attitude of your minds” (Ephesians 4:22-23).  It makes no sense to waste your time living for things that will not last forever. 

We live in the already-not yet tension.  Our place in heaven is secure, but we are not yet residents there.  Therefore, do not live according to the ways that characterized your old way of life, and do not spend your time and money on what will not last.  Live instead as a citizen of heaven.

 

For the past few weeks, I haven’t been able to get Bryan Adams out of my head.  Every time I sit down to plan ahead for my November sermons, all I can hear is “baby you’re all that I want, when you’re lying here in my arms… I’m finding it hard to believe, we’re in heaven.”  And I suppose therein lies one of the greatest tragedies of the Biblical doctrine of heaven:  it’s been terribly corrupted by the images and descriptions we get of it from the culture around us.  From Plato to Dante, from What Dreams May Come to the Far Side, unbiblical notions of the afterlife have tainted the stunning future reality offered us in the Bible, until, like the cartoon above, it seems impossible for heaven to live up to the hype.  And who can blame people for thinking that way?  Consider the traditional pop culture depiction of heaven:  a bunch of spiritual beings in white robes, sitting on clouds and playing harps all day.  Or, worse yet: sitting through an eternity-long church service, singing the same hymns over and over and over and over and over (and over and over and over and… you get the picture). 

 
It’s time to rescue the great Biblical doctrine of death and the life after from the eternal-life-sucking clutches of our culture.  It is time to raise our hopes, quicken our hearts with anticipation, and encourage us to live every second in the light of our future residence, so that God might truly be glorified in us now and forevermore.  Beginning on November 9th, I’ll be preaching a series I’m calling Death and the Life after that on what to expect on the other side and how that should influence our lives here on earth today.  I’ll be addressing questions like “what will heaven be like?”, “what will we do in heaven?”, “how do we know if we’re going to heaven?”, “what does God mean by the new heavens and new earth?”, and “how should we live in light of that future reality?”

As I prepare, you can do me a favor by sharing any questions you might have or hope that I would address during this series.  Is there anything you’ve wondered about the afterlife?  Please post a comment if you have something to share or a question you’d like answered during this series. 

Like many things of God, human words will never adequately describe the majesty of the real thing (sorry, Bryan Adams).  So pray that I might find the words to give God and His heaven the glory they are due, and that He might be powerful in my weakness to take care of the rest.  And as we look forward to this series, I would leave you with Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:9:  “However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”  Lord, all we ask of you is for just a glimpse of heaven, knowing that will be more than enough.

How do you explain heaven? How can you possibly sum up what it will be like to live in a place where there is “no more death or mourning or crying or pain,” as the author of Revelation put it (Revelation 21:4)? Even the Biblical writers, men who were surely more familiar with God than we are, struggled to put the overwhelming bliss of heaven into human terms – “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). The best they could do was to compare heaven to the richest and most joyful experiences we have on this earth. They described the infrastructure of heaven by appealing to precious metals – gates made of pearls, and streets made of pure gold (Rev 21:21). They tried to capture the joy and pleasure of heaven by comparing it to a great feast, a wedding banquet. Those of us who love to eat good food can only imagine the delights of dining for eternity on exquisite cuisine (without ever gaining a pound, of course!). But most memorably, heaven is captured in the Bible by likening it to a wedding.

The young man strains his eyes, but can not catch a glimpse of his bride’s face just yet through the buggy. He can see her white dress, however, and he catches his breath as he realizes that the moment is finally here. All of the trials, the hopes, the stress, the anticipation, the work, the preparation – it is all behind them now, and his dreams are less than fifty yards away, seated in white carriage beside her father.

I had the distinct pleasure of being a part of the wedding of Mike McCoy and Sarah Schultz this past weekend. Certainly, of all the facets of a pastor’s job, this has to be one of the most exciting and rewarding. Over the years, I will hopefully have a front row seat to the most important day in the lives of many people. And the pleasure is heightened by knowing that I have been able to spend weeks in premarital counseling with them, helping prepare them as best I can for the adventure known as marriage (sort of like preparing them to live in a foreign land, of course – they won’t really understand until they get there… and will probably need years to adjust to the new way of life). Watching the faces of a bride and groom as they face each other and speak their vows from the depths of their hearts into the souls of their partner is an indescribable experience.

There are some moments in life that one just needs to feel and doesn’t necessarily need to think about. There are moments when being present is what really matters, not thinking about what was or what will be, but just listening, watching, and opening one’s heart. This was one of those moments. She stepped out of her buggy, casting a glance and a smile in his direction, before the wedding coordinator veiled her face. She took her father’s arm as the violin began to play, and the young man felt more alive then he had ever thought was possible.

The Bible tells us that those who have been known, loved, and saved by Jesus will live forever with their Lord in what is called “the new heavens and the new earth” (Rev 21:1). And the author of Revelation tries to convey this introduction by comparing it to the moment when a bride is brought before her husband – “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev 21:2). Think of the amount of time a woman spends getting ready on her day off – fixing her hair, doing her makeup, making herself presentable to the world. Think about how long it takes her to get ready for work, when her appearance usually matters a little more. Now think about how long it takes your average bride to prepare for her wedding. Between the nails, the hair, the undergarments, the veil, and of course, the dress (not to mention their weight, their tan, and other body features), the average bride probably puts in at least twenty hours (if not much more) making sure that she will look her absolute best on that day.

As her father leads her slowly along the winding path towards him, he could only catch glimpses of her through the crowd. And then, she rounds the corner and begins walking the remaining ten feet towards him. Through her veil he can see her eyes, full of an intimacy he has never seen before. There are over one hundred people in that place today, with family members who have known her longer than even he has, but that means nothing today. He looks in her eyes, and he knows her, and she knows him. In some mystical way, she is becoming part of him, and he is a part of her, and there is no one else in that place who could ever know her and love her as he does.

Paul, the writer of Ephesians, tells husbands that they are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. He goes on to describe this love as something that gives himself up for the other person to make her holy, cleansing her so that she might be radiant, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Eph 5:25-27). This verse is staggering in its beauty and its challenge, that somehow a husband’s love has the capacity to remove sin, to destroy pain, to cause his wife to radiate purity and perfection. But Paul is also clear that he is mainly talking about Christ and the church in this passage. It may take a bride upwards of twenty hours to prepare herself for her big day, but this passage makes it clear that our entire Christian lives are a process of preparation and purification for the big day, as Jesus gets us ready to meet him.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here together today in the presence of God…” In some ways, it felt like those were the last words the young man could remember hearing. He stood there, captivated by his bride, again fully present to the reality before him, fully alive. “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” And then the veil was lifted, her hand was joined to his, and they stood together as one. In the final chapter of the Bible, tucked away amidst the descriptions of the new heavens and the new earth, are five words that would have astonished any first-century reader of the Bible. They are five words that, prior to that moment, would have caused certain death for anyone who experienced its reality, but in these new heavens and new earth would now mean extravagant life. “They will see His face.” They will see God’s face. The church, the believers, purified and prepared as beautifully as a bride for her husband, will have the veil lifted and will see the very face of God. Throughout the Bible, many writers express their desire to see the face of God, to know Him intimately (Psalm 27:8 & Psalm 80 are just two examples). But even with Moses, God was very clear – “No one may see my face and live” (Exodus 33:20). There’s a reason people in the Bible always seem to fall down whenever God appears, or even one of His angels – his beauty, his holiness, is too much for sinful man.