Do you know what the current death rate is where you live? It’s 100%! That’s right; all of us are going to die. None of us gets out of this life alive. A good question to ponder is what you and I will be doing 100,000 years from now. It’s a valid question if you believe in life after death, and most people do. If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ there’s no question about it — we will be doing something 100,000 years from now.

This morning we conclude a six-part sermon series titled “Seeking God.” This short series has been about the big picture of existence, looking at God’s grand scheme of things from before time as we know it to after time as we know it. Jesus Himself said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 21:6) We started the sermon series by considering that the whole universe speaks loudly of being here by intelligent design: God created everything. He began space and time as we know it, and He’ll end space and time as we know it. In today’s concluding message we’ll consider what God’s plan is for the time after time as we know it.

BEYOND LIFE AS WE KNOW IT
There are two ways you and I can be ushered into existence beyond space and time as we know it. The obvious way is by dying; we’ll all die. The second way would be if Christ should return before we die; then as His followers we’d go to the next existence without dying. Whichever comes first — Christ’s return or our own death — the fact is that 100 years from now everyone who understands what I’m talking about will be experiencing life in the next dimension.

The great preacher Dwight L. Moody said when he was old, “Soon you will read in the newspaper that I am dead. Don’t believe it for a moment. I will be more alive than ever before.” It’s reported that as he lay dying, some of Moody’s last words were, “Earth recedes . . . Heaven opens before me.” What will it be like to leave this existence and be ushered into eternity?

MEETING GOD
The most exciting experience the moment after our death will be meeting God and experiencing His awesome presence. The apostle Paul wrote about being “away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8) Jesus told the repentant thief on the cross, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

God gave the apostle John a glimpse of Jesus in all His glory in heaven, which is something we’re going to experience for ourselves. He described Jesus as being “dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. . . . When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. . . .” (Revelation 1:13-15, 17)

The best part of heaven will be God Himself; He will be heaven’s greatest reward. This is why it’s ludicrous when our first thoughts about heaven are that it’s a place where “Good ol’ Uncle Charlie is teeing off right now for his first 18 rounds in heaven ” or that “Aunt Agnes is probably cleaning up heaven to her standards.” I’m glad God forgives us for such silly thoughts; they neglect the most striking thing about heaven, which is that we’ll see and experience God in ways that we can’t imagine now.

When our thoughts about heaven don’t first include God, it reveals a lot about where we are spiritually. May God help us to hunger and thirst after Him most of all! Like the psalmist, may we affirm that “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4) We’ll never be bored by God, because we’ll never stop discovering new and amazing things about Him. He’s beyond fully knowing!

WHAT WILL THE NEXT LIFE BE LIKE?
Having said these things so far, heaven and eternity won’t be a perpetual worship service. Even in this life we worship God by what we do for Him and by being mindful of Him while we do other things. It will be the same in the next life.

First, let’s remember that we’ll have bodies. They’ll be resurrected bodies, but bodies nevertheless. Jesus rose from the dead with a real body. The disciples could touch it, and Jesus even ate a piece of fish to prove to them that He was real. Our new bodies in heaven will be much the same as Jesus’ — keeping in mind, however, that He’s the Son of God and we’re creatures made and redeemed in the image of God. There’s a difference there! Paul wrote, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:20-21)

We won’t be bodiless spirits floating around there, nor will we be angels. We will NOT be angels! Angels are a separate creation — or probably several races of creation, very different from us. The Bible makes clear that angels often are sent to earth to serve us — and in fact Paul told us what our relationship to angels is going to be: “Do you not know that we will judge angels?” (1 Corinthians 6:3) We’re going to rule over angels because we’re made in the image of God and have been redeemed back into the image of God, unlike the angels.

We’ll have bodies and we’ll probably enjoy living on a newly-made earth! The apostle John shared in his book of Revelation what God allowed him to see concerning the future: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (Revelation 21:1-5)

Apparently we may come back to earth to live — or even venture to other worlds, because all of the heavens will be remade, too. We’ll have work to do, because John wrote, “and his servants will serve him.” (Revelation 22:3) Jesus’ story about three men who were given different amounts to invest for their master while he was going to be away indicates that the way we serve the Lord on earth will determine the level of responsibilities and opportunities we’ll be given in heaven. Jesus said that the faithful servant in that story was “put in charge of many things.” (Matthew 25:21)

We’ll undoubtedly be assigned work to do, much as Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden before the fall. It was work, but it wasn’t frustrating until after the fall. Imagine seeing our work bear results to the glory of God and the good of others! There are hints that there will be culture and economy in the new universe God creates, because we read of nations honoring God and going in and out of the gates of the Holy City on earth. The apostle Paul reminded us that “we will also reign with him.” (2 Timothy 2:12) As Randy Alcorn said in his book Heaven, “We will help rule the new earth.”

We’ll know each other in heaven. Three of Jesus’ disciples saw Him transfigured into the kind of glorious Lord He would be after He returned to heaven. It happened on a mountain, and two men appeared there with Jesus. They were Moses and Elijah, who had been dead (using our terms for all of this) for many years. It’s interesting that they were identifiable as Moses and Elijah.

Will we miss loved ones who aren’t with God in His heaven and new world? We’re told there will be no tears in heaven. We’ll probably have God’s perspective on things, so we’ll be at peace knowing that His full love and justice have been carried out.

This is what Jesus has planned for all those who are His! He tells us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

Expectant parents busy themselves decorating the nursery for their child who isn’t born yet. Jesus is preparing a place for you so that your place in His grand scheme of things for all of eternity is ready when you die — or rather, when you’re born into His new world!

What a glorious future we can have! What an astonishing eternity we have to look forward to!

TWO RESPONSES IN LIGHT OF ETERNITY
There are two ways we need to respond to what we’ve taken a glimpse of today. First, make sure you’re right with the Lord so that you’ll spend eternity with Him — and second, live this life with eternity in mind.

First, make sure you’re right with Him. God is a God of love, and love means that the other person has the freedom to love you back or not. God gives us this freedom. He won’t force us to spend eternity with Him; it has to be our choice, because He wants our relationship with Him to be one of love. He has made it possible by coming as one of us to die for us on the cross. What’s required of us is that we respond in love to God. You do that by accepting His love and forgiveness and giving yourself to Him because He’s given Himself for you.

There is a place in eternity apart from God: it’s called hell. It’s the place where God is not! This life is really a few years, at the beginning of our eternal existence, during which we choose where to spend the rest of our existence: with God or not with God. Choose Him today if you never have before!

Second, live with eternity in mind. As Jesus put it, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

I drove by the former home of one of our dear church members the other day. She recently passed away, and the house she kept so meticulously has been sold. All of her belongings have been disbursed to family and friends and through an estate sale. A hundred years from now, who knows who’ll be living in your house — or if it will be there at all? That shouldn’t matter to us, however, because we’ll be in the Lord’s presence. The farm my dad farmed for years is now being farmed by someone else, but my dad’s best and biggest crops weren’t beans and corn, anyway. They were the lives he changed as a husband, father, and Sunday school teacher and in other roles during his life. I doubt that the first thing Jesus affirmed Dad of was the number of bushels per acre of corn he grew back in 1968!

Live with eternity in mind. Live God’s way, for Him. Seek to serve Him always: every day, in every way. Invest yourself in His work, particularly in His church!

We have a great future ahead of us as followers of Jesus. Let me close with an insight I had the other morning while I was taking a walk. I was thinking about my dad in heaven and wondering what it must be like for him. Then I imagined his first few moments in heaven while I still grasped his thin, cold arm and didn’t know that he wouldn’t be taking another breath. I pictured him being amazed at seeing Jesus for the first time — the One he taught about in Sunday school all those years. Then I pictured him saying, “I can’t wait to have Clara and Dave, Mark, and Rhonda experience this!”

Heaven will be great! I agree with the apostle Peter when he wrote, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:13)