Allen Jackson - Interventionists "In Training" - Part 2
Jesus has already been here once. Now, while his entry was rather inauspicious, the outcome of his coming that first time was dramatic. It was an intervention. It changed the course of human existence for time and eternity. But he's not done. He left in Acts chapter 1, but he's coming back to the earth again. Now, the second time he comes, his entrance is gonna be a little more dramatic. First time, he was born in Bethlehem, a secondary city. There was no formal accommodation prepared for them.
So Mary, his mother, gave birth in a barn and they laid the infant in a manger. Now, I know we've romanticized that a bit, but I grew up in a barn, folks. I fed horses twice a day, and the place where the animals that eat is not a place you wanna put a newborn baby. Their table manners are a little rough, and that's what we did with the incarnate Son of God. It was disrespectful. It was a blatant expression of complete disregard. We could care less that you're here. If not for God's divine intervention with a few angels and some shepherds on the periphery of the town, it would have been overlooked altogether if not for the murderous hate of Herod that was expressed.
But when Jesus comes back the second time, it says that "every eye will see him," and he's not coming back as a Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. When he steps back into time, he's coming back as a conquering King and the judge of all things. And those who have... men. "Those who have died in Christ," the Bible says, "their bodies will be raised to life again". Your body is not you. Your spirit is the part of you that is most created in God's image.
There is a resurrection and your new body is not gonna be subject to aging or decay or pain. Hallelujah, it is a serious upgrade. I'm not sure 2.0 is enough. It's an upgrade. I participated in a memorial service, a funeral, this week and Friday evening we went to the cemetery for a burial. Well, if you've done that recently, they dig a grave and there's a vault and a casket and they lower it down into the ground. It's a hard time for families. So, I didn't leave my friend at the cemetery. I left his earth suit. He's not there.
When I got up to come to church this morning I put on a suit, white shirt, a tie. Who came up with that idea? Why didn't we say sweats was what you're supposed to preach in? But I get home with the, you know, today at some point I'm gonna take this suit off. I promise you. I'm gonna put it in the closet, put on something more comfortable. I wanna unwind a little bit, relax, have a snack, chill out. I will hang this suit in the closet. I'm not gonna be in the closet. In fact, if you're here, I'm locked in the closet. Call 911. It's not on purpose. I wanna be free. Nobody's confused.
I didn't leave my friend in that cemetery. He's in the presence of the Lord. But when Jesus comes back, this is an important promise, when Jesus comes back there's gonna be a resurrection. He was the first fruits of what is coming. And those who have died in Christ will be raised to life again, reunited with your spirit. That's a good day.
The third question that I was asked is, "Will we recognize our loved ones in heaven"? I think a more important question is, do you want to? But they didn't ask me that. We'll give you a verse, it's not in your notes, you can check me later. It's 1 Corinthians 13:12. It says, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; but then we shall see face to face. I know in part; and then I shall know fully, even as I'm fully known".
Right now we don't have complete information. There's some things I can speak to around this topic, but we don't know everything that we might know. That's not surprising. The Bible tells us what we need to know in order to have a relationship with the Creator of all things and participate in his eternal kingdom. It doesn't tell us everything. We don't know the ultimate origins of the earth.
When Genesis opened, the earth is here, it's chaotic and God brings order out of the chaos, but we don't know the ultimate origins. We don't know God's story before the Creation narrative of Genesis. There's much we don't know. And on this topic, there's some things we don't know, but there's much that we do. Look at Matthew 17 and verse 1. "After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and he led them up to a high mountain by themselves".
Let's stop there a moment. Jesus took 3 of the 12 disciples with him for a special opportunity. You know, he didn't treat all 12 of those guys the same. They didn't get all the same opportunities, they didn't all get the same lessons. Excuse me. It's an important point to know God doesn't treat us all just the same. He expects us to be faithful in the place and the time and the season we are with the gifts and the talents he's given us. He's given you everything you need to do, you need to be faithful with the tools he's given you and the assignment he's written for you. He didn't ask me to be Billy Graham. I don't have to carry that burden. It's important.
God's not a socialist. I don't mean that as a political statement. Don't live with the idea you're all gonna get the same thing. God's gonna respond to you in response to how you've responded to him. And on this particular day he's taken Peter, James, and John with him, they've climbed a high mountain, and it says, "There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus".
Now, I have a question. Peter and James and John are 1st century fellows, Moses and Elijah lived centuries before them. How did they know who they were? Now, the Bible doesn't answer that, so we're left to our own opinion. I'll give you a couple of options. One I think that is plausible is they could have just known. Have you ever had a dream and in the dream you had awareness and you're really not even sure how you knew, you just knew that you knew? I'm quite confident it's possible God could have given them the understanding they needed when they saw those two characters to go, "I believe that is Mo and Lijah".
I don't know, maybe they recognized them from their Facebook page. Maybe they were in children's ministry at Easter and they had a big laminated badge hanging around their neck and they just read their name. "Look, that's Moses". I think an equally plausible explanation is after the event they ask Jesus and he told them. They saw him talking to two men. Now, for that story to be repeated, we know Peter, James, and John had to tell it to the rest of the crew. Luke wasn't there that day. He just recorded, Matthew recorded the story for us.
Look in Luke 16, Jesus is teaching. In Luke 16 there's two long parables that Jesus teaches. He's not recounting an historical event. He's teaching a parable, a principle. And he said, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and he lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. And the time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he," the rich man, "was in torment, he looked up and he saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. So he called, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I'm agony in this fire.'"
Now, Jesus is telling us about our responses in life and what awaits us in eternity, and it's very clear that this wealthy man recognized the beggar that he knew in time. With these and in multiple other places, I think it's very reasonable to discern from scripture, or deduce from scripture, that we will recognize one another in the age to come. Cool. There's a lot we don't know. The Bible says there'll be no more crying or mourning or pain. And I don't know how the Lord will work that out, how we'll not have grief or mourning for those that we don't see. And the Bible doesn't really give us a complete answer for that, but it does invite us to the notion that we will be aware of what's happening.
In Hebrews 11 and 12 it suggests to us that those who preceded us in time and in the faith are aware of what's happening in the earth today. That's a pretty exciting thing. It says that they're... it uses the image of an athletic stadium. It says they're in the stands watching us because this is our time in the arena floor. The short answer is, yes, I think you'll know your loved ones.
The fourth question, "Is hell a fiery pit or just a state of consciousness"? Good question. Before I answer that there's something I think we ought to establish. The Bible tells us that Satan is not currently in hell. You know, a lot of time, artist and cartoonist and commentators are trying to suggest to us that Satan is in hell, that that's his headquarters. That's not what the Bible teaches. In fact, the Bible suggests to us that Satan is alive and well and active on planet Earth right now. Remember when he tempted Jesus? He wasn't locked in hell.
Now, he will ultimately be destined to judgment by God. His time of freedom and antagonism to the purposes of God on this earth is coming to a close. Thus, the intensification of his effort in this season. He's more aware of God's timetable than most of us. That's how those babies got murdered in Bethlehem. Satan's far more aware of the purposes of God and the intents of God than most of us who imagine ourselves to be God's kids. We still have debates about whether or not we believe in God, whether his Word is true, whether or not that's real or not.
In the book of James it says, "You believe there's a God, good for you. The demons believe that and they shudder". So the question about hell is legitimate, but sometimes I think we confuse it. Revelation 20, verse 11 says, "I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from before his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire".
I believe, as a rule of thumb, the best principle for biblical interpretation is that whenever possible, use the simplest, most direct reading. If it can be understood literally, then you don't need a metaphor. I believe hell is a literal place. Don't wanna go there. It's worth noting that the larger story of scripture suggests to us that hell was never created with human beings in mind. It was not designed for us. God created the earth and everything that's in it for Adam and his descendants, and he said it was very good. His intent is that we would flourish on planet Earth. And Satan engaged us in his rebellion. Satan started as an archangel, a heavenly creature of extraordinary brilliance and beauty, but he wanted the place that God had and he enticed a third of the angels to join him in a rebellion against God to displace God.
And the story at the beginning of the book of Genesis is that he enticed us to join him in that rebellion. Isn't that the essence of it? He said, "If you'll eat of this tree, you can be like God". And we should, rather than honor God or serve God or obey God, we wanna be God. And we became a race of rebels. And God said, "If you don't wanna participate with me, if you don't wanna cooperate with me, you can have the same outcome of that original rebel". But hell wasn't designed for us. God intended us to flourish on planet Earth. In fact, I don't imagine, I don't understand hell to be so much a punitive.
God gave us a free will and he's invited us to participate with him with our days under the sun, and he's made it possible for us to be made righteous and holy and pure. He intervened on our behalf so that every barrier to our participation in his eternal kingdom could be removed if we would simply accept that free gift. That if we choose not to do that, if we choose not to yield to him, because understand this, being a Christ follower is a yielded life, a life yielded to the Creator of all things. We abdicate the throne for the one who deserves to sit on it. If you choose not to do that, God will honor your expression of your will and he won't force you to spend eternity with him either.
You can simply spend eternity apart from him, as you choose, as you have chosen to live your life apart from him. We get to choose. I think hell is a literal place and I think it will be populated by human beings. I think even more startling, there'll be good people there, generous people there, kind people there, but people who would not yield to the Lordship of Jesus of Nazareth. See, when Jesus said, "I'm the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man comes to the Father except by me," I don't believe he was being critical or mean spirited.
I believe he was identifying a pathway that was open to every human being, regardless of race, or gender, IQ, or social status, height, or income. The ground at the foot of the cross is level and it's a free gift. It's the wonderful message that you and I hold as ambassadors for the kingdom of God. Why would we not be enthusiastic with that? I understand the angst that comes from the hearts of people who choose to rebel against God. Makes perfect sense to me why they would be agitated with that message. But it doesn't in any way dampen my enthusiasm or my determination to extend that message to those who haven't yet heard it or understood it. It's the privilege of our lives. Amen?
What's the time? I do one more question really quickly. "At Jesus's return, will heaven be on earth"? Interesting question. As a child, I had this imagination that, you know, we lived on earth while we were alive, and when you're not alive anymore you go to heaven. And I didn't have much information. I just thought heaven was like we floated in the clouds. So I had this picture in my head as a kid that, you know, we were sitting in the clouds and it was like an endless church service. Just one preacher after another. And I weren't too hyped up about going.
So I was gonna hang on to time as long as I could. I thought, this is where the good stuff happened, and heaven was just like, oh, Lord help us. But the Bible actually gives us a far... we don't have all the information, we got a far more complete picture than that. And I was mistaken, it's not in your notes, but in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 2, Paul said, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven". Now by logic, if there's a third heaven, there has to be a first and a second. So when we talk about heaven, we have to be a bit more sophisticated. The word is used to designate more than one location. That third heaven is represented in scripture as the place of God's dwelling.
Think of the book of Revelation. It bounces back and forth between scenes in the earth and scenes in heaven where the throne of God is. So that third heaven is the place of God's dwelling. The second heaven, or the intermediate heaven, seems to be identified as the place that is the seat of authority for Satan's kingdom. He forfeited his place in God's dwelling and in this mid heaven he has a place of authority. Ephesians 6 says that we don't wrestle with flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And then the third heaven is the one... or the first heaven, it's just the one that's contiguous with the earth's surface, the one that we see, the heavens above us.
So the third heaven is God's dwelling, mid heaven is the place of Satan's authority, and the first heaven is the one just above the earth. So when you read "heaven" in the Bible, you need to pay a little more attention to see what's being referenced. You can usually tell from context or from the larger discussion what the point of reference is. So the question is, at Jesus's return, will heaven be on earth? When we use that term generally, it brings some confusion, I think. Our ultimate destiny is not God's heaven, our ultimate destiny is a new order on earth. Amen.
Now, our existence is gonna be a little different. Our spiritual awareness at that point will be primary. Now we just know in part. God created, in Genesis, 1, the earth and everything that's in it for our good pleasure. Look at Revelation 21. "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. And 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. And they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away".
New heaven and a new earth and a new King to rule and reign in righteousness, and no more pain or mourning or crying or death because that will have passed away. It's appointed for us to face death once, we read a moment ago, but only once. Jesus is coming back to the earth to rule and reign in righteousness for those who call him Lord. Isaiah gives us a beautiful description. Isaiah is so poetic in his use of language.
Isaiah 11, "The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat, and the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, and the young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like an ox. And the infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. And they'll neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea".
I wanna be there. I wanna be there. Folks, being a Christ follower is not a burden, it's not an intrusion or a disruption or a limit. It's an invitation. Remember when Jesus taught us to pray? He said, "Pray like this. Pray, 'That your kingdom will come and your will will be done on... as it is in heaven.'" That day is coming. He said, "In the meantime, you better pray this way. 'Give me today my daily...'" You say, "I don't want daily bread, I want all the bread I'm gonna need for all of my days. Because that seed of rebellion is really alive and well in me and I wanna be able to provide for myself apart from God". We have to learn to say, "I will follow you".
It's a privilege to be dependent upon the Creator of all things. There is a God and it's not me, and I'm good with that, and I'll keep close watch on that part of me that says, "I wanna be on the throne. I want the primary place". Jesus said, "Pray that you can be forgiven and be willing to forgive others". Keep those accounts light and short and tend them carefully. There's something better ahead for us. Right now we are ambassadors. We are on assignment. The Bible says we are aliens and strangers in this world, but the day is coming. We will be at home in the righteous kingdom of our Lord with an upgraded suit. Will not react adversely to chocolate. What a privilege we have. Being a Christ follower is not a burden, it's the greatest invitation of our lives. Amen.
Now, I'll walk through some more of those questions tonight, if you're interested. If you'll stand, we're gonna say a prayer together. It's at the bottom of your outline, way down there at the end of all those other scriptures. Told you I'd quit. I wanna read this prayer together. Your prayers are powerful. Learning to pray is a powerful part of your life. Don't forfeit it. Use your voice. Let's read this prayer together.
Heavenly Father, teach us to order our days aright, that we might be pleasing in Your sight. Give us wisdom to choose Your best. Deliver us from temptation and protect us from evil. Forgive us as we forgive others. May Your Kingdom come and Your will be expressed throughout all the earth. In Jesus's name, amen. God bless you. I'll see you this evening.