The resurrection reality – Luke 20:27-40.

Um some sometimes when you're preparing

a sermon uh sometimes it's uh really

hard work and you think crumbs this is

hard work and it doesn't seem to flow

and you think oh dear what am I going to

do but other times you come to a passage

and it just like oh this is really

exciting and this was one of those

passages it's been a real blessing to me

uh to be able to prepare and uh I hope

it will be a blessing to you to to

listen to. So let let's commit ourselves

to the Lord.

Father God, we thank you uh for this

passage. Lord, we thank you for the

wonderful truths that we see in it.

Lord, we thank you that we see how the

Lord Jesus Christ believed in the

resurrection. And Lord, we pray that

this would become more real to us as we

think about these things this morning.

Lord, that we would be encouraged and

strengthened and spurred on as we think

about these things. So Lord, help us. I

pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Okay. Right.

Um I don't know if you've ever been in a

conversation

uh with someone and you just feel like

your Christian beliefs

just sound a bit silly when you sort of

speak them out out loud. in our modern

scientific world to think about heaven

and hell and the afterlife,

it just it just seems a bit strange

sometimes.

But of course, if you think about it,

the fact that there is anything in

existence at all, well, that is pretty

miraculous

to begin with. Either you have to

believe that there's some kind of big

bang that brought about some sort of

ignition from nothing and created

everything from nothing.

An explosion that somehow didn't destroy

things that created stuff.

I mean, that seems bonkers to me. That

seems like that's a lot of faith you

have to exercise to believe that. So

either you have to believe that or

something else similar or you believe

there is an intelligent creator God.

And I don't know about you, but the the

concept of design seems to me to be

built into everything we know and

experience. I walk into my house, I sit

in my study, I'm surrounded by things

that have been intelligently designed.

That makes sense to me. It didn't just

happen.

So, so we've got these two things, you

know, big bang or creation. But whatever

side of those things we find ourselves

believing, we have to accept

both of those approaches are well out of

our everyday approach to life. You know,

God creating things or evolution or

whatever. These are both almost bonkers

things. You think, I just I can't get my

head around that. How did that happen?

and they they they take faith.

Either scenario is out of our everyday

experience, is out there, is not normal,

it's beyond our comprehension. But if we

believe

that creation happened because of an

intelligent God, a creator God, then

actually to believe in things like

heaven and hell and the afterlife and

all those kind of things, it's not

actually that hard to do because if God

is God, then God is God and that's it.

He can do whatever he wants. If he says

this is how it is, that's how it is.

It's not actually a problem.

Since atheists have no compelling

explanations for the first cause of

creation of how it all began, actually

perhaps we as Christians

shouldn't be too quick to feel like the

truth of the Bible is something that we

need to be ashamed of because actually I

think it makes good sense of everything

that we see and experience and I think

is more believable than the

alternatives.

But there have always been skeptics and

those who like to poke fun at the truth

of the Bible. And that's nothing new

because these Sadducees here, they were,

that's what they were doing, trying to

make belief in the afterlife look

ridiculous. They were trying to make the

idea of heaven seem

silly.

So let's look at their argument in our

first point, an unsettling argument.

you know, when I um let people know or

when I meet people and they find out I'm

a pastor, um often they're quite

confused about what that means. Uh and

they say, "Yeah, I'm a pastor of a

Baptist church." And they they what does

that mean? And they get very confused. I

think people inside the church and

outside the church about all the

different denominations that we have,

Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans,

Pentecostals, Brethren, Methodists,

Quakers, Presbyterians, Baptists, and so

on. It's as if the church has spent its

time throughout history finding

different ways we can disagree and then

dividing over them.

And many people are confused. So, what

do you believe? You know, do you wear

you have to wear special gowns and sorts

of things? Is that is that? And I'm

like, "No, no,

there's a lot of confusion." But that's

nothing new because wherever there are

people, there are differences of

opinions.

Back in first century Judaism, there

were three main schools of thought or

factions. There were the Pharisees, who

we're probably a little bit more famili

familiar with, the Sadducees, and the

Essins.

It's the Sadducees we're concerned with

today. Now, we don't actually know an

awful lot about them. They were

priestly,

aristocratic.

They were wealthy people. And they seem

to hold more tightly or more highly to

the Pentich.

That was something they sort of regarded

more higher than the Old Testament,

although there's some conflicting uh

thoughts about whether that's true or

not. But they seem to hold the first

five books of the Bible more highly than

the rest. And as Luke points out here in

verse 27, there came to him Jesus, some

Sadducees, those who deny there is a

resurrection.

And um that's that's why they were sad,

you see, because they didn't believe in

the resurrection.

Oh dear. Right. Never mind. Right. Okay.

Well, Luke also gives us a a further

insight in Acts 23:8 about these sad

Acts 23:8

people. For the Sadducees say that there

is no resurrection, nor angel, nor

spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge

them all. So you can see there's a

difference there. They're not believing

in the resurrection. That is a defining

distinctive for them. So after the

Pharisees, we looked at this last week.

After the Pharisees have failed to trap

Jesus with the tax trap, the Sadducees

step up. Hold my beer. We've got this.

We are going to get Jesus.

So whereas church is divided over issues

around the Lord's supper, baptism,

liturgy, governance and so on, for them

they were dividing over the resurrection

and spiritual existence. And they were

going to take Jesus to task on this. To

do so, they have concocted an extreme

example to really make their point. It's

hyperbole. They begin by grounding their

argument in the Torah. So verse 28,

Moses wrote for us and they quote from

Deuteronomy chapter 25:5

and they refer to what was known as the

Leverite marriage. And basically that

was if a man died without leaving an

heir uh then the brother would have to

step in and marry her in order to

provide an heir for the dead brother who

would be brought up in his name to carry

on the family legacy.

It was rare apparently for this to

actually happen and by New Testament

times it had pretty much died out. It

wasn't actually practiced anymore. So

this question they're posing to Jesus is

is academic. It wasn't really happening

on a day-to-day basis if at all at that

point. It was designed to prove that the

law of Moses did not anticipate this

resurrection. That is the thrust of

their point here. Moses did not

anticipate the resurrection. And so they

paint this almost comical picture of a

woman who works her way through seven

brothers, all of whom dies and then she

dies. They don't um flesh out the

details. Perhaps it was a cooking and

you know die from bad food poisoning. I

don't know. They don't say whatever it

was. But you know it's it's not the

point, is it? But the killer question is

not what did they die of

but verse 33. in the resurrection.

Therefore, whose wife will this woman

be?

That is the question.

They think they've got a gotcha Jesus.

They're trying to show that to believe

in the resurrection, it's just silly.

It's not going to work. What happens if

you have multiple wives? You know, who

are you going to be married to in

heaven? And we might think, well, that's

a good point, isn't it? They have got

him. What's he going to say to that?

How's it going to work out in reality?

Do you know sometimes I don't know about

you but when I start thinking about

heaven and life after death and all

these things I do come across things

that I I can't quite work out in my head

how it's going to be some unsett

unsettling things or perhaps you've been

through social media and you get these

sound bites clever people comedians and

they like just give this like seems like

a killer argument or insight into why

Christianity can't be true and you go,

"Oh, it kind of leaves you reeling a bit

and you think, I don't know what to say

to that. It seems like they've got a

point there."

So, we can have these unsettling

thoughts from our our own meditations or

from other people. But we can face these

things when we think, I don't know how

to respond, beliefs that that can

trouble us.

I'm going to give you three examples.

Hopefully they won't trip you up and

cause you to stumble. But here's three,

I think probably reasonably common

thoughts that can trouble us. So

firstly, if we're in heaven,

will we remember our loved ones, even

those who ended up going to hell?

And that's a troubling thought, isn't

it? Because we then thought, well, how

can I be happy in heaven if I know there

were people I loved who went to hell?

How does that work? It's a bit of a

problem.

Second thought that might trouble us,

will we remember our sin?

Will we remember other people's sin?

Because surely if we can do that, won't

we feel shame?

Won't we even feel hurt by some of those

things people have done to us? Or just

possibly, won't we even feel temptation

if we can remember our sin?

But if we can't remember our sin, won't

we be robbed of one of the greatest

reasons for being thankful to God for

forgiveness?

So, how do we do that? How do we

remember our sin

but not be entangled in it? That's

something that might be hard for us to

figure out right now.

Third problem that we might have as we

think about it. I think Richard touched

on this a few weeks back when he was

dealing in in Luke chapter 19, rewards

Luke 19 · chapter mention

in heaven. And we might think, well, how

can that be? Because if someone else has

more than another, won't that cause

jealousy, discontentment, resentment?

How's that going to happen? How's that

going to work out in heaven? I could go

on. There's lots of different questions

we could pose that when we start to

think about it, they it could be quite

troublesome to us, but those three are

just um things I wanted to bring up. We

will come back to them a bit later, but

if left unchecked, it's those little

things that can actually cause us

difficulty

and perhaps those and other things, they

might cause us to trip up, perhaps even

lose our faith unless we deal with them

properly.

So, we are we are going to come back to

those later. The Sadducees, they try to

discredit the notion of the resurrection

by pointing out, look, it just doesn't

work. It's not workable in practice. But

they are making at least three mistakes

which Jesus exposes in his wise reply. A

reply that well I think will help us in

our thinking as we maybe think about

things uh to do with heaven and the

afterlife. So let's look at that in our

next point. A wise reply.

So mistake number one, they are assuming

that the same rules apply to the next

life

as do apply to this life. But Jesus

draws a very clear distinction in verse

34.

Uh the sons of this age, do you see

that? The sons of this age marry and are

given in marriage. But those who are

considered worthy to attain to that age

and to the resurrection from the dead

neither marry nor are given in marriage.

Do you see there's there's a clear this

age and that age. What is true for the

first age doesn't necessarily follow for

what is true in that age. Now some

things do stay the same. Some things do

continue from this age into that age.

But to assume

that we can confidently extrapolate from

how we feel, what we experience and how

we are now into that is how I will feel,

experience and go through then. That is

incorrect. That's making a mistake

because Jesus is clear. There is a this

age, there is a that age. Things will

change. uh we can experience this even

in this age, even in ourselves, don't

we? We change as people over time.

When I was a boy,

going to McDonald's,

it was a real treat for us. Um you know,

we we we didn't have a lot of money.

There was four four kids in the family

and so you know, McDonald's, it was like

a birthday treat. We would go out there.

It was a special time. And uh as a as a

young boy, I would always go for the

cheeseburger,

the Happy Meal, the cheeseburger. And I

used to love it. And I I couldn't think

there was anything better than my

cheeseburger. And then as I grew up, my

my my parents started encouraging me to

why don't you go for a bigger meal? Go

for the try the Big Mac. I wouldn't have

it because I thought the best thing in

McDonald's was the cheeseburger. That

was it. That was the height to my

expectations.

One day I nibbled on my parents' cheese

um Big Mac and I realized what a fool

I'd been. There was something so much

greater than this little puny

cheeseburger to have. How silly I had

been all those years I could have been

enjoying the the fuller Big Mac. And our

experience in glory

is going to be so much fuller.

It's it's hard for us to comprehend what

it will be like right now.

But it will be different. It will not be

the same.

Here's a passage from 2 Corinthians

chapter 15

verses 51- 53. Paul writes, "Behold, I

tell you a mystery. We shall not all

sleep, but we shall all be changed in a

moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at

the last trumpet. For the trumpet will

sound, and the dead will be raised

imperishable, and we shall be changed.

For this perishable body must put on the

imperishable, and this mortal body must

put on immortality.

Did you notice twice he says, "We shall

all be changed." Forgive the

illustration, but it's like we're we're

little cheeseburgers right now. Then

we're going to be these Big Macs,

something so much greater. Our

experience of life will be so much more

wonderful.

We will be the same but we will be

different.

Earlier in that chapter from uh

Corinthians, Paul speaks about how we

will have new bodies, bodies suited for

glory. Right now, we still live with the

effects of sin and the influence of sin

and all the the weakness that comes with

living in a sinful world. But as John

writes in 1 John 3:2, "Beloved," he

1 John 3:2

says, "we are God's children now,

and what we will be has not yet

appeared, but we know that when he

appears, we shall be like him because we

shall see him as he is." Do you see? We

shall be changed. We shall be made like

Jesus.

In our passage, he says, "You'll be like

the angels." There's going to be a

change that happens. our fleshy sinful

bits that that that that change our

thinking and understanding and actions,

they will finally be dealt with. We will

be glorified. We will be changed.

And so with that in mind, let's just

revisit those unsettling uh scenarios I

suggested earlier. So firstly, how can

we ever be happy in glory knowing there

are some people we loved who are now in

hell?

Firstly, we should never never take hell

lightly.

It's horrible. It's horrible thought.

It's horrific.

And it's ever ever bothered you. It

should bother you. It's in no way should

we ever think this is a light or easy

thing to think about. It should bother

us. The horror we feel at hell should be

a motivation just to share the good news

of Jesus Christ because people can yet

be saved. They don't have to go to hell.

They can be saved.

But when we have been taken to be with

the Lord, when that change has taken

place and we've been glorified and our

thinking has been transformed, we think

clearer and better. Our understanding

will be clearer and our hearts will be

perfectly aligned with God. We shall see

things differently. We shall see sin

for just how bad it is.

We will see it in all its ugliness and

we will see holiness and purity and we

will love those things. We won't look at

those things like perhaps we do now and

think, "Well, that's just hard work.

It's spoiling my fun." No, we go, "No,

these these things are good. I love

these things. I love what God has done

in me. He's made me pure and holy now.

And we'll look at justice and we go,

justice is so good. It is what our our

world cries out for now, isn't it? But

then we will see justice and yes, that's

right. And we'll look at what God is

doing and we say, yes, everything that

God has done is is good. We'll look at

his mercy, his justice, his fairness,

and we will agree beyond a shadow of a

doubt that the good and just judge has

acted right.

It's a theologian called Jim Packer. He

wrote this, "God will judge justly and

angels and saints and martyrs will

praise him for it. So it seems

inescapable that we shall with them

approve the judgment of persons of

rebels whom we have known and loved.

Right now it's almost impossible for us

to understand how we will get into that

place of being

where we are able to not

grieve or feel sad in heaven over those

who have gone to hell.

I don't know. I don't understand it. But

this age is different to that age. We

shall see better than we do now.

The second troublesome thought that we

considered was how will we remember our

sin without that being unhelpful? Again,

we we need to remember we shall be

different. We shall be like Jesus. So,

it will be possible for us to be aware

of past sins without being entangled in

them. And rather our past sins being a

source of shame or hurt,

our deliverance from the past sin will

be a source of thanksgiving and

gratitude and praise.

We will be able to say that is that is

who I was. That was my past self. And

then Jesus came in and saved me. And

instead of being a point of shame, it

will be a point of praise. And I thank

God for what he did. That's how I was.

But this is who Jesus has made me be. As

Luke um says, as Jesus says in Luke 7

about the sinful woman who anointed his

feet, she loves much because her sins

are forgiven. Her many sins are

forgiven. And so in the age to come, our

sin, I don't it's not going to be a

snare to us or a source of shame. It

will be fuel for the fire of grateful

praise.

Thirdly, uh third scenario we we spoke

briefly about was rewards in heaven.

Again, we need to remember we're going

to be changed. We're not going to be the

same sinful creatures that we still find

ourselves to be. Those seeds of sin will

be removed from us. And and you know,

these changes, they even happen now. So,

the Lord is already at work in us

changing us, changing our attitudes now,

making us into what we will be. Um,

we've got a lovely group of friends in

the church that I grew up in as back in

Surrey and we grew up with various

people and we got to various life

stages, went through that with them, got

married and we all bought similar houses

um and uh that was lovely and we were

very close to each other and then um

Claire and I moved into ministry and so

I served as a pastor. we had to leave

our house behind and we we rent that out

now. But that meant at that point we got

off the um housing advancement ladder as

it were. We stepped off the escalator of

going to upgrading your house as you do.

You know, you start off with your you

start a place, you get a bigger one, a

bigger one, then your forever home or

whatever, you know, and we kind of had

to step off that. And then as our we

stepped off, our friends kind of carried

on and they got nicer houses and nicer

houses. And there came a time when our

friends invited us around to go and see

their lovely new home. And knowing what

my heart was like, I had to pray, "Lord,

help me not to be covetous.

Let me be able to rejoice with them."

And you know what? God answered that

prayer. I was able to genuinely walk

around their house and be pleased with

them. See the nice big house with all

the nice stuff and go, do you know,

praise the Lord, it's good that you can

enjoy this. This is good. That was only

a work of God's grace in my heart to to

enable that to happen. I didn't feel

envious, but by God's grace, I was able

to enjoy or join them in their

happiness. And I suspect that gives us a

little insight into how it will be in

heaven. Our fleshy nature struggles to

understand how these things can be. But

that will be removed and we will able to

be we will be able to be genuinely happy

for all those around us. The Lord's

blessed you with these gifts with that

and I praise the Lord with you. Let's

enjoy that. You know, let's give thanks.

We will get we're going to be changed.

We're not going to be the same. So I

think we will be genuinely able to join

in others with thanksgiving to the Lord

for his good gifts whether they be that

big, that big, that big. And we're not

going to be discontent

or unhappy. Uh we will be able to be

fully happy in the Lord and full of the

joy of the Lord. Just because we can't

understand how heavenly rewards work, it

doesn't mean it won't be so because

we're going to be changed. So what we

are now is not going to be what we will

be then.

That was the Sadducees first mistake.

They didn't realize that there would be

a difference between this age and that

age. Mistake number two, and don't

worry, these go a lot quicker than that

one. Um, mistake number two, uh, they

didn't have all the facts

and neither do we.

In their case, Jesus brought fresh

revelation into the situation because

the Sadducees were wrong in their

assumptions.

So Jesus corrects them and tells them in

that age there'll be no marriage. And

with that statement, he blows apart

their whole argument.

It's no longer an issue. It's a

non-issue. It's not a problem about

marriage in heaven because you're not

going to be getting married in heaven.

So it's not an issue.

Now some of you might think ph you know

finally freedom hopefully not some

people are laughing too much dear

hopefully most of us will be going well

actually no you know I'm it's been a

blessing to be married and I can't

imagine after so many years not being

married and and I I think I'm going to

miss that

but like the Sadducees we need to admit

we don't have all the facts right now

it's a bit like when you book a holiday.

Uh, you know where you're going. You

know some of the details, but you don't

know everything. You don't know what the

weather's going to be like. You don't

know at what point you're going to enjoy

your favorite meal, how warm the sea

will feel, how comfortable your

accommodation will be, when the good

conversations are going to happen, when

the fun's going to happen, when you're

going to laugh, when you, you know, you

can't understand everything about it,

but you kind of know roughly

stuff about it. And do you know our life

in the new heavens and the earth? There

there's a lot we don't know about. A lot

of the details we just don't know.

The Sadducees, they don't have all the

facts. We don't have all the facts. And

that led them to faulty conclusions. And

when we worry about some of these

things, you know, how it will be, are we

going to miss marriage? What about sex

and stuff like that? Um remember we

don't have all the facts right now.

But we do know it will be good. And

we're going to come back to this very

briefly right at the end. But it will be

good. The third mistake is they hadn't

properly understood what they had

already been told in scripture.

And this is the kudigrass. They open

their argument by quoting from the law

of Moses. So they open their argument by

quoting by the law of Moses. And Jesus

closes his argument by quoting from

Moses too. Jesus could have referred to

other Old Testament passages to prove

the resurrection hope such as those we

read at the beginning, Daniel 12, Isaiah

26, Job 19. But he counters

their argument using what he knows they

hold to most highly from the Pentich

from from the writings of Moses. And the

point Jesus makes is although Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob were long dead at the

time of that writing, um, God was still

the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Not was, but is. So when people die,

they're not dead in the sense of ceasing

to exist.

They are still alive to God.

God is still their God. As Jesus says in

verse 38, for they all live to him. If

people think they can escape God by

dying, they are very much mistaken. You

will always be alive to God.

So that's the three mistakes the

Sadducees made. Number one, not

realizing the age to come will be

different. Number two, not realizing

they didn't have all the facts. And

number three, not understanding the

revelation already in their possession.

And if we come across unsettling

arguments, thoughts about the age to

come, heaven, how it's all going to work

out, and all those sorts of things, it's

worth just remembering these three

things. And they'll probably help us uh

find our way through.

Just because we struggle to understand

how something will be, it doesn't mean

it will not be. In fact, to finish,

let's briefly consider some of the

encouragements that do come out of this

passage in our final point, an unending

life.

I know there's some people in our

congregation who don't just do maths,

they love maths. I don't understand

them, but that's okay. They are. And you

know, that's that's good.

Um perhaps if we realize just how

important maths was for pretty much

everything that we use and enjoy for

daily life, we might get a bit more

excited if we thought actually without

maths that that wouldn't happen.

I'm no mathematician. I have no idea.

But I know this. If you've got a really

exciting long equation, that's an Yeah.

Yeah. exciting equation. Um, but if

you've got one of those things, right,

and and it's really great and it does

wonderful things. If you make a mistake

right at the beginning, doesn't matter

how wonderful the rest of the maths is,

it's going to be wrong if it's based on

on a mistake.

And the Sadducees, they've made a

mistake in the first place. And it leads

them to make another even bigger mistake

because they didn't believe in the

resurrection. And so what that means is

because they don't believe in it,

they're not planning for it. Jesus

reveals that every not everyone

Jesus reveals that not everyone will

rise in a positive way. Verse 35,

but those who are considered worthy to

retain to that age and to the

resurrection from the dead. Now, we know

from what Jesus says in John 5 29

that some will experience a resurrection

to life

or of life whilst others will experience

a resurrection of judgment.

So, there's two different ways that we

can be resurrected to life or to

judgment.

But Jesus isn't speaking about the

judgment aspect of it. He's that's not

his focus. He's not trying to say

everything there is to say about

resurrection. He's speaking about those

who are raised to life. So the question

for us is he says those who are worthy,

counted as worthy to attain this new

life.

And remember Jesus is speaking in the

week leading up to the cross.

The shadow of his death and a

resurrection is creeping ever closer.

And the mistake the Sadducees are making

is standing against Jesus instead of

with Jesus. For it is only by by faith

in Jesus and in his death and

resurrection that we can be counted as

worthy.

It is by trusting in his death that we

are given life. Their mistake in

rejecting the resurrection, in rejecting

Jesus means they are rejecting him and

his resurrection. And so they are

rejecting their only hope in which to be

called counted as worthy.

That is their mistake.

And that the resurrection from the dead

isn't just a comforting idea to console

those who can't cope, but is real. that

that is the case will soon be proved to

be true in the resurrection of Jesus

Christ. For anyone who would take the

time to look and think and believe,

Jesus himself would prove this to be

true. But he himself would die. He

himself would be resurrected to life,

never to die again. And the good news

for us is for those who trust in the

Lord Jesus Christ and what he did on the

cross, we are joined to him.

So everything that's true about Christ

is now true about us. We have union with

Jesus.

We are raised to life with Christ never

to die again. And this is what Jesus

says. I tell you I found this so helpful

uh when I was reading it in my

preparation. It it blew me away. Just

look at these words. Our hope, our

assurance. Verse 36.

For they cannot die anymore.

Isn't that

amazing?

Not just they won't, they cannot

die

anymore.

Brothers and sisters, we live in the

shadow of death. It's creeping ever

closer to us. And we all know one day we

are going to have to face it. go through

the the waters of Jordan or whatever we

want to sort of call it. But what a

glorious truth from the mouth of Jesus.

Those who are joined to him, who are

raised in him, we cannot die anymore.

Cannot. It's impossible for those raised

with Jesus to die. Those who have been

given this righteousness that comes

through faith in Jesus will be raised to

everlasting life. If this does not move

your soul, I I don't know what will.

It's It's truly

joyful and amazing, isn't it? Eternal

life.

Eternal life. That's why we don't need

marriage anymore in heaven, by the way,

in the new heavens and new earth.

Because no one will be dying. We don't

need a constant supply of children to

replace us because we know we're going

to die anymore. No, no one's going to

die. So, it's okay.

We love children, but you we're not

going to need any more of them.

Now, I said I'm I'm going to return to

the fact that we might feel a bit sad

that there's no marriage in in in

heaven,

but I I don't think we need to feel sad

because remember, everything is going to

change, even us, for the better.

And so in glory, not only will we know

the Lord in a much much fuller way,

a richer way, a more wonderful way, our

experience, our fellowship with the Lord

will be so much better. What we have now

is it's just a deposit. It's just an

insight. It's just a glimpse. It's just

a little thing. Then it will be so much

glorious.

You will think the joy of the Lord will

just be so much greater than it is now.

That's true. That is true. But also our

relationships with each other will be

transformed too. So our friendships will

be deeper. Our laughter will be louder

and longer. Gone will be those

misunderstandings, those niggly things

that ruin our friendships. And and if

you do meet up with your once husband or

wife or uh

good friends in in in the new heavens

and new earth, you'll be so busy

enjoying deeper fellowship with them

that you won't be lamenting the fact

that you're not married because

something better has come along. There

will be a deeper better friendship. If

you think you have good friendships,

good marriages now, well then praise God

for that. But you ain't seen nothing

yet.

When the sons and daughters of God get

together and have been transformed and

so love God as we should and love each

other as we should, watch out because

it's going to be life and love and joy

like you've never known before.

Jesus said in John 10:10, "I have come

John 10:10

that they may have life and have it to

the full."

Let's just be quiet for a moment before

the Lord.

Father, we confess that if it was down

to us,

none of us would be counted worthy.

Not a single person in this building

would be saved.

And yet, we thank you for the love of

God, the love of Jesus. We thank you

that Jesus so loved us. We thank you

that you sent him into the world to come

and die in our place to take our sin so

that we can be presented to you

clean

and given the righteousness of Jesus

so that you are pleased with us. So we

are acceptable to you. And now because

of Jesus we have got nothing to fear but

only a wonderful hope to live for. So

Lord we thank you for the gospel. Lord,

help us all to consider these things and

to rejoice. We pray this in Jesus name.