28.03 | What Will We Do in Heaven?

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

‘For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

1 Corinthians 15:53-55

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I’ve got a great friend called Pete. 

I met Pete at university, where he, like many at this stage of life, was exploring loads of questions about life and faith and identity and meaning. As part of this, he had a lot of questions about Christianity.

One of Pete’s questions was this: What will we be doing in heaven?

He got a variety of answers around a similar theme.

Worshiping forever.

Joining the song.

Lying on your face.

Now Pete’s a fantastic musician, and he loves singing. But the answers that he was getting felt dissatisfactory. Heaven sounded to Pete like the eradication of nearly every activity, with the exception of a few that usually took place in a church service. Rather than sounding like more life, it sounded like less of it.

Our expectations of what we’re headed for in eternity is crucial, because what fills our minds when we consider life beyond death will completely shape the measure of our hope right now.

More than this, our understanding of just what Jesus’ cross set out to restore will totally change what we expect to see that cross restoring in our very day to day.

The answers that Pete was given came down to both a misunderstanding of worship, and a misunderstanding of resurrection.

Let’s take resurrection first. This is where Paul goes today.

He wasnt speaking into a vacuum. Greco-Roman thought, building their understanding from philosophers like Plato, assumed that life beyond death was a purely spiritual experience. The body, Plato taught, was the source of all corruption. Therefore, the freedom and life of eternity came from casting aside the body into a disembodied spiritual bliss.

Paul directly counters this. He wants them to know that resurrection is utterly embodied.

And the fact that our eternity is embodied says a huge deal about that existence. 

It means that the extraordinary number of good things that make up our tangible, physical lives in this age will be perfected and beautified in that one. It means that heaven will indeed be a place of total spiritual fulfilment, and yet it will at the very same time be the place of total physical joy too. That means eating, drinking, exploring, climbing, resting, eating and drinking and laughing and making. It means an eternal indwelling and exploration of all the physical beauty that God intended until sin and death came as unwelcome invaders into His good world.

And secondly, a word on worship. The misunderstanding that Pete received assumed that worship looks only like singing songs, or lying prostrate, but that all other activities fall into the category of ‘Everything else’. Sacred and secular. Spiritual and just plain normal.

The Biblical vision for worship is so very different to this. Rather than being one activity among all the others of our life, the biblical vision for worship is that the activity of devotion expressed in song expands to infiltrate all activities, until every single thing we do becomes a response of devoted love. Heaven, then, rather than being the eradication of all activities bar singing, is the injection of true worship as the motive and purpose of all activities. In that day, all we do will be done from love and in love and towards Love Himself.

So what do we do?

The beauty of the response is that these stunning truths are not just for then: rather, they are to utterly form our living now.

That we may now recognise in every longing for every tangibly beautiful and good thing of this age finds its true source in our eternal homeland.

And that we may begin the journey, in this very day, of learning to turn every activity, from the most mundane to the most glorious tasks, into an offering of loving devotion to the King we worship.

Because hope is not just about that day.

But it sets the precise direction of this one.

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Reflect:

Consider this: every good longing that you have in this age will be perfectly fulfilled in the age to come.

What longings are currently unfulfilled in your life? 

Take heart. You may achieve much and receive much and delight in much in this age. But all the greatest and fullest fulfilment of the truest and purest desires of your heart are still to come.

Simply let your imagination run with this today.

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Pray:

Father,

It can be difficult to see that age,

When this one is so noisy.

It can be difficult to feel that age,

When my feelings here are so strong.

It can be difficult to let these truths move from my head to my heart,

It can be difficult to hope.

And yet, 

Would you send your Spirit to weave and work within me today,

That hope would be greater than a word to me.

But rather,

You would swell my imagination,

And illuminate my heart,

And set my sights upon the goal—

Where every good longing will be fulfilled

In joy inexpressible

In the place that I call Home,

So may hope be more to me than empty words,

But may enlarge my heart

And set the destination of my every day.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen

Old Testament: 

For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:

Deuteronomy 25:11-27:26 | Psalm 40