God of Life

Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died without children. The second and the third took her and likewise all seven left no children and died. After the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as a wife.

Ha, ha, ha, they think they've got him. Now, they're going back and they're looking at the Levite marriage. And in Israel, this is very important, that every man would have a continued line. And so if a man marries a wife and there is no child before he dies, the brother has responsibility to provide a child, and that child would be considered his brother's. Now, this is important for Israel, just to kind of back up a little bit and ask why. The hope of the world is based on one child being born of this person, of these people. The lineage of Israel is very important. I believe this is part of that. And they're looking at this law and they're saying, well, this belief in the resurrection, well, if knowing only one man should be married to one woman, well, this woman had seven husbands. Whose husband will she be in the resurrection? And again, they're trying to take a belief and reduce it down into what would be considered absurd. They're challenging the internal consistency. They think they've got Jesus caught. Well, let's look at Jesus' answer. Verse 34,

Jesus said to them, the sons of this age marry and are given a marriage.

And just to capture the significance of this, verse 35, but. In this age, there's marriage. But in the age to come, there is no marriage. He's actually showing them there's nothing inconsistent. You just haven't read the whole Bible. There's nothing inconsistent. You're just trying to apply to some absurdity as you try to take it to an end in which I do not believe. Jesus introduces their problem. You think there's only one edge. There's two. Jesus invites these questions. If you have questions about who he is, We invite these questions. But just understand, we all have premises in our questions that could be wrong, and so we might be asking the wrong question. When we're trying to impose our question on God, we might be assuming something that isn't true in our very question. We need to be careful how we do this. When we come to Jesus, he actually usually helps us understand how to ask the right question. We're not afraid of these questions. We want these questions. But we wanna make sure we're asking the right questions. This age. I really wanna linger here because what Jesus says in just these few words is very important. In the current age of creation, the history of man begins in Genesis chapter two, verse four. The book of Genesis is ordered around a phrase. These are the generations. We are now living in these generations. We have to understand very importantly, chapter headings and breaks, they're not helpful. They're not in the original. Those chapters and verses, those are added later. And we'll see when Jesus says, Moses, or whenever Moses comes to a bush, he doesn't say Exodus three, because there was no three written down by Moses. Genesis 2, 4, these are generations. There's a history of man and there's a certain orderliness to this. Our history begins with God forming man from the earth. There's an important aspect to the fact that we are designed to be tied to this earth. And then God breathed his own life into man. There's a beautiful picture of how we're made in God's image. We're formed to be tied to this earth as stewards of this earth. We breathe life into God to show how dignified and important this life is. And then Genesis 2, after God gives Adam a job description, work and keep the garden, he informs Adam he needs help. God makes a promise, I'll provide. Do we understand that Genesis 1 is a hymn of praise to the God of goodness and order? And that the end emphasis of this hymn of praise is God making man in his image, male and female. God making humans in his image, male and female. That is the end emphasis of that grand hymn of praise to God. Do we see in Genesis 2, which is history, the end emphasis is God forming woman and bringing her to man? And then giving us the institution of marriage? This is good. Genesis 2 shows us this grand design. Genesis 2 24, the most quoted Old Testament verse throughout the Bible. It kind of has privilege, right? It's at the very beginning.

Shall leave his father and mother. The two shall become one flesh.

This is before sin. This is good. Marriage is a great gift of God given to us in this age. Let's pause and just appreciate that God's word gives us goodness and order for us to think about who we are, who our neighbor is, how we should relate to them. All right, we live in a world that's really gotten confused about gender, sexuality. The first response here as Christians is to thank God that His word is so clear about what's most important. Jesus quotes Moses. There is male and female. Here we see from the very design, there's goodness for us. And we need to be very careful. We know how good and clear this order is because God gave it to us. And we look out into the world and we see the confusion. God also explains what that is. Romans 1, God gives us over to our sin. What Satan wants to do is attack at the very heart of what's good and right and orderly and create disorder and confusion. And our job isn't to hand people over their sin and say, how could they think this? No, God hands people over their sin. Our job is to rejoice, hold firm to what God says, and seek to be clear from God's word what God actually says about us. We need to be very clear that we should be patient. prayerful. It's very dangerous the way many are thinking about gender and sexuality. It's terrifying. What we need to do as Christians is look and just praise God for how clear His Word is that every male and female has the same dignity, value, and worth because every male and female is made in His image. And God made male and female with a very specific purpose. And there's a beautiful design. But we have to submit to him. As we think about this passage, Christian, we have to be thankful for how clear God is regarding the goodness and order of his design. Now I want to speak to three different groups here. Those who are married, those who are not married, those who do not value marriage. First, marriage is designed by God to provide stability, responsibility, and partnership. There's a way in which God looks and he's given Adam this command and he tells Adam very clearly, you need help. There's a way in which marriage is designed by God to be the fabric of society. A man marries a woman and becomes a husband and a wife. Marriage is a covenant. A covenant is based upon promises. Promises are meant to be kept. A covenant demands of us. The covenant of marriage isn't so that you would be fully fulfilled. The covenant of marriage is so that you would give yourself fully over in the promises. Do not permit distance, unforgiveness to be a baseline in your marriage union. If you're married, do not permit distance, unforgiveness to be a baseline in your marriage union. Let me also be very clear, for everyone, marriage is the only proper relationship for sex. One flesh is referring to a sexual union. Sex, by definition, is a covenant activity. Giving yourself over to someone in sex is a covenant activity. Our culture views sex as this thing that's just for your pleasure, no responsibility, but no, marriage is giving yourself over to someone else. Sex is good for your marriage, healthy for your marriage, necessary for your marriage. One flesh is meant to be practiced. If you're not married, but desiring to be married, marriage is good, it isn't the ultimate end. Marriage will not complete you. Marriage to a spouse on this earth is not going to give you the satisfaction you're looking for. Marriage is a significant way in which God sanctifies us because two sinners united that closely are going to grow in sanctification. Christ and the bridegroom, they're the ultimate. Realize that Christ has given clear prescriptions for who we should be as we pursue marriage. We should be looking for in a future marriage. The ultimate call, the ultimate end is to be the bride of Christ, to know He. is who gives us true maturity in Him and satisfaction. Married folks, I want to speak to us for a second one more. We've got to quit talking as if marriage is the only way someone becomes mature. We've got to quit insisting that folks who aren't married just really have to be married and should be married. Quit the matchmaking. Trust them. If you're not married, you've got to know how to use your big boy words. Girls, wait for the big boy words. My concern, those who do not value marriage. This is a growing trend in our culture. To not value it as a good gift from God, and it's not surprising. I would love to hear if anyone knows of a TV or movie portrayal of a good, healthy marriage. Think about the way marriage is regularly portrayed before us. It's devalued in every way. That's why Christians, our homes, are so important. Desiring to glorify God with our marriage, desiring to be a witness to those who come into our homes, what marriage should look like. The dangers out there that want to replace healthy sex in a covenant relationship with pornography. Selfishness and self-absorption rather than giving oneself over in covenant union. The goal of a Christian, speaking to Christians, is to take what God's word says is good, believe what he says is good and be transformed. If you're a Christian, you have to value marriage. Here's the most basic reason why. The Bible begins with marriage and it ends with marriage. Marriage is good. This present age has marriage. Verse 34, full stop. But, second point, the future resurrection. The future resurrection. Verses 35 and 36.

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. for they cannot die anymore because they are equal to angels and are sons of God being sons of the resurrection.

Notice Jesus making a strong contrast between Genesis 2.4 and the second coming or the age to come. There's this heavens and earth and we know there's a new heavens and earth. We will die and enter into eternal life with God, or we will be here when Christ returns, and that is the culmination of the next age. Now, he's not speaking here of hell. Hell is a part of that other age to come, but that is the eternal judgment and condemnation for all who remained in sin, remained in rebellion. What he's referring to in the age to come is for those who enter what we call heaven, those who have believed in God. Now, as I say that, we've gotta really wrestle with the language Jesus is using, verse 35. But, again, strong contrast, two ages is the whole framework of what Jesus presented. Those who are considered worthy to attain, that language has to challenge us. Those who are worthy to attain. As we consider this language, and I want to be very clear, if this was the only passage on salvation or heaven, I would have to say he's teaching a work salvation. Straightforward, that's what it looks like. How are you going to attain something? How are you going to find yourself worthy enough? But this is the beauty of the whole scripture. We interpret scripture with scripture. As we look at this passage, we can go to even John 3, 16.

God so loved the world that he sent his only son that whoever believes in him will have everlasting life.

We see that trend throughout scripture. We see that motif, we see that theme, that command, belief. I believe here whatever we're thinking Luke 20 means, it has to be in complete correspondence with the same God, the same Jesus who said you must believe. Friend, let me be very clear. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. There's no amount of work that will make you worthy outside of the work of Christ. We believe in what Christ did. We believe in His work on the cross and the resurrection and Him ascending. That is what is sufficient to satisfy the wrath of God. Salvation is only by faith. So why does Jesus use this language, those who are considered worthy? Maybe he's pressing in the Sadducees because they had a works-based salvation. And their whole disbelief of the resurrection shows that they are not worthy. It would be like Jesus to start putting his finger in the problem hole to show them not a fallacy, but the true absurdity. The other option is we have to take together. We're saved by faith alone. And we are to put forth every effort to make sure we attain the end goal of salvation. Those two things come together. We've seen Jesus even give a warning, many will not, but they will not be able to enter. 2 Peter 1, there's great effort required of a Christian who's going to persevere. Faith puts us on the path of works, not working to be proving ourselves good enough to be children of God, but works that we would grow up into Christ, works that we would persevere. We too often take faith alone for salvation to be reduced down into an easy believism. Friends, the gospel is that simple. We're great sinners, and Jesus Christ is a great Savior. Believe in Him. And as we believe in Him, we see the high calling of denying yourself, carrying your cross, following Him. There's a high calling of persevering in hope and faith and putting forth every effort to continue to grow in Him. As we step back here, Jesus begins here in terms of what it means to enter into that age. I wanna be very clear, heaven is a word of love. It's difficult for us to imagine heaven because there's a different time, it's gonna be a different space, but don't let me, we're a different people. There's no sin. The challenge for us is how are we training ourselves to love God and be satisfied in Him? You don't have to do enough to be worthy of heaven, but Jesus Christ who has come tells us we are called to persevere. In the membership class, we looked at 1 John 3, 2 and 3, and we see some helpful categories to wrestle with this. We are children of God now. That is the position of salvation that we receive by faith. We will see him as he is when he returns. We'll be transformed. That's the future perfection that Jesus is gonna be speaking of right here. Resurrected children of God. And then he ends,

those who thus hope purify themselves.

There is an ongoing call to faithfulness. So the first thing he declares,

those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection of the dead, neither married nor given to marriage.

There is no more marriage as designed in Genesis 2.24 in the age to come. The real issue is why. This is a challenging passage. Why won't there be any marriage? Verse 36, this is Jesus' explanation.

For they cannot die anymore.

We're gonna have to keep thinking, all right? We're called to submit to God with all our thoughts. Why is that the reason? It's Jesus speaking, it's right. Why is that the reason? First of all, I do want to point out, death is possible when Jesus, or when God, Jesus, the Creator, introduces marriage. But it isn't present yet. We get that, right? God had told Adam, if you sin, you will die. Then he introduces marriage. Afterward, Adam's sins and death comes. Death is possible in Genesis 2. It is inevitable in Genesis 3. It is then impossible in the age to come. Three very important stages of God's order. It is possible after sin, impossible, but marriage is given while it's still just possible. Notice he's referring all the way back, I believe here, because death is possible and because he knows they will sin and they will die, it is what comes. Marriage is no longer going to be a possibility. Marriage is no longer an ordinance or a marriage. All right, back up, erase that. Marriage is not an ordinance. Marriage is no longer an institution in the age to come because death no longer exists. He further explains this. Why is there no more death? Well, because male and female, humans, are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. All right, so he's further explained. All right, there's no more marriage because there's no death. And there's no death because we'll be like the angels, we'll be sons of God. Well, we need to wrestle with what does it mean that we might be like angels? What are angels? We read earlier from Psalm 8. In the hierarchy of being, there's God, there's angels, there's humans. They are in every way presented in scripture as greater than us. Now, we have a unique status. We're made in the image of God. Angels are not. There's a few things we need to recognize about angels. Angels do not procreate. Angels do not have bodies. Angels do not die. You know, I remember in either Bible college or seminary, someone presenting as if it's a silly question,

how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

And they acted as if all the medieval theology, these are the kinds of things they speculated about and it's ridiculous. That's a great question. Why? How does the spiritual relate to the material? That's an incredible question. How does the world of the angels relate to this created cosmos? All right, so angels, they don't procreate, they don't die, they don't have bodies. Okay, we will be like angels, but we gotta break that down. We will not be like the angels in some ways. we will continue to have a body, a resurrected body, a transformed body. Angels will not have bodies. So we're not exactly like angels. We don't become angels. Secondly, they're going to reverse it. Angels are not going to be image bearers in the age to come, but we will continue to have that special privilege, status, and position responsibility. So as we think about this, we don't become angels, but we're becoming like angels. I believe the most helpful kind of focus here is there's no procreation like the angels. There's no given in marriage like the angels. And then he goes further and says, we will be sons of God, sons of the resurrection. Those two things relate to one another. Now, here, angels are not sons of God. Angels are not adopted into the family of God, as far as we understand. The doctrine of being children of God is first based upon Jesus Christ being the only begotten son of God. In eternity, God in himself, as much as we know from God's word, is father and son in all eternity. That is the best identity marker we have for who the second person of the Trinity is. That son came down to us to become the Christ, to take on our flesh, to die for our sin, to rise again. And in us believing in him, we are given his resurrection and we're invited into his sonship. Notice the marriage unit here, Genesis 2, 4 and on, is the basic family structure. The marriage unit in the age to come is God the Father welcoming all who believe in the Son to be part of his family. That's a significant difference. Now, we know from other places, we'll look in a little while in Revelation 21, we're actually called the bride of Christ. There's a different kind of covenant union in marriage and the way marriage is actually pointing to that. But Jesus' answer, we're not gonna be like angels. We're not gonna be given over into marriage. We're not gonna be procreating. We're actually gonna have a different family unit structure that defines all of eternity. We're going to have the resurrection. We're going to be resurrected. We're going to be very children of God. Friends, as we contemplate this, let me say a few words. What we gain in heaven will be better than what Adam lost in creation. What we gain in heaven will be better than what Adam lost in creation. If we look back, Adam was sinless. He was innocent. He did not have sin, but he could sin and he could die. What we gain in heaven is better because when we go into that next age, we cannot sin. We cannot die. What we will gain is better than what he lost because he could have sinned, he could have died. We will not be able to sin. We will not be able to die. Further. As we look at Adam, and as much as we can tell about what his relationship was in the interactions that we have recorded, Adam, as a good creature, as a steward in the garden, had a good relationship with God. He knew what it sounded like for God to walk into the garden. I have no idea what that would sound like. Can't wait to find out. He spoke with God. But the way in which God talks about our relationship in the age to come, adopted sons eating at his table. That's different than being in God's garden and he visits. Seeing God face to face, the kind of intimate portrayals of how God relates to his people, he will dwell with us forever. Heaven is a world of love. We won't have the frailty of the body. We won't have the frustration of sin. We won't have the fear of failure. It's a word of love, knowing God, communing with him as his own children, seeing him in his glory face to face. Challenge this morning, Christian. Is this the heaven you're looking for? Is this the hope? you long for. I too often hear Christians talk about heaven as if it really has to have our favorite parts of this life. One of those things when somebody passes away and their spouse has passed away before, oh, they're reunited. I think they probably know who each other are, but that's not the goal. The goal of the Christian is to see their God face to face. To lower this a little bit more, I remember back in 2001, a tragic event happened. The great NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt died racing. I'm a little bit of a redneck. All right, Dale Earnhardt, the intimidator, he died. Number three, arguably one of the greatest, easily arguably one of the greatest NASCAR drivers ever, maybe the greatest. And on the radio show that I was listening to the day after he died, one of the commentators gave the grand theological affirmation,

well, we now know that there must be racing in heaven. Because old Dale couldn't be happy without racing.

All right, let's just pause there. And analyze the assumptions in that statement. One, Dale's in heaven. We have no profession of faith recorded by Dale Earnhardt. That doesn't mean he didn't, we just don't know. The assumption is he was such a good guy, he must be in heaven. That's an error. The second one, and this is what we're really challenged with here. Does heaven need our favorite earthly things for us to be happy? The real flip side of this. Are we practicing enjoying the earthly things so much that we might not be preparing ourselves to truly be happy in heaven? What makes heaven enjoyable is knowing God face to face. It will be a blessed place. Lots of blessings and gifts. But what if we get to heaven and we realize our affections are in a place Is this the heaven we're longing for? To see our God and know Him. Let's look at our next section, past promises, past promises. Verse 37,

but that the dead are raised.

Very clear. Now remember what books of the Bible the Sadducees believed in. The first five, the books of Moses. but that the dead are raised, even Moses." Now, he's had to teach them a whole new theological category, but now he's gonna go back and he's gonna play on his turf. It's his word, right? The Pentateuch is Jesus Christ. But what they believe is their turf, he's going to go back and even play within their own field. Even Moses showed. Even the only five books you claim to believe, even he showed this. And this is where I think it's pretty funny. Jesus references this, says,

in the passage about the bush.

That's kind of an interesting way to reference that event. If you're Jesus, who had your Holy Spirit lead Moses to record that passage. Again, there's no Exodus 3, because the numbers didn't exist. Even Moses, in that passage about the bush. Of course, he's referring to the burning bush, where God calls Moses. But Moses recognized there's something unique about this bush, and God says, take your shoes off. You're about to come too close to me in my holy presence. Oh, if we could just get this right, there is something fearful about coming into the presence of a holy God, and he invites us. There's holiness and there's grace tied together. Is Moses being invited into the very holy presence of God? How does God call him?

The Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.

You see, Moses, In Israel, they've been in Egypt for about 400 years. We know that from Genesis 15, because in Genesis 15, six, God tells Moses, your people will be in a foreign land and abused for 400 years. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they've been long dead on this earth. Jesus, giving us insight into his Old Testament, giving us the opportunity to see mystery revealed, as Paul tells us. Eternal life is so clear in Jesus' ministry. Yeah, it's not as clear in the Old Testament, but it's there, it's present. Jesus is telling us right here. Even Moses was testifying to the resurrection. Even Moses was telling us he's not the God of the dead. He refers himself presently as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why? Because they're alive in the resurrection. They're alive when God reveals himself to Moses. He is the God of life. He is the God of the living. Verse 38 is such a wonderful confession.

He is not the God of the dead. He's the God of the living.

What a fantastic confession. He's the God of life. He's the God who created us for life. Something very helpful just to grasp and that we know Death is not the way it's supposed to be. I want to say this gently, but we've got to stop having celebrations of life. We've got to have funerals. We have to learn how to grieve. We're going to celebrate someone's life as it ends at a funeral. We're going to rejoice in all the great things in it, but we got to quit trying to pretend death isn't real and that death isn't really painful. We've gotta learn how to grieve and weep at death. And as Christians, we gotta learn how to grieve with hope. Not hope that somehow their life was so meaningful that death shouldn't be painful. No, hope that Christ is risen and their death is painful, because it's not the way it's supposed to be, but he solved the problem, the comfort for today. He did not leave us in death. He promised life. He is a God of life. The amazing truth, as we heard from Ben a few Sundays ago from 1 Corinthians 7, 15, we have some significant enemies. Our own sin, death, and Satan. Christ on the cross destroys death. Death is no longer the absolute end. No, death is defeated in the death of Christ. He rose again so that we might know life. Jesus taught us here in response to this question, pretty quickly, but very fully, a theology of God, the God of life, the God who gives eternal life, what eternal life is not going to be like, what it will be like. And notice there, the scribes, different group, teacher, youth, book, and well.

for they no longer dare to ask him anything.

And then Jesus turns to them. Here we see Jesus teaching the eternal Son of God. Now we're going to see the eternal Son of God. Jesus asks a question.

How can they say that the Christ is David's son?

For David himself, In the book of Psalms, Psalm 110, the psalm you had heard earlier read,

the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. David thus calls him Lord. So how is he his son?

Jesus is pressing into them a problem they've got, and they've got too small of a God. They've got too small of an understanding of who they should be looking for. I want to be very clear. The Messiah is David's son. Jesus isn't denying that. The problem they have is that they believe he's just a son. You're looking for just a descendant. You're looking for someone who's gonna be born as a human and only a human who is born of David. What are the great testimonies of God's word being true? The promised savior from Genesis 3.15 has to be a child of Eve, has to be of human lineage, then has to be a child of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel, of the tribe of Judah, and we fast forward, has to be a son of David. 2 Samuel 7 is one of those significant passages. David in his throne after being the true king, the king of Israel at that point says, I wanna build God a house. I want his tabernacle to quit being a temporary place. I want it to be here. God says, no, you can't build me a house, but I'm gonna build you a house, a dynasty. One of your sons, will sit on the throne forever, eternal. Israel is supposed to be looking for a child born of the line of David. The hope of Israel is that someone will be born and would be a child. The challenge is they're merely looking for a child. What Jesus does, And Psalm 110 is to show it's not just someone born of the right human descendancy, it's God himself who broke in, who came down and was born in the line of David. Here's what he's saying. David himself calls the Messiah his own Lord. This would be unbecoming of a father if he's merely a son. David and whatever's going on in Psalm 110 has some great insight into the great plan of God.

The Lord said to my Lord,

the Messiah will not just be a son of mine and my descendant, but the Messiah is going to be God himself, the Lord, someone I'm going to bow down to, someone I'm going to answer to. And then he has all that authority. The true Messiah, the true King, he's in the right hand of God. Jesus here, I believe, is pointing out that he's not merely a man. He's a full man, but he's the son of God who's come down. We just spent two hours in the Bright Seminary class to try to explain the fullness of this theme throughout scripture. I can't do it justice here, but Jesus, he existed forever as the son. He came down and added himself flesh, humanity. He then became the Messiah. He became the king. He became the priest, became the prophet. The whole focus here is that God broke in. The scribes, they have too small a Messiah. It's a Messiah who's merely a human king. It's not the Messiah, the God that they should worship. For fun, let's make this more challenging. Anybody know how the Old Testament, the Jewish Old Testament ends? It's not like your Christian ending. Our Bible ends with Malachi, which promises someone like Elijah, which is a transition of John the Baptist, which is a great, wonderful line that connects. The Jewish Bible ends with 2 Chronicles. A Gentile king named Cyrus saying, I have a word from God. I will build him a temple. I will reign over the nations. Do you know how confusing that must be for Jewish people? Not a son of David as the king who frees God's people and builds a temple. A Gentile king is the hero of the whole Jewish Old Testament. What an exclamation point of disappointment. Do you know how Luke begins? The angel comes to Mary. You're not gonna know, man, but you're gonna have a child. That child will be called the Son of the Most High, and He will reign forever. That's how God fulfilled His promises. I believe the confusion there for a Jewish person. It should be so disappointing so that you're saying there's gotta be something more, and there is! It's Jesus, the true King, the Son of God who's come down to become like us, to reign in absolute righteousness. Jesus is the Son of David. He is the true King. And he's the true King because he's the Son of God who has come to exercise his perfect righteousness. As we think about the hope set before us, heaven is a different place. It's hard to describe. The most important part about what we understand about heaven is our relationship with God. We will see him face to face. We will know him without sin. One of the most profound ways in which the Bible describes heaven is what is not there. If you wanna meditate upon this, read Revelation 21 this afternoon. Or go through and, I realize the Sands of Time is a long song. Oh, but it's so rich. Meditate upon those verses. We really shouldn't get weary about singing about all, not all, very few of the great ways in which God saved us. Meditate upon the verses from the Sands of Time are sinking. Let's just go to Revelation 21. Let's just think about what's not in heaven. Verse four,

he will wipe away every tear. No more death. No mourning, no crying, no pain. The former things of this age have passed away.

We should long for heaven because the consequences of sin have ended. That's what he's saying there. The consequences of sin are gone. We can love God in heaven without sin hindering us. Revelation 21 still, verse 23, there's no sun or moon. Why? There's no need because the glory of God's light shines. There's no temple, according to verse 22. Why? Because God is with us. We need no mediator. We should long for heaven because God's glory is always fully manifested, changing us and helping us see him. Oh, and then verse two of Revelation 21.

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Jesus doesn't give that as an answer as to why there's no marriage in heaven. There is a marriage in heaven. It's just not between us. Christ is transformed as bride. The picture's what the family's like. The father adopting us all as children and bringing us into his table. Christ bringing us in as his bride to love us and for us to be loved fully. Continues,

behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

Heaven is a world of love because we get to know God and see him as he is. Heaven is better. Heaven is our hope. Not because of what we hope we get from God, but because we get to know Him without hindrance of sin. Let's just be very clear. We all come to know God because of what He gives us. Everyone who comes to faith in God, we all do it because of what we get. We want forgiveness, we want truth, we like what God promises so we believe in Him. And then as we grow, we actually come to know Him and love Him as the giver more than the gift. Oh, that's what we have to do, Christian. Grow up into that maturity. Yes, His gifts are good and enjoyable, but we've got to grow up to know Him, the giver, because that's what He gives us in the age to come, Himself. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you, Lord, for your kindness. You did not leave us in our sin, in our lies, in our death, but you promised. You promised to make us alive again. You promised even your own son. Your promises bring truth. Lord, I pray we would hear the hope you set before us. We would order our lives around the hope set before us. We would long to see Christ, to know Christ, and because we thus hope we will purify ourselves. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us stand and sing our song of response.