SERIES: Heaven and Hell
What Will We Be Doing in Eternity?
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: This is Advent season, and when people come to church the Sunday before Christmas, they generally expect to hear a Christmas sermon. Our current series on heaven and hell has not exactly been seasonal. However, before we are done this morning, I hope you will see there is a connection between today’s message and Advent, but it won’t start out that way. Throughout this series I have tried to give an overview of all the Bible teaches about important aspects of both heaven and hell. We’ve observed that both topics are receiving very little attention in this postmodern culture. We’ve examined what heaven and hell are like, and the inhabitants of each. Then we took a Sunday each to consider “heaven for those who cannot believe” and “hell for those who have never heard.”
Today the subject is, “What will the inhabitants of heaven and hell be doing in eternity?” I’m going to touch upon the inhabitants of hell first, but only briefly. It will be brief, not only because hell is not something we want to dwell on the Sunday before Christmas, but also because the Bible gives us little information about what the wicked and the lost will be doing in hell.
What will the wicked and the lost be doing in hell?
Basically, I can find only two occupations for those condemned to hell: suffering and regretting.
Suffering. There is simply no way to avoid the fact that hell is a terrible place of suffering. The descriptive language used in the New Testament, particularly by Jesus Himself, is enough to cause one to shudder. In Matthew 13:49-50 Jesus says, “This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In Matthew 25:41 He says, “Then he (God the Father) will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
In Mark 9:43-48 He adds,
“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”
In other words, some of the worst things we can imagine here on earth—being a double amputee and blind—is insignificant compared to eternity in hell.
In the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 Jesus reveals, in the rich man’s own words, a first-hand account of the suffering the wicked will experience in the afterlife. The rich man calls out to Father Abraham, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finer in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”
Let me mention one other passage, this one from Rev. 14:9-11, which describes the eternal suffering of those who follow Antichrist:
“A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.’”
It is this suffering, this interminable suffering, that causes so many today to reject the notion of hell. Some are willing to grant there may be a short period of punishment for the terribly wicked to even the score, but then surely God will annihilate the wicked, causing them to just go out of existence. That way those of us who go to heaven won’t have them on our consciences.
Frankly, annihilationism is gaining a lot of strength today, even on the fringes of evangelicalism. Its fatal flaw, however, it seems to me, is that the exact same word, “eternal” or “everlasting,” is used numerous times of the suffering of the wicked in hell and of the blessedness of the righteous in heaven. So, if eternal suffering ceases when it has done its job, then maybe eternal joy ceases too. I think annihilationism is a broken read upon which it is not wise to lean.
There is, however, one slightly ameliorating factor relative to suffering in hell that I must mention. And that is that not all of those in hell will suffer the same. There are clearly degrees of punishment in hell. I mentioned this very briefly last Lord’s Day in the first service, but I ran out of time in the other two. It was, in fact, germane to last Sunday’s sermon on the unevangelized because while I concluded that the Bible tells us the unevangelized are lost and will go to hell, it does not say they will suffer the same as those who have been exposed to the Gospel all their lives but have refused to accept it. In fact, the Bible tells us just the opposite. In Matthew 11:20-24 we read:
“Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.’”
Imagine! As wicked as they were, the people of Sodom (because they had relatively little exposure to the truth), will find their judgment more bearable than those to whom Jesus preached but who refused to believe. In Luke 12:47-48 we have further evidence:
“That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Where does that put those who sit in church week after week, month after month, year after year, listening to God’s Word but not responding by giving their hearts to Jesus? The bottom line, friends, is that no one in hell will escape punishment, but hell will be much worse for some than for others.
I believe the Bible teaches a second occupation of those in hell besides suffering:
Regretting. Hell is a place of deep regret over decisions made on earth. Jesus talks about this regret vividly in the story of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man begs Father Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers, “so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” (Luke 16:28) Conscious regret and concern for his relatives consume this man who went through life ignoring God. He is no longer singing, “I did it my way”; he is moaning, “I did it my way.”
The regret will be intensified in that those who reject Christ in this life will not be entirely through with Him in the next. For one thing, they will be judged by Him. Even more humiliating, they will be forced to join in a great affirmation of the Lordship of Christ, when “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:10-11). The saved will do so with joy, while the lost are forced to do it. Their old self-confidence is gone; their rebellious spirit is broken. Now they look at Christ as the vanquished look at the victor.
That is just about the extent of our knowledge of what those in hell will be doing.
But when we turn our attention to the occupations of the redeemed in heaven, we find a great deal more information.
What will the redeemed be doing in heaven?
Interestingly, before Jesus tells us what we will be doing in heaven, he has a word or two to say about what we will not be doing. Listen to Jesus as he speaks in Luke 20:34-35:
“The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.”
Now this passage has puzzled some, because on the surface it seems to answer in the negative one of our most common questions, particularly at funerals, namely, “Will I rejoin my spouse and parents and children in heaven? Will we be a family again?” But it is important that we not make this passage say more than it was intended to say. If you look at the context you find that Jesus spoke these words in answer to a question from the Sadducees, who were playing their normal game of “Stump the Rabbi.” They postulated about a woman who married seven brothers in succession, with each one dying shortly after the wedding. They don’t explain why the 6th or 7th brother would step up to the altar considering this woman’s track record, but be that as it may, eventually the woman herself dies. “Now then,” they ask, “at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
Don’t forget, the Sadducees who ask this question don’t even believe in the Resurrection, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to trap Jesus. To their question Jesus responds that marriage is an earthly institution, not a heavenly one. There will be no weddings in heaven (other than the Marriage Supper of the Lamb). Nor will we have more children in heaven, for because there is no death, there will be no need for procreation of the race. Personally, I do not believe Jesus is saying we will not be reunited with loved ones in heaven; I think He is saying our relationships there will not be the same as here. We will not be interested in pairing off and living separately in isolated units. Our focus will not be on ourselves or each other; it will be on Jesus.
At the same time, I don’t think we will love one another any less in heaven than we do now. David expected to be with his little son in heaven, fulfilling the longing he had in his heart here but was unable to fulfill due to the child’s death. Likewise, I believe we will see our believing family members again, but our spiritual family will dominate over our natural families. Well, enough of what we won’t be doing.
What will the redeemed be doing in heaven? Friends, without any doubt at all, our principal occupation in heaven will be…
Worshipping, It has been estimated that there are at least forty thousand different occupations in the United States, and yet only a small percentage of the population is completely satisfied with their jobs. Among the complaints are inadequate pay, long hours, tyrannical bosses, lack of advancement potential, physical and emotional exhaustion, etc. But I think the principal issue that makes most people unhappy with their work is they know in their heart of hearts it has no intrinsic eternal value. The wise person learns to invest his work with eternal significance by doing it as unto the Lord, by celebrating the unique talents God has given, and by looking for opportunities to bear witness at work to those who don’t know Him. Unfortunately, the person who is not a believer doesn’t have those options.
Dick (our worship pastor) and I, however, have an advantage over many of you, and that is why I say we have the best jobs in the world. Our work is intrinsically relevant for eternity. Dick has said in the past (and I agree with him) that what we are trying to do here at Frist Free is to prepare God’s people for what they will be doing for all of eternity, namely worshipping God. As far as I know, accountants won’t be needed in heaven, or policemen or doctors or marketing experts. I’m certain lawyers won’t be needed. But true worshipers will be much in demand.
Now if you want a preview of what we will be doing by way of worship, the best place to find that is in the Book of Revelation. Did you know the Book of Revelation contains more songs than any other book in the Bible, with the exception, of course, of Psalms, and they are almost all worship songs–not trite, meaningless ditties, but powerful worship songs with great theological content.
Let’s start with the description of the throne room in heaven as found in chapter 4. And if you have your Bible open, you will probably see these songs easily because in most versions they are indented. After describing the four living creatures around the throne, we read in 4:8,
“Day and night they never stop saying:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’
Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.’”
Then in chapter 5 we are introduced to the Lamb, and in verse 8 it says,
” … the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:
‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:
‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’
The four living creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.”
In chapter 7:9-12 the saints join the heavenly worshipers:
“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’
All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:
‘Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!’”
Skipping over to chapter 15:3-4, we find another scene in which the inhabitants of heaven “held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb:
‘Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.’”
Erwin Lutzer asks, “Have you ever wondered what it would be like to belong to a perfect church?”
One where you knew and loved everyone you were worshiping with,
where the Pastor was always practical, profound, and yet brief,
where the temperature was just right,
where the singing was all hymns (for those who love the hymns)
or all worship songs (for those who prefer them),
where the decibel levels were always tolerable,
where the worship leader’s jokes were always funny,
and on and on we could go.
Well, a perfect worship service, says Lutzer, is “precisely what John saw when he peered into heaven. Free from the limitations of the flesh and the opposition of the devil, the perfect church is found singing the praises of Christ without self-consciousness or mixed motives.”[i]
It is at this point I want to draw a timely parallel between what we will be doing in heaven when Jesus comes again to receive us unto Himself, and what was happening at His first Advent. Just as Revelation reveals the worship of angels at His Second Coming, so the angels worshiped Him when He arrived in Bethlehem. Earlier in the service we read of the encounter of the angels with the shepherds near Bethlehem: “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.’” (Luke 2:13-14)
But the angels weren’t the only ones who worshiped. We read also that the shepherds returned, “glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” (Luke 2:20)
And then, of course, the Magi also worshiped. Matthew 2:10 says, “When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”
From His incarnation through His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His Second Coming, and into eternity, Jesus Christ is worthy of worship. That occupation of the redeemed will never change; it will only get better. When we gather to sing here at First Free, or with 3,000 others at a Free Church National Conference, or with 75,000 at a Billy Graham Evangelistic meeting, or even with a hundreds of thousands at a Promise Keeper’s rally, we are only experiencing a small taste of what it will be like when literally uncounted millions of believers gather around the throne to sing with the heavenly orchestra.
There is a second occupation the redeemed will have in heaven, and that is …
Serving. There are two passages in the Book of Revelation which state this specifically: Revelation 7:15 reads, “Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.” And in Revelation 22:3 it says, “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.” I wish I knew all that was involved in that, but there may be a hint in that the word for “serve” in both passages is the term which refers to service carried on in the house of God, in the temple, or in the church. In fact, the word is translated “worship” about half the time because it is so closely connected with places of worship.
This leads me to wonder if there might be something in heaven akin to the tasks in the church that specifically enhance worship–tasks like ushering, serving communion, preparing communion, reading Scripture, playing musical instruments, singing in the choir or in a worship team, preparing for baptism, even cleaning the sanctuary, perhaps even preaching. When the redeemed gather for worship, there will be many tasks of spiritual service for which the saints can volunteer.
However, I think it unlikely that our only service in heaven will be regarding worship. It is not, as a Sunday school pupil thought, one interminable worship service where we begin on page one of the hymnal and sing all the way through. Heaven is not a place of inactivity or boredom. We can be sure our infinite heavenly Father will have infinite possibilities of things for us to do.[ii]
Another occupation of the redeemed in heaven will be …
Reigning. In 2 Tim. 2:12, Paul says, “If we endure, we will also reign with him.” In Rev. 11:15 the angel announces, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” And in the last chapter of the Bible we read, “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”
But what will believers be reigning over? I’m not sure—perhaps over the angels, perhaps over other creations of almighty God, perhaps over each other. Reigning implies levels of authority and responsibility. We will examine that subject in more detail in an upcoming message on the Judgment Seat of Christ and the rewards believers receive. Finally, I want to address the issue of other potential occupations. I don’t have a chapter and verse to take you to, and therefore this is somewhat speculative. However, I think there are reasons to believe we will also be occupied with fellowship, learning, and traveling.
Fellowship. I think there is at least a hint of the occupation of fellowship in Hebrews 12:22, where it says, “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.” If the angels are gathered in joyful assembly, that implies a horizontal relationship as well as a vertical one, and if the angels are so occupied, I suspect we will be as well.
But my reasons for believing fellowship will be a key part of our time in heaven are more common-sense. When you stop and think about it, the number of relationships we develop with other believers is very limited in this life, to say nothing of people who lived before us, or will live after us, with whom we might have connected except for the fact we lived at different times. Do you ever think as you’re reading the Bible or history that you would love to have known so-and-so? Maybe you’re fascinated by John Bunyan, or St Francis of Assisi or Billy Sunday or Jonathan Edwards. I have always been fascinated by Caleb and Joseph in the OT and Joseph, the husband of Mary, in the NT. I would love to know more about them. I’d love to talk with Joseph and ask him what it was like to be the stepfather of a perfect child. I would like to meet John Calvin and ask him if he would call himself a Calvinist. What about Adoniram Judson and William Carey? Why should not such wishes be granted when we are in heaven?
Of course, the highest and greatest enjoyment will be the privilege of getting to know Jesus, and I reckon that will consume much of our time for the first several millennia (if time is even measured there, which I doubt), but I cannot imagine that we will not also be granted the privilege of getting to know great men and women about whom we have only read.
In addition, I think we will enjoy more intimate fellowship with those whom we already know. There are a few saints whom I would really like to understand better–what makes them tick. That knowledge should help us appreciate one another more.
Learning. Will not the curiosity that spurs so many human endeavors be present in heaven as well? Will we not want to learn as much as possible about God and His creation? A French writer, Louis Figuier, wrote,
“The brilliant tribute of knowledge, intellect, and varied faculties which man has acquired at the cost of so many efforts, cannot be taken from him. He will retain them when he passes to the farther side of the tomb. Mozart died at thirty-five, after amazing and delighting his contemporaries by the productions of his precocious genius; and shall his genius and his personality vanish forever because death prematurely arrested his earthly career? We cannot think so; we believe that Mozart, risen again, now charms celestial phalanxes by his bewildering melodies.”[iii]
Now I hasten to say I do not know this writer’s theology, nor do I know the spiritual state of Mozart. But I think the idea this man shares has merit. Will we have fewer gifts in heaven than we have now? Will we have less curiosity, less drive to acquire knowledge, less interest in how things work and grow there than we have in this life?
Of course, all we learn about creation and the cosmos will pail into insignificance compared to what we learn about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our pitiful theological systems will be shown for what they really are–feeble attempts to put God in a box, to manage the unmanageable. We will learn the whys and wherefores of events that have bewildered us in this life.
One final suggestion I would make is that we will be …
Traveling. This universe is incredibly vast. Why do you think God created billions of stars over an area that stretches billions of light-years through space, if ours is the only visited planet. I will be surprised if God does not allow and even encourage us to explore His creative genius and to visit worlds we have only dreamed about up to this point.
If you want to read someone with a sanctified imagination about what heaven will be like, read Joni Eareckson Tada’s Heaven, Your Real Home. Here is a person who has thought more about heaven than anyone I know, and some of her notions are very intriguing.[iv]
Conclusion: I do not wish my speculations to be the last thing you think about as you leave this morning. I want that to be worship. As the Hallelujah Chorus is sung in a few moments, I want you to realize that it consists principally of the songs of the redeemed in glory from the Book of Revelation. They are praising God for sending His one and only Son to become one of us, to sacrifice His life because of our sin, and to extend His grace to us for all of eternity. Either come and join the singers, or if you haven’t yet received a heavenly voice, sing along quietly in your heart. Either way, friends, it’s just a preview. Just a preview.
DATE: December 20, 1998
Tags:
Heaven
Hell,
Suffering Regret
Worship
Service
Fellowship
[i] Erwin Lutzer, One Minute After You Die, 87.
[ii] Lutzer, 89.
[iii] Citation lost.
[iv] Another book that has impacted me significantly is Heaven, by Randy Alcorn, published in 2004.