Service / Rest / Communion w/Redeemed

Driving home: Heaven is a place of unwearied service joined to perennial rest and refreshment.

The word for 'labor' in Revelation 14:13 is likened to coming home 'bone-weary' after painful toil, illustrating the depth of rest promised in heaven.

The kind of labor that causes a man to come home through his front door, plunk on his favorite easy chair and sigh and say, I am bone-weary. God says, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord that they may rest from their bone-weariness, that they may rest from their labor unto pain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6:26 - 6:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Truly I say unto you, here's the amazing statement, he, that is, the returning Lord himself, will gird himself and shall make them his servants, sit down to meet, and shall come and serve them.

Martin quotes Lutheran commentator Lenski, who expresses profound wonder at the parable in Luke 12:35-37, where the Lord himself girds himself to serve his slaves, highlighting the unprecedented nature of this divine service.

come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and shall again, the same word, recline in the kingdom of God. But then if we turn back to Luke 12, some of the circumstances of that refreshment under the figure and imagery of the banquet house is opened up in a most amazing way. We read in verse 35 of Luke 12, Let your loins be girded about in your lamps burning. Be prepared and ready for the coming of your Lord. And be yourselves like unto men looking for their Lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast, that when he comes and knocks, they may straightway open unto ...

15:26 - 16:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the question of what this unwearied service will entail, suggesting it will primarily be abandoned worship and adoration of God. He also speculates on the…

Martin shares a personal anecdote of his past fear of expressing a desire for more than just worship and adoration in heaven, due to his creative and aesthetic sensitivities, illustrating a common misconception about heavenly service.

all the service we will render. And I can remember a time when I didn't even dare to express to anyone, for fear they'd think me a blasphemer, that there was something in me that didn't get too excited at the thought of doing nothing but worshiping and adoring. The sense of the creative, the desire to accomplish, the aesthetic sensitivities, all of those things that mark us out as image-bearers of God. And I said, Lord, forgive me for even thinking it, and I didn't dare breathe this to a soul, for fear I'd be thought a heretic or half an apostate or some other tragic and terrible thing.

20:44 - 21:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the hope of heaven burn in your breast amidst your present toil and weariness.

Martin lists visible objects in the church (pulpit, microphone, preacher, walls, cars, friends) to contrast with the unseen, eternal realities Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, clarifying the focus of the soul.

a momentary lift while we sit in this building. Something to be carried with us as an overarching perspective, 2 Corinthians 4, 16. Wherefore we do not faint, but though our outward man is decayed, yet our inward man is renewed day by day, for our light affliction, which is for the moment, and it is for the moment, and the moment, and the moment, and the moment, and the moment, and the moment, is this present order of things prior to the coming of Christ, is working for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory while we do not look on the things which are seen, but at the things ...

26:48 - 28:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the hope of heaven burn in your breast amidst your present toil and weariness.

Martin uses the analogy of Paul walking down a Roman street not literally closing his eyes to 'unseen things' to clarify that fixing one's gaze on the unseen refers to the focus of the soul, not physical sight.

And he says, we fix the gaze of our souls not upon the things that are seen. Now that doesn't mean, when Paul was walking down a Roman street, he closed his eyes and said, I don't look on the things that are seen, don't look on the things, and trust God to guide him by an angel. That would be tempting the Lord. Yes, he looked where he was going, but he's speaking of the focus of the soul, the concentration of the faculties of the inner life.

28:30 - 28:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Pause periodically to force your gaze upon the things that are not seen, lest you fail to live as a child of God.

Martin contrasts the common phrase 'so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good' with his observation of 'thousands of professing Christians who were so earth-minded, they were no heavenly good,' illustrating the detrimental effect of worldliness.

I've heard the phrase many, many times, that guy's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good. But I've never yet met such a person. But I've met thousands of professing Christians who were so earth-minded, they were no heavenly good. And the church is never more mighty to deliver men from the clutches of a damning attachment to earth, than when it has its affections most firmly embedded in heaven and in the world to come.

30:21 - 31:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Face reality and compare your current pursuits with what awaits the people of God; don't barter your soul for fleeting things.

Martin asks unbelievers, 'What's that little bubble you're chasing right now? Marriage? A home? A position? Security? Prestige?' to illustrate the fleeting and insubstantial nature of earthly pursuits compared to eternal realities.

What's that little bubble you're chasing right now? What's that bubble? Marriage? A home?

31:08 - 31:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Heaven is a place of the perfected communion of all the redeemed of all ages.

Martin vividly describes Abraham's journey, packing up his tent without knowing where he was going, to illustrate Abraham's radical faith in looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. Some people probably really thought poor old Abraham had a few screws loose. One day, he took down his tent, pulled up all the ten stakes, wrapped up his tent, put his few pots and pans in a gunny sack, and people come around and say, Abraham, where are you going?

34:30 - 35:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the fourth aspect of heaven: perfected communion of all the redeemed, using the dominant imagery of a city. He references Abraham's longing for a city in Hebrews…

Martin contrasts nomads dwelling in tents with the concept of a city, emphasizing that a city inherently implies intimate social contact, which is central to the idea of perfected communion in heaven.

Out in the wilderness where God called him. Now, God gave him, by divine revelation, that wonderful understanding that his ultimate destiny was a city which hath foundations, not a tent that merely has stakes, but a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Now, you see, you cannot think of a city without thinking of the social dimensions of the relationship of the dwellers. A bunch of nomads with a lot of land between them, each dwelling in his own tent, can have very little to do with one another. But the whole concept of a city is that men are pressed into intimate social ...

36:14 - 37:38 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the fourth aspect of heaven: perfected communion of all the redeemed, using the dominant imagery of a city. He references Abraham's longing for a city in Hebrews…

The 'heartbreaking tragedy of the modern American city, where no one says hello, where each one is fearful of his neighbor,' is used as a negative example to highlight the ideal of intimate, loving social contact in the heavenly city.

Out in the wilderness where God called him. Now, God gave him, by divine revelation, that wonderful understanding that his ultimate destiny was a city which hath foundations, not a tent that merely has stakes, but a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Now, you see, you cannot think of a city without thinking of the social dimensions of the relationship of the dwellers. A bunch of nomads with a lot of land between them, each dwelling in his own tent, can have very little to do with one another. But the whole concept of a city is that men are pressed into intimate social ...

36:14 - 37:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Find excitement in the prospect of dwelling in the city of God in a state of perfected communion with all of His people, as a mark of true love for the brethren.

Martin quotes Cheever's 'The Power of the World to Come' to expand on the glory of heaven's social life, where communicative and companionable tendencies are intensified and shared, reinforcing the idea of perfected communion.

And in his chapter on heaven and he's one of the few authors I've read who's captured this element of truth and expanded upon it. And I'll give you just, just a little taste of Cheever's perspective on this. In the second place, speaking of heaven, it is a social life in which all the communicative and companionable tendencies of our nature and powers of our being will be exercised in an enjoyment ten-thousand-fold intensified by being reflected from and shared with the beatific experience of others. It's remarkable as an indication of the glory of the social life of heaven and the activity an...

43:41 - 45:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Find excitement in the prospect of dwelling in the city of God in a state of perfected communion with all of His people, as a mark of true love for the brethren.

Martin uses the analogy of being 'flattened out to something that's been produced by the computer in which every nose is the same shape and every voice the same tone' to assure listeners that God will preserve individuality in heaven, while removing sin.

We cause them the grief of our unchristlike insensitivity. We cause them the sorrow and the pain of our laxes in grace when they, longing to see Christ formed in us, and instead they see the outcroppings of carnality. And so, looking at one another and feeling the longings of love, there is the pain, there is the vulnerability that comes from seeking to dwell in love where sin yet remains. Oh, what will heaven be in that perfect place, in that perfected communion of the saints, when every saint will love perfectly not only God, but all of his fellow saints. And while maintaining all of our own...

46:44 - 48:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that God takes a man's heart to heaven through the gospel before taking his person there; if your heart is not in heaven, your person will not be either.

Martin quotes Richard Baxter: 'God always takes a man's heart to heaven before he ever takes his person there,' to emphasize that spiritual conversion and attachment to Christ are prerequisites for entering heaven.

But you see until that last elect soul is brought in and the Lord Jesus returns not one saint will get the last installment of redemption until we all get it at the same time. And then we shall be constituted that city of God coming down out of heaven with our returning Lord resplendent with the glory that will cause us to be what the scripture says those who are made like him for we shall see him as he is. My dear unconverted friend I don't know what you're selling your soul for but it's pretty cheap. It's pretty cheap. When these four great realities could be yours if you will but have Chris...

49:54 - 51:08 Read in full sermon