Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The celebration in Heaven.
Wednesday, November 5, 2003
Pres-mid-imp – euphraino = to be glad, to rejoice.
It connotes jubilation, over God’s eschatological act of judgment.
This refers to all of the elect angels in heaven, plus all of the believers in heaven at that time. Some believers will have resurrection bodies, like C.A. believers, some are in their interim bodies waiting for their resurrection, like O.T. saints.
The first resurrection is pictured as a battalion pass-in-review, divided into four echelons,
1CO 15:20-24.
a. Alpha Company: the resurrection of Christ at the end of the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union, for He is “the first fruits of them that slept.” Mat 28; Mar 16; Luk 24; Joh 20-21;
ACT 2:31-34.
b. Bravo Company: the resurrection of the royal family of God at the end of the great power experiment of the Church-age, JOH 14:1-3;
PHI 3:20-21; 1CO 15:51-57;
1TH 4:13-18; 1JO 3:1-2.
c. Charlie Company: the resurrection of the Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs at the end of the Tribulation and the Second Advent, DAN 12:13;
ISA 26:19-20; MAT 24:31;
REV 20:4.
d. Delta Company: the resurrection of the Millennial saints at the end of the Millennium.
REV 12:12 – the Old Testament saints are in interim bodies waiting for the Second Advent when they will have their resurrection, but everyone is included in the celebration, and everyone is qualified to celebrate.
When believers die right now, they are absent from the body, but face to face with the Lord, and face to face with the Lord means an interim body, a body that can have great happiness.
This present body that we are living in is likened to a tent.
When we die, there is another body waiting for us called the intermediate body, likened to a building. The resurrection body, by this analogy would be a mansion.
Once our earthly tent is dismantled, we have a building from God which is the interim body, called a building in contrast to the present body called a pup-tent.
“A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” – “indefinitely durable” = the interim body lasts until the Rapture or the resurrection of the saints.
Our present body is like a decaying pup-tent in contrast to the resurrection body which is life in a permanent mansion.
The Holy Spirit indwells our present humanity as a down payment of our future glorification for the eternal state.
We conduct our lives on the basis of perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine not on the basis of the way things merely appear for the moment.
MAT 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”
The life pleasing to the Father is the life of contentment whereby we exploit God’s gracious provisions and apply what He supplied by grace to life’s situations which He appoints or permits by His sovereignty.
Whether good – agathon – the production of divine good while living in your tent (human body).
Whether bad – phaulos – religion, activism, asceticism, human good or human moral evil.
“Keep celebrating” – imperative mood; the imperative of permission which implies no gloating.
OBA 1:12 Do not gloat over your brother’s day, The day of his misfortune. And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah In the day of their destruction; Yes, do not boast In the day of their distress.
PRO 24:17-18 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Lest the Lord see {it} and be displeased, And He turn away His anger from him.
Most people in their celebration, always find something to gloat about to the extent that gloating intrudes into any celebration; and to that extent the celebration has lost its capacity for happiness.
To the extent that you gloat, you have not only transferred from the PPOG to the cosmic system, you have not only committed a sin, but the very content of gloating eliminates virtue, honor, integrity, in the life.
Gloating goes from sound to thought, and locked in gloating is a guarantee of instability, unhappiness, and perhaps some form of psychosis, psychopathic behavior in your life later on.
Vocative plural – ouranoi – oujranoiV = indicates the three categories.
1. The elect angels, those who entered into an eternal relationship with God, during the course of the prehistoric angelic conflict.
2. Believers with resurrection bodies.
3. Believers in an interim body – the Old Testament saints and the Tribulational martyrs of the first half of the Tribulation.
It will be a time of wrath, 1TH 5:9; REV 6:16-17.
A time of judgment, REV 14:7.
A time of indignation, ISA 34:1-3.
A time of punishment, ISA 24:20-21.
A time of trial, REV 3:10.
A time of trouble, JER 30:7.
A time of destruction, Joel 1:15.
A time of darkness, ZEP 1:14-18.
To dwell – pres-act-part – skenountes – skhnounte” = tent; it often refers to the human body.
Here it refers to the Tribulational martyrs who now have a basis for rejoicing, and it also refers to the Old Testament saints.
1. God can take any type of evil situation such as the persecution of the believers in the Tribulation period from all of the anti-Semitism which exists and convert it into divine good, GEN 50:20.
2. Whenever someone tries to curse or destroy another believer, the Lord will turn the curse into a blessing when the believer operates in the faith-rest drill.
Balaam, who was a believer, tried to curse the Jews and Moses tells us, DEU 23:5, what God did about that situation – DEU 23:5 the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you.
3. When evil comes against you, the Lord can turn it into a blessing, providing that you operate in the F.R.D. and let Him handle the situation. DEU 32:41 if I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand takes hold on justice, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, and I will repay those who hate Me.
4. The believer does not have to fight and defend himself, God will do that for the believer who operates in the F.R.D.
2TH 1:6 for after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
5. Stop being anxious and worried and let God handle any unjust and unfair situation –
ISA 35:4 say to those with anxious heart, “take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, and He will deliver you.”
6. Never take revenge on anyone for anything –
ROM 12:19 never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
7. If you are being mistreated in any situation, do not lift up your hand against another person –
1SA 24:12 may the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you.
8. If you have been robbed by another believer, give it over to the Lord –
1TH 4:6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
9. Never repay evil with evil and give someone what you think that they deserve –
PRO 20:22 do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the Lord, and He will save you.
10. When someone has wronged you let the Lord repay him according to his deeds –
2TI 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.
PRO 24:29 Do not say, “thus I shall do to him as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work.”