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Welcome to the Gospel Focused Family Moment. I’m your host, Eric Novak. Each week we pause as a family to remember what matters most, the good news of Jesus. This podcast is brought to you by gospelfocused.com.
For our opening liturgy today, I’ll be your leader and ask a question, and then you follow along and repeat with your family. Christian family, what do we believe? We believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. We believe in the Holy Spirit, who gives us life and makes us one.
Our scripture reading for today comes from John 11:24–27. “Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’” This is the word of the Lord.
Welcome back to the show, friends. If you’ve been listening along, I’m so glad you’re here. You’ve made it to the last episode of the Apostles’ Creed series. We started this at the beginning of September, and we’ve learned so much together. Next month we’ll have a brand new series, but for now, just to remind you: the Apostles’ Creed is an “I believe” statement that was recited by those close to the beginning of the church, so they could learn what the church believed when they were being baptized. Today, it’s still recited in churches across the world. So let’s read it together, and then we’ll unpack our line:
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Our line that we’ll be studying today is “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”
Guys, there’s this idea in the church that’s really sad, just because it hasn’t been explained very well. It’s that heaven is a boring place. Some people think that we’ll worship Jesus forever, like one big worship service in the sky that never stops, and that can sound tiring. I think the problem is that once again, what we’re saying in passing in church isn’t understood very well, and it results in us thinking about the Bible in a cultural way, not in a way that’s informed by what the whole Bible really says.
What culture says about heaven was informed by a really odd time in history. It was called the Baroque era, from the 1600s to the mid-1700s, and during that time it became really popular to make art about heaven with fat little babies with wings called cherubs, floating on clouds, playing harps, and wearing halos. It turns out that cherubs came from early Roman art of cupids, and halos, the shiny circles hovering over people’s heads, came from Byzantine art to signal holiness. And here’s the funny part: the Bible’s real cherubim aren’t chubby babies at all. They’re powerful, awesome guardians. One stands at the gate of Eden with a flaming sword. Harps, on the other hand, really are in the Bible, they show up in heaven’s worship in Revelation. But the bored-baby-on-a-cloud version, that’s what people invented. By the 1800s and 1900s, a fat baby sitting on a cloud strumming a harp was a very common image that people had of what it meant to be in heaven.
Listeners, it’s not that way.
In our line today, we affirm the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, and let me be clear: we are believing in the physical resurrection of our bodies, just like the resurrection of Jesus was physical. One day you and I will die, and one day Jesus will raise our physical bodies up to the final resurrection of all the saints, where we will live and work and play and dance and sing, all in worship of our King, Jesus.
You know, a poor understanding of worship is that we only worship on Sunday morning at church. A biblical understanding of worship is that God made us as worshiping people, and simply being and giving glory to God is worship. Taking a walk with your family and watching a beautiful sunset? That’s existing as God created you to exist. Give the glory to God, and it’s worship. If you’re sitting on the couch watching a fun movie with your family? Look around, give thanks, it’s worship. It’s really sad that we’ve confined worship of God to one place and one time, only in church on Sunday morning.
God created the world for us to be in and be part of, and He’ll create a new heaven and a new earth where we can worship, be known by Him, and be with Him forever. Let’s think about what that really means. The apostle Paul gives us a picture of it in 1 Corinthians 15. He says our bodies are like a seed, and when you plant a seed in the ground, it looks small and lifeless, but what grows up is bigger and stronger and more beautiful than the seed ever was. That’s what God will do with us. Our bodies will be planted in the ground when we die, and God will raise them up more glorious than before, bodies that will never get sick, never get tired, and never die again.
And we know those bodies will be real, because Jesus showed us His body after He rose. He didn’t drift around like a ghost. He told His friends to touch Him and see, and He ate a piece of fish right in front of them. Our resurrection will be just like His: real, solid, fully alive. And the world we will live in, it won’t be boring. It’ll be even better than the Garden of Eden. It will be a real place, with real work we actually love, real food and feasting, and real laughter, forever.
At the beginning of this series, we talked about the line “God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” And it’s fitting to close this series with a reminder that the promise of “life everlasting” is made possible by a God who created heaven and earth, and will create a new heaven and a new earth. But He’s not so big and powerful that He stands far off. Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.” God wants a relationship with you, one where He can comfort you and wipe away your tears, while He is undoing the biggest fears that we have: the brokenness of this world and death itself.
Listeners, thank you for joining me to learn about the Apostles’ Creed. It’s been amazing to walk through the deep truths of our faith together. See you next week.
Our memory verse for the week is “I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25.
Let’s pray together. Father God, thank you for sending Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life, so that we could know and be known by you. Help us to live full lives in the knowledge that we are secure in the work of Jesus and held by your hand. We offer our lives to you in living worship, and long for the day when we will be with you forever. Prepare our hearts. In the holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Thanks for joining us for this week’s Gospel Focused Family Moment. I’m your host, Eric Novak. Until next time, keep your eyes on Jesus and your hearts focused on the gospel. Go as a family in the peace of your Savior and closest friend, Jesus Christ. See you next week.
Thank you for being part of what we do at gospelfocused.com. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with a friend. Every person we reach brings us closer to our goal of sharing the gospel with every family around the world, by the grace of Jesus.
