Welcome to the Further Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and today we're going to tackle one of the most important and I would say exciting questions that Christians have about heaven. And the question is, what will we do in heaven? Maybe activities, relationships, uh, work, all of that kind of comes to mind. And so I want to give you a biblical framework for what activities we will engage in based on what scripture says, and also unpack truths about your relationships and mind. Are we going to be married still? What about our friendships? You know, working, eating, recognizing each other. All of that important truth is really vital to your understanding and mine of heaven. So we're going to unpack this under three main headings. Number one, relationships in heaven. Number two, work in heaven. And then number three, activities in heaven. And I think those three headings will help us encompass everything that we really want to cover. And then along the way, I want to give you some direct quotes from some trusted voices like John Piper, Randy Alcorn, John MacArthur, and even a few from church history like Augustine and Calvin. Because in my coalescing of this for study and digging in, I've been down a lot of different rabbit holes. I've read a lot of different books and been on a lot of different articles and websites and blogs and more. It is really amazing, actually, how much information is available to us about heaven and how many throughout church history have written on this subject. So don't be a Christian who's ignorant or just untaught. It's right there for you. So I wanted to bring it all together, bring the cookies down from the top shelf, and just lay it out for you. And most importantly, we'll anchor all of this in the scriptures. So, number one, first, relationships in heaven. Relationships in heaven. One of the first questions that people will ask is, Will I know my loved ones in heaven? And the answer is a resounding yes. I would dare to say that with such confidence because there are at least five truths that we will know about relationships in heaven. And if you're watching this on YouTube, these will be on the screen. If you're listening on Apple or Spotify, I'll read these and walk you through them. Don't worry. But we are going to recognize one another. That's truth number one. After his resurrection in the Gospel of Luke, I want to go to Luke chapter 24 and just show you this. And if you got your Bible, go for it. If you're listening, I'll read it to you. But in Luke chapter 24, I want to go to verse 42, let's say. And it's the resurrection of the Lord, it's already happened. So it's after it. And if you look at verses 42 to 43 with me, you have Jesus, the road to Emmaus has already happened, and now there's these other appearances, and he's been appearing to people. And so Luke chapter 24, verses 42 to 43 says this. And he took it and ate it before them. Now he said to them, These are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. I want to explain something for you. Jesus is in his glorified body. He's having a meal with his disciples. In some of the verses just prior, while they were telling these things, he himself stood in their midst and said, Peace be with you. They were startled and frightened. They thought they were seeing a spirit, and he said, Why are you troubled? Why does doubt arise in your hearts? See my hands, see my feet? That it is myself. Touch me. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones that you see I have. And when he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And then they can't believe it. They're just so full of joy. And they go and eat a meal. Jesus was in his glorified body, yet his identity was intact. Mary also recognized him in John 20, verse 16, and he speaks her name, Mary, and she says, Oh Lord, she knows it's him. I love the way Randy Alcorn put it in his book Heaven. He says this in heaven, both in the intermediate state and on the new earth, we will know each other, including those we knew on earth. That means your grandma who prayed for you, your child who died young, your brother or sister in Christ who went to be with home with the Lord, your mother, your father, all who are believers, you and I together, you're gonna be known, and I'm gonna be known, and we're gonna be embraced together in heaven. Jesus was recognized after the resurrection. That's a key clue and a key truth. Truth number two, marriage, as we know it, will change, but closeness will not disappear. So thinking about relationships, we're gonna recognize each other. And then under that, we're thinking we're gonna recognize each other. Also, but marriage, there's another relationship. While we'll recognize each other, it's gonna change a little bit. The closeness will not disappear, but it's gonna change. Jesus says this in Matthew 22, verse 30 in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. He doesn't mean that we're gonna look like angels or be angels. What he means is we're gonna be like the angels. We're gonna be single, if you will, if you want to put it that way. And we're not going to be betrothed and having intimacy in that way and living together. You know, that's just not the way that heaven will be. Earthly marriage is temporary. It points us to the eternal marriage of Christ and his bride, the church. And so marriage here on earth is this wonderful thing. Kind of makes you think, I want to enjoy my marriage a little bit more today. I want to be more grateful for my wife than ever before. I want to see this timeline as finite. It's gonna end. And in glory, I'll know her and see her, and we'll be what I would just call heavenly friends. And you'll have closeness still because you had that relationship on earth. But we're not gonna be, you know, married. We're not paying bills together in heaven. We're not going on vacations together in a sense, as husband and wife. We're not having babies, we're not raising them together, we're not in the trenches. You certainly won't fight or have what one of the pastors, Kevin Hay, at our church calls intense fellowship. You know, none of that. Marriage is temporary. It's all about pointing, though, to Christ in the church and our future marriage with him. Randy Alcorn again says this marriage's deep relational goods will continue in heaven, but the institution itself will be transcended, fulfilled by the reality it was meant to picture. I was studying some resources from John MacArthur on this topic. He said, nothing in Scripture suggests that in heaven men will cease to be men, or that women will cease to be women, and in the context we're talking about marriage. So you'll be a man if you're a man, you'll be a woman if you're a woman. You will know each other, but you're not going to be married to one another. Marriage won't vanish in the sense of Christ in the church, but it will change. The identity of what we do is gonna be different, but we're still gonna be male and female in that sense. Rather, also, our love for Christ will be perfected and reordered around Christ. So the priority, you won't think, oh, I just want to be married to you again. I wish we could be married. Oh, no, we're gonna have burning affection for Jesus, and marriage will have been a thing that we enjoyed on earth. Also, another element, we're gonna recognize each other, and there's these relationships, and we've talked marriage and we've talked recognition. Let's talk friendship. Truth number three, friendships will be deeper and holier. Hebrews 12, 22 and 23 says that we're gonna come into the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, which is heaven is community perfected. We're gonna enter into the community of heaven, this beautiful assembly together. And Augustine said, if your delight is in souls, you're gonna love them in God. There's this gonna be, there's gonna be this friendship in heaven, and it'll be loving one another perfectly and in God. And you gotta imagine how friendships now experience brokenness because of sin and the curse. People gossip, people slander, they backstab, they betray, they cheat on you with a business deal or some other conflict, and that creates challenges in our friendships. These precious relationships we treasure, they can be tarnished by sin. And so you've got some friends that maybe start acting worldly and they tarnish your reputation. Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians, bad company corrupts good morals. But friendships in heaven will be deeper, they'll be holier, and more beautiful because they are not stained by the curse of sin. Never again to be divided by demonic schemes, but only unity and joy together. Truth number four on this same aspect: family reunions will be a reality. I don't want to crush people's hopes as people say, Oh, I can't wait till that we have a big reunion, family reunion in heaven. And I would say, based on what we've studied so far, and even the carousel, we put out some graphics on Instagram uh just recently, and it was misconceptions about death. If you miss that, it was on social media and it's available there for you. But one of them was, you know, everyone's going to a better place, or we're just going to kind of party together. And I wanted to dispel some of those preconceived notions and bring biblical correctives into it. But make no mistake about it. This one is still intact. We will have family reunions. Paul comforts believers in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 17 to 18, saying we will be together with them in the Lord forever. Heaven is not the end of family bonds, it's their purification and fulfillment. So now think about family relationships, even how those can get a little choppy and turbulent. When we are in Christ together, perfect, beautiful reunion with family, walking in worship together of Christ, and glorious fellowship for eternity. Truth number five, every relationship will be rightly ordered. This one I wanted to use to summarize kind of our relationships in heaven in this section because it's really the best summary statement. Every relationship will be rightly ordered. No jealousy, no in-laws being outlaws, no brokenness, no competition, all love, all affection will be holy and will be selfless and it'll be satisfying because God Himself will be at the center. And when you have God at the center and you have holiness and perfection and no curse, oh, relationships in heaven, what are we gonna do? We're gonna spend time together and spend time with Christ and fellowship and it will be perfect. Can't wait for that. All right, second big header: work in heaven. Okay, work in heaven. Another big question. Will we have jobs in heaven? The Bible's answer, just like will we recognize each other? Will we have friendships? What relationships? That's like resounding yes. Will we work in heaven? Yes. Okay, you might be shocked to hear that, but there are a few truths here that I want to unpack. And you say, how could you say that we're gonna work in heaven, Costi? Where does that come from? What logic would you use biblically? Well, here's truth number one: work is not a result of the fall. You ever think of that before? Work is not a result of the fall. God gave Adam a job before the fall. God had entrusted Adam and Eve to steward what was given before the fall. Work got hard, it got gritty, the ground wouldn't produce, things got a little nasty after the curse came upon man. God said, You're gonna toil in the garden, this is not gonna be easy, you're gonna toil the land. It's you're gonna have thorns and thistles and weeds. But work was beautiful and perfect in the edenic state before sin. Genesis 2.15 tells us the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And so work is part of God's original good design. And when God restores all things and redoes all things, if you want to just put it in modern vernacular, the new heavens, the new earth, and he makes all things new, the Bible says, that doesn't mean he's gonna destroy everything that we've enjoyed now that is good and from his original good plan. It means it's gonna be redeemed, new heavens, new earth, no curse. Work is gonna be beautiful. It's gonna be like, just like we have a second Adam in Christ, it's gonna be a second Eden, if you will, all the more beautiful, all the more majestic, but in that sense, perfection. And so work was not part of the curse. So you cannot say there'll be no work in the perfect future of the eternal state. Truth number two, our labor will be fruitful and joyful. And Isaiah 65 actually pictures the new creation. We talked about this a little bit in our eschatology series and the new heavens and the new earth. And Isaiah 65, verses 21 to 23 says, they shall build houses and inhabit them. They'll plant vineyards and eat their fruit. My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. There's gonna be beautiful labor in the future after this life. John Piper envisions it this way. He says, work itself will be so profoundly satisfying and sweet and enjoyable that nobody will say, I need a weekend. How about that? You're not gonna long for vacation. You're not gonna say, I need a nap. They're gonna say, oh, I can't wait for Friday and it's over. Work will be so satisfying. Truth number three on this truth overall, you know, work in heaven, our work will glorify Christ. Revelation 22, verse 3 says this no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. That word worship, it's the word for service, and our work will be worship. Piper again, he says this in heaven we will do everything we want to do because we will be made holy. And everything we want to do will result in greater and greater joy. Truth number four, our stewardship will be vast. And so when it comes to work, you're like, what am I gonna do, Kasti? Will I get bored or run out of things to do? What if I accomplish all my tasks? Hear me on this. The new earth will be eaten, restored, and expanded, right? Scripture doesn't specifically promise like planet exploration and some things that people say, I look forward to, which might be a reality. But Isaiah, the book of Isaiah, all of its prophetic literature and the book of Revelation picture a renewed cosmos, new heavens, new earth. And so with glorified minds and glorified bodies, we are going to be able to explore and invent and build and create all of that will be holy and delightful. John Calvin actually said this. Our bodies must also rise and reanimated by their souls, we will rule and reign with Christ. Our souls get reanimated, our bodies rise up. And that means this embodied, purposeful activity is guaranteed. We are fully renewed. And so it's always been the view throughout church history that we will have stewardship. It will be a vast stewardship. This is where I think Mormonism gets off base, where it's like you're gonna have your own planet, you're gonna be your own God. Like, well, no, you will have stewardship. And when we're ruling and reigning with Christ and we are his uh delegates in many ways, and we're exploring the new heavens and the new earth, and we're we're seeing the expanse of the universe for all that it's worth it, just never ending and infinite. Okay, there's all that's from the Bible, and you know, typical of false religions, they'll take these things and make take them too far, and you can't find the root of it in scripture, and you have these other books and other documents that then would back it up. But in the end, why we just say, well, we believe the Bible and those other views are false, and we differ. And it's it's okay to have those good debates and have those differences. It's not the F-word to say false. You just say, Yeah, that's false. Well, because I base everything I believe on scripture, so naturally, if anything comes from somewhere else, I go, No, that's that's false. Where'd you get that from? Chapter and verse, please. In that regard, uh, the the concepts of this come from the idea that we're gonna have vast stewardship. But you can't go too far with it and say, I'm gonna be my own God, I'm gonna have my own planet. I we just want to really land where scripture lands and end where scripture ends. But the idea that we will explore and invent and create and work, why would we say that? Because it's all the things that we still do now, but in a broken, fallen, cursed world and way. What are we gonna do in heaven? All of that perfectly leading to my third heading, we've gone relationships, we've gone work, now activities in heaven. Activities in heaven. So what are we gonna do in heaven? What are we gonna do? So we've got the joy of reigning with Christ forever, okay? We're gonna do that. It will be joy reigning with Christ. We have this stewardship, we're gonna have work. It's never gonna be draining, never gonna be frustrating, never being cursed. And now you have activities in heaven. Uh, what are we actually doing? You're gonna sing forever? Are we just gonna sing? Are we gonna just have fun? Are we gonna eat? We're gonna hang out, what are we gonna do? Let me give you five activities we know from scripture. Activity number one, worship. Worship. Revelation 7.15 says, They are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his temple. So we're gonna worship constantly, day and night, not monotonously, not droning on in boredom. Worship in heaven will be joyful, it'll be active, it'll be varied because our God is incredible and he's infinite, and so worship of him will be infinite. Activity number two, feasting. Okay, feasting. Isaiah chapter 25, verse 6 says this on this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food. Are you kidding me? God is the ultimate chef, the divine holy chef of this feast. And there will be feasting. And you say, How can you say we'll eat though? I mean, a glorified body and we're spirit and in some form that we don't fully know what will look like. And so won't the the new food and the new wine and the the new delicacies, won't they just kind of fall out of our body, you know, and we're spirit. Look, we don't know how it will supernaturally work in one sense, but we also know that Jesus, in his post-resurrected state, bodily form, in Luke 24, I read it to you earlier, is showing us that glorified bodies eat. They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it before them. I think, on one hand, he was just eating his fellowship, but on another, he's showing them look, everything works, everything's here. I think again, Randy Alcorn is really helpful here. He sums it up beautifully in his book called Heaven, saying we will eat, drink, work, play, worship, discover, invent, and travel in a sinless world like never before, even better because we're gonna be in the perfected state of what God renews. It's the new Eden. And so, in that sense, we will eat. What will the marriage supper of the Lamb be like? Glorious. What food is God gonna prepare for us? I we don't know. Why would we know? We're not God, we're not in that state, we're not in that future time. And so I want you to take like the best tomahawk steak you've ever had, take the best fresh caught seafood you've ever enjoyed, take the best sushi made on the shores of an island. You take any chef anywhere, you get you some masamobatura, you know, Italian, stallion kind of chef with the parmesan cheese and the best pasta you've ever had. It won't hold a candle to what God has in store for us. Yes, even Nancy Silverton's bread, her dough, her pizza cannot compete with what Christ has in store. To me, that sounds awesome. That sounds fun. Okay, activity number three, recreation and play. Recreation and play. Now, the Bible doesn't use the word recreation and really the root recreation, but with the absence of the curse, what do you think's gonna be present? Joy, laughter, play, freedom, all part of the eternal experience. And when I say play, I'm not meaning we're gonna clown around and be goofballs. I mean we're going to enjoy recreation. Do I think there's gonna be golf courses in heaven? I can't say that. I don't know if I want to say that. You know, I'm Canadian. I was raised in Canada, I'm a dual citizen because I was born in Florida. But, you know, I'd love some hockey. Are we gonna play hockey in heaven? I look, I think it's too far, or maybe just you can't be sure. It can be fun to talk about these things, I understand. But to think like, man, I just can't wait to play hockey in heaven and kind of goof around and do my thing. Like, no, you're gonna want to be with Christ and you're gonna enjoy his presence. And I know we can do those things in a perfected state and enjoy them and Christ at the same time when there's no sin. But you can say, you must say, there will be elements of recreation. God is a God of joy. God is a God of laughter, God is a God of enjoyment of his creation, recreation. He's not, you know, uh waiting to drop the hammer on you because you're enjoying a round of golf. He's not anti exercise, surfing. Look at the oceans, look at the things that we do and Snow is on mountains and we snowboard. Look at all of the wonderful things that man has done forever. Sport and play and recreation have always been a part of the human experience. And what were Adam and Eve to do in the garden? They were to enjoy it. And the idea that the curse hits Eve and God says childbirth will be painful. Well, he never invented, God did not invent childbirth and having babies because of the curse. They would have had children before. And there would have been no pain, no need for an epidural, because I know some people, I need the epidural, it's so painful. No need for any of that. No medications, no no screaming, crying, groaning, grunting, pushing out a baby in pain, none of that. Children would have been born with free flow ease. Same with work. The ground was producing. So now, why do I bring that up? You're like, where are you going with this? Stick with me here. Children born pre-curse, pre-sin, what would they have done? They would have played. There would have been laughter. There was going to be joy. What do children do? They create things. What do adults do? We create things and we enjoy one another. And we're going to do that in the eternal experience. So Eden is going, the new Eden is going to be a beautiful celebration of life, worship, relationships, recreation, togetherness, adventure. And what is often just described in a human term as play. And again, I don't mean goofballing around in the throne room of God. That's blasphemous. May it never be. I mean play as in recreation, the things we enjoy. God seeing his people with them, enjoying one another together, doing activities and such. Activity number four, exploration and discovery. I've kind of mentioned that phrase a few times, exploration, adventure. Psalm 111, verse 2 speaks to the joyful study of God's creation we engage in now. It declares, greater the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. You think about people who study biology, people who study marine biology, people who study land topography, geography, the stars, space, all of that. Christians do that with more enjoyment than anyone else on earth because you can't really fully enjoy it unless you know the root cause of it, which is our God creating. So we do all that now, under the curse. How much more are we going to explore and discover? You know, we've got a new heavens and a new earth to experience. Think about right now how many people go, man, I just wish I could get to Mount Rushmore or Lake Como or see the Alps or go to Breckenridge or Vale and snowboard on that fresh powder. Oh, how I long to see the oceans of Hawaii or sea turtles hatching. Oh, I want to, one of the things I want to do, I want to swim in a cage with great white sharks. My wife says I'm crazy and I have to do it when the kids are old enough and I don't need life insurance anymore for their sake. I want to jump out of an airplane. These are things I love to do. It's like just kind of the normal, costy desires. I want to go into some cage off the coast of the Cape or, you know, in maybe down off the coast of Mexico, and I want to see great white sharks up close. This is my thing. Imagine now all of that we love doing in a fallen, cursed world. In the new heavens and the new earth, we've got a lot of exploring and discovering to do, my brothers and sisters. God's works in a renewed universe, are you kidding me? Science, art, discovery, all of it will be redeemed. So much of what we do now will not be touched by the curse of sin. So that's my premise. If you say, where do you get on like with the exploration and all this stuff? It just seems a little goofy or a little far-fetched or a little kind of Hollywood, you know, dreamy, these kids that are like, I went to heaven and I played baseball with Jesus. Don't hear what I'm not saying, but take the premise. What are we doing right now? Look at all the things we do under the curse. Well, what do you think we're gonna do when the curse has been lifted? And like Eden, there's gonna be freedom and joy to explore and discover all that God has gloriously made. What did Adam do before sin, my friends? What did he do before the curse? He was exploring the garden. He was given stewardship, he was naming animals, he was having the time of his life looking at all that God had given. We are going to do that on the other side of this broken ball of dirt we're on right now in the new heavens and the new earth. Okay, activity number five, eternal companionship. I love this from John MacArthur. He said, You will enjoy an eternal companionship in heaven that is more perfect than any earthly partnership. Relationships, recreation, joy, worship, all of it wrapped up in the presence of God. And I think that's the perfect place to end. We are going to have perfection. What more do you want? Spending time with God for eternity. And so, conclusions here. What will we do in heaven? Let me just summarize. We will have perfected relationships. If you're making a list, number one, we're gonna have perfected relationships, no brokenness, only joy, and we will recognize one another. Number two, we will have meaningful work, no curse, forever fruitful, purpose, intentional, joy in our work. And number three, we will enjoy delightful activities: worship, eating, exploring, laughing, and rejoicing forever. Most of all, I want you to remember heaven's not about what we do, but who we are with. And Revelation 22, verse 4 says we're gonna see his face. That's the center of heaven. That's everything for us. All relationships, all work, all activity flow from seeing God and having a revelation of who he is and being satisfied in him forever. John Piper says this in heaven we will do everything we want to do because we will be made holy, and we'll do everything we want to do, and that will result in greater and greater joy. That's the heartbeat of heaven. We're gonna do wonderful things, and all of it will be wrapped up in Christ and result in eternal joy. In the next episode, I'm gonna answer a very sensitive question that has to do with heaven, and then after that, we'll get into the subject of hell and what is hell and what does that all entail. But the sensitive question I want to answer is do babies who die go to heaven? And in addition to that, as I've done in some of these episodes where I'll take into a topic, but I unpack subtopics within it, I want to help you understand a biblical view on more than just babies who die or a baby who's miscarried, but also those with special needs or those who may be unable to make a profession of faith because of their mental faculties not functioning at a capacity that allow that. It'll be such an important episode for any of you who have miscarried, lost a baby after birth, or had a child, or have a child with special needs. And I think it'll be vital for anyone who's not been touched by those things because we are all going to, or already do, know someone who has been touched by those things. So I want you equipped on these matters and I'll bring my best biblical case for what I believe to be the right answer from Scripture. Thanks for listening. Thanks for sharing for the gospel's teaching content and for your prayers. I want to remind you if you'd like to join our gospel patron community and help us raise our 2026 budget before the end of the year, we would love to partner with you in that as we see God continue to grow this ministry. Our goal is to raise $400,000 by the end of the year. We've started that already in this past 30 days. And so far, the Lord has provided 18% of that. And so we're off to a great start, but we still have a good ways to go. And if you're wondering, you know, what does for the gospel do with the money or why do you do this now? We pre-raise a lot of our budget for the year ahead because we like to pre-plan, like Proverbs 6 tells us to do, our content, our filming production, our series resources, and our events without financial constraints or flying by the seat of our pants. I tend to be a planner. I like to look ahead and say, here's what God's providing, here's what we want to do, let's step out in faith and do it. And so if you want to partner with us in that, whether monthly or with a significant gift or of any amount really, as this year continues to wind down, go to forthegospel.org, click give. Our giving page is there, all the statements, everything you need, and we'd love to see you partner with us in that way. Right now, anyone who signs up for monthly giving, we're sending you a tote bag, and I'd love to just do that as a way of saying thank you, along with some private reports and financial updates that we give you behind the scenes to let you know what we're doing with our stewardship that you've entrusted us with. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.