“Why Not Go For “Forever?'”

Text: Luke 24:1-9; Revelation 1:18
Today is about Forever. The heart of the joy of Resurrection Day is its foreverness.
• “Forever Sampler” Some of the most magnificent promises in Scripture have the word “forever” embedded in them.

Psalm 136. All 26 verses end with “His love endures forever.”
Psalm 23 “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Isaiah writes (9:7) “of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end and He will reign forever.”
Psalm 33:11 “the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.”
Psalm 66:7 “He rules forever by His power, His eyes watch the nations— let not the rebellious rise up against Him.”
Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
Psalm 146: 6 “He remains faithful forever.”
Isaiah 26:4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.”
Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
Isaiah 40:28 “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.”
John 6:51 Jesus: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)
Hebrews 10:14 “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Jude 24-25 “To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [who was] before all ages, now and forevermore!”

What does this mean for us?

I. We have life forever, right now.

John 5:24 – Those who have trusted in Christ have eternal life, they have passed out of death into eternal life.
1 John 5 – Tells us if we have Jesus we have the life.
Jesus said whoever believes in me will never die. That means never a disconnection from the One who is the Source of Life.
Forever is not just beyond this life. It is an extension of the life we have already been given in Christ.

II. We have a forever relationship with the Lord.

Jesus, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16)
• The Resurrection of Christ and His ascension meant the coming of the Holy Spirit, for the first time to indwell all of God’s people.

The relationship we are building with the Lord today, does not reset when we get to heaven.

Numbers chapter 11. Eldad and Medad were prophesying. Joshua told Moses to stop them. But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” That is exactly what God did.

III. We already have a forever home.

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” (2 Corinthians 5:1)

IV. Our forever family is already waiting for us.

The moment this body shuts down heaven’s gates appear to a believer. How do we know this?
• When Jesus died, His last words were, “Father into Your hands, I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
• And of us, Paul writes, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Our bodies rest, our spirits, conscious and free go to be with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

The Resurrection of the Living One instructs us to keep our focus on forever even as we take care of business today.

Someone once wrote, “If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever.”

True, we cannot hold onto the things of this world forever, but we can hold onto forever itself.