1 John 3:23+24 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. 
	We continue, this morning, with our contemplation of heaven. We are looking at some of the basic questions that come to mind with regard to what heaven will be like. We have considered the resurrection of these physical bodies into the perfection that has always been in the heart of God. It can only be through the faultless work of Jesus Christ that God’s plan will be fulfilled to His heart’s contentment for us. 
Further, last week, we dealt with the final restoration of this Earth into the full and completed expression of God’s glory for our physical habitation for all of eternity. It will be the perfect environment for our resurrected bodies throughout eternity. We come now to another key aspect of heaven, the Heavenly Family. Today, we will look at the fellowship that will be ours as the family of God.
	When we considered hell, in all its foulness, one of the key elements that will make it an eternal place of suffering and anguish will be the company of the damned. The people inhabiting hell will be a constant source of torment and affliction for the rest of hell’s occupants. It will be a horrific culture of pathetic, sniveling, disgusting souls, forever damned to prey on and to infest one another’s minds with aggravation and dementia. As appalling and wretched as this will be for the lost, the opposite will be true of heaven.
	Quote, In the same way, a vital element of the joys of heaven will be the glorious beings in whose company we will live. The individualism of our age can discolor our view of heaven, leading us to focus narrowly on ourselves. But the great images in the Bible are corporate: the holy city, the kingdom which cannot be shaken, the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 21:2, Heb. 12:28, Rev. 19:9). These portray heavenly existence as, essentially, life in community, where a vital part of fullness of joy will be personal relationships and interaction. End quote.  
	As we have seen previously, our most important relationship will be with God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will be in an intensely personal bond with God, through Jesus Christ, of which our minds cannot even conceive. We will also have a relationship with the heavenly angels who will want to know everything about our salvation and redemption through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:10-12, As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven —  things into which angels long to look. 
As well, we will want to learn more about the angelic ministry as God’s servants on our behalf. Concerning the angels, we read in Heb 1:14, Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? We will want to know how they served God in the ministry of His grace in our lives throughout history. Together, all His created beings will be glorifying God for all that He has done, of one heart unto Him in love and honor. 
However, there is no doubt that our main creature-to-creature relationships will be with other saints in Christ Jesus. These are the ones we are told about in Rev 21:27, those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. What will be the consistency of this relationship with fellow saints? 
Before we can proceed upon this line, we must deal with a very tragic aspect that plagues our earthly minds. What about those friends and loved ones who do not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? How can we be joyful in heaven when we know many of those who are damned to eternal torment? This is a question with which we struggle on this earth. We lack the capacity of understanding the true fullness of God’s perfect plan and purpose. This concern, however, does beg an answer because we all know those family members and loved ones whom we doubt received the salvation that is so freely offered in Jesus Christ.
Quote, The answer is clear, but inexpressibly solemn. They will not be our loved ones any more. Our friendship with them will have ended and we will neither miss them nor sorrow over them. The saints in glory praise God for the display of His justice in punishing sin: ‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments’ (Rev. 19:1). In the sobering words of Jonathan Edwards, ‘The heavenly inhabitants…will then be perfectly conformed to God in their wills and affections. They will love what God loves, and that only. However the saints in heaven may have loved the damned while here, especially those of them who were near and dear to them, they will have no love to them hereafter.
We demonstrate true love for others not by objecting sentimentally to hell but by doing all now within our power to bring them to heaven. Only a friendship which is in Christ will extend beyond this life. If that does not lead us to pray every day and to do everything else we can for the salvation of our unconverted family and friends, what will? End quote. 
So then, regarding our fellow saints in heaven, we will be part of the perfect family of God. There will be no issues, no rancor, no misunderstandings, and no hurt feelings. We will fully and completely and perfectly enjoy the company of our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ to the glory of God. This will be one of the great, eternal blessings of heaven for us in Jesus Christ.
It will be a huge family. Consider that, on this Earth, in this life, we are a minority. The believers are outnumbered and we often feel alone and isolated in the midst of the inhabitants of this age. That is why it is always so refreshing, or at least it should be, to spend time with fellow believers. It should be a joy to know other Christians in our places of employment, at school, and especially in worship. There should be an instant bond that we recognize and appreciate in the company of fellow believers, even if they are strangers to us, met for the very first time.
But, in heaven, we will be completely surrounded by the saints of God. It will be a huge family with immensity of number beyond our ability to comprehend. Rev 7:9+10, After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 
There will be the saints of old, all that have preceded us from the creation onward. There will be the saints of our generation, but gathered from all across the globe. There will be the saints to come, for however long the Lord chooses to tarry in His return. We will be part of an immense cloud of the witnesses of the grace and the redemption of God, each with a story to tell of God’s glory manifested in tremendous love. We will never tire of hearing of His work and of telling of His faithfulness from generation to generation.
This will be a family of immense variety, as we read, gathered from every tribe, and nation, and tongue. All types of personalities will be present, each with a story of God’s grace and mercy to proclaim from the rooftops. There will be no monotony. Heaven will be filled with glorious diversity in the vastness of the variety of each saint’s account of God’s endless love.
As we are told by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 4:10, As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. That is exactly what will be on display, the manifold grace of God in all His array of splendor and creative fullness. 
We will be eternally learning about Him from the richness of His love shown in the life of each saint. It will be an endless time of learning in the knowledge of His grace and wisdom as we share together in the riches of the comprehension of His work. 
	  The Apostle Paul tells us of this eternal learning in Eph 1:15-23. For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
It will be a united family. There will be no squabbling, no quarrelling, no dissention at all. There will be no denominations, no doctrinal differences, no disagreements of Biblical interpretation or understanding. There will be no ignorance, or pride, or self-interest of any kind. There will be perfect harmony and perception to the complete glory of God. 
Our united, heavenly family will be the answer to the prayer of Our Lord Jesus Christ in John 17:20-23. "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. 
It will be a family in perfect harmony and unity in the oneness of Jesus Christ. As we read in Ps 133. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron's beard, Coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, Coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the LORD commanded the blessing — life forever. 
	It will be a beautiful family. There are Christians on this Earth whom each of us find difficult to love. We know that we should, and we pray for the Lord to teach us to love one another. But there are those beloved brothers and sisters who just drive us up the wall with their attitudes and their behavior. We find ourselves avoiding them because we find them to be less than gracious and unkind and difficult and impossible to love at times. But in heaven, all will be perfect in the Christ-likeness that will be ours. We will all be perfect in Him, even me, even you. It will be His beauty and to love each other will be filled with the same joy that we find in loving Him. It will be a God-honoring freedom to love one another in faultlessness and flawlessness.  
	Finally, it will be a satisfying family. Quote, In this life, we can be badly treated, unappreciated, neglected. Friendship is among the greatest of blessings, but real friends are not always easy to come by. Single Christians wish at times that God had chosen to provide them with a life partner. Many others know the sudden solitariness of bereavement. But in our heavenly family we will have tens of thousands of fulfilling relationships. Earthly loneliness will have been swallowed up in an ocean of truer friends than we have ever previously known. We will be overwhelmed for ever with pure and perfect love. End quote. 
So, in review, our heavenly family will be huge, beyond number. It will be a family of complete glory unto God. It will be an instructive family in all the goodness and the grace and the mercy of God. It will be a family of immense variety and diverse gifts and personalities. It will be a family of perfect peace and unity and harmony in Jesus Christ. It will be a beautiful family and a completely satisfying family; satisfying to us and most especially satisfying to God for the work that He has accomplished in Jesus Christ. 
This reality of what awaits us in heaven should cause us to seek after God to bring us more in line with this truth even now, on this earth. What He starts today in our lives will find its fulfillment in heaven. It would best serve to His glory if we treated one another in the manner which pleases Him now, to learn to appreciate each other on this earth as we surely will in heaven. That heart will serve only to glorify God and bring pleasure to Him in the power of Jesus Christ’s work. It will be the fulfillment of the ministry of the Holy Spirit here on earth as it is in heaven. 
Next week, Lord willing, we will continue with this line of consideration as we look to the relationship that we will share with those dear saints of Christ that we know on this earth. As glorious as is the contemplation of the whole family of God, even more glorious and honoring to God will be the relationships that are continued with our loved ones of this day.    
And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is 1 John 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Amen.