Bruce Creswell | The Best is Yet to Come

Sunday Evening, May 31, 2026

Given by Bruce Creswell | Pastor of Senior Adults, Christ Covenant Church

The Best is Yet to Come
Philippians 3:20–21

Heidelberg Catechism—Lord’s Day 22

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Again, welcome to the service tonight. I want you to know as 25 years pastoring the senior adults, I've seen the reality of the comfort that question 57 and question 58 ask in the questions. I've seen it lived out. I've seen it be a part of an active living faith after many years walking with the Lord. And I would say in the last five years, personally, walking in the truths of these great passages more in my own life. And so tonight, I'm speaking from my heart, but also based on the Word of God. 

In our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism, we come to question 57 and 58, and they're dealing with the last two articles of the Apostles' Creed, which speaks about our comfort in light of our glorious future. And if you look in the bulletin, you'll find the two questions stated. I'll read the question, and you join with me in the answer. 

So, question 57 asks,

How does “the resurrection of the body” comfort you?

Answer: Not only will my soul be taken immediately after this life to Christ its head, but also my very flesh, raised by the power of Christ, will be reunited with my soul, and made like Christ’s glorious body.

Question 58. How does the article concerning “life everlasting” comfort you?  

Answer: Even as I already now experience in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, so after this life I will have perfect blessedness such as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has ever imagined: a blessedness in which to praise God eternally.

And saying that, we want to look in God's Word now to Philippians chapter 3, verses 20 and 21. We find in those two verses, some thoughts that address those questions asked in question 57 and 58. Paul was writing this, and his focus is on joy. And as we see that trace through the chapters of Philippians, we come to this portion of Scripture that reads, 

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Let's pray. 

Again, Lord, we thank you for bringing us to your house tonight. How we thank you for your Word. Your Word is truth. And as we open to it tonight, we so ask that our hearts would be open to receive it. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes that we might recapture if we have grown dim in our heavenly vision, that Lord, tonight, that we would leave here with our focus on heaven while we're still on this earth. Now Lord, would you grant me your grace and may, as our dear pastor prays so often to preach, the Spirit would preach a better sermon than myself. I ask in your name, Amen. 

In Philippians chapter three, verse 20 and 21, it lends itself to three great truths that we want to look at. Number one, life is good, but it is bittersweet. Second thought, here is the best is yet to come. And the third thought here is we will live happily ever after. So, with that in mind, we look again at Philippians chapter three and verse 20 and 21. 

And by the way of introduction, the first point is life is good, but bittersweet. Tonight, I want you to realize that all of us here that know Jesus Christ, we are the chosen of God. Peter puts it this way. “We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own possession. We've been called out of darkness into his marvelous light. We are God's people.” Tonight, we are the chosen of God. How do you get that out of verse 20? Well, it's the first opening words. “But our citizenship is in heaven.” You see, our citizenship doesn't begin in heaven. It began at conversion. At conversion, that we came out of darkness into the marvelous light, and we got our citizenship papers for heaven. Tonight, you and I have a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone. Our sins that were red as scarlet, tonight they've been washed white by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We were condemned to die in our sins, and we are now tonight joint heirs with Jesus Christ. When testings and trials come into our lives, we are not defenseless, we are not defeated, because greater is he that is in us than he who is in this world. And beloved tonight, we are the chosen of God. We are new creations in Jesus Christ, and all of us tonight can see clearer the beauty of his holiness, the beauty of his creation, and the beauty of our dependency on Jesus Christ. Tonight, each of us here can say, as the psalmist said, surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life. 

You know, for me, Christ Covenant is the closest to heaven I know of. Here, God's Word is proclaimed faithfully. And many times as we gather in his name, have we not sensed his divine presence? The people of God get together and they worship in spirit and in truth. not in entertainment and not in emotions. And so, as we worship in spirit and truth, the Lord up above inhabits the praises of his people. Here, his people are united in love, and his spirit does his office work in our hearts on a regular basis. Yes, we are God's chosen. And on this earth, life is good for you and me, but it's bittersweet. From the culmination of ordinary days, weeks, months, and years, our lives are hit with unwelcome circumstances. First of all, there's the ongoing battle of indwelling sin. My friend Octavia says, “we still battle with corruptions to subdue, sinful habits to cut off, deeply embedded sin to mortify, and to root out.” Yes, life is good, but it's bittersweet. We're still dealing with sin, but also there's sickness and disease. On a regular basis, from this pulpit in prayer, we lift up those who have been overtaken with sickness and those who've experienced the loss of a loved one in death. There's the bittersweetness of losing a job in between jobs. There is the bittersweetness of family relationships that have gone sour. Yes, there is the bittersweetness of growing old and all that comes at this stage of life. 

Life is bittersweet. It ends in death. Death is an enemy that invades our ranks and snaps from us, our spouse, our children, our grandchildren. But you know what? Life is good, but it's bittersweet. And our last earthly day here gives way to heaven's eternal, glorious day. Our last breath here, the next breath is in the presence of God. Straight to heaven, no purgatory, no sidetracks. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Those are some of the sweetest words in the Bible. And they're some of the sweetest words that a pastor can say to one of his sheep who's experienced death in their family. So, when death comes, we're taken to heaven. Our communion with Christ is unbroken. It's not interrupted. It's not suspended. Robert Purnell, the great Puritan, said, “Death to the believer is but a change of place, not of company. We shall have the company of the same Father and Son and Spirit and saints and all the spirits of just men made perfect.” When death comes to the believer, he moves from faith to sight. No longer will we need to pray. You know that? You know we sing that song, " Sweet Hour of Prayer, " and in that third verse it says, “this robe of flesh I'll drop and rise and seize the everlasting prize and shout while passing through the air, sweet, farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.” 

Let me ask you a question tonight. How heavenly-minded are you? When was the last time you thought of heaven? Could it be that we're so caught up in the busyness of life that we don't take the time to focus on eternal things? So, as a pastor to the seniors, when life slows down at that stage of life, you think more about heaven. Could it be that we're entertained by the amusements of our days and social media, that there's no soul energy to pursue heavenly things? Apostle Paul, he wrote these words in Colossians chapter three, verse two. He says, “Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth.” Our comfort as God's chosen is that we know that the grave is not the end for us. We know that we have passed from death to life. We know that we have escaped the wrath to come. 

We know, point number two, the best is yet to come. We know our bodies will be redeemed. Three thoughts here under that point about the best is yet to come. Number one, Christ will return and raise our dead bodies from the ground. Number two, Christ will change our bodies. Number three, Christ will fashion our bodies. 

Christ will raise our dead bodies when he returns. His first coming was to change our souls, to deliver us from Satan by his death, burial, and resurrection. His second coming shall be to deliver our bodies from the bondage of corruption. Paul calls it in Romans chapter 8 in verse 23, the redemption of the body. Now, when is he coming? We don't know. We don't know the day, we don't know the time or the year, but we know he will. Why? Because his Word says that he will return. Remember the words the angels gave to the disciples in Acts chapter 1 verse 11? He said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? The same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” From Christ's resurrection, we know that we who are united to him by the Spirit will also be raised like him. We do know that his coming will be as a thief in the night, so be ready. Do you ever know when a thief is gonna come into your house? Do you know when a thief is gonna break into your car? Of course not. And our Lord's gonna return when we think not that he will. 

We're told in 1 Thessalonians that the dead in Christ will rise first and those that are alive will be called up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Our bodies and our souls will be reunited, and you can rest assured that your body is not going to be attached to somebody else's soul. That you don't have to worry about getting my body. He will not abolish our bodies. It shall be of the same substance but be altered for quality assurance. 

Tonight, God's people, you and I, we live in absolute confidence that what was sown in dishonor will be raised in honor. We shall be like him. Like him, we'll have a glorious body. Our body shall be like his glorious body, not equal to it, because he is the Son of God and we're not. 

He will change our bodies in regard of quality. We shall be changed for the best. And when they are changed once to be glorious, they shall be forever glorious. One day we will all have glorious bodies. And as our bodies will be like his glorious body, our personalities will survive into eternity. 

Now, notice the pattern according to which our bodies shall be changed. In Philippians chapter 3 verse 20, he says, “who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body,” just as our souls are being conformed to the image of Christ in holiness and righteousness now, so likewise, our body shall be conformable to the body of Christ. 

Now, here comes the question: what does this glory of our bodies consist of? Well, that's a tremendous question, far beyond my comprehension, and I had to read some of the great Puritan divines. And I discovered the man who's known as the heavenly doctor, Richard Sibbes. He gives five different facets of what our glorified body will be like. Number one, our body shall be perfect. Our bodies now may be imperfect. You know, some people are born without a limb. I've known people who were born minus a shoulder, or an arm rather. Our glorious bodies one day will be perfect, picture perfect. 

The second thing is our bodies shall be beautiful. Don't have to invest in cosmetics or Botox or any of that stuff. The body of the Savior now in heaven is wondrously beautiful. So shall our bodies be. Our bodies may now show the deformities of life. You know, as we grow older, we begin to look different than we were when our spouses married us, and our hair falls out, and our chest begins to sink, and our tents sag, and we have all sorts of things that we didn't have when we were growing up. Our bodies may now show the deformities of life through sickness, disease, and years, but they shall not always be so. Our bodies will be beautiful. The Lord Jesus has referred to as the altogether lovely one, the fairest of 10,000. We shall all be beautiful. Our bodies shall be glorious. 

You remember the transfiguration of the Lord? His body was glorious with Moses and Elijah and the three disciples. In Revelation chapter 1, verse 16, Christ appears as the sun shineth in strength. His body is wondrously glorious now in heaven. Get the picture in the book of Acts. Remember Paul on his way to Damascus, getting ready to persecute the church. A light shone from heaven, and it so blinded him that he couldn't see, it was the glory of God. So shall our bodies be like the glorious body of Christ. 

What a glorious time will it be when the glorious body of Christ shall appear, and all the saints shall appear in glory. Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 1:10, that when Christ shall come, he shall come to be glorified in his saints. So, our bodies will be perfect, without blemish, without deformity. Our bodies will be beautiful, and they'll be glorious. 

But here's another characteristic of our glorified bodies. Our bodies shall be immortal. You know what that means? That means that our bodies will never die, will never change, will never be sick again. God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. 1 Peter 1:4 verifies this. He says that you and I have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away. Our bodies shall be powerful and vigorous and mortal. You know, we sing that hymn, “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.” Our bodies shall be immortal, though we will not be like God. Our bodies shall be spiritual. That is, they shall not stand in need of meat, drink, sleep, and refreshing as they now do. Now, we have that need. We need to eat. But we won't have to have that need, but mind you, I think we will, because we're gonna have the marriage supper of the Lamb, and we'll enjoy the food that's gonna be on that table. Christ will be all in all to us. Our bodies shall be spiritual in another regard, because they shall be subject to the Spirit. And so, when we think about our glorified bodies, our bodies will be perfect. They'll be beautiful. They'll be glorious. They will be immortal. They shall be unchangeable. They shall be powerful, strong, vigorous bodies. 

This present life is a life for our soul. We come now to have the image of God in our souls in this life and to have in our souls the life of grace here. But life and happiness of our body is for the second coming of Christ, the glory of the body. Our comfort is God's chosen. We know to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We know when we shall see him, we shall be like him. Our lowly bodies shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body. 

And finally, we know that we shall live happily ever after. You know, everyone will live somewhere forever. But only some will enjoy what the Apostles' Creed calls the life everlasting. Those who did not come to the Savior will spend eternity in the torment of hell. And when you think about that, and you think about your loved ones, and you think about your neighbors, and you think about people around the world, they need to hear the gospel. To think that when they take their last breath without Christ, that eternity for them will be in the torments of hell, not a second chance, not another opportunity. And it behooves us to pray and go and to share the gospel. And we do that in so many ways through this church. We do that through missions. We're scattered all around the world. because we realize that there are many without Christ. We also go here in the community on O Night, and there are people that live in this wonderful area called Matthews, Mint Hill, that don't know Jesus Christ. We have the opportunity to share the gospel with them. Those who do not come to the Savior will spend an eternity in the torment of hell. 

But for the Christian, for you and me, the chosen of God. Eternal life in heaven with God stands at our feet, or as our inheritance, I should say. The home for Christians will be heaven for all eternity. Yes, we know that old song, and I believe we have sung it here once or twice. “This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through.” You see, that's what we are. We're strangers, we're pilgrims. We're passing through, getting ready for our home, our citizenship in heaven to take place when we draw our last breath. We live happily ever after. We will live in heaven forever. We won't need to move. We won't need to downsize. We won't need to check out and move somewhere else. For all of us will be heaven. 

Now, life everlasting might seem to suggest little more than life goes on and on and on. It sounds boring, doesn't it? Only if you think of eternal life as an extension of our present lives. The Greeks have two words for life. One is “bios,” which means mere biological existence. That's what we are tonight in the flesh, mere biological existence. But the second word is “zoe.” It means life in all its fullness. And what you and I are being offered as God's chosen is the fullness of life. Jesus Christ bore witness to that truth when he said in John chapter 10, verse 10, “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” 

Eternal life means that our present relationship with God is not destroyed or thwarted by death but continues and deepens. J.I. Packer, he said that being with Jesus is the essence of heaven. It is what life everlasting is all about. To quote Wayne Grudem, he said, “Heaven is the place where God most makes his presence to bless. More important than all the physical beauty of the heavenly city, more important than the fellowship we will enjoy eternally with all of God's people from all nations and all periods of history. More important than our freedom from pain and sorrow and physical suffering, and more important than reigning over God's kingdom. More important by far than any of these will be the fact that we will be in the presence of God and enjoying unhindered fellowship with him.” You and I will eternally and increasingly experience what the psalmist said in Psalm 16 verse 11. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Now you and I have pleasures. You know some of us like to go to a restaurant and enjoy our favorite meal. Pleasures would may be having the grandchildren over and watching them and enjoying their little ways. Pleasure is like going out to the country up on the mountains or on a ship on the sea. What pleasure we get out of that. But dear ones, the pleasures we enjoy now will be nothing like the pleasures that await us when we're in his presence forevermore. Some of you have called upon to wear iron shoes and go through many trials and many hardships in life. So, you don't know much about pleasure but just remember that one day the best is yet to come, and we shall live happily ever after. 

I think we got a little taste of that heavenly joy two Sunday nights ago at our Ascension concert. Singing about our Lord and our heavenly home. Wasn't it good to think about heaven? Wasn't it good to think about Christ is there and he's interceding for us, and he's coming again for us? Wasn't it good to sing about heaven? Well, that's just a foretaste of what awaits us when we shall see him one day. Even though life now is good, but bittersweet, tonight we know that the best is yet to come, and we know that we shall live happily ever after. 

As only John Piper can put it, “Life everlasting will be the beginning of a never-ending, ever-increasing happiness in the hearts of the redeemed as God displays more and more of his infinite and inexhaustible greatness and glory for the enjoyment of his people.” In C.S. Lewis's book entitled The Last Battle, it's the seventh and final book of the Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan explains, “The term is over. The holidays have begun. The dream is ended, and this is morning.” Lewis continues, and as he spoke, “He no longer looked to them as a lion. But the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us, this is the end of all the stories. And we can truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them, it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all of their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page. Now at last, they were beginning chapter one of the great story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Ah, beloved tonight, life is good here, but we know it's bittersweet. And we know the best is yet to come. And the greatest story is yet to be taken place when we shall see him and live happily ever after. We know the best is yet to come, and we know that we shall live happily ever after. 

Would you join me in prayer? 

O Lord, tonight, to you, who are able to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before the presence of your glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority. Oh, Lord, as we enter into a new week, as we enter into a new day, so may we have our focus not only concerning this world and our lives, but also what awaits us. And so, to live in the reality that heaven is our home. And so may we live with the joy of knowing that whatever comes our way, that the best is yet to come. So may we be faithful, O Lord. Help us to live around this world in our communities, in our homes, and families, the joy of having our sins forgiven, a Savior in heaven who's preparing a place for us, and we wait for the trumpet call. And so now we ask your blessing, Lord, upon each here, in Jesus' name. Amen.