Heaven

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We’re going through a new series you just heard. It’s called FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions. We’ve been asking our church family for a while to ask whatever questions on your mind about the Lord, the Bible, life in general as it relates to God. We would give the answers, uh, over the course of a few Sundays up here, and then we’ll we’ll blog some of the the answers that weren’t as, as prominent in our Q&A time with, with everyone having the opportunity to fill out their questions. Today’s question, I just want to give you a little bit of background before I jump in and tell you what the topic is. You’re going to have, um, a little more information given today than the typical sermon that we do here. And here’s my hope is that when you we consider this information is that we’ll we’ll use it for transformational lives. Meaning I’m not always going to connect the dots some sometimes in this information, I’m going to answer some questions about this topic that we’re going through today. So your job this morning as I talk about some of the information, is to figure out in your life how it encouraged you to worship and pursue after God. And today’s topic, what we’ve seen is we put out the questionnaires over the last few weeks, over a month we’ve had them out is there were a significant amount of questions that dealt with the idea of heaven. And so today I’m just going to answer a lot of those questions people had about heaven.

There was a lot of side questions in regards to heaven. But here’s the big question we’re going to answer is what will heaven be like? Right? What what will heaven be like? And as I considered this topic that we’re going through together, one of the things that I, uh, started off by thinking about were those who endure suffering or have endured suffering in this world because those of us who have life pretty good, the thought of heaven isn’t maybe as significant to us, or we don’t quite think of it as often as we would if life was just going horrifically wrong. I noticed on the news last few weeks, and I’ve posted a few articles on this from the Christian Post, but in Iraq right now, Christians are being beheaded for their faith. Little children, just small kids are having their lives taken from them in order as a scare tactic to scare the rest of the people who follow after Jesus, and to converting to Islam and think in their moment and their need. The hope that they rest in resides in heaven. I think of the African African American slaves in America. When you study their spiritual songs that they would often sing, many times they would focus the attitude of those songs in a slow rhythm to the thought of a better home or to heaven, a hope that is to come.

God as people, has created us with the opportunity to have this thought of hope. And could you imagine where you would be in your life if if this was all that there was? Whatever you live in this world, this is as good as it gets. And unfortunately for us, the Bible gives a different picture to us. It tells us in Ecclesiastes 311 that God has written eternity on our hearts, which is saying this to us, that life we recognize is important and we want it to carry on. We long and look for hope. And when I ask the question, what? What is heaven going to be like? I want to go ahead and tell you that no matter what description our wrap around that for you, none of us can imagine it. But if you were to think of something this morning about what heaven would be like, what? How would you explain it? I read a story about a father explaining to his younger son about growing up, the birds and the bees. And as the dad’s describing, you know what God’s desire is for that and what God’s course of action is for that, and the joy that comes with the husband and wife relationship. The only thing that the kid could think of in his mind, because he has no concept of this is chocolate. And so he asked his dad, dad, whatever, whatever this is you’re talking about, we must be eating chocolate while we do it.

We can’t conceive of the good things to come, because our minds can’t imagine what God holds for us. And so no matter what kind of picture we paint of heaven, it’s going to drastically fall short from what awaits us. But the Bible is glorious to us in the sense that it begins to reveal for us this hope and this home that we have awaiting to us. And so if I ask you this morning, what do you think about when you picture heaven? What would come to mind? Maybe, maybe for some of you. Well, there we go. What about that? Oh, well, let me go back. I’m not done looking at that ribs. No. Ribs eating. I mean, is there food in heaven? I don’t know if I want to go if I can’t bite into some ribs. What does the Bible say about that? I just want you to know in revelation 19 nine, and Jesus, when he celebrates the Passover with his disciples, the first time they partake of communion, Jesus says, I will not drink of this wine now until I drink of it. Where? And having to come right in the father’s kingdom. There’s there. There’s going to be us participating with Jesus in wine. If you take that passage literally in heaven and revelation 19, it talks about the marriage supper of the lamb or the marriage feast of the lamb. There is this nice course Kingsmill delivered to us.

So whatever I think about ribs times it by ten and it’s in heaven, right? Or. Or what about this? There you go. Golf course. Right. Some some of you, you know, if you could just skip work and go there all day, you would. This is your picture of having your wondering, am I going to be able to pay play a back nine with, with, uh, Peter and Paul and show them what I got? Right? I, I don’t know for sure, but I do know that it tells us in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse eight that we will play in heaven. And so if you got time to build a golf course, you’re there for eternity. Take the opportunity. Or what about this? Right. Shopping. I like this. Every once in a while my wife will go on a shopping trip and I always text her the same thing. Did you win? Right? Because when she she comes home, she tells me of all her victories and I’m just looking at the credit card statement. I’m like, this is not a victory, dear. I don’t care what you got off, 50% off is still 50% gone. Right? But but but shopping, that is heaven, right? For some of you. Not me. What about this? Sep September 4th, 630 I looked it up last night. Nfl season kicks off right all summer long I’m like, what do I do? No basketball, no football, soccer. No no no I tried I tried football, right.

That’s where it’s at. Are we playing that in heaven? I don’t know or how about that right. Maybe we all get our private beach somewhere. I don’t know. When you talk about heaven, what is it that you think about? Ecclesiastes 311 tells us this that God has set eternity in our hearts. We we recognize that we are created for so much more. Sometimes I describe it this way what God has created when he created this world is he. He created us as people for worship. And when he designed the world, he created the world in such a way that it would inspire worship within us. And then when you go and visit grand places across the world, whether it be mountain ranges, waterfalls, beaches, grand canyons, whatever it is, when you see come up on the moose in the middle of a mountain somewhere, when you see those things, it captivates your mind. And you don’t. You don’t think about how good that you are in those moments, but just how glorious that is. You realize you’re a part of something bigger than yourself, and when life doesn’t always go our way, we’re reminded of of the heartache of life. God has made life good in such a way that we, we desire to, to to continue in that goodness. But God has also allowed things to happen in life that we recognize that when those things happen, we’re also created for so much more.

And the apostle Paul said in first Corinthians 15, talking about the pain that he has experienced in life. And he says, but when this perishable talking about our body will have put on the imperishable, talking about the renewed nature in Christ in heaven, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory, old death? Where is your sting? The start of heaven gives us this eternal thinking. And in fact, in the book of Matthew, the Bible tells us that we are created both as a material being and an immaterial being. You have a physical part and a spiritual part. When God created you as an individual, when when you are resurrected to him as a believer in Christ, God unites both body back with the spirit. God sees you holistically. The good news is, is that it’s redeemed, right? I’ve heard some people ask, uh, what age am I in heaven? And I just want you to know, based on Isaiah 65, there there is a discussion based on your depending on your interpretation of Isaiah 65, where it talks about young and old and the new heavens and new earth. What age are we in heaven? Some people even suggested that when you get to heaven, the perfect age is 33. Which, by the way, my birthday is September 9th. I hit that in a few days, right? The perfect age is 33.

That’s when Jesus died. Jesus was perfect. He must have chosen the perfect age when he died. So when we get to heaven, we’re all going to be 33. I don’t know, I don’t know what the answer to that is, but but this is what I do know. When it talks about us in our body, we we have for certain both a physical part and a spiritual part, both a material part and an immaterial part. God will join both of those in in eternity, just as he was resurrected from the grave. So we will be resurrected in a glorified body. The point of it is this. And sometimes in our society it’s popular to say, you know, I don’t go to church, but I’m a spiritual person. And when I hear that, you know, I think that’s great that someone’s at least recognizing they’re a spiritual person. But at the same time, it’s not a big deal because the Bible tells us that when God created you, he created everyone as a spiritual person. And so whether you recognize it or not, we’re all spiritual and understanding that there’s both material and immaterial part of you is important. But realizing that that immaterial part was intended to connect to God, that is where life is discovered. We are created as spiritual beings, both having immaterial and material parts. And Daniel chapter 12 and verse two says this when it talks about the afterlife, it says many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt, meaning God created your spirit.

When God created your spirit, he created your spirit to last for eternity. The determination of where your soul ends and eternity is based on your decision of Jesus. It’s not about what you do and earning your favor to God because it’s impossible. But it’s about embracing the King who has come to give his life on your behalf, paying your debt that you may experience life with him forever. When God created you as a spiritual being, the purpose and created you, creating you as a spiritual being is that you could connect to him all the days of your life when he created you. From that day forward, you became an eternal being. God’s desire is that you spend it with Him in His eternal presence. Your spirit, your soul will live somewhere forever in eternity at a cemetery in Indiana. There’s a tombstone, a little a little over 100 years old, and the epitaph reads like this Paul’s stranger, when you pass by as you are now. So once was I, as I am now. So you will be prepared for death and follow me. A few years later, someone came along and added this thought to follow you. I am not content until I know which way you went.

God has created us for eternity, and I want to say in all the things that we discuss about in heaven today and all the questions that we answer or the fact sheets over the next few minutes, this is the most important thing. That when you get there, Jesus is there. Jesus is the prize of heaven. It’s not about getting to heaven so I can be away from bad things. It’s about getting to heaven so I can be next to Christ for which I was created. Sometimes in life we’re really good at making idols. Meaning we recognize that life has good things, and rather than chase after the giver of those good things, we chase after the good things themselves and we create idols of them rather than recognizing the God who designed them. We worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. And we can even run that risk when we think about heaven. This as if to say this to you, if I were to come and bring you a bowl of water, you would look at that and say, wonderful, this bowl of water will provide for me until it’s gone. But but if I were to take you next to the river that provided that water. You have life as long as you stay near it. Jesus. Is that life? The things of heaven are only good because God is good. And being in his presence is where our desire. Heaven is in heaven without Christ.

And wherever Christ is, that’s where I desire to be. Ezekiel 48 and verse 35 describing heaven, says this and the new city of Jerusalem that God recreates in the name of the city from that time on will be the Lord is there. The joy of heaven is recognizing the one who created it with all of its goodness is present there with us. But I want to be honest, when I talk about heaven with you this morning and say, the thought of heaven used to always freak me out. I remember when I was 4 or 5 years old, somewhere around that age, and my mom was telling me about this heaven thought this heaven ordeal, I don’t know, I’ve not contemplated heaven to this point. I was happy with my life where it was on earth. My mom tells me about heaven, and she shares the thought that we’ll be there forever and ever and talks about all the good things. But I didn’t pay attention to the good things. I only pay attention to the word forever and ever. What what am I going to do in heaven forever and ever? The best thing I could imagine was watching Saturday morning cartoons and eating dream sicles and. But I couldn’t think about anything greater than that. I’m thinking, oh, I mean, I do that for a little bit in my life, but forever and ever. What is that going to be like for me? So heaven became somewhat of a fear in my mind because I didn’t understand what heaven was like.

And then on top of it, as a young person, when I would go go to church. Church I found to be boring sometimes. Or, if I’m honest, as a kid and what I went through, it was boring most of the time. And I thought to myself, you know, if if the church is where God, God’s people go, and it’s the closest where I feel like I get closest to God, or however people want to teach about the church gathering together. And I feel that church is boring. What if heaven is like church? I mean, what am I going to do about that? Well, and I just want to say this to you this morning, if you grew up in, in boring church, uh, heaven is not like that. Okay. When you read the stories about God, you see these miraculous things taking place as Jesus walked the earth. And when you read the stories about heaven, Isaiah chapter six just it’s like it’s like better than any rock star concert you had. If you read the passage of Scripture, it tells us in Isaiah six that around Jesus’s throne are seraphim, which means angels of fire, better than any pyro job you’ve seen at some kiss concert or something. It’s just lighting around his throne. These angels, seraphim, mean angels that are are burning and they’re crying out holy.

And the foundation of the ground shakes. And. And the smoke fills the temple. I mean, it is glorious. It is breathtaking. It’s it’s captivating. In fact, Isaiah’s response when he saw it as a sinful man was, woe is me, for I am a dead man. For for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of glory. He looked at that image in his unglorified state and thought, I am just unworthy for this. Heaven has incredible. Some of us have asked various questions about the thoughts of of Heaven, and I’m just going to as I explain this, I’m going to give us a little backdrop, as Scripture describes to us, this this thinking of afterlife as the terminologies used within the Bible when you read about the afterlife and any concept, whether it be heaven and hell or Abraham’s bosom or Sheol. I just want to explain what some of those words are. If you’re just hearing Sheol and Abraham’s bosom for the first time, well, welcome to the two words of of the Bible. When the Bible talks about Sheol, sometimes we mistakenly identify it for hell. But when when it describes Sheol, it’s it’s an Old Testament word for a holding place. And, and the word literally means the place of the dead or the place of the departed. So there’s Sheol discussed in in the Old Testament. It overlaps some into the New Testament. And there’s also this thought of of Hades. Hades is actually the Greek word for Sheol, Hebrew Old Testament word.

And so those words are interchanged in in Scripture, when you talk about someone passing on into Sheol, sometimes in Scripture refers to as falling asleep. Now some sometimes when you read the word falling asleep, they fell asleep. Other times they they fell asleep into eternity. And so it’s important to recognize that falling asleep also means they they’ve passed or they’ve they’ve ceased. They’ve died. Sheol, when it’s described in the Bible, has both a good side and a bad side. In the Old Testament, those who put their faith in Christ went to what’s called Abraham’s bosom. That’s called the good side. If you want to read about it in Scripture, you find it in Luke 16, Luke 16 and verse 22. It says, talking about the rich man and poor man, Lazarus and the poor man. That gives a description, starting in verse 19 of their lives, the rich man lived a glorious life. Lazarus lived a very humble life. He had sores all over his body. People ignored him. The rich man was very popular in life. Lazarus put his faith in Christ and hope in heaven to come. The rich man was only concerned with the life that he had, and it writes about the rest of their lives as they went on into eternity. It says, now the poor man died, and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died, and was buried in Hades.

He lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in the flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things. But now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us. And he said, then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house. The rich man begins to beg to send someone to his father’s house to talk to his family about the importance of eternity. But the picture for us is this it describes Sheol or Hades. It’s this holding ground of those that have departed from earth. And the good side is Abraham’s bosom. The. Some people will ask, when Jesus have had has passed, when he was on the cross, did Jesus go to hell for the three days that he was on the cross? And I want to let you know this morning that is a a false assumption, I think, that arose out of the 12th century when when it talks about Jesus after he was crucified on the cross, the Bible is very clear and sharing with us what took place.

There’s two passages on this. One is Ephesians four. It’s in your notes, the others first Peter three. And so it says this about Jesus. For Christ also died for sins once for all the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits, now in prison. So it’s recognizing this in Ephesians four it says, he leaves captives free. In first Peter three it says he gave some sort of declaration. So the thought is this Jesus didn’t go to hell. Hell’s different than Hades shield. Jesus went to Hades or Sheol. And what happens when Jesus went to Hades and shield? The Bible refers to Jesus as the first fruits of the resurrection. So he goes to Abraham’s bosom. Those who had put their faith in the future coming of a messiah, and he leads them free, meaning he takes them to heaven, Jesus becoming the first fruits of that. And those in Abraham’s bosom go along with him, those those that remained in Hades. Jesus went and pronounced judgment on them for rejecting him as the Messiah. And so Jesus never went to hell. The Bible doesn’t say this.

He went there for for three days. The Bible says that he went to Sheol, led the captives free, preached judgment on those who were left behind. In fact, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he looked at the thief who was dying with him and said, this you will be with me this day. And where? Paradise. So wherever Jesus went after the cross, we know that that day he was in Paradise. So what is Paradise? I’m glad you asked. Paradise is heaven. The Bible uses several passages of Scripture. Revelation two seven is one of those. Jesus in Luke 2343 is one of those where where Paradise and heaven are used simultaneously. Paul is talking about in Second Corinthians chapter 12, his appearance to the celestial kingdom. In verse two he says, as I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago caught up to the third heaven, it’s the celestial kingdom, whether it was in body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. I was caught up to Paradise. Paul’s referring to Paradise as the same terms that he uses for the celestial kingdom. The last thought is this is one of Sharon terminology. Is is the idea of I don’t have it up here for you? Is the idea of Gehenna or hell or the lake of fire. Jesus, when he was walking the earth, would commonly try to use some some earthly setting to describe some spiritual teaching.

One of the things that he used was this thought of hell, what is hell going to be like? Jesus would use this term called Gehenna. Gehenna was a place of torment. Gehenna was an actual place that existed in Israel’s history. It began as a place of pagan idol worship, where, uh, false worship and sacrifices of human life took place. That ended up being a trash dump for the city where it was always burning. If someone died, no one knew who they were. They were homeless. No one cared for whoever it was that died, people that were crucified, they would just heap into this place called Gehenna and their bodies would just lay there. And so when Jesus was talking about hell to us and he’s trying to create this picture, he he describes it as Gehenna in revelation chapter 20 and verse 11, it says that Sheol or Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire or hell. And so those are some terminologies when you read about in Scripture to understand what is discussed. But one of the questions that we also had was dealing with angels. What about angels? Will we be like angels when it comes to Matthew chapter 22 and verse 30, this is the only passage that says, in some degree we are like the angels. Just because this passage says you’re like the angels doesn’t mean you’re like the angels in every way. In fact, it says, we’re like the angels basically in this way.

And that’s it. So it says at the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. They will be like the angels in heaven. The reason we make a distinction between humans and angels is because they’re not the same. Angels were created beings. When angels are seen as being created, they aren’t seen as being procreated, which means when God made angels, he made each one distinct and unique. When God made us, he made man and woman, and we Procreated. When you read about angels and Ezekiel chapter one, they seem a little a little freaky. I don’t know if that’s a good word, but. But they have strange faces, like, you see the body of maybe of a human being, and then all of a sudden it’s got wings and it’s got the head of of an animal. And so angels are separate creatures than than human beings. Some of them look like humans. When angels walked around in Sodom and Gomorrah before its destruction in Genesis 19, they they represented a human look. And in revelation four they represent an animal like look. Um, some of them have wings, some of them don’t have wings. Isaiah chapter six. They’re covered in wings. And when they come to Sodom and Gomorrah, they’re not described as having wings. When you read about the birth account of Jesus in the Gospels, it says that the angels ascended into heaven, maybe leaving the thought that they they flew with some wings.

Uh, angels have wings. Humans in their resurrected form aren’t described as having wings, making us distinct from them. In Hebrews chapter one and verse 14, it says, those who are in Christ actually have guardian angels that look over them in this earth. Angels set aside. What about three heavens? And I’ll just give you a little bit more information and move on from this. But three heavens refer to describe that there are three heavens that we might end up in, in, into, in life. When we just read the passage from the Apostle Paul in second Corinthians 12, it talked about three heavens. Or are there three heavens where we go to? I say in the very beginning, know Jesus talks about the celestial kingdom for people who put their faith in him, and you live there for eternity. I’ll give you some verses on that in just a second. In John 14, Jesus said, in my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. Behold, I go to prepare a place for you, that where you are there, where I am, there you may be also. If it were not so, I would have told you. But behold, I go to prepare a place for you. That that where I am, there you may be. In John 14. Jesus desire in that passage, he’s describing the church as his bride, and he’s saying to his bride, bride, I want you in my presence.

When we talk about the third heaven, the reason that Paul talks about the third heaven in that passage of Scripture is that Paul is clarifying for us what he is referring to in reference to heaven. And the reason that Paul is doing that is ancient Hebrew traditions as well as other cultures during that time and previous to Paul’s writing, would often describe layers of heaven meaning in Scripture. They would refer to the place where the birds flew and the rains came as the first heaven. The sky was referred to in their literature as the first heaven, the place where the stars dwelt that we couldn’t reach or couldn’t see, but the twinkling in the sky. That that was the second heaven, the sun, the moon and the stars, the outer space, the second heaven. But the place where God dwells. The spiritual place that we can’t see. That’s the third heaven. That’s the celestial kingdom. That’s where those in Christ will be all together as one family. Verses for that are on the screen. Isaiah 55. The rains come down from the heavens or the sky. Genesis 116 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night. We call those them the moon and the sun. He made the stars also, and God placed them in the expanse of the heavens outer space. But then Paul clarifies.

Because I want you to know, in Second Corinthians 12 he sang that I got to go to the presence of God. And I think the reason that Paul clarifies this in Second Corinthians chapter 12 is because Paul wants people to know how precious this moment is, and that he actually went there. Meaning, when you read the the Bible, there’s only a couple of people who even discuss about being in the presence of God in the celestial kingdom. Just just about three people within scripture describe this. And so when Paul is talking about heaven, he wants them to know he’s just not talking about the atmosphere, the expanse, the outer space. He’s talking about heaven. And so he begins to describe what that celestial kingdom is, is like, and that we will be in the presence of God. Some have asked, are people aware of what happens on earth as we go to heaven? One of the passages people often use for that I don’t have on screen is Hebrews chapter 12. We’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses in verse. In verse one it tells us, therefore it encourages us to to run the race. Moses and Elijah at Jesus’s transfiguration, come back to earth as if they had some awareness in heaven of what was taking place on earth to partake of of Jesus’s life as he gets ready to go to the cross. Angels. It tells us in first Peter chapter one and verse 12, long to look into the things that God is doing.

So angels are aware of what’s taking place on earth. I don’t see any reason to not acknowledge the fact that there’s the possibility of people knowing what’s happening or taking place on Earth. But here’s the thing that we’ve always we get concerned with when we talk about the awareness of people, is that the prize of heaven is always Jesus. And so what we don’t want to get into, if you discuss things like that, is ancestral worship. Meaning Jesus is capable of handling anything and all things in this world. He is. He is all powerful, all knowing. So our praise and worship and acknowledgement always goes to him. What is the structure of the family? Some people have asked the structure of how the family operates in the afterlife. And I will say, my picture of heaven is like one big family. If we’re all in the celestial kingdom, we’re all going together. In revelation seven it says this people want to know, Will I be able to recognize my family when I get there? We have those relationships. Revelation seven nine says, A great multitude which no man could number out of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and people are there. There seems to be some awareness of earth and what took place on earth, and the ethnicity of people now being present in heaven, and us being aware of that. So whatever was taking place on earth, it looks like we continue that into eternity.

And those relationships of multiple people groups we could at least recognize, allowing us maybe to draw conclusions that the the family relationships that we have will be there. But the Bible describes that we will also be like angels in heaven, meaning we’re neither given nor taken in in marriage. We’ll talk about rewards in heaven. The Bible talks about all kinds of rewards. It mentions five crowns for the life of the believer. I don’t see those as necessarily literal crowns, crowns of victory, crowns of rejoicing, crowns of righteousness, crown of life, the crown of glory. Those are five crowns. I’ve got one head. I can’t wear all that. What I think that the Bible is talking about is the crown, is that when we get to eternity, there’s one passage of scripture you can go to that maybe emphasize that it’s a literal crown. It’s in revelation five where the 24 elders lay down their crowns before the Lord. You have to get the 24 elders to be the church in that passage, in order to believe that we all get crowns. But I think the crowns that he’s talking about is it’s really in reference to wreaths. It’s this, this life in God, this righteousness. We’re clothed with, this victory, clothed with because of Jesus, this rejoicing that we’re clothed with because of Jesus, this life that we’re clothed with, because of Jesus. And when we get there to heaven.

What will we do all day? Bible describes many things I couldn’t even get to with you. Take all the time this morning to describe everything that we do in heaven. But let me just share some of these thoughts. Revelation 22. It tells us that we’re serving our Lord. In Matthew 25 it says, those who are faithful in a few things, he will make us ruler over many things. Meaning based on our our faithfulness to God. Now God gives us the opportunity to serve and rule with him in heaven. When you read about the Garden of Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve worked. They worked in a perfect world. But they worked. They took care of things. They oversaw the land and they took care of the animals. But it was perfect. Now I hesitate to say we’re going to work in heaven, because when you think about that with your job, if you don’t like your job, that’s not going to be very cool, right? But there’s this perfect form of living with God and doing things of purpose with him. And in Psalm 1611 it says this in your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever. Book of Revelation is often looked at as a worship book, and in chapter 15 and verse four it says that we will worship Christ forever. The glory of heaven just described to you a lot of information, right? Lot of information, but the thought of these things offers us hope and the glory that we have to come in Christ.

What will heaven be like? No matter how much we try to describe it or pack it into a sermon this morning, second Corinthians should be says this in chapter two and verse nine. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. God’s got such a glorious plan for you that you couldn’t even begin to imagine. Scriptures describe it in Isaiah six, talked about this at the very beginning. It says, in the year that King Uzziah death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe just filling the heavens, and the seraphim, which means angels of fire stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Bring your earplugs. Right. We can’t imagine this glory, but we read it as the Bible has described it. You know, one of the beautiful pictures I love about thinking about eternity. God will one day create a new heaven and new earth, the Bible tells us, and I love the way that Peter describes it for us, because you think about us as human beings.

God doesn’t just wipe you off and start over. God takes you and he redeems you. God takes sin. Cursed body that will go through death. My spirit that’s not connected to him but stands in death before him and God redeems it. God connects my spirit back to him, and when I’m resurrected from the grave, he makes my body new in him. God. God redeems me and we read about the new heavens and the new earth. When God recreates that, he’s doing the same thing. So some some would say this. They describe God’s need to recreate a new heaven and a new earth, that on the earth sin was came through Adam and Eve, and it cursed the earth. And so there needs to be a redemption of the earth. He doesn’t destroy it, but he recreates it. When you talk about heaven, Lucifer falls from heaven. There. There was some something that took place. It looks like sin of some sort. And and God is going to recreate the heavens in second Peter chapter three and verse ten. The passage says that that it will be burnt up when you read it. In some translations it says, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with an intensity, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

Some people read that and assume that God’s going to just destroy the earth and start over. But the thought of the Greek language in this passage of Scripture doesn’t describe being burnt up. It actually means being laid bare. I mean, God’s just going to wipe wipe off the sinfulness of the earth, and he’s going to redeem it or recreate the perfection he desires upon it. And the same thing happens with verse 13. It says, but according to his promise, we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And when you read the word new in the Bible, there’s two Greek words for new. One means new in existence, and one means new in quality. When Peter describes this, he talks about new in quality. He is redeeming it for us. The Bible goes on and on and describes what heaven will be like. Revelation 21. If you want to read in verse ten, um, down to the end of the chapter describes a new Jerusalem that God is creating a city for all of us to dwell with him for eternity. It describes the city as as having been made of precious stones with streets lined in gold. I’m going to try to take some streets lining gold and pearly gates and all those things described of just precious metals.

I don’t know what it’s going to look like for us. It talks about this heaven just being enormous. Thousands of miles wide, long, tall. It’s a perfect cube and it’s got multiple levels to it. And I don’t know how it’s going to work. When we get there with our families, they’re going to be like, they’re going to walk by one day, and Jesus is preparing a place for you in John 14, and someone’s going to see, like your last name and your family chiseled on the wall like walls, you know, right there. And then somebody comes back and was like, oh, do you see the walls are moving? No. Or that they’re on like one, two, three Peter Way, you know, it’s the blue sapphire house that’s shining with diamond shutters. You can’t miss it. It makes you blind when you go by. I don’t I don’t know how that’s going to look, but it describes in revelation 21 this glorious place for us to live. No matter what we discuss about heaven, it’s wonderful to see. It’s wonderful to understand. But the most important thing for us is. Consider this. It offers us hope. A better life to come. Reminds us that we’re going to be in the presence of Jesus. And no matter how much we try to conceive of it, we can never imagine just how good it’s going to be. Even this morning, I could just say everything that I said is just sinful because it falls short.

In no way could it ever compare to what Christ has to offer us. And the good thing is, is we’ve experienced enough goodness in this life. But we can think about even better things to come. The other day, I was driving down the road and it was, I think, the second of those series of rainstorms that we had here in Lehigh. And I grew up on the East Coast, where it rains like that every hour. A couple inches of rain a day is nothing. Thunderstorms when I travel back east always, always want the same thing. I want sweet tea and I want thunderstorms. I just want to. I just want to experience those things. And and, um, I always check the weather as soon as I get back. Man, when is my thunderstorm coming? Right? And so I’m driving down the road, and we had one of those storms here, and I’m just driving down the road and my mind just starts to just think back at times where I was a kid, just experiencing those thunderstorms in the East Coast. I didn’t get to do it this year, and I started thinking about this particular age where I was between 7 and 8. I grew up with a single mom who would work, and so my grandparents would watch me and some of my cousins and and during that time period, my, my great grandmother had a stroke and my grandmother would take us and my grandfather, us, us kids to her house to help care for her during the day.

And we would sit out and play. My great grandmother lived on a farm and my uncle lived right beside her on a farm. And there was this tree we learned to climb and this pond we learned to fish in. And she had this incredible front porch. And when it would start to rain, sometimes we’d play outside. But when the rainstorm got extremely bad and there was thunder, my grandmother playing a trick on us would always make us warm, sweet tea, and we would go sit on the front porch and we’d all sit on these rocking chairs, and we would just watch the storm pass by the the static electricity so strong it’d make your arms stand up. And my grandpa would always come out as my grandma gave the sweet tea. And he had to have us look at these trees on the East coast that were well over 100ft tall. And and the trees always did the same thing. Every every storm that came like that, they would they’d always begin to sag and they would flip over. And the bottom of a tree is is a lighter color on the leaf. The aspen trees in Utah do this in rainstorms. And he would say, kids, do you see? Do you see that tree? And we’d say, yeah, we see the tree. And he would say, the tree is bowing down to God and worship and thanks for the rain and us as kids.

We would look at that, drinking our sweet tea, watching this thunderstorm think, man, that is incredible. I’m driving down the road and I pull over because I’m having this thought. I got to the church parking lot. It’s actually what happened. And and I’m still imagining this, imagining this. And I thought, man, I would love just to go back to that moment. And then it dawns on me. I can never go back to that moment. Most people in that story are gone. That thought is just a memory. I’ve lost. And as much as I had joy of thinking about that, and in that moment, I was filled with heartache. How did I lose that? How do you get that back? Revelation chapter 21 Jesus gives us this thought. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away. And there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death, and there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.

The things have passed away. One of the things I remember about my family in those moments is I’ve lost a cousin from that story, and my grandparents, my grandfathers passed, my great grandmothers gone, my uncle who owned the farm, they’re all gone. Those homes don’t belong to anyone in our family anymore. I could even go back and visit them unless I look like some weirdo on someone’s porch. But they had their faith in Christ. And we’re not married or given in marriage in heaven, as Bible describes in Matthew 22 and verse 30. But the joy of those relationships I think we have. And just as revelation says, when we get into heaven, we see the multitude of people all in the celestial kingdom together, praising God of many tribes and tongues and languages. I think we’ll all have the opportunity to relive in those relationships and those glorious moments that God has given us. But ultimately, in all those things, we give him praise because never again will I lose moments like that for the rest of eternity. It will rest secured in him. I don’t know what you think about when you think about heaven. But my hope. Is that it brings you such thoughts of joy that you just can’t wait to see your Savior. You can’t wait to enjoy it with a multitude of people praising his name. No matter what good memory you have on this earth to know that it will fade, but in eternity it will last forever.