“Heaven: What Will It Be Like?”
2 Corinthians 5:1 & 8, Revelation 21, 1 Corinthians 15
SERIES: HEAVEN’S HOPE
INTRODUCTION:
A. Are you ready for your trip? Have you ever noticed that life is always seems a little better when a vacation is on the horizon? I’ve known of families that had a chalkboard in their home and they actually had a countdown marking the days until their vacation. The process itself built anticipation.
When you’re going on a long trip you may contact a travel agency or you surf the net or talk to friends who have had a great experience somewhere. So you begin to look at pictures, and you calculate whether to fly or drive, depending on the trip. You do searches for activities and events there and along the way. You check out your frequent flyer accounts or your Hotel reward programs to see if you can cash in on a free ticket or lodging.
You check out golf courses or shopping malls on the Internet. And as the day approaches your excitement and anticipation swells! When you are a week out you check out the ten-day forecast and you start checking it daily until the moment you depart.
B. The Bible tells us that each one of us will go on a long trip—in fact it will last for all eternity. You will be assigned to one of two places, heaven or hell. There’s no middle ground. But for such an important journey we should be putting more time and energy into planning for that than we do our earthly travel. Choice, not chance, will determine your eternal destination.
For some reason we pastors have failed to preach about the glories of heaven. Back in the 50’s and 60’s there were frequent sermons delivered to frighten people into the faith by touting the horrors of hell. But in the past 40 years while most pulpits shy away from speaking about the reality of hell—another mistake we’ve made is not to stress the splendor of heaven.
STORY: It’s like the pastor who was speaking about heaven, about eternal bliss and the joys that are awaiting each person on "the other side." He paused for effect and asked, "How many of you here want to go to heaven?" All hands were raised except for an eight-year-old boy sitting in the second row. The minister asked, "Don't you want to go to heaven, too, son?"
The boy replied, "Well sure someday, but I thought you were getting up a bus load to go right now!"
There are a lot of Christian people who aren’t excited about heaven for the same reason they’re scared of their new iphone or their digital camera—they just don’t know enough about it and their ignorance produces fear.
Another factor is that Satan is a liar and he knows he is doomed for all eternity and since he was kicked out of heaven and into hell he doesn’t want you to have any inkling of what heaven is really like. That’s why in Revelation 13:6 it tells us that Satan’s favorite lies are about heaven. Speaking of the satanic beast, he…
Revelation 13:6 “…opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.”
QUOTE: Randy Alcorn points out, “Our enemy slanders three things: God’s person, God’s people and God’s place—heaven.”
To me, it makes sense to look for our answers in the Bible, divinely inspired by the Creator of the universe, the One who went to such incredible lengths to purchase your admission ticket into heaven at the cost of his one and only Son. Don’t you think it would be better if you were more excited about heaven than you were frightened about hell?
Today I want you to learn a little bit more about this place that God has prepared for you, and I believe that if you learn what it is like then you will long to be there.
1. Heaven is an Actual Place
We have this picture of clouds and fog and everything is sort of bleached white and we envision St. Peter at the pearly gates, and everyone wearing white robes. In our mind we often picture a heaven that isn’t like the Biblical picture of heaven. Heaven is not some figment of our imagination, Heaven is not a state of mind, it is a literal place. The Bible says so. Last week I talked about Jesus’ words in John 14:2 where he says to his disciples: “I go to prepare a place for you.”
A. It will feel like home. Now Sheila and I are getting acclimated to Jackson and we are enjoying it here. But if had the opportunity I would take you (describe home)
If you were with me you probably wouldn’t feel any of the emotions I do. But it’s not your home. But if you’re a believer I guarantee you that the sight of heaven will warm your heart, because this real place is described as a home for every Christ-follower.
2 Corinthians 5:1, “Now 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.”Later in the passage verse 8 says“We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
As strange as that might seem, even though you’ve never been there it will feel like home because you were created in the image of God and he instilled that desire, that longing within you. For Christians our home is where Christ is. Jesus in John 14 said, “I go to prepare a place…that you may be where I am.”
B. It will also be a restoration project. We love that concept, that’s why the tv show Extreme Home Makeover was a huge hit in its day. In fact, HGTV is successful because we love to see the old become new, and the obsolete give way to the functional. Acts 3:19-21 reads,“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you-even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. In Matthew 19:28 Jesus says that “there will be a renewal—a restoration of all things”.
Many scholars believe that Heaven will be similar to the original Garden of Eden. The only difference is that the Lord has been working on preparing your place for two thousand years or longer. Remember that in the Garden of Eden, that God said, “This is good,” at the end of each day’s work of creating. It wasn’t bad until Satan and sin entered the picture.
When God created Eden and placed man in it He personally “planted” it. He wanted it to be a paradise on earth. It would be a place where man would be fulfilled. It was a place where even God could dwell. It was the perfect place for man and God to relate to each other. But sin changed all that. And Eden became only a shadow of what it had once been.
Revelation 21 says there will be a new heaven and new earth—the word new here means new in quality, it’s not as though it never existed. Let’s say you renovated your kitchen. At the end of the project you might say, “Come over and look at my new kitchen”. Now, it’s not new, you had a kitchen before. It’s just been restored and better than ever.
2 Peter 3 talks about this earth being purged by fire. God will build a new heaven and a new earth. Another reason we know heaven to be a real actual place is that…
C. It will have an actual city, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Numerous times in the New Testament heaven is described as a city, a city that will be known as the New Jerusalem. We see this in Hebrew 11 & 12 and in Revelation 13, and 21:1-2. And later in that chapter in Revelation 21:23 it reads, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”
This city is described in Revelation 21 as a 1500 hundred mile cube,meaning it goes upwards too. And John writes the dimensions are according to “man’s measurements.” This certainly implies that this is not some figurative number but that it could be taken literally. Those dimensions would cover some two million square miles.
To try and put the size of heaven in perspective, it would stretch from Canada to Mexico, Tennessee to California and it would be 780,000 stories high and that’s just the city! Just the fact that the dimensions are mentioned in such specific fashion underscores that heaven is an actual place with an actual city.
For those of you who, like me, prefer rural settings to metropolitan areas, don’t worry, there’s a place for you. That’s why in Revelation it says that you can go in and out of the city, which means there is territory to explore. There are gates on each side, for coming and going. Please understand that heaven is not some mystical figment of the imagination. It’s an actual place.
But notice that
2. Heaven is a Transforming Place
ILLUSTRATION: In C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, the children live at home with Lord Digory and after their adventure he puts things in perspective by telling the children, “Our own world is only a shadow or a copy of something in Aslan’s real world.”
Why would C.S. Lewis write that line to describe heaven? Well it’s because the Bible speaks that it is a place where transformation takes place.
1 John 3:2 says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
A. We will be transformed physically. We will be ourselves, that is personality wise, in heaven with a glorified body somehow. The older I get the more changes I’d like to have physically. But we would all agree that this phenomenon is one of the reasons we are excited about heaven
STORY: A eastern Kentucky backwoodsman along with his wife and son ventured to the big city for the first time. They were amazed by everything they saw. They parked in front of a huge building and the wife stayed in the car while the father and son went in to see if they could buy a big city newspaper. While they were in the lobby they were mesmerized by two shiny, silver doors that would move apart and then back together again.
The young boy asked his dad, “Pa, what is that thing?” The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don't know what it is."
While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an elderly lady limping slightly with a cane slowly walked up to the moving doors and pressed a button. The doors opened and the lady walked between them and into a small room. The doors closed and the boy and his father watched, and small circles of light with numbers above begin to flash intermittently.
They continued to watch the circles until the doors opened up again and out walked a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties and she smiled and sauntered past them. The father said to his son, "Boy, I don’t know what that thing is but go get your Mama and let’s run her through it."
Heaven will be instant transformation. The Bible says in the twinkling of an eye!
Perhaps when we get to heaven our physical transformation will be similar to what Christ’s body went through after his physical death and resurrection. There was some slight change in his appearance and so a couple of times people didn’t immediately recognize him. We can understand that in our culture, living in this day and time of plastic surgery, steroids and Botox®, Lasik® and liposuction.
When there’s been a subtle change in a person physically, from a distance we may be uncertain of someone’s identity and we do a double take at first, but when you see a mannerism, you know that it is the person you thought it might have been. Rest assured in heaven in light of some form of physical transformation your identity will still be known and evident. We’ll get into this the next couple of weeks.
1 Corinthians 15:20-22, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Paul adds in Romans 8:23, says,”Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
Somehow our bodies will go through some type of redemption & transformation, a glorified improvement or enhancement.
Heaven has a way of transforming cerebral palsy,cystic fibrosis or cancer…in an instant. (In fact, you fill in the blank with your disability or affliction because the Bible says there’s no sickness there!) The apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:20-21, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who … will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
Sometimes God chooses to heal people on earth, other times he has us wait, and wait, until that day when they will be made perfect. But realize there is something that is more important than your physical condition in this life and that is where you will spend eternity. Those who swallow their pride in this life and trust in Christ can look forward to another change…we will be
B. transformed spiritually
Read 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 with me. It says, “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”
In heaven there will have been a spiritual transformation—no more inclination to rebel, no sin, so no temptation. Can you imagine life in that environment? Years ago I worked as a welder in a factory and I had a co-worker who once boasted to me, “I don’t mind if I go to hell, I’ll party with my friends forever.” But if by rejecting Jesus Christ you end up in hell, don’t throw any parties, save your money on the invitations—because part of what makes hell such a terrible place is that it is a place of separation. The person who is in hell will be all alone, there will be no fellowship or camaraderie and all of that pales in comparison to the fact that for the very first time in their life they will experience being completely separated from God and any single good thing. (Elaborate)
QUOTE: Author Randy Alcorn says that…”we have allowed Satan to dupe us in to thinking that the temporary pleasures of sin could even be in the same league as the blessings and opportunities that God has planned for us. ‘Sin robs us of fulfillment…and it makes us empty, while God promises in Psalm 16:11 that we will be filled with joy and eternal pleasures.’” And he says, “Christian, don’t trade what you’ve got for a cheap imitation of the real thing.”
There will be no comparison. It’s like comparing looking at a picture of an apple versus taking a bite and enjoying it. It’s like watching fireworks on television in your living room versus sitting outside in your lawn chair and feeling the explosions overhead.
Heaven will put earth to shame in every category! Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 15:51,52, “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
You see, heaven is an actual place and it is a transforming place, but contrary to popular opinion it is …
III. Heaven is an Exciting place
A. Don’t buy into the stereotype that heaven is a boring place. Haven’t you heard someone ask, “Won’t heaven be boring?” How can it be boring if the One who created this earth, the one who made every animal and every mountain, the One who makes rainbows, the father of creativity, if HE is there and he’s been anticipating your arrival. How can it be boring? We’ll talk more about that in this series…but know this—heaven is exhilarating, refreshing and fulfilling. Heaven is going to be indescribably thrilling. Everything that is good here will be perfect there.Everything that is bad here will be absent there. It will be nothing like you could ever imagine. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."
Philippians 1:23, 24; “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”Better by far…to be with Christ is better by far.