Our Hope Series

Introduction

Video Ill.: Heaven Is the Hope - Matthew West

Heaven is the hope we hold on to.

What We Believe About Our Future Controls How We Experience Our Present

Source: Tim Keller, Making Sense of God (Viking, 2016), page 153

https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2017/march/6032717.html

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Imagine you have two women of the same age, the same socioeconomic status, the same educational level, and even the same temperament. You hire both of them and say to each, "You are part of an assembly line, and I want you to put part A into slot B and then hand what you have assembled to someone else. I want you to do that over and over for eight hours a day." You put them in identical rooms with identical lighting, temperature, and ventilation. You give them the very same number of breaks in a day. It is very boring work. Their conditions are the same in every way—except for one difference. You tell the first woman that at the end of the year you will pay her thirty thousand dollars, and you tell the second woman that at the end of the year you will pay her thirty million.

After a couple of weeks the first woman will be saying, "Isn't this tedious? Isn't it driving you insane? Aren't you thinking about quitting?" And the second woman will say. "No. This is perfectly acceptable. In fact, I whistle while I work." What is going on? You have two human beings who are experiencing identical circumstances in radically different ways. What makes the difference? It is their expectation of the future. This illustration is not intended to say that all we need is a good income. It does, however, show that what we believe about our future completely controls how we are experiencing our present. We are irreducibly hope-based creatures.

CS Lewis said, “If you live for the next world, you get this one in the deal; but if you live only for this world, you lose them both.”

For what are we living? The bigger house? The bigger income? The more expensive car?

Or are we living — longing — for something truly better?

We are hope-based creatures. God instilled in us the longing for something better — the hope for something better — the desire for something better.

All Cultures Long for Heaven

Source: Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Tyndale, 2004)

https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2006/december/6120406.html

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That hope grows into the sense that we will live forever. That idea has shaped every civilization in human history. Australian aborigines pictured Heaven as a distant island beyond the western horizon. The early Finns thought it was a distant island in the far away east. Mexicans, Peruvians, and Polynesians believed that they went to the sun or the moon after death. Native Americans believed that, in the afterlife, their spirits would hunt the spirits of buffalo.

The Gilgamesh epic, an ancient Babylonian legend, refers to a resting place of heroes and hints at a tree of life. In the pyramids of Egypt, the embalmed bodies had maps placed beside them as guides to the future world. The Romans believed that the righteous would picnic in the Elysian Fields, while their horses grazed nearby. Seneca, the Roman philosopher, said, "The day thou fearest as the last is the birthday of eternity."

Although these depictions of the afterlife differ, the unifying testimony of the human heart throughout history is belief in life after death. Anthropological evidence suggests that every culture has a God-given, innate sense of the eternal—that this world is not all there is.

Hope.

It’s at the heart of the matter. Hope. As we are waiting for Jesus’ return, are we filled with hope or filled with fear?

In Jesus, we should find our hope. In Him we find our future. In Him we gain life — eternal life. Heaven is that for which we hope.

As we begin this morning, let’s look at what Heaven is.

First, Heaven is real.

Is Heaven Real?

By Tim Smith

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The Bible uses the word heaven 532 times. The Hebrew word for "heaven" is shamayim and is plural meaning "heights," "elevations." It is found in the first verse of the Bible. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" and in Gen 2:1 "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array." The phrase "heavens and earth" refers to the whole universe (Genesis 1:1; Jeremiah 23:24; Acts 17:24).

But according to the Jewish belief and the OT, there were three heavens, all created by God. The first is our atmosphere and sky. The Scriptures speak of God opening the doors of heaven to provide food or rain. (Psalms 78: 23,Gen. 7:11-12, Deut. 11:17, 28:12, Mal. 3:10) The second is outer space, the Bible calls it firmament, and includes the sun, moon, and stars. (Genesis 1:17, Psalm 19:4,6) The third heaven is where God dwells and is located beyond the space and stars. Jesus called it the "Father's house" but he also called it paradise when he promised it to the thief hanging on the cross next to him. Paul also uses the word paradise to refer to the third heaven. (2 Corinthians 12:4) This is where God's throne is located. Jesus is also there as are the angels. In fact, there are myriads of angels and heavenly beings serving the Lord in various ways. And finally, the saints of God who died on this earth are in heaven enjoying "everlasting life."