Death And Heaven

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.

Then in verse 22 we have spelt out for us even more serious consequences

And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." so the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cheribim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Here the demise of the world reaches it’s logical conclussion - death becomes a possibility. -

Death is a problem -

it interferes with every relationship we have and every plan we may have.

If Jesus is the way the truth and the life -

then no Jesus equals no way - no truth and death.

Because death is a reality for all people we know God has a plan through Jesus - that plan is to conquer death to bring people whose hearts are towards God to an eternal destination.

Just as many of our forbears longed to come to the New World and a better life in New Zealand so God provides in Jesus a far better destination.

Heaven according to the scriptures is an amazing place.

From Genesis to Revelation there are hundreds of revelations to heaven.

It’s character is consistently - Holy - beautiful pure - lovely and full of the love of God.

Why is that?

Because that is where God is.

The beginning of the Lord’s prayer says - our Father who art in heaven.

The character of heaven is revealed in many places in scripture.

Today I simply want to draw out something of the beauty of heaven and the incredible inheritance that we have - Strangley enough the best glimpse of the character of heaven that I have found is revealed in the new Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven from God.

this passage in Revelation chapter 21 is a prophecy of God’s heart transplant for planet earth - a new earth the first earth had passed away by now.

In this Holy City which reflects the character of heaven we read.

verses 2 - 7

This new world - not one that we can sail to like some of our ancestors but one that god takes us to is the inheritance of all those who will believe In Jesus - Jesus says - "whoever believes in me shall not perish but shall have everlasting life. "

Of course heaven is made by the same God who made earth - therefore there are some similarities but no sin.

A little Swedish girl was walking with her Father one night under the starry sky, intently meditating on the glories of heaven. At last, looking up to the sky, she said, "Father, I have been thinking that if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what will the right side be?"

This is the inheritance that God has for those who believe in Him.

Christians I believe we should grow in confidence in the inheritance that we have in Jesus.

Many people question their salvation.