Heaven Series

SERMON BRIEF

Date Written: February 2003

Date Preached: February 2003

Church: BBC (PM) Wednesday

FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS

Series: What the Bible Says…

Title: About the Heaven

Text: Revelation 21:1-4; 22:1-5

Introduction:

All believers look fwd to spending all of eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ! And it is only natural for those believers to wonder or have a healthy curiosity about what this heaven will be like.

Understandably, the Bible are very symbolic in its descriptions of heaven. This is true b/c the Bible has to use ‘earthly’ language to describe something that is heavenly and NOT of this world.

Most of what the Bible says about heaven has to be recognized in its symbolic and figurative setting. The writers, under the inspiration of the HS, were simply using the most exquisite language that they knew to portray heaven.

Some concentrated on the characteristics of heaven that parallel the material and physical nature of earth… things such as ‘streets of gold’ ‘walls of jasper’ or ‘gates of pearl.’

Heaven is a place of spiritual dwelling and in heaven material ‘things’ carry no special weight. So the purpose of tonight’s study is to emphasize the spiritual nature of heaven and not necessarily its physical properties.

The 1st thing I want us to look at this evening is WHO is going to be there. Let’s look at the inhabitants of heaven. First of all, we can know that God will be there. Looking at 1 Kings 8:30 we can read, “…Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, YOUR dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive…’

2nd we can see that Jesus Christ is going to be there. In John 14 we find Jesus telling His disciples that He was going to prepare a place (Heaven) and that He would come and get His disciples… that where HE was they will be also.

3rd we can also know that the HS will be there as well. We know that there is NO place in all of creation that we can go to get away from God’s Spirit. The HS will be in heaven as well.

We can also know that the OTHER created beings that we have heard about all our lives will be there as well… The Angels will be there too! Look with me at Matt 18:10, “…See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in Heaven…”

Finally we can know that the children of God will also be citizens of heaven! This is the ‘place’ that Jesus promised in John 14 that he is going to come back and take all of his followers to…

We have seen who is going to be living in heaven, but I want us to also know and look at some things that are NOT going to be in heaven.

In looking at Scripture (read Matt 22:30) we can see that the institution of marriage will not be there. In fact it seems that there won’t even be any family type relationships as well. We will all be happy and content in the presence of our creator and will not need these other things for our joy, peace and happiness.

Another thing that will NOT be in heaven is the institution of DEATH. We will never have to worry about the termination of ours or other lives. Let’s look at Luke 20:36.

Another thing we can put out of our minds b/c it will NOT be in heaven is ‘flesh and blood’ bodies. We will have new bodies, but according to Paul in 1 Cor 15:50 they will be bodies of a different origin and type.

“…what I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These perishable bodies of ours are NOT able to live forever…”

That also shares with us another thing that will NOT be with us in heaven and that is corruption or deterioration. Nothing is going to corrupt and nothing is going to deteriorate away.

In heaven there is going to be NO weariness. When Adam sinned in the garden and God cursed him to toil the ground and he would do this by the sweat of his brow…If you have ever toiled by the sweat of your brow, you know what weariness is… and in heaven there will be NO weariness.

In 2 Cor 5:1-10 we find the apostle Paul describing how in heaven we will not grow tired. (read verses)

Let’s turn to Rev 7:17 (have someone read) we find in this passage that there will be no more SORROW… in heaven we will have NO sorrow to bring us down.