Heaven - Myth Or Reality? Series

Series: Heaven!

Sermon: Heaven – Reality or Myth?

Subject: What is Heaven Like?

Thesis: Heaven is a real place, and we need to understand what lies within our future. Our perspective or vision of Heaven should influence our daily lives and choices. Don’t listen to the myth that Heaven will be boring!

Scripture:

John 14:1-3:

1“Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Opening Illustration: Heaven's Gateway

Contributed by Stephan Brown on Aug 26, 2002 (message contributor)

Denomination: Assembly Of God

HEAVEN'S GATEWAY

I recently made a trip to Ellis Island in New York. Ellis Island was once the biggest immigration processing center in the U.S. It processed thousands of immigrants a day. All of these immigrants left their homelands through much difficulty to come to “the land of promise.” They believed they could make themselves a new and better life here.

At the time, a trip to America took at least a month by boat. When I went to Ellis Island, I saw dormitory rooms where people stayed while they were being processed. They weren’t much to look at from our 21st century American perspective, but I wonder what they looked like to the 19th century immigrants. Maybe to some of them, especially after months on a boat, they looked promising. Maybe it was the grandest room they had ever seen. And imagine with me that one person is so overwhelmed with the greatness of this room that he decides he will stay there forever.

And so when they try to finish processing him, he stalls it. He hangs up his pictures above the bunk. He unpacks all his clothes and moves right in. You would want to grab this guy and tell him how foolish he was being. You would want to explain to him that this place was a dump, and that America has so much more to offer him.

And yet, how often do we do the same thing. Surely, this earth is grand. But it is only the processing center. This life, especially our life in Christ, is much grander than when we were dead in our sins. However, it’s still just the gateway. The next world holds beauty and grandeur that is incomprehensible to us. We can become convinced that things like wealth, and fame, power, and knowledge is the climax of our existence. We would be like the immigrant who thought the dormitory was his final destination.

SOURCE: Stephan Brown. Edited by SermonCentral staff.

Introduction:

Dwight L. Moody said the following about the subject of Heaven:

"Surely it is not wrong for us to think and talk about Heaven. I like to find out all I can about it. I expect to live there through all eternity. If I were going to dwell in any place in this country, if I were going to make it my home, I would inquire about its climate, about the neighbors I would have -- about everything, in fact, that I could learn concerning it. If soon you were going to emigrate, that is the way you would feel. Well, we are all going to emigrate in a very little while. We are going to spend eternity in another world. … Is it not natural that we should look and listen and try to find out who is already there and what is the route to take?”

The topic of Heaven has been around for over 4,000 plus years:

Throughout the centuries many people have come up with what they think Heaven will be like. One thing that seems consistent across every culture and time frame is everyone believes in an innate sense of something beyond this world, a place which is eternal, and that this world is not all there is to life.

There have been many portraits of Heaven promoted over time: Let’s reflect and summarize a few:

Following summaries from Heaven by Alcorn and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven

Ancient Egyptian faith: Their belief in an afterlife is much more stressed than in ancient Judaism. Heaven was a physical place far above the Earth in a "dark area" of space where there were no stars, basically beyond the Universe.

Babylonian belief: The Gilgamesh epic, an ancient Babylonia legend, refers to a resting place of heroes and hints at a tree of life.

Hittite myths: Believed Heaven is the abode of the gods.

Romans: Believed that the righteous would picnic in the Elysian fields while their horses grazed nearby forever.