Heaven, Out Of This World!

"Heaven is Out of this World!"

"Left Behind" series Part 4 of 4

Text: Rev. 21:1-3 & Selected

Cross Creek Community Church

Pastor Dave Martin - Jan. 28, 2001

www.crosscreekcc.org

God’s Word is Powerful, Relevant, and Life Changing!

Rev. 21:1-3 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Can we pause to imagine what it would be like in an instant of time, to step over into eternity? To go from your present life to an eternal future with the Lord? To realize we’re finally home in glory. Our eternal destiny is set - no coming back to live in time. You may say, I’m not sure if I would go to heaven or not. Let me say to you, while you have physical life and breath to choose correctly, come to Jesus Christ who has prepared the way for you. Jesus is the only way to the Father dwelling in Heaven. We must not become so attached to this earth that we don’t want to go to our ultimate home in heaven. This morning we’ll look at this paradise, our future home for the believer called heaven.

The Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Heaven will be...

1. PHYSICALLY awesome in size.

Rev. 21:16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long.

* 1500 miles square - It’ll be roughly from here in Pennsylvania to Texas square. Or roughly 1/2 the size of the continental United States.

* Some suggest it’ll be shaped like a pyramid. The Greeks believed the cube was the symbol of perfection. We know for sure, the New Jerusalem will be big.

* If it has different stories, with each one 20 feet that would equal 396,000 stories! But I don’t think it would need escalators or elevators.

* A place for special people - God’s own children. Enough room for all of God’s redeemed.

Tony Evans said, "Have a good time at my funeral, I’m not going to be there!"

John 14:1-3 "Do not let your hearts 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.

Old and New Testament saints, represented by the 12 gates and the 12 foundations. Rev. 21:12-14

A bus driver and a minister were standing in line to get into heaven. The bus driver approached the gate and St. Peter said, "Welcome, I understand you were a bus driver. Since I’m in charge of housing, I believe I have found the perfect place for you. See that mansion over the hilltop? It’s yours.

The minister heard all this and began to stand a little taller. He said to himself, "If a bus driver got a place like that, just think what I’ll get."

The minister approached the gate and St. Peter said, "Welcome, I understand you were a minister. See that shack in the valley?"

St. Peter had hardly gotten the words out of his mouth when the irate minister said, "I was a minister, I preached the gospel, I helped teach people about God. Why does that bus driver get a mansion, and I get a shack?"

Sadly St. Peter responded, "Well, it seems when you preached, people slept. When the bus driver drove, people prayed." --James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 146.

* The builder is God. Hebrews 11:10 For he (Abraham) was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

2 Cor. 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.

2. A place of No More’s:

Sea Death Sorrow Crying

Pain Night Curse Hunger

Thirst Heat Sun Moon