Glimpses of Heaven
Series: Driven by Eternity
Sunday Sermon / September 16th 2007
Intro: Last week I shared my concern of many people’s weak, uninspiring and unbiblical ideas of Heaven. I told you this week we will look into the Bible so that we could look into Heaven. God has told us many things about heaven and I want us to focus on what Heaven will be like. We will spend eternity there, don’t you want to know what to expect? Fat little baby angels with wings? Floating on clouds playing harps? Choir ropes and hymn books? Yawn, Right?
In order for us to understand what the Scriptures teach about our Eternal Destiny, let’s take a quick look back to God’s design for us in the beginning:
Alcorn writes, “God placed mankind on Earth to fill it, rule it, and develop it to God’s glory. But that plan has never been fulfilled. Should we therefore conclude that God’s plan was ill-conceived, thwarted, or abandoned? No. These conclusions do not fit the character of an all-knowing, all wise, sovereign God.”
To that I say, “Amen” How about you?
Did God fail in His creation?
Did Satan catch God off guard? Did Satan win? Did he win ANYTHING?
Take a look at some of the Bible’s vocabulary:
• Reconcile, redeem and restore; Recover, return and renew; Regenerate, resurrect.
Each of these Biblical words begins with the “re” prefix, suggesting a return to the original condition that was ruined. This is God’s math; This is God’s Plan.
Redemption – to buy back what was formerly owned.
Reconciliation – the restoration or reestablishment of a prior friendship or unity.
Renewal – to make new again, restoring to an original state.
Resurrection – becoming physically alive again, after death.
No matter how broken, crushed, disjointed human become, God NEVER gives up on the Original design. He is always working us forward so that we can go back to the Plan, only better.
1 Corinthians 15:50-53 “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
Even if you died today and you entered Heaven, you would still be looking forward to the Resurrection:
I. All God’s Kids get New Bodies.
a. The Gospel is Resurrection dependant
1 Corinthians 15
13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
35But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" 36How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body…
42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead…
44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
b. We will be raised with “Spiritual Bodies”
i. Some people may call that an oxymoron. Spiritual / Body.
ii. Aren’t those two words exclusive? No.
iii. The word ‘spiritual’ doesn’t negate the word ‘body.’ It’s an adjective describing what kind of body we will have.
iv. Here in lies most of our misconceptions of Heaven
v. Most people view “spiritual” to mean, Non-physical. The Bible doesn’t teach this.
Does the Bible give us any examples of ‘spiritual bodies?’ Answer: YES
1. We just read it in 1 Corinthians 15, Jesus was the first raised from the dead.
2. His resurrection body is our example:
Philippians 3:20-21 “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
vi. The final chapters of the Gospel narratives show us what Jesus’ body was like:
Luke 24:39 “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."
vii. Supernatural and Physical (Tangible) Not ghostly
viii. He ate, walked, talked, worked etc.
ix. It was suited for life on earth, interacted with the disciple’s mortal bodies.
x. “It is I myself!” Same likeness, person, even the same scars.
xi. Our New Bodies will be completely us, only new. Restored to pre-accident condition!
xii. Remember, God is taking us forward to fulfill the original plan.
Our New Bodies are just the beginning of what God has in store for us:
II. A New Body needs a New Home
a. Don’t think for a minute that God has given up on His creation.
The universe we live in, including the Earth we live on, isn’t some failed experiment God is going to kick to the corner of his garage.
Anthony Hoekema says, “If God would have to annihilate the present cosmos, Satan would have won a great victory…Satan would have succeeded in so devastatingly corrupting the present cosmos and the present earth that God could do nothing with it but to blot it totally out of existence. But Satan did not win such a victory.
b. God promises Restoration and Return to the Promised Land.
i. These promises are connected to the Earth and yet at the same time they will only be complete in Heaven.
In Ezekiel 37:26 God promises to, “set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.” The context: Earth.
Likewise,
Joel 3:17-18 "…A fountain will flow out of the LORD’s house and will water the valley of acacias.”
ii. These are two of many promises that shouldn’t be merely “spiritualized” away.
Alcorn,“The prophets are never concerned about some far-off realm of disembodied spirits.”
iii. How can these things coincide?
John Piper, “What happens to our bodies and what happens to the creation go together. And what happens to our bodies is not annihilation but redemption…our bodies will be redeemed, restored, made new, not thrown away. And so it is with the heavens and the earth.”
• The Resurrected Abraham will be no less Abraham than in Genesis.
• The Redeemed Earth will be no less the Promised Land than in Exodus
Revelation 21:1 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." 5And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
iv. The old things passing away are the removal of Satan, Sin and the Curse.
v. Death, disease, and the deterioration of age are the products of sin.
Romans 8:19-23 “… creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
We might say, ‘the caterpillar passes away, and the butterfly emerges’
There is a real passing away, and a real New Creation, yet there is a real continuity”
III. Welcome Home to Heaven!
Heaven will be comfortingly familiar and amazingly new.
a. It will be familiar because it will be Earth
i. The gospel is far greater than most of us imagine.
ii. As the Romans 8 passage points out, all of Creation will see a restoration.
iii. It isn’t just good news for us – its good news for animals, plants, planets and stars.
Colossians 1:16-20 “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven...”
b. What will it be like?
i. In addition to the New Heavens and New Earth we read about, Revelation 21 and 22 tell us the details of what we most often think of Heaven as: the New Jerusalem.
ii. A great city on a great mountain.
iii. 12 foundations and streets of Gold.
iv. 1400 miles square and just as high. (2/3rds the size of the US. The top of Vermont to the tip of Florida is about 1400 miles.
v. 12 Gates each made from a single Pearl.
Three gates on each of 4 sides, could it be that each gate opens into a different nation or tribe, each with a different adventure? The possibilities are endless.
vi. The Gates will never shut, because the inhabitants will always have access to God.
vii. This New Jerusalem is set on the New Earth and surrounded by the New Heavens
viii. Out from under God’s Throne flows the River of Life, it flows through the middle of a street of Gold. On each side of the River is growing the Tree of Life. The same Tree of Life found in the Garden of Eden.
ix. WOW!!!
c. What will we do forever?
i. Not only will we have new bodies, living in New (Real) Earth, with a New Jerusalem, we will also have New Lives.
ii. We will not be stripped of passion, identity or desires.
iii. We will eat, live, harvest, play, have meaningful work and worship.
I think a big part of our “yawn” toward heaven is we think that we will only have one emotion, one task, one repetitive function forever and ever. This isn’t true!!!
We will not have any of the “omni(s)” Only God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, etc.
We will still be finite beings: Meaning we will continue to learn, travel, develop skills, gain knowledge, visit, explore, learn and grow.
And because neither TIME nor SPACE is eliminated in Heaven, we will continue in these pursuit forever.
You may ask, but won’t we eventually finish the process?
To answer that question, consider a few of God’s traits that do show up in us (His image bearers)
• Creative – wouldn’t it be just a little bit silly to think that God mustered all His creativity to create the New Heavens and New Earth, was eternally exhausted and just sat down for the rest of eternity.
Isn’t it possible (or Likely) God will continue to create and expand the New Heavens.
Isn’t it possible (or Likely) God’s creative works will outpace our abilities to explore and discover?
Think, why did God make so many different kinds of Trees? Each with a unique leaf, bark, wood grain, wood density and strength? Every wood has its own unique fragrance and color!!!
• Dangerous and Adventurous – Atomic energy, volcanoes, lightning, thunder, black holes, comets, shooting stars, the list goes on and on. God is dangerous, untamed, and adventurous.
He will continue in His Nature and we will continue in His image.
Without the fear of death, the possibility of disability and the limitation of physical handicaps what adventures would you take? Get ready.
• Fun loving – when Jesus said that we must become like little children to enter the Kingdom of God,
I’m sure the primary character trait he was encouraging was simple faith. But was that all?
o What other child like tendencies: Joy, play, celebrate and laugh.
o The stress of life and the pressures of ‘adult’ responsibly can suck the life out of us.
o Even now wishes we would stop worrying and enjoy life; how much more then?
o Why does my dog play? Why do Horses run when not spurred or chased?
o Why do Whales and Dolphins jump out of the water?
o Why do we love music? Fun? Play? Beauty? Etc? ---- Because it’s “good!”
1 Timothy 6:17 “in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”
• Relational – Remove all embarrassment, bashfulness, fear of relational pain and rejection; Remove communicational barriers and prejudice AND Think of how awesome it will be to enjoy the company of all God’s Children! God promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, how long will it take to visit each one?
And How about listening to the Angel’s stories?
AND Most importantly Jesus will be there! And we will have full access to His company and Glory!
It’s been rightfully said, “Our longing for Heaven is a longing for God.”
Conclusion:
1 Corinthians 2:9 we are told, God prepares all these things for “those who love Him.”
