The Burning Question
What Is Heaven Like? Part 1 – Kingdom Come
February 10, 2008
Various Scriptures
Our first question is “What is heaven like?” A pretty tough question and one frankly that has been wrestled with and even debated by Christians and other religions for centuries. We will look at this question over three weeks. Heaven is such a broad scope and there are many facets to the topic that we could probably go for half a year on it but we’ll just take three weeks.
This question as I understand arose in a family discussion where one family member was sharing the beliefs taught by that person’s church regarding heaven and earth. And I guess the concern lies ultimately if someone is being misled. Maybe even if there is a disagreement, “Who is right?”
I am reminded of the guy who shows up at heaven’s gates. Peter asks him, “Did you do anything self-sacrificing or noteworthy to show that you loved God and loved others.”
“Well,” he replied, “There was one thing. I saw an old lady that was being taunted and ridiculed and physically abused by a group of gangbangers. So, without thinking, I ran up to them and yelled, ‘Have you no shame? Leave her alone.’ Then I went right up to the largest guy who looked like Goliath with arms the size of trees and tattoos decorating his entire body and told him that they had better leave her alone or else. And while I was talking the old lady was able to get away.”
Peter said, “Wow, that was pretty amazing and pretty courageous. When did this happen?”
Whenever we talk about burning questions, we need to recognize that we are not God and we do not have all the answers. Humility has the same root as human. God is God and we are not. Therefore our understanding is limited. It is finite not infinite.
So what is heaven like?
We must first begin with looking at how Jesus and how Jewish people would have understood heaven. And the first and most important thing to understand is that for Jesus heaven was the place where God reigned.
Heaven is Tied to the Kingdom
• Heaven is the location of God’s reign. (Matthew 6:9-10)
Matthew 6:9-10, “This, then, is how you should pray: ’Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The Jewish Qaddish prayer forms the background to the Lord’s Prayer: “May he establish his kingdom in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel, even speedily and at a near time.”
Heaven equals the Kingdom of God. This is huge and huge implications. Heave equals the Kingdom of God. In fact Matthew writing to a Jewish audience does not used Kingdom of God but Kingdom of Heaven.
• Heaven is made up of kingdom people (1 Peter 2:4-5, 9-10)
1 Peter 2:4-5, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”
In fact Exodus 19:6 calls God’s people a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Heaven is the place where God reigns. It is where those who served God in this life will ultimately find themselves.
1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
These are people who have accepted the kingship of God and the Lordship of Jesus. But we also see this:
• Kingdom people follow the ways of Jesus
We studied the Sermon on the Mount. Here we saw what it means to follow Jesus. Those who follow Jesus follow his Shema of loving God and loving others. Jesus gave us very specific examples of what it means to follow him now. These “kingdom ways” continue on through out eternity. In fact following Jesus now shapes us into the kingdom people that we need to be in order to dwell with God forever. Justice is done. Enemies are loved. Grace and mercy is shown. People are treated fairly with dignity and respect. The poor are taken care of. Kingdom people give generously and show extreme hospitality.
But this of course is in the here and now. It is important because these things will not end but continue for eternity. Why? Because these are the ways of God?. These are the ways of kingdom people. There are three activities (and probably more but three that I want to highlight today) that we find kingdom people doing.
There is an old story of a pastor that plays hooky from church and goes to the golf course. Peter points out the pastor’s sin and God tells Peter that He will punish the pastor. The pastor proceeds to play the greatest game of his life. His drives were long and straight. His putts were nothing but miraculous. He set a new course record. He would’ve have crushed Tiger. He even hit a hole on one on the last hole.
“I thought you were going to punish him,” Peter wondered.
“That was the punishment. Who is he going tell?” God replied.
Of course we all know that there is no golfing in heaven. Apparently, not all of knew that. No golfing will be in hell where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. None of that in heaven.
o Worship (Revelation 11:15-17)
Revelation 11: 15-17, “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.’ (This is also an important saying along with other to described the nature of the kingdom, its completion, and what happens at the end of time) And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:
‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign.’
Revelation is made up of symbols. Symbols that point us to the deeper reality of heaven and the kingdom. They point us to the things of God of which there are no words adequate to describe. So it is really impossible to get a realistic (or literal) picture of heaven through this type literature. However we do see a contrast. Kingdom people worship God. Everyone else worships something else. When the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord (in other words at the end of time when God brings to a close and has completed his kingdom work that Jesus began), then those who have remained faithful in their worship of God before will continue to worship God forever after.
Other pictures show us every tribe and people who worship God singing in all different languages. Finally suffering, sin, and death will be brought to an end and what better way to celebrate than worship.
o Relationship (Revelation 21:3)
Revelation 21:3, “And 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.’” God will be with us and we will be with God. Jesus spoke in John’s gospel about hearing and knowing his voice. Right now there is a sort of separation between us and God. It is filled by the Holy Spirit and by God’s people in the form of the Church. When the end comes, problems of this life that inhibit our relationship will be gone. Paul talks about seeing through a cloudy glass now but in the fullness of the kingdom all barriers and obstacles and fuzziness will be gone.
o Service (Revelation 1:5-7; 5:10; 7:14-16)
Revelation 1:5-7, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”
Revelation 5:10, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
Revelation 7:14-16, “And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore,
"they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
Kingdom people will continue to serve God. As we have served God in this life, we will serve God forever. We will do God’s bidding and God’s will. And this is not limited to burning incense and other religious rituals. But as we will examine more closely next week, there will be work to do. Some perspectives of heaven are in danger of being more like a Gnostic heresy than they are of being biblical. But that is next week.
There is story that probably was not real but like any parable simply conveys a deeper sense of truth (stories often do that which is probably why Jesus used so many stories to talk about the kingdom). In this story an elderly woman has learned that she has an inoperable, terminal illness. She loves Jesus and has always tried to live her life as a child of the Kingdom.
In making her preparation she meets with her pastor to talk about the funeral service. They plan out the order and the pastor asks if there is anything else.
“Yes there is,” she replies. “I need you to do something very important. I want you to make sure that I am shown and that I am buried with a fork in my hand. I know its strange but please do this. This is my most important last request.”
“Okay. But people are going to ask about the fork. In fact, I want to know what is so important about the fork.”
“I know and that is the point. People will ask about it. And I want you to tell them the importance. When I was a kid going to the church dinners, I would be told to keep my fork after I had finished my plate. We had the more wonderful dinners after church and the best desserts—you know those heavenly decadent full of chocolate and sugar. ‘Keep your fork,’ my grandmother would say, ‘because we saved the best for last.’ I want people to know that at the end of my life, the best is yet to come. I’m not afraid of death because I know that I finally will be meeting with Jesus face-to-face. So when they see the fork, let them know that the best is yet to come. Remind them that my greatest wish is to see Jesus but my next greatest wish is for them to see Him too.”
