ONE MINUTE AFTER YOU DIE
HEAVEN, HELL, & WHO WILL GO WHERE
SELECTED SCRIPTURES
JOY IN THE PRESENCE
LUKE 23:39-43
INTRODUCTION
- As you know, we have been taking a glimpse at the subject of what happens after we die. There is so much that could be said concerning this topic; and indeed, we will spend our lives studying the Scriptures and still not know everything – so we have attempted to get to the nuts and bolts so to speak. What are the basic things we must know about death, and more specifically what happens after death?
- Our look at the first half of the answer to that question led us to the topic of Hell. A most unpleasant subject, Hell as it is described in Scripture should have caused us to squirm in our seats a bit. You will remember that upon death the souls of unbelievers are send to a place of torment, where they await final judgment. Then, in the future when Christ returns they will be resurrected, given eternal bodies, judged according to their deeds, and cast into the lake of fire where they will be tormented consciously forever.
- Now it needs to be recalled as we turn our attention toward believers and our destiny, that we die for the same reason unbelievers die. Just as unbelievers experience physical death because of sin, believers will experience physical death because of sin. That statement in Hebrews 9 that I referenced that says “...it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment...” applies to us as believers in Christ as well as those without the Savior.
- Now the sequence of events after death for believers is very similar to that of unbelievers. The destinations are drastically different; but the overall order of things is quite comparable. Just as unbelievers enter an intermediate state upon death, believers do so as well. Again, the intermediate state describes the time period between a person’s death and Christ’s return.
- So I will make a blanket statement about this state for Christians even as I did for the unsaved: For the unbeliever the statement was this: Everyone who dies without Christ as Savior is immediately sent to a place of torment where they await final judgment. But for those who know Christ, the outlook is infinitely brighter: Everyone who dies with Christ as Savior is immediately sent to the presence of Christ, where they await final glorification.
- There are three key differences in those statements. The first difference, obviously, is that one group dies without Christ as Savior and the other with. The second difference is that those who died without Christ are sent to a place of torment, but the those who die with him are sent to his presence – and this is the difference we will highlight today. The third difference is that while unbelievers await final judgment, believers await final glorification – and we will explore that next time.
- So let’s zoom in on that second difference, then. While unbelievers are sent to a place of torment upon death, believers are sent to the presence of Christ.
- That those of us who know Christ as Savior immediately meet him upon death is quite clear in the Bible. While the wicked are constantly described as being cast away from God in judgment, the righteous are described as anticipating fellowship and communion with God for eternity.
- One of the best examples of this is found in Luke chapter 23. Turn there if you would.
- In Luke 23 we find one of the most important events in the life of Jesus occurring: his crucifixion. Christ has just been condemned to death, he has made his way, with the help of Simon the Cyrene, to Golgotha (which is Aramaic for the place of the skull), and he is nailed to a Roman cross and hoisted between two criminals.
- He is being mocked and scorned even as he is taking the sin of the world on his shoulders. And even one of his fellow sufferers begins to scream at him. Look at Luke 23 beginning at v.39:
Read Luke 23:39-43
- One criminal is railing against Jesus. Literally, the text says he is blaspheming Christ. He is screaming evil, profane, and impious words to the Son of God – doubting his ability to save himself and them. But the other criminal, by the grace and Spirit of God, recognizes who he’s hanging next to.
- He asks Jesus to remember him when he enters into his kingdom. And Jesus responds saying that the wait for this thief was shorter than he probably expected. On that very day, that thief would be with Christ in paradise.
- I want us to notice something very important about Jesus’ response to this thief, and then we are going to look briefly at some other Scriptures to clarify some things. I want us to notice before we go any further, that:
BEING WITH CHRIST IS EQUIVALENT TO BEING IN PARADISE
- Jesus says to the thief: Today you will be with me in Paradise.
- The central and most important aspect of heaven, that believers begin to experience immediately after death, is the presence of God. God being present is what makes heaven, heaven. Christ being present is what makes paradise, paradise. It would have made no sense if Jesus said “Today you will be in paradise, but I won’t be there.”
- Fellowship with God, being in his presence is the most valuable thing that sin strips us of. Sure, sin causes us to die physically; but it’s that spiritual death that threatens to keep us away from God that is the knockout punch, so to speak.
- Turn in your Bible to Genesis 3. I want us to see this clearly. Let’s go all the way back to right after the first human sin was committed. Look at Genesis 3:8. Adam and Eve have just eaten of the tree that God commanded they not partake of, and look at what is immediately affected: And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
- This is a familiar scene. God calls out for them and they tell him that they hid themselves because they were ashamed of their nakedness. The unhindered, full fellowship they had been experiencing with God was broken.
- We see it from the very beginning. What sin robs us of is being in full fellowship with God – of being in his presence with no hindrances. Since we are all in Adam we all go through life experiencing this lack of fellowship with our Creator.
- So as you follow the rest of the biblical narrative you will read to story of how God, in his great wisdom provides for reconciliation – a restoring of the fellowship lost in the Garden. That’s what being saved is all about: you are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and therefore you no longer fear punishment in Hell away from his presence for eternity.
- That’s how the Bible describes Hell remember? We’ve seen this verse several times now; 2 Thessalonians 1:9: They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.
- The two worst things about Hell is that it is eternal and it is separation from God. The two best things about Heaven is that it is eternal and it is complete fellowship with God. One is eternity away from his presence; the other is eternity in his presence.
- Of course, we know that as believers we have a down payment of this fellowship. We experience fellowship with God and the presence of God even now – in this life. In fact that’s what the Holy Spirit is. He is the presence of God, living inside of us. And he himself is the down payment that ultimate eternal fellowship is coming.
- 2 Corinthians 5:5 says that the Spirit is our guarantee of eternal life in heaven. And Ephesians 1:14 says something similar: the Spirit is the guarantee of our eternal inheritance. So once we trust in Christ as Savior we experience the beginning of the restoration of the relationship with God that was broken in Eden, but we await final eternal fellowship in Heaven.
- So this should cause us to long for heaven. Understanding that dying means being in the presence of Christ should cause us to desire heaven above everything in this life. Paul had this intense desire for heaven, because he understood that it meant being with Christ.
- In 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 Paul wrote: So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
- He told the Philippians the same thing: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
- I like a good country song now and then. Some of you may be familiar with the country song “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven” by Kenny Chesney. In it he sings this: Everybody wanna go to heaven, beats the other place there ain’t no doubt; everybody wanna go to heaven, but nobody wanna go now.
- Now I mean no disrespect to Kenny, but he’s hardly a wise theologian. I would seek my spiritual advice elsewhere. But I think what he says is true. Of course everybody wants to go to heaven (even though most won’t), but nobody seems to want to go right now – meaning they don’t want to die.
- It’s like the illustration I read of a little boy who was sitting in church one day. The preacher was going on and on about how great heaven would be. He talked about the streets of gold and the angels and about seeing God face to face. He concluded his message by asking the members of the congregation to raise their hands if they wanted to go to heaven. All hands went up into the air, except for one little boy. He sat there looking scared. The preacher bent down and asked, "Son, don’t you want to go to heaven one day?" They little boy said, "Oh, yeah, one day I do. I thought you were gettin’ up a load to go right now."
- Now I’m not suggesting you should be in a hurry to die. But if you understand what heaven really is you’re desire to go there will sky rocket. Being in heaven means being with Christ; and for the believer there is no greater joy.
- Let’s take a look then, at some of the biblical passages concerning heaven. We’ve established that upon death, believers enter into the presence of Christ – which is paradise. Now we want to support that claim with a few more Scriptures. Let’s start by recognizing that:
OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVERS WERE WITH CHRIST UPON DEATH
- Sometimes we wonder about what happened to people who died before Christ came to save us from our sins. Remember we said that those who died apart from Christ in both Old and New Testament time periods went to Hades. Those who died “in Christ” in the Old Testament time period, went directly to heaven.
- Now things get a little tricky when we start talking about those who had faith in Christ in the Old Testament because Jesus had not come yet. Old Testament saints did not know Jesus’ name. They didn’t know when he would live or how long. And the probably didn’t even know that he would die on a cross.
- But Old Testament saints were saved the same way we are: by faith. Here’s what they did know: They knew that they were in sin and in need of salvation. They were reminded of that every time they saw sacrifices in the tabernacle and temple. And they knew that only God could provide that salvation. In fact they knew, all the way back to the time period of Genesis 3 that God would send a Deliverer.
- This Deliverer came to be called the Messiah, or Anointed One. And all throughout the Old Testament you see hints of their expectation of this coming Messiah. We read prophecies of what he will do and things he will say. And by the time Jesus is born the nation of Israel knew or at least should have known from their Holy Scriptures that the Messiah would take their sins upon him and by his wounds they would be healed.
- So before Christ came, people were saved by faith in the coming Messiah; faith in the Deliverer that God had promised to them. They started out with very little understanding of what that meant. And their understanding became clearer even up until the time of Christ. But their faith, as Moses says of Abraham, was credited to them as righteousness.
- So that’s what we mean when we say Old Testament believers. Those who had faith in the one true God and his provision for their sins. And these Old Testament believers went to be with that coming Deliverer, who is Jesus Christ immediately after they died. They met him before the rest of the world did.
- I’ll give you just a few examples. In Genesis 5:24 the Bible says that Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. In other words, this godly man Enoch has such a close relationship to God that one day he could not be found because God took him to heaven.
- We see the same thing with the prophet Elijah in 2 Kings 2:11. The Bible says Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. These two men had spectacular entrances into heaven. But even the souls of those who died normal deaths went directly to heaven.
- In fact we know that Elijah met Christ upon death because he shows up again in the New Testament with Moses. Moses and Elijah meet with Christ on a mountain in Luke 9 to discuss Jesus’ imminent crucifixion. They knew Jesus. They had met him in heaven when they died.
- Of course, the same is true then, of New Testament believers.
NEW TESTAMENT BELIEVERS WERE WITH CHRIST UPON DEATH
- Our main text today in Luke 23 makes it clear that Jesus promised the thief on the cross Paradise that very day. Also in Luke remember is the story of the rich man and Lazarus – the passage we looked at when discussing Hades. We looked in detail at the rich man’s predicament, but Lazarus the beggar was at Abraham’s side upon death. He was in heaven with Abraham, the father of all believers.
- I already mentioned those two key verses in 2 Corinthians 5 and Philippians 1 were Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord, and that he desired to depart and be with Christ for that is far greater than anything this life can offer.
- One other good example is found in Acts 7. Many of you know that Acts 7 records the murdering of the man who, as far as we know, was the first Christian martyr. His name was Stephen. Stephen gives a wondrous sermon in Acts 7; but the Jews didn’t want to have any of it, and they stone him to death.
- Right before they stone him he gazes up into the sky, and by a miracle of the Holy Spirit sees the glory of God and Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. And as they were stoning him, he cried out: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then the Bible says he fell asleep...he died. The Lord Jesus did in fact receive his spirit at that very moment.
- Well, what’s the point of all this? Why is it important to know what happened to Old and New Testament believers when they died? Because what the Scriptures teach concerning them, we know will also happen to us.
WE WILL BE WITH CHRIST UPON DEATH
- One minute after we die our souls will depart from our bodies and we will see the Savior we have longed for. Think about how great a moment that will be for us. We will see the one in whom we have believed. The one the world mocks. The Savior on whose account we are ridiculed. At that moment our faith will become sight.
- Then we will triumphantly proclaim, as we await our resurrection bodies, what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
- On the day you die, what Christ said to the thief will be true of you. On that day, you will be with him in paradise.
CONCLUSION
- So, we close with a glimpse of what is to come. We’ve made the point that when believers die they are with Christ. Next week we will see what this paradise is like. And we will look at what happens to us when Christ resurrects all people at the end of history.
- What is spending eternity with God going to be like? I read a very humorous story that paints one light hearted picture: There were three people in heaven who decided one day to play a round of golf at the heavenly country club. The first man stepped up to the tee, hit his drive, and watched as it headed straight for the water hazard. Just as the ball was about to land in the water, he raised his club, pointed it out over the water, and the waters parted, allowing the ball to land on dry ground. He walked out between the two columns of water, and hit a perfect second shot, right in the middle of the green. One of his partners said, “Wow, good shot, Moses!”
- The second man walked up to the tee, hit his drive, and watched as it took a nearly identical flight path, straight toward the water. But when the ball hit, it landed and stayed right on top of the water. He walked out across the water and hit a second shot which was also identical, landing at the center of the green. Moses told him, “Lord Jesus, that’s a pretty good shot yourself.”
- Then the third man came to the tee box, teed up and hit his drive. The drive took a nasty slice and went straight into the trees, darting off in the wrong direction, heading for the out-of-bounds marker. Right at that moment, a squirrel who happened to be nearby saw the ball and thought it might be good to eat, so it grabbed the ball and started running towards the fairway. When the squirrel was about halfway across the fairway, suddenly an eagle swooped down out of nowhere and grabbed the squirrel in its claws, flying away with both squirrel and ball. Just as the eagle’s flight took it across the green, it lost its grip on the squirrel and dropped it. The squirrel landed flat on its belly, jarring the ball loose, which then took two bounces and landed squarely in the center of the cup.
- Moses looked at Jesus and said, “That’s why I can’t STAND playing golf with your Father.” Is that a true picture of heaven? Well, probably not.
- In order to understand Heaven we will recall what sorts of agony await those without Christ. We listed on a few of the many torments that await them: fire, memories, irrevocability, and lost relationships. Weeping and gnashing of teeth in outer darkness away from God’s presence awaits them.
- That is what Christ is saving us from. That is what we deserve, but because of the grace of God we will never experience. Instead of a burning fire that never goes out we will experience daylight with no night- no darkness. Instead of weeping and gnashing of teeth we will sing for joy to our Redeemer for eternity. Instead of being haunted by memories of this life we will remember the grace of God in our lives and celebrate his goodness to us.
- And while those in Hades and Hell will be tormented by the fact that their destiny is irrevocable, we will glory in the fact that our destiny is irrevocable. No one will pluck us out of Christ’s hand. Nothing will ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Heaven is as eternal as Hell is. There is no escape from Heaven; but then, we will never want to leave.
- In the place of sorrow over lost relationships, we will look around and see our family and friends who knew Christ as Savior, and never be separated from them again.
- We will have complete, unhindered fellowship with God; and as we will see next time, he will dwell with us, we will be his people, and God himself will be our God.
