Something is Out There:
Rumors of the Invisible World of the Sacred God
Imagination Gone Wild: Opening the Eyes of our Heart--Hope 3/8/09
John and Cathy going back to Church
subject: discovering the hope that Heaven is
Bruce D. Rzengota
john and cathy preparing for church
John is struggling with his tie while his wife is putting on a necklace. She pauses thoughtfully fingering the piece when she has finished.
Cathy
Are you okay John?
John
I’m fine honey. Are you?
cathy
(sullenly) Yes I’m fine. Just thinking a lot. Do you know when I got this necklace?
John
Um, I’m not sure. You know I’m no good at this. Should I?
Cathy
I bought this for our 10th wedding anniversary. It’s been two years since I wore it that first time. We’ve been married for almost 12 years now.
John
Sometimes is it seems like it was just last week I was standing next to you in church and you were sneaking peeks at your cell phone.
Cathy
(shocked) I wasn’t sneaking peeks at my cell phone I was just turning it off.
John
(Chuckling) I’m not so sure about that.
Cathy
(serious) John, does it ever seem to you that time is just racing by? That this journey we’re on is going to be over way sooner than we every thought?
Don’t you every struggle with regrets?
John
Regrets? I’m one of the luckiest men alive.
John takes Cathy in his arms behind her.
12 years ago I ended up sitting next to the most beautiful single mother in the world. (she smiles) You were a little bitter over a divorce. A little. . .
cathy
(with vemon) He was such a jerk.
John
A little critical.
Cathy
I was not!
John
Yes dear. But you were carrying some wounds that could make you a little judgmental a times.
Cathy
(nodding, conceding) You’re right.
John
But that was the beginning of a great thing for us. I got you coffee and sat with you in the coffee house between services.
cathy
(Turning to him) You remember that?
John
Sure it was the day I became fascinated with you.
Cathy
Fascinated? That day?
John
Yeah I’m pretty sure it was that day. I remember it was because you kept talking about how the pastor had missed a patch of hair shaving his head that day.
Cathy
(pushing away) That’s what you remember?
John
Well yes, but I also remember you talking about some grade Ashley got on a paper. You went on and on about it because you were so sure that the divorce would be such a distraction for her as she started college that fall. You talked up a storm.
Cathy
(defensive) I hardly said a word.
John
But then I remember that suddenly in the midst of it, you got quiet and asked me the most profound question.
Cathy
I did?
John
You did. You said, "John, will you get me another muffin?"
cathy
(slapping his arm) I’d not.
John
(chuckling) Yes you did, but that wasn’t the profound question. You asked me I was ever bored in church? You asked me I understood what the pastor meant by the kingdom of God being a Treasure hidden in the field.
That was the first time I ever had a conversation with someone about something so spiritual. It got me thinking. It got me thinking so much I sought out one of the elders. What was his name? He was the money guy at church, the treasurer.
Cathy
It wasn’t Dave was it?
John
No it wasn’t Dave. He was hard to forget? Bob I think?
Anyway I sought him out and we began to talk about what it meant to be a follower of Jesus, one who was discovering the hidden treasure that Jesus talked about in that parable.
cathy
Why did you pick him?
John
I’m not sure, I just remember thinking that the Treasurer ought to know something about the treasure.
Anyway it was the beginning point of so many changes in me. I was coming alive in Jesus. I was falling in love with you. I was learning what it was like to let go of my past.
So no. I’m not struggling with regrets. And I’d like to believe you aren’t either.
Cathy
John, I’m not, at least I don’t think I am. It’s just, it’s just. . .
John
It’s just what Cath?
Cathy
It’s just that were getting old.
John
Old? Cath we’re so young at heart I don’t feel any older than that day we sat so awkwardly next to each other in church?
Cathy
Even today John?
John
Oo. . . I get it. I see where this is coming from. Yes honey even today I’m okay with it. Honey she was 94 years old. She loved Jesus.
Cathy
I know that John. Your mother was so looking forward to end. And I think that’s what is unsettling me.
John, has it occurred to you yet that we are now the oldest members of either of our families? I know we feel young and we’re blessed with health, but John there aren’t too many big events left in our lives.
Ashley is married and lives 5 hours away. We’ve got two teenage grandchildren, and you plan on retiring in just five more years.
John
And is that so bad Cathy?
Cathy
No John, it’s what comes next that bother’s me. One of us will walk through that final door. And it will all be over. The other will be left behind. All alone.
Holding her in his arms. Both facing front.
John
Cathy, that door awaits us. And I admit I’m thinking about it more now than I ever thought about it before. And mom’s passing makes it very real today.
Taking her by the shoulders.
But the other night I was reminded of something Pastor Bruce taught when we were at that church.
I was watching National Treasure on the classic movie channel.
Cathy
National Treasure, the movie with Nicholas Cage?
Yeah that one. The movie reminded me of something Pastor taught. The kingdom of God was worth pursuing. Discovering it would bring great satisfaction.
It made me realize that’s how I view the "final door" as you call it. It’s the treasure I have been pursuing. And when discover it, I will be fully satisfied.
Cathy
I hope it’s true John. I really hope it’s true.
Kissing him.
Thank you.
John
For what?
Cathy
For being patient with my struggle.
She reaches for her coat. He takes it and helps her on with it.
John
No big deal cath. It’s not like I have never struggled with the idea of heaven.
You know I think I still some of the note sheets from the Pastor’s sermons back then. You know the ones he preached one rumors of the other world. When we get back let’s see if we can find the one he preached on heaven and look at it again.
Cathy
Looking outward.
I’d like that John. I’d like that.
John grabs her coat. Takes her arm and they turn to leave.
the end
T.S. When we’re young it is only when some tragic event occurs that we give much thought about death. Heaven seems to be a distant place and vague reality that we don’t really think about or dwell on. But the Apostle Paul wanted us to dwell on our incredible inheritance that awaits us.
Eph 1:18-19
18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
T.S. Paul didn’t see dwelling on heaven as something we should do just when tragedy strikes or when we are old and facing the final door. Paul felt we should have our hearts set on it now.
Col 3:1-3
3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
P.S. THE TRUTHS OF HEAVEN ARE INTENDED TO STIMULATE A WILD AND EXCITING HOPE.
T.S. I said a wild and exciting Hope. Most of us don’t view heaven that way. Most of us have rather tame or boring views of what heaven will be like.
Look how the world pictures it.
A dull place where people have wings, wear halos and do nothing.
Believers fall prey to similar perspectives. We understand so little about it, we feel like going there will be a disappointment, a place where we will miss the pleasures and even the stresses of earth.
Very seldom do we see it as a mind blowing incredible reality that we can’t wait to explore.
T.S. So this morning let’s explore the Heaven. Let’s try to gain a glimpse, a rumor, wisp of what it will be like and let’s let our imaginations run wild.
Ill: In April 1992 a young man form a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of My McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, he abandoned his car and most of his possession, and he burned the cash in his wallet and set of to discover the Wild.
This morning imagine how our lives would changed if we set out to explore the wild truths of heaven.
I. HEAVEN WILL BE WILD BECAUSE IT IS "OTHER."
People often ask the question, "What will heaven be like."
Since heaven is where God is, it must contain more physical and temporal dimensions than those found in this physical universe that God created.
A. Heaven Exists outside the box
Since God always was and always will be. He both pre-existed everything created and will out last the end of the age. Heaven is were we will dwell with him in an existence more like how he exists now. And right now he transcends Space. He is Omnipresent--everywhere at once.
"Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there; if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you." (Psalm 139:7-12)
He transcends space. Paul said to be absent form the body is to be present with the Lord.
Appl: Let this wild thought run through your mind. Heaven whatever it is like will transcend everything we understand about space. It’s not a place around the corner, in the next galaxy, it’s other and it will be mind blowing.
B. Acting outside of time
Just as God transcends space and we can assume that Heaven will have different special laws and dimensions, we can also imagine heaven acting out of time--according to different laws of time.
T.S. Peter said it this way. . .
2 Peter 3:8
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
We also see a glimpse of this in Rev. 13:8
Rev 13:8
8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast-all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.
The picture of how God relates to time is beyond our understanding. 1,000 yrs = 1day, 1 day = 1,000yrs. Jesus was slain 2,000 yrs ago and he was slain before the foundation of the world?
Picture it this way. God is I am. The most fundamental statement he can make about himself. I am. I am the ever present always there one. If he transcends all time it’s like this.
ILL: Picture your life as a line. Picture all of history as a line. Now picture God touching all points of time at the same time. That’s the truth of his existence. (That’s also how he can make all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. He’s got his hands around all of it at the same time.)
To be absent for the body is to be present with the lord.
Appl: Heaven will in some ways be acting out side time as we know and understand it. Let your imagination run wild with that thought. Here’s one that I thought of. When you get to have and you bump into Moses and you ask him wow how is it to be up here in heaven like this for so long, he might say, "I don’t know, I just got here."
II. HEAVEN WILL BE WILD BECAUSE WE WILL HAVE BEEN RECREATED FOR IT.
We cannot experience in our current bodies, what these extra dimensions might be like. If we cannot visualize a God who exists in dimensions beyond our own how can we truly envision his kingdom until we are transformed.
1 John 3:2-3
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
A. See Him as He is
To a certain degree, we will be given some of the characteristics of God in heaven. Without at least the dimensional characteristics of God, we would not be able to see Him, which the Bible says we will do.
B. Transformed beyond our imagination
With physical laws being so different in heaven, it is apparent that our current bodies would not be acceptable in such a place.
The Bible poses the question, "But someone will say, "How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?" (1 Corinthians 15:35).
The answer to the question is given in a series of comparisons:
Mortal Body Resurrection Body
perishable imperishable
dishonor glory
weak powerful
natural spiritual
We also get clues form Jesus’ resurrected body.
recognizable unrecognizable
material immaterial
III. HEAVEN WILL BE WILD BECAUSE BOREDOM WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE.
A. Boredom is impossible because the laws of time aren’t the same.
On earth boredom is directly related to time.
B. Boredom will be impossible because of what we’ll do in heaven
1. Involvement in Heaven events
Worship Events
Rev 7:9-10
9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb."
Wedding Feast
Rev 19:6-9
6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
"Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
8 Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear."
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)
9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: ’Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’" And he added, "These are the true words of God."
The Eight Day of Creation.
God created out of nothing everything that is according to the first two chapters of the Genesis. According to Revelation there will be an eighth day of Creation--the creating of the new heaven and the new earth. Rev. 21-22
NIV
2. Discovery of all things new.
1 Cor 13:12
12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
3. Entrusted with service and positions
1 Cor 6:3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
Appl: It will never be boring heaven because every curative for boredom on earth is an ever present reality in heaven. When is the last time you let your imagination run wild about your destiny in heaven.
Exploring new discoveries about reality and self
Engaged in noteworthy purpose
Enjoying significant relationships
T.S. Heaven should be a comforting thought at the end of our lives but not just as an afterthought to the pleasures and joys of earth we are about to leave behind.
Heaven should be the exciting and wild destination that our hearts long for.
P.S. THE TRUTHS OF HEAVEN ARE INTENDED TO STIMULATE A WILD AND EXCITING HOPE.
Heaven will be Wild because it is "Other" so beyond our comprehension that it defies description.
Wild because we will have been specially recreated to experience it to the fullest.
Wild because in heaven boredom will be impossible.
Appl: This week let you imagination run wild.
Raise the topic over lunch with you spouse, in the care with you kids, in with a friend.
We can only imagine, so let’s imagine.
