Heaven: Part Two
Introduction:
A Have easel, poster board, finger paints on stage.
1 Begin finger painting a landscape picture of mountain, streams, cabin. (After about 45 seconds, have picture of mountain, stream, & cabin put on screen.)
a The best picture I can paint for you with my fingers is pale in comparison to a digital picture of the same place. (The digital picture is pale in comparison to the real place.)
b The picture of heaven I tell you with my words is like finger painting a picture of heaven.
aa The reality of it is infinitely better than my oratory skills allow.
bb There will be no, “The preacher said this place would be better than this. I expected more.”
c Also, the picture of hell I tell you with my words will be infinitely worse than my skills will allow.
2 Today I want to teach you about the location & levels of heaven & hell.
a Levels
b Locations (Yes, I believe heaven & hell are physical places.)
B Pray
I Heb. 9.27 “It is appointed unto man once to die, then the judgement.”
A When you die, you face judgement, called a judgement of faith.
1 The outcome of that judgement determines whether you go intermediate heaven or the intermediate hell.
a This judgement is not based on good works, but faith.
aa Not what we’ve done during our lives, but what Jesus has done for us.
bb Eph. 2.8-9; Titus 3.5.
b If your name isn’t in the book of Life, you are immediately in hell.
aa If have accepted Christ’s atoning death for us, then when God judges us after we die, He sees us through the blood sacrifice of His Son, not our sin!
bb For those not covered by the blood, they go to hell, a place where the goodness of God isn’t.
B There is a second judgment that isn’t to be confused with the first judgement (faith,) the second judgement is called a judgement of works.
1 Romans 14.10-12; 2 Cor. 5.10; All believers will stand before the judgement seat of Christ to give an account of their lives.
a It is critical to understand Christian that this judgement is based on your works, not your faith.
aa Your works DO NOT affect our salvation, but I do believe they affect our reward.
bb 1 Cor. 3.13-14
b There is greater reward for those who faithfully serve Him until He calls them home (2 Tim. 2.12, Rev. 2.26-28; 3.21.)
aa Timing? Varies according to opinion.
bb “One at a time” as believers die,
cc Between rapture & millennium.
dd Between our death & rapture
c Unbelievers face a final judgement of works as well, the Bible calls it The Great White Throne Judgement (Rev. 20.11-13.)
aa Timing for this is at the end of the old earth & beginning of the New Earth.
bb Some believe Christians will be have their works judged at the GWTJ & receive their reward here.
cc If your lost, at Great White Throne Judgement, you’re in for it. . . reward is Hell.
2 If there are levels of reward in heaven, then what about levels of punishment in hell? (Is hell hotter for 9/11 hijackers than for my neighbor who was morally good but never received Christ?)
a Jesus indicates that there may be levels of punishment in hell. (Matt. 23.14)
aa Matt.11.20-24; Jesus taught that the people from His day would be judged more severely than Sodom & Gomorrah.
bb Why? They saw miracles, signs, wonders & yet they refused to repent.
b The O.T. teaches that people can sin w/o knowing they’ve sinned. (Lev. 4.2, 13, 14, 22, 27, 28)
aa So does N.T. James 4.17.
bb Luke 9.62, To know the truth & not act on it is a higher level of offense.
b There is a spiritual danger for those who have been exposed to light of Scripture, church, power of Holy Spirit, godly upbringing, then subsequently to turn away from the straight & narrow path.
aa Hebrews 6.4-6
bb There may be levels of punishment/confinement for those who sinned w/ knowledge & those who sinned w/o knowledge.
c I think if the thought of that bothers us, we need to ask ourselves “why” it does.
aa When we die we are either going to one of two worlds: Heaven or Hell . . . & we’ll be at each one permanently.
bb It’s important to know where are journey is going to end.
II No one speaks more about hell than Jesus did.
A Menard is a place built by the ruling authority of the State to protect the innocent from those who break the law.
1 God built hell to house those who break the law.
a Is the State bad/mean/unfair for building Mennard? No. God isn’t bad/mean/unfair for building hell.
aa If you go to Mennard/hell, it is because did something by choice to put you there.
bb Deut 30.19; Ps 86.5; 2 Peter 2.9
b When He made people His intent was not for hell to be a place to send people.
aa IL. Pilgrams coming to America, popping out of the Mayflower, “What a wonderful place to build a prison!” Not their intent!
bb It wasn’t God’s first intend for hell to house humans.
b Matt. 25.41, (Prepared for the devil, demons)
aa Science will tell you the core of the earth is over 1,800 degrees, chambers
bb I promise I’ll teach on Hell’s location in another message, I believe it is in the earth.
cc Philippians 2.10 KJV
dd This is a series on Heaven, but the material I have about hell will be taught very soon!
c He prepared heaven for us (John 14.2) & He has allowed us access to heaven through His Son, Jesus.
2 Some folks try to get to heaven on their own terms.
a Good, moral, baptized, church member.
aa Allah, Buddha, meditation, yoga, etc.
bb You want to go to God’s house, you gotta get there His way . . . not your own!
b Luke 13.3; Rom. 10.9-10; 1 Tim. 2.4-6
c You don’t want anything to do with Him, there is a place prepared that has nothing to do with God’s goodness.
aa Salvation is a free gift, freely given but you must receive it . . . that’s God’s rules.
bb Jn 3.36
B If you go to hell it’s not God’s fault (He’s done everything He could to keep you out of it.)
III Heaven is real, physical location/place with a past, present, and a future.
A When a Christian dies we will go to heaven, but we will not go to the heaven where we’ll live forever. (Intermediate heaven)
1 “Where’s Grandma? I thought she was in heaven.” She is!
a Heaven has a past (Prior to the incarnation, death, resurrection)
b Heaven has a present (Where Christians go when they die now, angelic realm, distinctly separate from Earth)
c Heaven has a future (Eternal home/New Earth)
d All can be called heaven, but they are not all synonymous.)
2 (IL.) You live in a homeless shelter in St.Louis, get word you’ve inherited a mansion in Santa Barbara, CA. You depart & have a layover in Chicago where you stay with some family & friends for a short time. You’re not going to stay in Chicago, you’re real destination is in Santa Barbara.
B Where is God? Heaven. Who made heaven? God did. Where was God before He made heaven?
a Heaven has a beginning so it’s not timeless.
b God created heaven & chooses to dwell there, He doesn’t have to.
1 The future heaven will be in the human realm, on a new earth.
a Rev 21.1-3
b That doesn’t settle with us because we have fallen for Platonism (flesh/physical is evil; spirit/immaterial is good.)
2 God is Spirit (John 4.24), true, but heaven is not the same as God (Heaven has a beginning . . . God doesn’t)
a Rev. 15.8 (Temple w/smoke ...Literal/physical)
aa We’re told there are scrolls in heaven, elders w/ faces, martyers wearing robes, people w/ palm branches in their hand (Rev. 7.9)
bb Rev. 8.6, Musical instruments;
cc Rev 19.14; 2 Kings 2.11 Horses in heaven.
dd Rev. 8.13; Eagle flying over heaven.
ee Are all these figurative? I don’t think so!
b Hebrews 8.5
aa When we think of heaven, we often go backwards (Earth to heaven.)
bb There was a temple in heaven before there was one on earth.
cc If what Moses built for the Temple was based on a pattern of the original in heaven, then the original was physical too.
dd Heb. 9.11,24
c In fact, the New Jerusalem is a physical place, comes to the New Earth, . . . isn’t it possible the New Jerusalem right now exists in heaven.
aa Hebrews allows us to see that Earth is made in the image of heaven.
bb We think the Ozarks are pretty this time of year, you ought to see the original they were patterned after in heaven.
3 Rev. 21.1-3, tells us that the future heaven will be on a New Earth.
a The dwelling place of God will be the dwelling place of humanity, in a resurrected universe.
b Some would say that the New Earth shouldn’t be called heaven, I disagree.
aa God’s special dwelling place is by definition heaven & his dwelling will be w/ man on a New Earth, Heaven & New Earth will essentially be the same place (Rev. 22.1)
bb Where is the Throne of the Lamb?
c It makes since because God back to the Garden.
aa Gen. 3.8, God didn’t translate Adam & Eve into heaven to spent time with them . . . He came to them.
bb John 14.23
cc God’s ultimate plan is not for us to be in a realm He made for Him, but to come down & live w/ us in the realm He made for us . . . a New Earth.
Conclusion:
Isaiah 14:12-14
Heb. 12.22; Rev.14.1
Ezek 1.4
Ps 75.6-7
Job 26.6-7
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Mike Fogerson
