“EVERYBODY Wants to Go to Heaven”
1 Thessalonians 4:13
Who wants to go to heaven someday? A recent Christian book is entitled, “EVERYBODY Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die”. There is a lot of truth in that title, but if we believe what was taught by Jesus two thousand years ago, God’s kingdom is HERE and NOW IN PART, and MORE of that Kingdom is coming AFTER our deaths in an eternal future that is not yet fully realized. (We are studying God’s KINGDOM characteristics on Wednesdays and Thursdays.)
Last week we looked at “suffering” as an inevitable part of the life of a follower of Jesus, and dying usually includes suffering: In Romans 8:17-19 we read: “Now IF we are children, (if we have the new birth of the Spirit of God in us, if we have been regenerated, justified, adopted by God, and we are being sanctified and made into the image of Christ )THEN we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, IF indeed we share in his sufferings IN ORDER that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
That final glorification does not take place when we die. Our final glorification will not occur until Christ comes again and our old lifeless bodies which were planted in the grave will be resurrected; then we will receive glorified bodies which will never die. What happens to us in the meantime?
Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 “We do not want you to be ignorant (Greek “Agnoeo”, we get the word agonize! )about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” I don’t want you to be IGNORANT either; What happens to those who have fallen asleep (died) before Christ comes again?
While the Bible doesn’t give a large number of details concerning what happens to followers of Christ immediately upon their physical deaths, it is certainly safe to say that we will enter a NEW REALITY that is far beyond anything we could imagine right now on this earth.
What should we expect at the moment of our deaths and for our loved ones who “die in the Lord?”
"Into God’s Presence”
First: Upon death, Believers are taken into the presence of Christ in heaven, where he is now. (Acts 1:2; 3:21; 1 Thes. 1:10; 4:16; 2 Thes. 1:7) Those who have followed Him closely will go to be with Him. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43).
Paul even realized the difficulty of “letting go of the flesh”. He said: “But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.” Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. (Philippians 1:23-24)
While we are still HERE, we still have the conflict of the I’s, the battle going on between our sin nature and our HOLY SPIRIT of God nature: “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight--we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our AMBITION, (the Greek Word means that we hold this goal HIGHEST in our lives; this is what we LOVE to do!)whether at home or absent, TO BE PLEASING TO HIM.” (2 Corinthians 5:6-9)
Either way, dead or alive, our goal is to glorify our Lord and Savior, but WHEN we die in the flesh, we will be in the presence of Christ. He promised to NEVER leave nor forsake us!
Paul said: “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; (Philippians 1:23) and that he would "prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). Being in heaven with the Lord is referred to as being "at home”: I prefer to BE HOME.
“At Home and Cleansed”
Believers will be “at home” in heaven because we will be with the one who created us, saved us, cleansed us, adopted us to glorify Him and live with Him; When we die, we will be cleansed from all sin. The struggle of the SIN that is within us will finally leave us as we leave our corruptible flesh behind, but our redeemed Spirits from God, WILL SOAR TO OUR SAVIOR and be ALIVE! Upon death, believers in Jesus Christ will receive MORE of the “NOT YET PROMISES” concerning our eternal futures in the Kingdom of our Great God.
Heaven is fully pure and free from all sin and its trappings and effects, and so when God takes believers to heaven, HE makes them fit for the experience by making their hearts perfect in holiness, without spot or wrinkle. (Romans 8:29,1 Thes. 5:23; Ephesians 5:27).
God’s Word also tells us that those who did NOT trust Christ in this life in order to be rescued from sin will be separated from God in the next life. They enter a reality completely void of His common grace and blessing. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus speaks of Lazarus as being taken to heaven when he dies, but the rich man, who did not pay any attention to God during his lifetime, was excluded from the presence of God and the blessings of God’s heaven. (Luke 16:22-26) (Matthew 13:30; 25:41; Luke 12:5; John 3:36; Romans 2:8-9; Hebrews 10:29).
Anticipating New Bodies
Thirdly: When we die before Christ’s FINAL return, we, as believers, will continue to anticipate the resurrection of our bodies from the dead. Souls which are separated from their bodies are not God’s final plan for Christians. (Death for the Christian is called the intermediate state.)
God’s plan includes something greater: BEING RESURRECTED from the dead so that we will live soul AND body forever in the new heaven and new earth.
While still alive, Paul said in Romans 8:22-24: “22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved.” There is a great anticipation for the resurrection of new bodies for those who die IN CHRIST before Christ returns.
This is not at all to DIMINISH the unbelievable joy and relief we will have at the moment of death, but rather, we will see that death is not the end of our existence. When we die our bodies become lifeless and they are no longer the place where we "reside," but we continue to exist as souls, either with Christ in glory OR separated from God and His Grace.
We take courage in the confidence of OUR God to complete His Work, who time after time says to his people, "Do not be afraid" (Joshua 11:6; Isaiah 44:8; Matthew 14:27; 17:7; 28:10; Revelation 1:17). God wants His people to be comforted in the face of death: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you" (Isaiah 43:1-2).
Identifying with Christ WHILE WE LIVE
PHYSICAL DEATH is just one of the ways in which believers identify with the suffering of Christ. Christ died in the flesh and so will we, BUT Christ died SO that we could and WOULD die TO the flesh while living: True Followers of Christ, Believers, identify with Christ’s death in their living.
Paul wrote in Galatians 2:19-20: “For through the law I died to the law so that I MIGHT LIVE for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives IN ME. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
I Corinthians 6:19 says: “and that you are not your own, 20 For you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.”
The more important way that we identify with Christ is to DIE TO SELF BEFORE we physically die; Dying to self PROVES that the Spirit and the SEED OF THE WORD has fallen on fertile and productive soil. Jesus gives only ONE type of soil which is an acceptable option: GOOD SOIL that produces a Godly crop. Jesus said that SOME seed “fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matt. 13:8-9)
Very simply: We have been bought with a price, the Life and death of Christ, so we DO NOT BELONG to ourselves; We belong to God. We are free to serve Him in many ways with all that we ARE and HAVE but If we have been saved by God’s amazing grace, we should be yielding an amazing crop for Christ now.
That phrase, 'He who has an ear, let him hear” is used 7 times in Revelation, giving warnings to the churches. Within 60 years of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the church in Ephesus lacked the love of God. Smyrna was skeptical of undergoing persecution. Pergamos compromised Biblical Gospel. Thyatira was immoral and corrupt. Sardis had only DEAD WORKS. Laodicea (in Rev. 3) was “LUKEWARM”, so God was threatening to VOMIT them out of His mouth unless they LISTENED and served Him wholeheartedly. All of these “Christians” were producing weeds, not Godly fruit.
God is telling us that there are no “LUKEWARM Christians” in Heaven, only on Earth (and in hell). God deserves the best from us, not “LEFTOVERS”. Saints, Holy Ones of God, don’t dare to give our Savior and God our SCRAPS; we give Him the best part of their lives. We weren’t saved to be half-heartedly committed to God. We can’t serve the devil half the time and Christ half of the time.
IN CHRIST, we have been called to consecrated and dedicated HOLY Ground. If we are IN Christ, Life is ALL about God now, and not about me. The most important part of “me” is now serving God and others. God is God, and He wants more of ME…NO… God wants ALL of me and He can demand that of me because He is God: He is Holy and WE are to BE Holy because He is Holy.
Let me close with these verses from 2 Corinthians 5:13: “For if we are BESIDE OURSELVES, (The Greek has the idea of being RADICAL, almost out of your mind…For what purpose?)
It is for God; (If you think that we are over the top and radical it is because we have God’s HONOR and GLORY and His Heaven in view!) if we are of sound mind (moderate), it is for you. (I am not excited about ANYTHING like I am for My God and Savior & His Kingdom.)
14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”
Many people in our society use the phrase, “God loves you,” or “Jesus loves you.” I KNOW He loves me because He has SHOWN me just how much He loves me: In a universe with billions of galaxies, God tells ME: “I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart.” (Jeremiah 1:5) He chose to save me, NOT just to forgive my sin, and NOT just to go to heaven but to LIVE and LOVE HIM, HIM! NOW and forever. My HEART AND LIFE RESPONSE is to love and honor Him with everything that is within me! (With all that is within me, BLESS HIS HOLY NAME!)
I disagree with that title I mentioned earlier, “EVERYBODY Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die”. If you are investing your life, your treasure and your love in God and in His Kingdom NOW, Heaven is where you WANT TO GO because you have died to self; You want to go where your treasure is because you want to go where God IS!
Ecclesiastes 7:2 says “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.”
May God give us grace to work out our salvation, to fashion our hearts, “with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Phil.2:12-13)
OUTLINE
I. What happens to believers at the moment of death? The intermediate state
A. Believers are taken into the presence of Christ.
(Ps,116,Acts1:2;3:21;1Thes.1:10; 4:16; 2 Thes. 1:7, 4:13-14, Luke 23:43,
Phil. 1:23-24, 2 Cor. 5:6-9, John 14:16-17)
B. Believers will be cleansed from all sin.
(1 Thes 5:23; Eph 5:27, Rom 2:8-9, 8:29, Luke 12:5, 16:22-26; Matt 13:30; 25:41;
John 3:36; Heb 10:29.)
C. Believers will anticipate the resurrection of their bodies.
(Matt 14:27;17:7; 28:10; John 11:25,14:16-17, Rom 8:22-24; I Thess 4; Rev 1:17, Josh. 11:6; Isa 43:1-2, 44:8)
II. Believers identify with Christ’s death in their LIVING.
A. Yielding an amazing crop for Christ NOW.
(Gal 2:19-20, I Cor, 6:19-20, Matt. 13:8-9)
B. God wants ALL of me and He can demand that because He is God: There are no “LUKEWARM” Christians in Heaven, only on Earth. (and in hell)
(Rev. 3, 2 Cor. 5:13-16)
C. “God loves you”: MY heart and life response is to love and honor Him!
(Phil.2:12-13, Jeremiah 1:5, Ecclesiastes 7:2)
