We live in a world full of different ideas about Heaven. World religions have all kinds of forms of it - Hinduism teaches that it’s what happens for the person who finally escapes reincarnation. Mormonism teaches that we’ll all eventually become gods and each have our own planet to populate. Frisbeetarianism teaches that eventually everyone’s soul gets stuck on top of a roof somewhere (I just made that up). Books and movies have been handing us misguided and imaginary ideas about Heaven for centuries. I wonder where all those ideas about Heaven come from. It’s as if anyone’s guess is as good as another’s. But dig into Scripture, and you’ll find that God has given us a lot of information about Heaven. There’s a reason for that:
The Lord wants you to look forward to Heaven
It’s just hours before His arrest and trial. Jesus’ heart is troubled. He knows what’s coming. As He looks at his disciples, He sees that they’re struggling. He knows they’re about to face a most confusing and troubling time. So, He speaks the words we have in John 14 -
John 14:1-3
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Jesus gave them this reminder about Heaven to help them through the tough things they were going to face. He does it again in Revelation 20-21. There, Jesus gives the persecuted Christians of the 1st century a view of Heaven, to encourage them.
Put it all together, and you’ll see that God wants you and me to look forward to Heaven. This morning, in an effort to deal with some questions about Heaven, I hope to help us do that. Specifically, I want to answer the question, “How can Heaven be happy?” We need to answer that, because…
Satan wants you to think that Heaven is horrible
Understand that every bad view of Heaven has its roots in some lie that the devil has spread.
Boring
Being creatures bound by time, we find the whole concept of eternity hard to conceive. When was the last time you used the word “forever” and meant it in a positive way? We generally save that word for a way to describe something horrible that never seems to end - like the movie “Groundhog Day.”
Isaac Asimov was a professor and writer – “Whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of Heaven would be even worse.”
So, let’s begin by observing something: many people think Heaven sounds boring.
Why might someone think such a thing?
1. We’ve bought a lie
The lie is that sin is exciting and godliness is boring; that sin makes life fuller, and that godliness shrinks it; that since life is that way now, that’s how Heaven is too.
In my lifetime, the US has passed through what was dubbed the “sexual revolution.” We’ve thrown off the shackles of prudishness, and declared our sexual freedom. How has that worked out for us? It hasn’t expanded life.
It has reduced something sacred and wonderful to a marketing tool, a substitute for real relationships, a cheap commodity. Does all of this supposed sexual freedom make us bigger and more fulfilled?
Ask the man who threw away his marriage because of pornography or the man who lost his family because of his unfaithfulness if he’s living a bigger life for it. Ask the child who grew up abused, or the woman who was used and thrown away. Ask the teenager sold into human trafficking.
Proverbs 6:26
The prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread…
Paul tells the Philippians about people with a worldly mindset.
Philippians 3:19
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
Just how big is their god? God the Creator is bigger than that – bigger than my impulses, bigger than my appetite that’s satisfied in minutes and then returns in a few hours, bigger than my emotions. Sin shrinks life; it doesn’t expand it. To believe otherwise means you’re buying a lie - a lie that also says Heaven is of no interest to you because it would be boring.
2. We live a lie - that is, we live a Christian life that’s boring!
Part of the reason for thinking that Heaven will be boring is the number of people who live their life in Jesus in boredom. I’m talking about the person who reduces following Jesus to 2 lists: a list of things you can’t do, and a list of things you have to do. That’s called legalism, instead of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if that’s how you approach your life in Jesus, I can only imagine what you think Heaven will be like!
Seriously, if you can’t find joy in life now, then Heaven’s got to sound 10X worse! If the list of things you can’t do now is strict, imagine how much stricter it will be in Heaven!
But there are some Christians who defy this idea – who travel to foreign lands and risk their lives in order to preach and teach; who dare to go against the flow in their schools, even though it’s tough; who dig into God’s word with seriousness to learn and apply it; who actually pray and then watch for God to answer; who stick their necks out at work or in their community, because they’re counting on God to stand by them. Bored? Hardly! But if you’re living your Christian life in a boring way now, no wonder you expect Heaven to bore you!
In Rev, John describes the great beast that comes out of the sea:
Revelation 13:6 (NIV) He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
Satan wants you convinced that Heaven is boring. He opens his mouth to slander the place where God dwells - to lie about Heaven. Don’t buy into the lie. The idea that Heaven is boring is a lie from the devil. I intend to help us leave here remembering that Heaven isn’t boring!
Sad
One of the questions that was recently asked of me is how Heaven can be a happy place when there will be people we love missing from there. That sounds sad, doesn’t it?
Someone said there will be 3 big surprises in Heaven. The first surprise will be all the people who aren’t there who you thought would be there. The second surprise will be all the people who are there who thought wouldn’t be there. The 3rd surprise will be that you’re there!
What about the people who won’t be there? John records:
Revelation 21:3-4
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
How can that be, when people we care about won’t be there?
I don’t think we’ll completely forget about our lives here once we’re in Heaven. Luke 16 shows us a scene in the afterlife where a formerly rich man is conscious of his brothers who are still living on earth. In Revelation 6 we see souls of people in Heaven, wondering how long it would be before God avenges their blood on the earth.
But Scripture doesn’t give us any words to comfort us about the condition of people who aren’t in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Why should it? God doesn’t want any person to perish. His whole plan for all of time-space history is to redeem lost people. There are no recorded words by the saved people in Heaven that give their thoughts about people in Hell. But there are plenty of words that describe the joy of being in Heaven.
Randy Alcorn, in his book on Heaven, describes how we’ll approve God’s righteous judgment.
“We’ll never question God's justice, wondering how He could send good people to Hell. Rather, will be overwhelmed with His grace, marveling at what he did to send bad people to Heaven. (We will no longer have any illusion that fallen people are good without Christ.)…We’ll embrace God’s holiness and justice. We’ll praise Him for His goodness and grace. God will be our source of joy. Hell’s small and distant shadow will not interfere with God’s greatness or our joy in Him.”
Maybe the more important question regarding our love ones not being in Heaven is:
What can we do about it?
If they’re alive still, there’s plenty for us to do! If we’re concerned that people we care about won’t be in Heaven, we have every reason to love them, to pray for them by name, to reason with them, to warn them, to plead with them to follow the only Way into Heaven. If we really believe what Scripture teaches, let’s remember it gives us something to do, even though the decision isn’t ours to make for them. Somehow, even though people will refuse to go there, Heaven won’t be sad.
Scary
Maybe the thought of Heaven is a bit scary to some.
Ill - Our grandtwins are 4½ right now, and lately they have been asking their parents about death and dying and Heaven. So, I’m trying to tell Aaron how great Heaven is going to be, and how Jesus is going to take us to be there. Right away his concern is if we’ll get to come back home or not. Right now, for him, Heaven sounds a little scary because it means leaving the security he finds in his home here on earth. Bless his heart - that’s an innocent and honest concern, but it’s also the concern of someone with very limited understanding.
If your understanding of life is that this place here is all there is to it, and that there couldn’t possibly be something much, much better, then maybe Heaven sounds kind of unappealing to you too.
On the other hand, if you’re tired of getting the flu, tired of having to use locks on your doors, tired of getting old, tired of anger, drama, and meanness, tired of lies, tired of having to work so many hours, tired of killer storms, tired of funerals, then maybe the place of perfect peace, security, and joy that lasts forever where you get to live with a new and perfect body sounds pretty appealing.
Mark Buchanan, talks about Heaven in Things Unseen – “It’s the one place where both impulses – to go beyond, to go home – are perfectly joined and totally satisfied….Our yearning for home is once and for all fulfilled. The ahh! of deep satisfaction and the aha! of delighted surprise meet, and they kiss!”
I want for every one of us to put away any wrong ideas we have about Heaven being a place that’s boring sad or scary. Instead, I’d like to see us get chills up and down our spines whenever we talk about it. In the interest of that, let’s talk about some of what won’t and will be in Heaven. I’ve done this before, but from what I can tell, it’s still the same…
Won’t be in Heaven:
Revelation 21:4
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Go ahead and make your list. Every thing that happened clear back in Genesis 3 because Adam and Eve sinned is going to be undone. The curse is going to be removed. The creation is going to be like it was when God looked at it and said “it was very good.”
No more viruses or allergies. No more cancer. No more birth defects. No more mental disease. No more natural disasters. No more mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, or poison ivy. No more arthritis or heart attacks. No more near-sightedness or far-sightedness or lost-sightedness.
You can accuse me of being a kind of “glass half empty” guy, but I believe one of the great joys about Heaven is this list of things that won’t be there. Jesus referred to the fact that moths and rust aren’t there, and thieves aren’t there. I’m thankful this morning for what won’t be in Heaven.
But the long list is the list of what will be there…
Will be in Heaven:
This isn’t a complete list - it’s just a start…
A Reception
Jesus said,
Luke 16:9
make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
The point of the parable that Jesus tells here is that we should use our resources now to help other people make it to Heaven. The result will be that, when you arrive there, those people you helped will be part of the welcome you’ll receive. Think about that: people you knew, welcoming you, into Heaven.
Several times in the OT, rather than just saying someone “died,” it says, he was “gathered to his people.” What’s that mean? I’m pretty sure it means he was welcomed into Heaven, by those who died before him.
Paul tells the Corinthians that the Spirit will “bring us with you into his presence.”
I’m looking forward to a great welcome when we arrive in Heaven.
I Thessalonians 4:13-18 is given to us as a word of comfort. So much of it refers to the fact that we’ll be conscious of each other in all this. We’ll see a difference between those who have died and those who are still alive when Jesus returns. And, it ends,
1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
Together, with the Lord, forever.
Work
Jesus was questioned about working on the Sabbath, and He said,
John 5:17 “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Adam and Eve were placed in the perfect garden in a perfect creation in order to “work it.” The ability to do productive work is one of the qualities God built into us that is a blessing.
But, I also understand what it’s like to paint something only to know it will need to be painted again someday. I know what it’s like to fix the faucet and know that one day, it will just wear out again. What will it be like to know that every bit of work we do will last? What will it be like to know that, no matter what we do, our next work will be our best?
Ill - Herbert L. Clarke was one of the greatest cornet players who ever lived. He was born in 1867, and he achieved notoriety worldwide. Despite his fame and success at the time, he determined to stop playing concerts when he turned 50, because he would be past his prime. He knew that as he aged he would begin to lose some of his skills. Though he was the principal cornetist of the John Philip Susa Band, he retired from it in 1917.
Just imagine what it will be like to become only better and better at everything we try! Imagine what it will be like not only to see all your work last, but to see your own skills always increasing. Imagine erasing the words, “I used to be able to…” from our language and replacing them with “I remember when all I could do was…”
Rest
Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
The book of Hebrews says there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Come tomorrow morning, when the alarm goes off, that’s going to be a happy thought, if I’m able to think it! And if you’re old and your body is getting tired, that’s a happy thought, isn’t it? If you’re stressed, or working 2 jobs, or frustrated by the way everything never seems to get done, rest sounds good, doesn’t it? There will be genuine rest in Heaven.
The list goes on…
Reigning
Revelation 21:24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
Revelation 22:5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
Eating, Healing
Revelation 22:1-2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Service
Revelation 22:3
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
Laughter
Luke 6:21b
…Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Conclusion:
Eternity will go on forever - so could a sermon trying to describe Heaven. But just think of it - if just a tiny glimpse of Heaven has stirred up something inside you, imagine what the whole thing will be like!
The novel, Edge of Eternity, Nick Seagrave sees the end of the world, and he comes to realize it’s really the beginning:
“I saw a dying cosmos hold out its weak right arm, longing for a transfusion, a cure for its cancerous chasm. I saw the Woodsman (that’s Jesus), holding what appeared to be a tiny lump of coal the same size as the blue-green marble he’d held before. The Woodsman squeezed his hand and the world around me darkened. Just as I felt I would scream from unbearable pressure, the crushed world emerged from his grip a diamond. I gasped air in relief.
I saw a new world, once more a life-filled blue-green, the old black coal delivered from its curse and pain and shame, wondrously remade.
It looked so easy for the Woodsman to shape all this with his hands. But then I saw his scars…and remembered it was not.”
That’s the story of creation and recreation. God has made us for this very purpose…
