Bill is a sweet man who was a remarkably faithful husband. Like so many seniors of our day, medical science was able to extend the length of Bill’s life even though the quality of his life suffered. He hurt for the past seven plus years and wasn’t able to be a part of our church as he wanted to. His back pain was tremendous and there was little doctors could do for him. Yet, he watched/listened to messages, studied God’s Word, and his faith was vibrant all the way to the end of his life. And many of us know people we love greatly where we think the same kind of thing: “Lord, be merciful to my family member and take them home to be with you.
He leaves a big hole in the heart of his wife, Barbara. Barbara was so thankful for Bill but also that his suffering was finally over. They are both are gracious and generous people who love the Lord greatly.
For the next few moments, I want to speak to you about the Bible’s view of Heaven. Let me ask you a question: if you were given a choice of going to Heaven today or waiting ten years, what would you choose? Your answer to this question tells a lot about what you think about Heaven. I think the majority of people would desire to wait ten years or more.
The Apostle Paul considered a similar question. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:21–23).
Like many of you, I might greet you with “Good morning, how are you doing today?” And many times I have heard someone respond, “I am blessed because I am still here.” But how can this be when God offers us His greatest gift by telling us we will spend eternity with Him? The Bible tells followers of Christ, “Your second life is preferred to this life.” The best we have experienced in this life pales in comparison to our lives beyond the grave. The truth is most of us don’t grasp what God has prepared for us. Many of us don’t look forward to our time in the new heavens and the new earth, because we prefer life on this earth. Bill, is experiencing all the joys of Heaven as we gather here to remember him.
For the next few moments, I want to share with you five great truths about Heaven.
1. We Have an Eternity to Experience God’s Love
Again, our Bibles say “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). If you are a believer in Christ, you will have an eternity to experience God’s love. Let me say this another way for all of us. Believers will have an infinite series of moments to experience the rich love of God. The only way you and I (as Christ-followers) could properly experience and appreciate the vastness of God’s love is when we have an infinite about of time to behold it and experience His love.
1.1 Heaven as a Surprise
Think of it: God could have withheld any and all information about heaven from us. Heaven could have a tremendous surprise gift for everyone who has trusted Jesus Christ! Instead, God told us about a world to come so that we could have the prospects of enjoying it. God was happy to tell us about our future home with Him in the new heavens and new earth. Rather than concealing the knowledge of our future home, God choose to inform us. This is how great our Father’s love for us!
1.2 God’s Strength to Comprehend God’s Love
How great is God’s love for His children?
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, … 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14, 16-19).
This is amazing because the Bible teaches we need God’s strength in order to simply God’s comprehend God’s love. Imagine if you are about lift something really heavy and you psych yourself up to prepare to lift a heavy tractor tire or something. Or, what if I were to tell you some really bad news and I might say to you, “I think you need to sit down for this. I think you need to prepare yourself for what I am about to tell you.” Only this is really incredible good news to experience. In order for you to comprehend the greatness of God’s love, you need to God’s strength to fortify your inner self. And part of your great experience of God’s love happens over eternity in Heaven. Think of this: God loved Bill so greatly that Bill needs all of infinity to experience the great love of Christ. See, for Bill “to die is gain!”
1.3 The Power of Heaven to Endure Suffering
Howard Thurman was a great African-American scholar and minister in the middle of the twentieth century, pre-civil rights movement, was a contemporary of Martin Luther King Sr. He gave a lecture on life and death in the Negro spirituals in 1947 at Harvard. When he gave the lecture some 70 years ago, many African-American adults knew plenty of people who had grandparents and even parents who are slaves. During their tragic ordeal, they would sing of hope, justice and the future promise of rest heaven offers. Here’s a statement from Thurman that shows us how the everyday kind of power that focus on heaven can support us and nourish us in times of pain and suffering. Thurman essentially says, “The facts, however, make clear [this sung faith] served to deepen the capacity of endurance and the absorption of suffering. The [spiritual songs] taught a people how to ride high in life, to look squarely in the face those facts that argue most dramatically against all hope, and to use those facts of heaven, of hell, of judgment day, as a raw material out of which they fashioned a hope the environment with all its cruelty could not crush…”
Not many of us will ever suffer through anything as degrading as the suffering endured by many slaves in generations past. Still, we can pull from the same spiritual resources that powered them through some of the worst forms of injustice and suffering known. Focusing on Heaven can power through even the most difficult of days. For believers, this isn’t your best life for you are headed for to spend eternity where everything is made new. Heaven is captivating, filled with rich beauty and color. Rather than being static and unchanging, Heaven is will by dynamic where we will be fully human.
The New Heaven and the New Earth is fully fascinating. Remember, Heaven isn’t a cloud where sit for the ages wishing you had a magazine to read but Heaven is the New Heavens and the New Earth restored. Your resurrected body will have an enormous capacity to experience fresh joy as you worship Christ along with friends and family. Your mind and heart will be redeemed and renewed to experience fresh waves of joy as you marvel at God’s handiwork at all the animals He’s created on the New Earth. You think seeing Blue Wales are interesting now while on vacation, just think of your capacity to give thanks to God while seeing them in the New Heavens and New Earth! Lastly, remember the words of Psalm 16:11: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
God is not the God of boredom. No, the New Heavens and the New Earth will be a place of every increasing joy enjoyed in the presence of God Himself. God has given us eternity to experience His rich love for His children.
1. We Have an Eternity to Experience God’s Love
2. We Will Enjoy One Another in Heaven
Secondly, we will enjoy one another in Heaven.
2.1 Great Conversations in Heaven
“And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God’” (Revelation 19:9). Jesus Himself said, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven… (Matthew 8:11). There will be no TV dinners in Heaven! Can you imagine the dinner conversations we will have together around the table? Think with me about fascinating conversations you will have with many of the redeemed people down throughout time?
Consider how your mind, minus the Curse, will engage in every field in the future – no field will be too difficult for you including anatomy and physiology, calculus, and neurology. Yes, but even more, you will converse with everyone of your loved one who have trusted in Jesus Christ. Everyone of your family and friends who embraced Christ will be there for you to enjoy. Perhaps you can make an appointment right now with a friend or family member in your eternal home. Say to another believer, “Let’s spend sometime together on the other side. I cannot wait to talk with you.”
Not one of your believing family members is lost just because they are dead. Instead, you have simply lost contact with them. I can hear the laughter even now. I have personal friends I will look for eventually on my arrival as you have. Yes, I cannot wait to speak to Paul in order to better understand his personality after studying his letters for so long and I will be among the many wanting to her the new fresh lines of poetry written by “the sweet singer of Israel,” King David. But, I also will look forward to see the healthy resurrected bodies of so many aged believers I have known. I’ll recognize them immediately despite their supernatural infusion of health and life. The reunion will be sweet as we worship the Savior together.
2.2 We Will Know One Another in Heaven
Will I Know and Recognize Friends and Family Members in Heaven? Lisa Milles tells a fascinating story of when evangelist Billy Graham and President Lyndon Johnson were driving around on Johnson’s ranch here in Texas. The former President parked his car near the spot where his mother and father were buried beneath some shady oak trees. He then turned to Graham and asked, “Billy, will I ever see my mother and father again?” “Well Mr. President,” Graham replied, “if you’re a Christian and they were Christians then someday you’ll have a great homecoming.” The Bible confirms Billy’s words as we hear the words of Jesus: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11). Jesus indicated we would know the biblical luminaries of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We will know one another in eternity.
2.3 No Way to Overpopulate Heaven
Again, Jesus tells us about the many people who will join Him in His home one day: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).
I hope you also want a vastly populated Heaven. I bet you do. And if that’s true, we have a wonderful opportunity and purpose to live for – to share how to get from here to there. You may be old, young, educated or illiterate – no matter… for if you have embraced Jesus Christ by faith you have the delightful privilege of sharing the news of the grace of God. You are simply one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. This is evangelism, the joy-filled privilege that every believer enjoys in telling others about eternal life. Believers, let’s spend our years remaining share the love of Christ with others so people will embrace Jesus Christ by faith.
1. We Have an Eternity to Experience God’s Love
2. We Will Enjoy One Another in Heaven
3. We Go Immediately into Christ’s Presence
You may ask, “Do Christians Immediately Go to Heaven?” Did my husband, Bill, go to Heaven right way?
Listen to the 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 for a moment: “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6–8).
Paul is saying here that the very moment he departs or dies is the very same moment he will be in the very presence of Jesus Christ. Now, not everything is super clear about what happens to believes between our death and the Second Coming but the Bible assures us we are close to the Lord until He returns. Now, there are number of people who think believers sleep until Jesus returns, the Second Coming. To be sure, the Bible does describe our deaths as sleep. But think of this way: the physical part of us “sleeps” until the Second Coming, while the spiritual part of us immediately relocates to a conscious existence in Heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Again, you may ask, “Do Christians Immediately Go to Heaven?” Listen carefully to Jesus surrounded by two thieves: “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:39-43).
I like is the word “today.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). No purgatory, no soul-sleep, but simply absent from the body, present with the Lord. That man’s soul was in heaven before the undertaker heard he was dead. Believers go directly into the presence of the Lord. No delays, no detours, and no layovers necessary. One day, believer in Christ, you will take the same trip as the dying thief. We will also arrive in Paradise.
1. We Have an Eternity to Experience God’s Love
2. We Will Enjoy One Another in Heaven
3. We Go Immediately into Christ’s Presence
4. We Will See God’s Very Face
Knowing God is the ultimate prize of life. Seeing the dazzling beauty of God’s face is the reward of life. Complete satisfaction is being in his presence. All trophies, awards, and recognition in this life are bleached silhouettes in comparison to seeing the beauty in him. All the collected grandeur of the world from the serene majesty of the Himalayan Mountains to the tranquil beaches of British Virgin Islands serve as blurry pictures compared to the eternal joy of seeing our Creator. The climax of your life will be seeing Christ face to face.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
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. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 21:22–27, 22:3-5).
God Himself is in the City. Every square inch of the city is hallowed. This is the beatific vision is here - the Vision of God. The is the happy-fying sight and it’s the reason you live for. This is the one sight that make you happy! Everything you long for is found in seeing beauty of the very face of God. Remember, Moses could not look at the face of God and live. But now, His people will bask in the presence of God Himself. You will be satisfied. You will be home at last. Your wandering is over. Your restlessness is over.
“I shall rise from the dead. . . . I shall see the Son of God, the Sun of Glory, and shine myself as that sun shines. I shall be united to the Ancient of Days, to God himself, who had no morning, never began. . . . No man ever saw God and lived. And yet, I shall not live till I see God; and when I have seen him, I shall never die” (John Donne).
1. We Have an Eternity to Experience God’s Love
2. We Will Enjoy One Another in Heaven
3. We Go Immediately into Christ’s Presence
4. We Will See God’s Very Face
5. Jesus Is the Door to Heaven
Jesus is convinced there’s a door to heaven and that He is that Door: “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9).
Jesus Christ will not sit in a row with the other founders of world religions. He won’t sit in a row because none of the rest even began to claim what Jesus claimed. If Jesus were just another teacher like the rest and He comes along and you obey His teaching in hopes that you get into heaven, you could see that there’d really be only three choices based on this:
1. If you’re extraordinarily good at obeying Him, then you have extraordinary confidence you’d get into heaven.
2 If you’re ordinary at obeying Him, then you’re left with just ordinary confidence you’d get into heaven.
3 But if your life has been filled with failures, then you have almost no confidence. Right?
But Jesus wasn’t just another teacher sitting on the front row telling you how to live by His teachings. Instead, Jesus died for many moral failures to be included. Well-meaning people say this to me relatively often: “I just don’t think you have to believe in Jesus to be saved. I believe all good people can find God.” I want you to listen to what I’m about to say carefully, and I do not want you to think this is rhetoric. I do not want you to think this is exaggeration. I want you to take me seriously, please. When you say, “Oh, I don’t believe Jesus is the only way. I believe all good people can come,” what you’re really saying is, “The good people find God, and the bad people do not.” In your effort to be more inclusive by saying all good people can find God, you’ve just left me out, because I am a moral failure. Jesus is the door to Heaven and our friend, Bill, walked through that door just a few days ago.
Conclusion
Speaking of happiness, I’ve been singing a song recently. I think Bill himself is singing a version of it right now. From Aretha Franklin to Ray Charles, hundreds have sung the gospel song, “Oh Happy Day.” The song has been in movies such as Sister Act, Big Momma’s House, and the Nutty Professor. Edwin Hawkins revamped a 200 year-old hymn into the version we all know today. He even won a Grammy for his efforts. He essentially revamped an old hymn with the styles of R & B. It was meant for to be sung by a choir inside a church but the radio market loved it and made a hit. This didn’t make the church crowd too happy and local church officials circulated a petition asking the secular radio stations to stop airing the song. They wouldn’t let Hawkins use the choir when he sang the song feeling it was sacrilegious. The song is based on Acts 8:35 that says Philip, the evangelist, opened his mouth to tell the good news.
Oh Happy Day
When Jesus Washed
My Sins Away
He Washed All My Sins Away
I cannot imagine a happier day for Bill than this.
