Many of you are familiar with Christian writer Lee Strobel, most well-known for his book The Case for Christ and his movie by the same name.
Well, Lee had a near-death experience more recently. This is his account:
"My eyes fluttered. They opened and struggled to focus. My mind fought confusion. I was on my back, stretched out on a firm surface below a bright light. A face came into view looking at me—a doctor, his surgical mask pulled down.
'You're one step away from a coma;' he said, "two steps away from dying."
My eyelids sagged shut. I drifted back into unconsciousness, a welcomed relief from the grotesque hallucinations that had plagued me.
At times like this, hovering over the hazy border between life and death, the afterlife is no longer a mere academic topic to be researched, analyzed, and debated. Heaven and hell, our existence beyond the grave, become desperately relevant. They're all that matter."
And then Strobel makes this comment for his readers:
"I know what you're thinking: Poor guy, he almost died. But here's what I'm thinking: Just wait until it happens to you!
Because it will. One way or another, next week or in decades, you're going to creep up to the dividing line between now and forever. When you slip from this world, what will you find? A void of nonexistence? A dark realm of regret and recrimination? Or a reality that ore vivid, more exhilarating, more rewarding, more real than anything you've ever known? At that moment, in the midst of that existential transition, nothing will be more important. And if it will matter so much then, isn't it worth investigating now?"
Isn't the after-life worth investigating now?
If you think so, then you're in the right place this morning. Because today we investigate the subject of heaven—the afterlife of course most of us here are hoping for. Now there is another alternative, one we don't like to think about much, and we may get to that in a couple of weeks. But for the second part of our series entitled, "What Jesus Said," we're going to focus on what the most incredible and credible man in all of history had to say about heaven.
Now you may not have noticed this in the Gospels, but Jesus actually claimed to have a credibility regarding his statements about heaven that no one on else during His time could possess. He had been there—yes, to heaven. And He was reporting what He had seen. Of course, we would expect this with the Son of God. But he told Nicodemus in John 3:11-13: "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven: the Son of Man." Now that last statement is quite a statement, if you think about it. Jesus is here saying that no one, absolutely no one, had ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven—and that was Him—the Son of Man.
And that might make us wonder what happened to Old Testament saints after they died. Didn't they go to heaven? And if they didn't go to heaven, then where did they go? And I'll leave you with that question for the moment.
And other questions that we'll seek to answer this morning are these: What happens immediately when you die? Where and when does the resurrection fit in? Exactly where is heaven, and where will we be when we experience it eternally? What will we be doing in heaven? And finally, and this may be especially important to some of you here this morning, how do you get there?
So our first question is basically the question that Lee Strobel asked. What's next? What happens immediately after death? What will happen to you when you do what he did: "Creep up to that dividing line that separates now from forever, and then slip into eternity?"
Jesus said, when you die, you'll immediately be with Him in Paradise forever.
Now Jesus talked a lot about the fact that believers will have eternal life. But the one instance where He spoke of what would happen immediately upon someone's death was while he was on the cross. And you probably know the story pretty well. He had a very brief conversation with the thief on the cross next to Him. We find the story in Luke 23:39-43. But before we read that, there's an important backdrop to the story. Matthew 27:44 tells us that originally both of the robbers who were crucified with Jesus were mocking him from the time He was crucified. But as Jesus was being crucified by the soldiers, Luke 23:34 tells us that Jesus was praying, repeatedly, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Then we have this account Luke 23:39 and following: "One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him saying, "are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!" But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." So, apparently one of the thieves had a change of heart about Jesus, because He went from mocking Him, to defending Him, and acknowledging that He had done nothing wrong. And this may well have been because he heard Jesus' incredible prayer—so unlike the ugly abuse that everyone else involved in this scene was hurling at each other. And after defending Jesus, in verse 42, this repentant criminal makes this request of Jesus, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" Obviously, it was the dying request of a man who was hopeless apart from Jesus' mercy which Jesus granted to Him, not just when He would come into His kingdom, but immediately upon His death. For Jesus answered Him in verse 43: "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
The two of them, obviously, were about to die on the very same day. Because this sinful thief had repented and sought to be saved by appealing to Jesus before He died, He was promised on that same day by Jesus He would be with Jesus on that same day. Now this was Jesus' promise to just one man, but from everything Jesus said, we have no reason to believe anyone who asks Jesus for salvation with a repentant heart experiences anything different. All who come to repentant faith in Jesus receive the promise of being with Christ immediately in Paradise.
The rest of the New Testament confirms this notion. The Apostle Paul in Philippians 1:23-24 tells the Philippians that He desires to depart and to be with Christ, speaking of his own exit from this life into the next one, making it clear that His expectation is the same—that immediately at the point of death, he would be in Christ's presence. And in II Corinthians 5:8 we're told by the Apostle Paul, "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, to be absent from this earthly body, according to Jesus and the New Testament is to be at home, or present with the Lord.
Now I know that there are questions with regard to where Paradise was at this time, and where it is now. We don't have time to go into this issue in detail other than to say that it appears from Matthew 12:39 and 40, Ephesians 4:8-10 and II Corinthians 12:4-7 that Paradise was moved from the center of the earth to heaven when Christ ascended from the lower earthly regions into heaven.
But the good news is, at the moment of death, that our souls or spirits, in that moment, are with Christ in Paradise, which I think we would all agree today, constitutes heaven, the place of the very presence of God. That's a good thing, is it not?
But we know that the New Testament generally centers our hope ultimately on the fact that we will ultimately be resurrected in our physical bodies to live forever. After all, this assurance was given to us by Christ's own resurrection from the dead.
And Jesus Himself spoke of our resurrection, most specifically in John 5:25-29: " Truly, truly, I say to you, a time is coming and [b]even now has arrived, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; 27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is [c]the Son of Man. 28 Do not be amazed at this; for [d]a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come out: those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the bad deeds to a resurrection of judgment."
So, those who believe and follow Jesus will be resurrected to a resurrection of life. Notice, he speaks of all who are in the tombs. This must be a reference to our bodies which will be in tombs. The souls and spirits of believers obviously are in heaven at the moment of their death. But according to Jesus' promise here, their souls and spirits will be reunited with their resurrected bodies in the future. When in the future? In this passage, it appears that the resurrection is completed in association with Jesus' judgments, which we know from various other New Testament Scriptures, including Jesus' own words especially in Matthew 25 will be associated with and will occur at and after His Second Coming.
So the believers who die now are in an intermediate state, even an intermediate or temporary heaven. They are conscious, they are especially conscious of God and Jesus' presence, but they are in their presence in Heaven, which is up, but they are in spirit and soul form alone, without their resurrection bodies. Their souls and spirits will be reunited with their resurrected bodies in and around the Second Coming in association with the various judgments that will take place at that time. This is the intermediate state of believers until Christ establishes His kingdom on earth.
So, our second point in answer to our second question about where the resurrection fits in is this: Eventually, all believers will be resurrected in a physical body. Their spirits and souls will be reunited with their resurrected bodies when Christ returns to establish His kingdom on earth.
Now my last statement gives a clue to the answer to our third question this morning. Where is heaven? Well, at the moment, the heaven that believers spirits and souls live in after death is the third heaven, according to II Corinthian 12:4, which is the very presence of God beyond the first two heavens, which probably consist of our earthly atmosphere, as heaven #1, and the realm of the planets, stars and galaxies, which would be heaven #2. Heaven #3, most likely spiritual and invisible in nature, is beyond these two heavens, and presently is the dwelling place of the manifest presence of God.
So where is heaven? It's up; it's a spiritual and invisible place beyond this earth somehow transcending the first two heavens.
But heaven is coming to earth when Christ returns. Our eternal dwelling place will be in a heavenly new earth! Believe it or not, heaven will be on earth, but ultimately it will be a new earth, created without evidence of sin and the curse of death that came with it.
Now my guess is that some of you might be surprised to hear this. However, if you have prayed the Lord's prayer, it's what you pray for every time you pray the Lord's prayer. This is the Lord's prayer as found in Matthew 6:9-10:
"Our Father, who is in heaven,
[d]Hallowed be Your name.
10 [e]Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
[f]On earth as it is in heaven.
Did you notice that? You're praying for God's kingdom to come, and His will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven!
And that prayer is going to be answered, according to Jesus.
We're going to look at two other statements Jesus made about this. First, in John 14:1-3. Jesus was about to depart from the disciples, the next day, through His death on the cross. So he sought to comfort them at his departure: “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be."
This verse indicates that Jesus will come and take his disciples to a physical place where there will be dwelling places, homes of some sort, made available for them, so that they may continue to be in His presence.
Randy Alcorn, in his little pamphlet on the subject of heaven, makes these cogent comments:
"Jesus uses spatial terms to describe Heaven. The word where refers to a location. Likewise the phrase "come back and take you" indicates movement and a physical destination. If Heaven isn't a place, in the full sense of the word, would Jesus have said it was? If we reduce Heaven to something less than or other than a place, we strip Christ's words of their meaning. We do not long for a non-body, non-Earth and non-culture, but for a new body, New Earth, and new culture, without sin and death."
The new place is, ultimately, the new earth.
Now we turn to Matthew 19:28. Jesus has just told his disciples that there will be a great reward for anyone who has sacrificed greatly for the Kingdom of God. Peter, realizing that he and the other disciples had made great sacrifices in order to follow Jesus, asks Jesus if, then, there will be great rewards for them. Jesus answers affirmatively with this statement: "And Jesus said to them, 'Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'"
Now you may ask, "What is the regeneration?" The regeneration is when God regenerates all things, or makes all things new, including the heavens and the earth and you and me. Jesus speaks of "the regeneration" indicating that He expected that the disciples would know what He was talking about. How would they know what He was talking about? Well, they were Jews, who, as devout Jews, should have been familiar with the prophecies of Isaiah found in Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22, when God promised to make a new heaven and a new earth. Just in case the disciples had any doubt about when this would happen, Jesus made it clear by stating that it would happen when the Son of Man, Jesus, would be sitting on His glorious throne in the regeneration. It would be His throne on the new earth, indicating that God's Kingdom had come to earth. "Thy Kingdom come, they will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven." And the promise He gave them is that on this New Earth, in God's Kingdom to come, each of the 12 Apostles would sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Yes, the disciples would receive a great reward in their physical bodies in a physical place called the New Earth that would involve responsibilities to lead, under Christ, their people.
So where will heaven ultimately be? On a new earth amid the new heavens God creates in which, according to Revelation 21, there will no longer be sin, or the curse or death, or crying or pain. God will restore what He intended from the beginning, before the rebellion, sin and death came, and His kingdom will be extended to planet earth where righteous men made perfect will rule and reign with Him.
And with that, we have begun to answer one of our other questions: What will we be doing in heaven, er, on the new earth, in the Kingdom of God and Christ? We will be ruling and reigning and serving Christ, in accord with our faithfulness to Him in this life.
Do you remember the Parable of the Minas which we read before our message this morning?
In that Parable, a nobleman is said to have gone to a distant country to receive a kingdom and then return. And while He's gone he entrusts ten minas, which was worth about 1000 days of wages, to each of 10 slaves or 10 of his servants. He tells them to do business with these 10 minas, or invest them somehow, for his profit when he returns. Now the picture he paints is parallel, of course, to His own situation. He is the nobleman who went on a long journey and entrusted his treasures to the care and business acumen of his servants. We, in turn, are Christ's servants, entrusted with the time, talent and treasures He has given us. And we are to use those talents, time and treasures for God's purposes.
So as the story goes, the nobleman returns and meets with his slaves to settle accounts. The first slave has earned ten more minas with his mina. His master is pleased, commends his slave, with "Well done, good slave, because you have been faith with a little, you are to be in authority over ten cities." Note, this is parallel with the rewards promised for the disciples. The rewards are indeed crowns, symbols of authority, and our reward will be the same--we will be given authority, or crowns which are in accord with our level of faithfulness here on earth in investing God's resources for God's purposes. And so the parable continues. The next slave comes in and has gained five more minas for his master and is rewarded with a commendation and five cities to be in authority over fove cotoes/. And then there's the slave that has earned nothing, and tried to earn nothing, and attempts to excuse himself. His excuse is not accepted, and the 10 minas that had been given to him are taken away and given to the first faithful slave.
What this tells us is that we will not simply be floating on clouds playing our harps, or worshiping Christ all the time, though we will be worshiping him in all we do. But for those of us who have been faithful to Him, and served Him in this life, we will receive rewards in terms of positions of authority to rule and reign under Him but with Him in the Kingdom to come. God is no fool with regard to these issues---he's a wise manager with regard to his servants in this life. He who has been faithful with a little here will be entrusted with much responsibility and authority in the kingdom to come.
This also make sense with respect to other statements Jesus makes about eternity. For instance, there's the statement he makes in the Sermon on the Mount about how a believer's responds to His Word in this life—obediently or disobediently. In Matthew 5:17-19 He tells his listeners,
"Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! 19 Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
So, we will be very involved in life in heaven? We will be worshiping Christ, and we will be worshiping Him by ruling and reigning with Him on a physical earth in the Kingdom of God and Christ, if we have been faithful.
And the final question, and perhaps most important for some of you this morning is this: How do we get there? How do we get to heaven?
For this I refer you back to John 14:4-6—the rest of the story as Jesus is about to depart form his beloved disciples. Remember, Jesus has just assured his disciples that He will come back for them so that they may be with Him, in His Father's house, forever. And Jesus, in verse four says, "And you know the way where I am going."
One of his disciples, Thomas, is concerned that He doesn't know the way to Jesus' Father's house, and therefore may not find his way there. He says to Jesus in verse five: "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?"
And Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
In other words, Jesus is the way, the only way to heaven. When you do what He told the disciples to do—to believe in Him just as they believed in God—to trust Him as the one who would enable them to get to heaven through His death for their sins and resurrection, you can be assured that Jesus will get you to heaven.
How simple, how wonderful, how grand! Heaven, the new heavens and the new earth, will be a wonderful place, and it's a place you can be assured of experiencing forever because you put your belief, your trust in Jesus, and Jesus alone, as the one who will get you there, as your Savior and Lord.
As is obvious, Lee Strobel came right to that dividing line between now and forever and didn't quite cross over. But many saints have. And one of those who did was a very famous servant of the Lord in the 19th century, Dwight L. Moody. As he was making his own existential transition from this life to the next, these were his dying words:
"Is this dying? Why, this is bliss . . . Earth is receding; Heaven is opening; God is calling. I must go."
His words can also be your words if you believe in God and believe in Jesus as God and your Savior as He did!
Let's pray!
