Have you ever noticed that life is always better when a vacation is on the horizon? It’s just a fact of life. When you’re going on a long trip you may contact a travel agency or you surf the net or talk to friends who have had a great experience somewhere. So you begin to look at pictures. You do searches for activities and events there and along the way. You check out your frequent flyer accounts or your Hotel reward programs to see if you can cash in on a free ticket or lodging. You check out golf courses or shopping malls on the Internet. And as the day approaches your excitement and anticipation swells! When you are a week out you check out the ten-day forecast and you start checking it daily until the moment you depart.
The Bible tells us that each one of us will go on a long trip—in fact it will last for all eternity. You will be assigned to one of two places, heaven or hell. There’s no middle ground. But for such an important journey we should be putting more time and energy into planning for that than we do our earthly travel. Choice, not chance, will determine your eternal destination. This morning, we are going to take an intentional detour in our Philippians series and here is why. One of the reasons that joy is hard to find in the world, is because a fallen world is designed to rob you of joy. It’s designed to break your heart. But the good news, is that for a Christian, those same realities are meant to grow our affections for heaven. And one of the reason joy eludes us, is because we are too focused on the here and now sometimes to the point that we forget that our greatest joy was not to be derived from the things this world offers us. Our greatest joy is to be reserved for focusing on what God has promised is waiting for us.
So, hard times, difficult and painful patches, serve a Godly purpose of sharpening our affections for eternity, the place of ultimate joy. We have titled the message this morning Far Better because that is exactly what Paul said in the verses we looked at last week when he thought about death as gain. “To live is Christ but to die is gain!”
Let me tell you one of the dangers of our preaching and teaching here at LHC. We spend a lot of energy on not only teaching the Bible, we work really hard to help you understand what it could look like to faithfully apply it. We believe the Bible contains real truth that can be applied to a real person struggling with a real problem. So, what’s bad about that? Here is what we have to be careful of:
ONE: we can evaluate every sermon NOT through the filter of “is it true?” but through the filter of “does it personally help me?” The purpose of the Bible is NOT to make your life better. The purpose of the Bible is to reveal the character and redemptive plan of God through Christ. Now, should the overflow of teaching produce more joy and wisdom? Of course! But, that’s the not purpose. And if we are not careful, we can become more interested in the gifts (like a better life) than we are the giver.
Here’s another thing we have to be careful of when attempting to be very practical or applicational: we can become imbalanced in our focus where we are so focused on applying the Bible to the TEMPORAL life that we are living, that we spend no time thinking about heaven. And that leads to a lack of joy because every circumstance is then filtered through “does this make me happy right now in the temporary life that I am living?” Instead of, “does this make me long for home and increase my joy at the thought of it?”
Because when all of our focus in on the here and now, we start hoping that eternity holds off a little longer…like we create this list of things that we want to do BEFORE we leave this earth!
We’re like the little boy who was sitting in church one day. The preacher was going on and on about how great heaven would be. He talked about the streets of gold and the angels and about seeing God face to face. He concluded his message by asking the members of the congregation to raise their hands if they wanted to go to heaven. All hands went up into the air, except for one little boy. He sat there looking scared. So the preacher looked directly at the little boy and asked everyone again to raise their hand if they wanted to go to heaven. Again, all hands went up into the air except the little boy. So the preacher bent down and asked, “Son, don’t you want to go to heaven one day?” The little boy said, “Oh, yeah, ONE day I do. But the way you were talking, I thought you loading up the bus to leave right now.
So we want to remind you today of the joy that awaits us in heaven, with the HOPE that it increases your joy by reminding you that truly – the best is yet to come.
So, turn with me in your Bible to one of the most familiar passages of Scripture in regards to providing us with some details…Revelation 21 where today I want you to learn about this place that God has prepared for you, and I believe that if you LEARN what it is like then you will LONG to be there.
Revelation 21:1-6
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 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. 4 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.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, ”It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
1. HEAVEN IS AN ACTUAL PLACE
We have this picture of clouds; fog and we envision St. Peter at the pearly gates, and everyone wearing white robes. In our minds we picture a heaven that isn’t like the Biblical picture of heaven. In John 14:2 Jesus is speaking to his disciples when he said: “I go to prepare a place for you.” Heaven is not some figment of our imagination, Heaven is not a state of mind, it is a literal place:
a. It will be a restoration project
Acts 3:21 says that “God will restore everything.” I love that concept, that’s why my absolute favorite show is Fantom Works. This is a car restoration show where the owner, Dan Short, restores old cars and trucks that are older than 1973 (ILLUSTRATION about my 1973 F100). I love to see the old become new, and the obsolete give way to the functional. Matthew 19:28 says that “there will be a renewal—a restoration”.
Many scholars believe that Heaven will be similar to the original Garden of Eden. The only difference is that the Lord has been working on preparing your place for two thousand years. Remember that in the Garden of Eden, God said, “This is good.” It wasn’t bad until Satan and sin entered the picture.
Revelation 21:1 says there will be a new heaven and new earth—the word new here means new in quality, it’s not as though it never existed. Someday I hope to say, “Come over and look at my new truck.” Now, it’s not new, I’ve owned this truck for a while...but it will mean that my girls are through college and I’ve finally saved enough money to have my truck restored!
Another reason we know heaven to be a real actual place is that…
b. It will have an actual city
One of our pastors tells the story of teaching a Bible study on heaven for young adults. As he was teaching out of Revelation 21 and when it came to the description of the Holy City he proudly sketched out a loose diagram of the dimensions of the city based upon the verses and wrote in huge letters NJ in the middle. When he turned around from the white board and saw one of the ladies with a disgusted look on her face. “What’s wrong? You look disappointed.” She said, “No offense but when I die I want to go to Heaven, not New Jersey!”
Numerous times in the New Testament heaven is described as a city, a city that will be known as the New Jerusalem, not New Jersey. We see this in Hebrew 11 & 12 and in Revelation 13, and 21, verses 1 and 2. And later in this morning’s passage, it says: “23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”
Revelation 21:15-17
And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement…
This city is described here as a 1500 hundred mile cube (Meaning it goes upwards too.) And John writes the dimensions are according to “man’s measurements.” This certainly implies that this is not some figurative number but that it could be taken literally. Those dimensions would cover some two million square miles (compared to: NYC-302 / Mexico City-570). To try and put the size of New Jerusalem in perspective, it would stretch from Canada to Mexico, Kentucky to California and it would be 780,000 stories high and that’s just the city! Just the fact that the dimensions are mentioned in such specific fashion underscores that heaven is an actual place with an actual city. For those of you who prefer rural settings to metropolitan areas, don’t worry, there’s a place for you. That’s why in Revelation it says that you can go in and out of the city, which means there is territory to explore. There are gates on each side, for coming and going.
So realize this heaven is not some mystical area exempt of floors and ceiling, and dominated by simply clouds. No, it is an actual place with streets lined with gold. But notice that heaven’s not only an actual place, heaven is also a transforming place.
2. HEAVEN IS A TRANSFORMING PLACE
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
How many of you have seen or read the Chronicles of Narnia? In the Chronicles of Narnia, the children live at home with Lord Digory and after their adventure he puts things in perspective by telling the children, “Our own world is only a shadow or a copy of something in Aslan’s real world.” For those of you who have not seen the movie, Aslan represents Jesus Christ. Why would C.S. Lewis write that line to describe heaven? Well it’s because the Bible speaks that it is a place where transformation takes place. Our lives now are just a shadow of what’s to come! 1 John 3:2 says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
a. Transformed physically
We will be ourselves in heaven with a glorified body somehow. God’s humor right now with me is that I have more hair on my back that I have on my head. I don’t know why that is – but when I get to heaven, it’s very likely that I’m going to have a beautiful new mane…like when I was in high school! While we don’t fully understand it, but we would all agree that this phenomenon is one of the reasons we are excited about heaven. Instant transformation is rather appealing.
A Country farmer along with his wife and son ventured to the big city for the first time. They were amazed by everything they saw. They parked in front of a huge building and the wife stayed in the car while the father and son went in to buy a big city newspaper. While they were in the lobby they were mesmerized by two shiny, silver walls that would move apart and then back together again. The boy asked his father, “Hey Pa, What is this?” The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, “Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t know what it is.” While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an elderly lady limping slightly with a cane slowly walked up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady walked between them and into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched, small circles of light with numbers above begin to flash intermittently. They continued to watch the circles until the walls opened up again and out walked a beautiful 24-year-old woman and she smiled and sauntered past them. The father turned to his son and said, “Boy, go get your Mama.”
Heaven will be instant transformation. The Bible says in the twinkling of an eye—that’s much faster than an elevator! When we get to heaven our physical transformation will be similar to what Christ’s body went through after his physical death and resurrection. There was some slight change in his appearance and so a couple of times people had to do a double take to make certain that it was Him. When there’s been a subtle change in a person physically, from a distance we may be uncertain of someone’s identity and we do a double take at first, but when you see a mannerism, you know that it is the person you thought it might have been. So rest assured in heaven in light of some form of physical transformation your identity will still be known and evident.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more…
Romans 8:23
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.
Somehow our bodies will go through some type of redemption, a glorified improvement or enhancement. It was this truth that led Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to pen these words in Philippians 3:20-21: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who … will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
While the prospect of inheriting a body without defect or deterioration is exciting, there is something even more exciting…
b. Transformed Spiritually
4 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.”
No more death – that’s a reference to the transformation that will take place physically. “No more mourning, or crying, or pain” (your translation may say no more sorrow) – that’s the transformation of the inner man. The heartache that sin brings will be gone forever. Not only are our physical bodies transformed, but we are transformed spiritually… “He who began a good work in you will complete it!” That’s what we call glorification – Romans 8:30 says “those he called, he also justified; those he justified he also GLORIFIED.” We’ve been talking quite a bit about glorification recently – the presence of sin is once and forever removed. THIS is what should get us most geeked about heaven – no more inclination to rebel, no sin, no temptation. Can you imagine life in that environment?
Someone asked Joni Erickson Tada, the author and Bible teacher who has been a quadriplegic for decades after a diving accident as a teenager, if she was excited to finally be able to stand and take off running once she gets to heaven. Listen to her reply: “Yes, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to that. But what I’m most looking forward to is to finally be free my sin!”
1 Corinthians 15:51-52
We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
You see, heaven is an actual place and it is a transforming place, but also contrary to popular opinion…
3. HEAVEN IS AN EXCITING PLACE
Don’t buy into the stereotype that heaven is a boring place where you are sitting around strumming harp. Everything that is good here will be perfect there, everything that is bad here will be absent there. It will be nothing like you could ever imagine. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
Does that get you pumped up? I love surprises and God’s word says that you can’t even begin to conceive of what he’s prepared for you in heaven.
Philippians 1:23-24
I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”
When you go in an ice cream shop and ask for a sample of some flavor, they don’t give you two dips of it, they give you a tiny plastic spoon. Why? They want to whet your appetite for more. It’s just a taste of what’s to come. Every now and then we get just a glimpse that whets your appetite for what heaven will be. God wants you to anticipate how awesome it will be.
Maybe your divine free sample is your heart beating faster when you see a co-worker or friend step in to the baptistery. When you and a friend break in to a belly laugh over something that happened years ago, and your sides begin to hurt and your face hasn’t smiled that big in months—that’s a glimpse of heaven. When you hear a doctor say, “I don’t know how to tell you this, medically it doesn’t make sense but the tumor is gone or the cancer has been completely removed” …that’s a spoonful of heaven. When you watch a disabled child compete in a Special Olympics and cross a finish line, when you watch your grandson get a base hit, when you are exposed to the beauty of sunrise over the ocean, those are heavenly sample spoons that expose you to a tiny swallow of what heaven will be continuously.
So heaven is exciting because everything that is fallen in this world, will NOT be there, and everything that is perfect WILL be there. But here is the most exciting thing about heaven. Look at verse 3. “And I heard a loud voice coming from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them.’” And when that day comes, persevering through these hard days with joy will be worth it.
What a day that will be
When my Jesus I shall see
When I look upon His face
The One who saved me by His grace
When He takes me by the hand
And leads me to the Promised Land
What a day, glorious day that will be
