The Five People You Meet In Heaven

I want you to listen to one of Paul’s prayers to the Ephesian church: “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

I want you to think about that one person, or that one thing, on earth that you love more than anything else. For me, it’s my son. I have loved deeply in this world before, and I love my wife, but I have never experienced this kind of love before. I’ve never know the power that this kind of love can have. I would truly do anything for him. Yet the love that I have for Matthew, it doesn’t even come close to the love that God has for me. And that one person or thing that you love on earth, that love doesn’t even come close to the love that God has for you. God so loved the world. We will never understand that kind of love before heaven.

And here’s how he loves you, he loves you enough to want to change your character to become like Christ.

Let’s get back to this book. As Eddie’s learning from his five people, he goes to each person’s heaven. Apparently, each person’s heaven is different. And it changes with each new person that he goes and meets. Sometimes it’s the rusty grim of that amusement pier, and sometimes it’s the jungles of the Philippines in WW2. For others, it’s a continual wedding.

Can I tell you something this morning? Heaven doesn’t change. I know when I die, I’m not going to Bob’s vision of heaven. I’m not going to my Dad’s vision of heaven. I’m not even going to my vision of heaven. I’m going to a home that has been prepared for me. Jesus said, “2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am”

DO you know what that place is like? Peter says that it is, “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, (1 Peter 1:4).” God has built it, he has designed it for us. John would write this about heaven, “1Then 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 2down 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. 3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5There 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.”

Here’s the truth, heaven is a place that God created, and he has prepared special places for us. When we die, we aren’t going over to our friend’s house to spend the night. We are going to the Almighty’s house. We are going to spend eternity living in the house of the greatest Creator and architect that has ever lived. Think of the most beautiful creation you’ve ever seen, the most beautiful building or monument. That can’t hold a candle to what God can create with just a word. And guess what—it’s waiting for you.