What Is Heaven Like?

WHAT IS HEAVEN LIKE?

TEXT: II COR. 12:2-4

INTRODUCTION:

I want to acknowledge Dr. John Barnett as an inspiration for this message, and for stimulating me to my own research on this topic. I didn’t quote him, but after viewing several of his YouTube sermon videos, some of his thoughts inevitably are here reflected, though in my own words.

The word for “heaven” Paul uses here is the Greek, oo-ran-os'. It can have three meanings: 1) the visible expanse of the sky that we can see above us, including that region where the clouds and the tempests gather, and where thunder and lightning are produced; 2) the sidereal or starry heavens, that we would call “outer space, and 3) the region above the starry heavens, where God and other heavenly-beings dwell. Paul also uses the word, “paradise.” This word is of Oriental or Persian origin and is par-ad'-i-sos, and one meaning is, “the upper reaches of the heavens, above and beyond the world.” In our text, the place Paul was taken was that place where God and other heavenly beings’ dwell, which is beyond this world.

Jesus also used the word “Paradise” when He was dying on the cross. One of the thieves who was crucified with Jesus asked that Jesus “remember” him when He came into His kingdom. Jesus did better than just “remember” him. He said to the thief, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 24:43). Notice that Jesus said, “You” will be with “Me.” The thief himself, in his very person, would be with the Jesus with whom he was crucified. The thief and Jesus left their physical bodies on earth when they died. But remember, Paul wrote that we have celestial bodies, i.e., heavenly bodies, and we have terrestrial bodies, i.e., earthly, or physical bodies. (I Cor. 15:40). He emphasized this further in verse fifty-three, when he wrote, “…corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” So, Jesus and the thief went to Paradise together. The first person to enter heaven after the crucifixion was a thief! Amazing!

In John 14 Jesus called heaven His “Father’s house” that has “many mansions” (John 14:2) and He was going to go a prepare a “place” for us there” (John 14:2-3). Jesus is saying that God has a family home – a household – a vast estate, and in it are many residences or places of abode, where His children will live forever under His watchful care and kindness. There is much in both the Old and New Testaments about the place where God, the ascended saints, and other heavenly beings’ dwell.

I want to share with you some thoughts God has dropped in my heart on what is heaven like under the following headings: 1) the scope of heaven, 2) the scenes of heaven, 3) the sovereign of heaven, and 4) the seat of heaven.

I. THE SCOPE OF HEAVEN

A. By the “scope” of heaven, I mean its range, its extent, its scale, and its size.

B. We must first remember that God is infinite so He cannot be limited, and although He has created heaven, heaven cannot contain Him. When Solomon prayed to God at the dedication of the first temple he built in Jerusalem, he said “…the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have built?” (I Kings 8:27).

C. The Bible doesn’t give an exact measurement of the size of heaven, but it does give us the size of the New Jerusalem. In Rev. 21:16 the angel of the Lord gives the dimensions: “And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.”

D. To help me understand this, a website called, “Virily.com” says, “The measurement works out to 1,500 miles in all three dimensions…1,500 cubic miles.” I checked several other sources and almost all agree with these numbers.

E. In terms we can better understand that would be about the distance from Vanceburg, KY to Albuquerque, NM. Drive time, assuming you’re doing 55 MPH, would take about 27 hours. But the city is as wide as it is long, so add another 27 hours to your drive time. But the city is also 1,500 miles high, so add another twenty-seven driving hours.

F. A story in a building, as in a 10-story building, is about fourteen feet on average. There are 5,280 feet in a mile, times 1,500 miles, so you get 7,920,000 feet. Divide the standard 14-foot story into that and you get 565,714 stories! That is a pretty big high-rise!

G. And this is just THE SIZE OF THE CAPITAL CITY OF HEAVEN! In Rev. 7:9 John said he saw in heaven “…a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues…” standing “…before the throne, and before the Lamb…”