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Heaven Heaven
Heaven is word that means great
deal to ever Christian. It is the place that we are looking forward to going
someday. We sing about and we wonder about it so I thought this morning we take
a closer look at this place called heaven.
What is heaven?
Lets begin by look at some
definition of the word to see if it will help understand the use of heaven in
the Bible.
Webster 1.
the expanse of space that seems to be over the earth like a dome
2. the dwelling place of the Deity
and the joyful abode of the blessed dead b : a spiritual state of everlasting
communion with God.
While these are pretty good
definitions we can gain a greater understanding of what heaven is by looking a
several scriptures. First of all I want to make it clear that heaven is a
literal place and is not myth. In lesson I will increase your understanding of
heaven however, we will never be able to learn from the written word exactly
what it looks like and
everything it entails. The best place for us to begin is in the book of Revelation
starting in 21:9. We need to understand that John does his best to give us a
general idea of the wonderful beauty of heaven. However, his description will
never do justice to what it really looks when we get to see it for the first
time. Let me give you an example by way of a story.
Little girl can’t see very well,
but she can have a surgery at 12 years old to correct the problem. On their way
to get surgery mom describes to her the mountain peek outside the hospital.
When the bandages came off the daughter could see good for the first time and
she began to cry when she saw the peek her mom described and she asked her why
didn’t you tell me how beautiful that mountain really was. She, told her tried
to tell you but I just couldn’t. Well this same this is true in what we are
about to read as John describes heaven to us.
Revelation
21:9 Then one of the seven
angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me
and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's
wife." 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit
to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy
John has done his best to
describe to us what he saw and put it terms that we can understand. He paint a very
beautiful picture of heaven using precious gems stones to try to get us to
contemplate the beauty that he was seeing. I personal like how describe the
road as being Gold but looking like transparent glass. While we conjure up a
picture of what this may look like I think we will all be surprised at how far
off our picture was compared to the beauty of the real heaven. We learned from
John that there is no darkness there and that the light come from God. John
even describes a river that is clear as a
John 14:1 "Let not your heart be troubled;
you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 "In My Father's house are many mansions;
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. 3 "And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 "And where I go you know, and the
way you know." 5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do
not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Jesus had made us a promise that
he is off preparing a place in this wonderful place called heaven and when he
comes back again he will take us to that beautiful city of
Philippians
1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live
on in the flesh, this will
mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I
cannot tell. 23 For I am hard pressed between the two,
having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which
is far better. 24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.
I sure many Christians go through
this type of struggle in their life. On one hand they think it would be great
to die and go to heaven but on the
other hand they start thinking about all they can still do on the earth to help
other people become closer to God. I also like what Paul says in,
2
Corinthians 5:1 For we know
that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly
desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we
shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not
because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be
swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this
very thing is God, who also has given us the
Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we
are always confident, knowing
that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by
sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased
rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether
present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
Again we see Paul contrasting
being with the Lord and living
here on the earth. Heaven is defiantly a wonderful that we want to be but we
need to make sure that we don’t forget to do our best to encourage others to
long after heaven as well. We also learn from Paul in the passage that we just
looked at that heaven is eternal and it will never pass away.
Now that we have talked about the
beauty of heaven and how much Paul wanted to be their lets answer the question,
Why we should we be interested
in going to heaven? Do we just want to go because it’s a beautiful place or
because Paul wants to Go? Why wouldn’t we just want to stay here on the earth?
In regards to these questions lets
take a look a several
reason why we want to go to heaven for more than just its beauty.
First of what can living here on
earth offer us. 1. Nothing is permanent here and when Jesus comes back this
earth will be destroyed.
2 Peter
3:10 But the day of the
Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away
with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the
earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
None of the material possession we
have satisfy us for very long because we keep looking for something new to
bring up pleasure or comfort. Solomon was a man who had it all and he concluded
that was nothing new under the sun. This
life on earth is full of sorry, pain, and death. We have to work and work and
work some more. When you
really think about if we all had was our life here on earth it really isn’t
that grand. But now lets take a look at some scriptures that talk about the
wonderful benefits of heaven. Again, we are going to go back to the book of
Revelation.
Revelation
21:1 Now I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also
there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, 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 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 be their God. 4 "And God will wipe away every
tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.
There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Wow, John just gave us six
different reasons why we should be so interested in going to heaven. 1. He says
that God will be there and we can be with him. 2. God will wipe away ever tear.
What a comforting thought being in place where do not need to cry. 3. There
shall be no more death. Can you image never dieing living forever, well heaven
this is a reality because according to Paul in 1Corthians 15 we are given a new
body that will not perish. 4. There is no sorrow there. How wonderful would
that be nothing to worry about no heartaches only love, joy, peace and
happiness. 5. There will be no more crying. Obviously if there is no death or
sorrow their will never be a need to cry. Finally, 6 Their shall be no more
pain. Again, I say wow, can you imagine being in place where you no longer have
to deal with pain. No more headaches , no more diseases no more accidents.
These 6 reason by themselves should make ever person desire to go to heaven.
Ah, but there is more.
Revelation 14: 13 Then I heard a voice from heaven
saying to me, "Write: 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now
on.' " "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from
their labors, and their works follow them."
When we get to heaven we will also
get to rest from our labors and enjoy a direct fellowship with God. Surely, we
can see that heaven is the place to be. So far we have just compared heaven and
earth. But since the earth will be destroyed when Jesus returns we have one
other place we can choose to go and that is hell. It doesn’t take very long at
to see that hell is place that you don’t want to be. Lets look at just a few
scriptures that describe what will happen there.
First of we need to realize that
hell is literal place and it will last forever as well. In Mat 25 Jesus
describes who how the Christian and non-Christian will be separated and one
will go to heaven and the other hell. But notice what he says in,
Matthew
25:46 "And these will go
away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Notice hell is described as a
place of everlasting punishment. Mark describes hell as place where the worm
does not die and fire is
unquenchable Mk. 9:48.
John has this to say about hell,
Revelation 14:11 "And the smoke of their torment
ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the
beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."
Now if this sounds like the place
for you then you must not be playing with a full deck. Hell is place reserved
for the devil and his angels and for all of those who choose not to seek after
heaven.
So, surely can see that we should
all be interested in going to heaven.
Now that we see that there is only
2 destinations heaven or hell I want to answer the question, How can we make sure that we make it
to heaven and avoid the pits of hell?
To answer this question lets take
a look a several passages that make a contrast between those who will be saved
in heaven and those who be lost. Once again let return back to book of
Revelation in Chapter 21.
Revelation
21:6 And He said to me,
"It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I
will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 "He who overcomes shall inherit
all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. 8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving,
abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars
shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is
the second death."
First of all notice everyone can
obtain heaven if they want it but requires them to overcome the sin of the
world and remain pure before
God. However, those who seek to please themselves will find their one way trip
to hell.
Revelation
22:14 Blessed are those who do His commandments,
that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the
gates into the city. 15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually
immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
John says if want to be blessed,
if you want to make it to heaven then you must do his commandments. I love what
John says in,
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we
keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
Some people think keeping God’s
word is just to hard but John is telling us no there not because they are not
burdensome. So, this means that every
single person is capable of living their life according to God’s will. Those
who choose not to will never be let into heaven. We could look a several more
passage that show this same pattern of how those who follow God’s word will
make in to heaven and those who do not will find themselves in hell. I think
John does a great job of summarizing this point in,
2 John 1:9 Whoever transgresses and
does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in
the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.
So, if want to make to that
beautiful place called heaven we must obey God’s commands.
Now I have one last thought I want
to share with you this morning about heaven. First of I want you to think about
who is heaven right now. We know that God is there and the angels are there.
However the church also describe as God’s kingdom is not there yet but it will
be in the future when Jesus returns.
1
Corinthians 15:24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the
kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority
and power.
This is very important for us to
understand that if we are not part of Gods kingdom which means belonging to the
church then we will not find ourselves in heaven. We can also see this from
what Paul says in,
Ephesians
5:23 For the husband is head
of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the
body.
You see only those that have been
added to the church will be saved. Paul makes it very clear that we are not
added to the church until we obey the command to be baptized in the name of
Christ for the remission of our sins.
1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body -- whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free -- and
have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
In order to make into the one body
which Jesus will save and take to heaven you must be baptized. We see this
happening at the birth of the church Acts 2. Peter and the other apostles spoke
a great message about Jesus death burial and resurrection and it made an impact
on the audience that day because they realized they had crucified their
Messiah. Lets pick up in verse 36.
Acts 2:36 "Therefore
let all the house of
Now watch the crowds response.
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and
said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
They wanted to know what they
should do so Peter answer them.
38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent,
and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 "For the promise is to you and to
your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will
call." 40 And with many other words he testified
and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse
generation." 41 Then those who gladly received his
word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
You see those who gladly received
Gods commands were baptized for the remission of their sins and they were added
they were added to the church that day and Acts 2:47 tells us that it is God that add
us to the church when we choose to be saved.
Acts 2:47 And
the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Once we have become a part of the
church or Gods kingdom then we must keep pressing to the goal of heaven by
remaining faithful to God until the end of our life. When we do this we are
promised that heaven will be our home.
Revelation
2:10 Be faithful until
death, and I will give you the crown of life.
I hope this lesson has taught you
how wonderful a place heaven really is and how important is for a Christian to
remain faithful to Lord so that you can see the beautiful city of
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