Heaven
– sermon notes
Nearly two thousand years before Christ Elihu the son of
Barachel the Buzite wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the man
from the land of Uz, the most righteous man on earth, a Gentile named Job,
said;
Job
19:25 For I know that my redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27
Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not
another; though my reins [internal organs] be consumed within
me.
Over a thousand years
later during the century, most likely, that saw the founding of the city of
Rome, a prophet named Isaiah wrote;
Isaiah
26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for
thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
And again, in a few
hundred years, when the Persian Empire occupied all of the ancient Near East, a
prophet named Daniel wrote;
Daniel
12:2 And many of them that sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt.
Also read starting in
Ezekiel 37:1 for an explanation that not only Israel at that time but one about
resurrection of a physical body WE can understand.
So, before Christ,
there was an understanding that there would be a resurrection. Daniel noted
that some would have everlasting life. But, based on what? How do we have
everlasting life?
According to the New
Testament, by the very words of Jesus Christ Himself, by believing what He said
about Himself, believing in His resurrection, and trusting in His righteousness
and not our own for our salvation.
John
14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way,
the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Then, in the same
chapter John noted that Jesus elaborated further.
7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my
Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the
Father, and it sufficeth us.
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long
time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me
hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Peter declared;
Acts
4:12 Neither is there salvation in any
other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved.
Paul told us;
Romans
10:8b:The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the
word of faith, which we preach; 9 That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed.
12 ¶
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek [Gentile]:
for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved.
John wrote for us;
1John
5:20 And we know that the Son of God is
come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true,
and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true
God, and eternal life.
And by this faith we
are sealed until the day of redemption, the day of our resurrection.
Romans
8:23 And not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
2Corinthians
1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given
the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Ephesians
1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Ephesians
4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
In fact, as soon as we
leave our current mortal body we are with Christ.
2Corinthians
5:1 ¶ For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our
house which is from heaven: 3 If so be
that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan,
being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that
mortality might be swallowed up of life. 5
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath
given unto us the earnest [like earnest money; a desposit] of the
Spirit. 6 Therefore we are always
confident, knowing that, whilst 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, I say,
and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
And where is this
eternal place in the heavens? Paul himself was taken there, perhaps when he was
stoned with stones and rocks and thought dead as recorded in Acts 14.
2Corinthians
12:1 ¶ It is not expedient for me
doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years
ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot
tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught UP to the third heaven. 3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body,
or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught UP into paradise, and
heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
Galatians
4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is
free, which is the mother of us all.
Hebrews
12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an
innumerable company of angels,
Revelation
3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a
pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write
upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new
Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon
him my new name.
Revelation
21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband.
Christ promised that
this place was being prepared for us.
John
14:2 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 unto myself; that where I am, there ye
may be also.
The book of Revelation
provides us with a picture of what this heavenly city looks like and you can
read it for yourself although it is overwhelming.
You know all of our
lives we face suffering because of our bodies of flesh and bone. We might think
we are invincible as young people but by the time we get old, if we are so
blessed to get old, we know for a fact that we are definitely not invincible.
As sickness and weakness overtake us and death begins its nasty work of
bringing our bodies of flesh to their natural end we realize just how fragile
our lives are.
Hebrews
2:14 ¶ Forasmuch then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the
same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
So, we will receive a
resurrected body, a resurrection body, as it was originally meant to be before
our first ancestor passed death on to us.
Genesis
2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.
Romans
5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned:
This is a body that
will not know suffering and sorrow, pain and discouragement. Those things are
not OUR destiny if we believe on Christ.
Revelation
21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Twenty years ago
tomorrow was the absolute worst day of my life and it was the worse day in the
flesh of someone else’s life. That someone was very precious to me and someone
I loved dearly even though we were constantly at odds. Her name was Bridget and
she was my 17-year old daughter.
Bridget had prayed to
receive Christ as her Saviour ten years prior to that date on October 7, 1990.
She had been counselled by a deacon in our church after going forward to tell
the Pastor she was a believer. She then submitted to baptism. She was seven
years old.
Now, at 17 after
suffering from things I don’t even know about, and things I do know about like
bipolar disorder she hung herself in our backyard. There are no words that I
can say to express my grief and horror at that night, the first Monday in
November in the year 2000.
I cling to two things.
One is her salvation and two is that in her suicide note left on the family
computer she swore that she loved God and that He knows she loved Him but that
she felt abandoned by Him. Bridget had started doing drugs and engaging in
risky and immoral behavior and along with everything else her biological mother
had rejected her for the second and last time.
So, I believe that
Bridget is in heaven with the Lord. I believe that I will see her again. I
believe that our reunion will NOT be one with tears and regrets but with joy
and love unimaginable. I believe that we will be praising God with an
innumerable company of other creatures made perfect and complete.
Revelation
5:11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the
number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is
the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength,
and honour, and glory, and blessing.
13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on
the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in
them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
Revelation
7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a
great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes, and palms in their hands; 10
And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Think of the triumph in
those scenes in Heaven. Think of the uplifting joy, the eternal gratitude and the
everlasting blessing of that outcome.
You know that even
God’s soldiers die in this flesh, no matter how valuable their service.
2Kings
13:14a Now Elisha was fallen sick of his
sickness whereof he died.
Can you imagine?
Elisha, Elisha got sick and died. King David grew old…
1Kings
1:1a Now king David was old and stricken
in years…
…knowing that he too
was going to die.
1Kings
2:1 ¶ Now the days of David drew nigh
that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, 2b I go the way of all the earth…
You sit in a waiting
room, in a doctor’s office, this sterile environment, so cold and impersonal.
Can you even think of heaven? Fear, doubt, regret, and profound sense of
feeling that you are going to miss out on some sweet and precious things if the
doctor’s words are true, if this is truly God’s will for you.
But, in the matter of
eternity, you are already there with your loved ones.
Ephesians
2:4 ¶ But God, who is rich in mercy, for
his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
In fact, a saved
physicist told me after Bridget died that we misunderstand eternity like we
misunderstand infinity. Eternity isn’t one event after another going on and on
for an endless sequence any more than infinity is one number after another. It
is a place without time where everything is now, an experience we cannot
comprehend in our finite minds. He told me that I was with my daughter in
Heaven before we went home from the funeral. Now, whether or not that is true
is irrelevant. My point is that the time our loved ones left here have before
they are with us is infinitesimal compared to the eternity we will have with
them and Christ, if they are saved.
But, what about Heaven?
When Paradise was in the heart of the earth, before Christ’s resurrection, the
blessed dead lived there. But, Paradise, like the ark of God, has been removed
to the New Jerusalem after Christ preached to the spirits there. When it was in
the heart of the earth God let a woman who had a familiar spirit in her think
she had the power to call up Samuel from there and Samuel wasn’t all too happy
about it.
1Samuel
28:15a ¶ And Samuel said to Saul, Why
hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?...
Matthew 12:40 For as Jonas
was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man
be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.
Luke 23:43 And Jesus said
unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
1Peter 3:18 ¶ For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when
once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a
preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
But Paul would write;
2Corinthians 12:4 How that
he was caught up into paradise,
and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
And John would write;
Revelation 2:7 He that hath
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that
overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the
paradise of God.
Revelation 11:19 And the
temple of God was opened in
heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and
thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
Christ went down but
Paul went up. That’s a change of location.
It is commonly understood
among conservative Christians that before Christ’s resurrection that Hell, the
place of suffering, was next to Paradise, the place of joy and peace. In Luke
16:26 it is said that there was an unbridgeable gap between them. The Greeks,
who were represented as traders and mercenaries throughout the Ancient Near
East from the earliest times and even fought on the side of Nebuchadnezzar and
his opponent, Pharaoh Necho, at Carchemish as mentioned in Jeremiah 46:2, were
often the hired men of Jeremiah 46:21.
They took many slaves as spoils of war including many Jews.
Joel 3:6 The children also
of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye
might remove them far from their border.
It is very possible
that Greek versions of Hades, their word for Hell, were formed by what they
heard from their Hebrew captives just as later Greek writers would say, during
the Christian era, that Greek mythical heroes were amalgamations of Bible characters.
For example, Hercules may be a combination of Samson and Jonah due to the
experiences he supposedly endured some have thought. Even Herodotus, the
ancient Greek historian who lived hundreds of years before Christ supposed that
the Greeks lifted their mythologies from Egypt. Archaeologists, linguists, and
mythographers have concluded that the Greeks got their mythologies from the
Ancient Near East, which the Bible confirms in part. The Greek view of Hades as a place that
contained not only suffering but a place of joy and rest confirms this view.
Hel, in Norse
mythology, is not a good point to start with as virtually all we know about the
Norse gods was written by Christian writers during the 13th century
and beyond, presumably from older sources but who can say for certain. It has
been noted that early writers said even their mythology came from the Near
East.
Paradise, in Heaven,
synonymous with Heaven itself perhaps, is a word derived from the Persian word
for a hunting preserve or park or garden and I’m talking about something
fantastic and wonderful, carefully preserved and cared for. Remember, too, that
our first Ancestor, Adam’s, employment was caring for the Garden of God, Eden.
I can imagine a place more magnificent and amazing than even our most
picturesque places on earth with beauty and nature and no death. Just
picture it. Samuel wasn’t very pleased being called from there and I can
understand why.
Imagine for a moment
right now that you are in Paradise, in Heaven, with everyone you love, with
people you’ve influenced for Christ, and with people, complete strangers, who
you’ve helped with a gift or offering who belonged to Christ. You just haven’t
experienced it yet. It isn’t knowable to you in this body of flesh.
It is a city and a
place of immeasurable beauty and majesty and promise.
Revelation
21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband.3 And I heard a great voice
out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will
dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them, and be their God. 4 And God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things
are passed away.
Just imagine that, if
you’ve lost, if you’ve suffered, if you’ve worried about losing someone or
suffering something. It goes on and gets very specific;
21:16 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. 17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred
and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the
angel. 18 And the building of the wall
of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.19 And the foundations of the wall of the city
were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was
jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the
seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a
chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls;
every several [meaning individual] gate was of one pearl: and the street of
the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in
it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 24 And the nations of them which are saved shall
walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and
honour into it. 25 And the gates of it
shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of
the nations into it. 27 And there shall
in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh
abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of
life.
22:1
¶ And he shewed me a pure river of water
of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
2 In the midst of the street of it, and
on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve
manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree
were for the healing of the nations. 3
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb
shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
4 And they shall see his face; and his name
shall be in their foreheads. 5 And there
shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for
the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Check my math but
it looks to me like the city is a cube with measurements of about 1500 miles on
all sides. Note that its sides are not just 1500 miles but its height is 1500
miles so that consists of space inside of this cube is 1500x1500x1500 miles.
This is over 3 billion cubic miles of space available within this cube. That
seems like plenty of room for anything you can imagine. This is God the
Father’s house.
John 14:2 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.
Our modern understanding
of a mansion is a large manor house. An older definition is a luxury apartment
in a manor house. It is clear in the New Jerusalem there is room for anything
you can imagine.
Are you excited yet
about going there? You can’t even picture it can you? And God will wipe away
all your tears. There will be no more sorrow, no more death, no more pain, no
more suffering because all of those things are passed away.
Most of all we will be
with our Maker, our Creator, for eternity, and joy unspeakable. This is what
we’ve been promised.
John
10:28 And I give unto them eternal life;
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is
greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and my Father are one.
We have an expectation
but while we live and flourish in our flesh we often forget about that
expectation and that state of being we have been promised once we shake off
this body of flesh. When things are going great, we are healthy and feel
strong, and life seems to hold so many possibilities for us we tend to focus
only on it and what is happening right now.
But, we have a home in
Heaven. Our soul longs for that home and for that joy and for that peace and
for a reunion with our Creator and those who have gone on before us.
So, what I wanted to do
today was to renew that sense of hope in you or to give you that spark of expectation
for the first time, if necessary. We have a home in Heaven and we long for that
reunion. I could have said much more but it is enough. Trust God’s word.
Isaiah
64:4 For since the beginning of the
world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen,
O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
Paul saw it but was not
permitted to tell us about it. John saw it and told what he was permitted to
tell. But, there is so much more there that we cannot see in this finite body
with these finite eyes. As Jesus said in Luke 21:28, Look up, lift up your
heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.
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