“The percentage [of Americans] who say they believe in heaven has remained pretty constant the past 50 years, but what people mean by it has changed an awful lot.” That’s what Jeffrey Burton Russell found out. Russell is a professor emeritus of History and Religious Studies in the University of California system. While researching Americans’ understandings of heaven he found that even though an overwhelming percentage of Americans continue to believe in heaven, what we believe about heaven has changed significantly. He found that by and large our views of heaven have very little to do with the Bible teaches. His findings hold true for American Christians as well. American Christian conceptions of heaven are, in the words of one summary of the book, “so feeble and vague that [they are] almost meaningless.”
Now ask yourself, if our conceptions of heaven are, “so feeble and vague that [they are] almost meaningless,” how much hope are we actually deriving from the promise of heaven? What real hope are we holding out for the world to inspect? Why should men and women who are curious about Christianity put any stock in our explanations of heaven when our conceptions of it sound like nothing more than superstition and wish fulfillment? We must do better. We can do better because we have the word of God and it is to that, that we turn our attention this evening.
We will study this in two points. First: the nature of heaven. Second: the invitation of heaven.
First: the nature of heaven. When we talk about heaven, we are talking about both the intermediate state, which we studied last week, and the new creation. This complicates matters because the intermediate state and the new creation have their differences. We exist as souls without bodies in the intermediate state. We exist as perfected souls and bodies in the new creation. So do people have bodies in heaven? Yes and no because when we talk about heaven we are talking about the intermediate state and the new creation. We aren’t told much about what we will do in the intermediate state. We are told much more about what we will do in the new creation. It is hard to imagine what life as soul without a body will be like. It is much easier to imagine what life as a perfected soul and body will be like in a perfected creation. You can see how it is difficult to say general statements about heaven considering that it refers to both the intermediate state and the new creation.
Now I’ve repeated the statement that heaven refers to both the intermediate state and the new creation because we must have a clear idea of what happens to people who die in grace. We cannot help others understand these matters if we don’t understand them ourselves. We can’t help others understand heaven if we don’t understand heaven.
So let’s start at the beginning; why is heaven called heaven? To answer that question, we must first understand that the Bible has two distinct uses of the word “heaven”. The first usage refers to the sky, the atmosphere, and outer space. You see this use in the account of the flood, “the floodgates of the heavens were opened,” and in Nehemiah’s prayer, “You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host.” So the heavens can refer to what is physically above us.
The word “heaven” can also refer to the dwelling of God and His angels. You see this usage in Jacob’s response to seeing angels descending and ascending, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Now we tend to combine these two views and imagine that the dwelling place of God is physically above us. This is why Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, said, “I looked and looked but I didn’t see God.” It’s a confusion of these two uses of the word “heaven” to think that you could actually find heaven somewhere in this physical universe. As a side note, you see this confusion at play in arguably the worst of the Star Trek films, Star Trek V, in which the villain uses a starship to search for God.
So is heaven a place? Yes and no. You can’t travel to it right now because it isn’t physical right now. It will be when there is a new heavens and a new earth and we live on the new earth. You can see why it’s confusing.
So what will we do in heaven? Again, let’s think about what we will do in the intermediate state and what we will do in the new creation. It’s hard to get our minds around what we will do in the intermediate state because it’s hard to get our minds around what we can do without bodies. What is clear is that there will be worship. Revelation 5:9, which comes before the final judgment and new creation, reads, ‘they sang a new song [to the Lamb], saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”’
This worship is described as a liturgy that continues day and night. Many have deduced from this that heaven is an endless worship service. If that is the case, ‘day and night the four living creatures literally never stop repeating, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come,” and the twenty-four elders, representing the twelve tribes and twelve apostles, never stop falling down before God, laying their crowns before Him, getting up and doing it again, all while saying, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being,”’ over and over again forever or at least until the final resurrection and new creation.
Now do you think that a constant, incessant repetition of that is really what’s in store for God’s people? If you have been part of Adult Sunday School, you are already seeing why that probably isn’t the case—remember, the more you learn about the Bible the more you see in the Bible. Apocalyptic literature communicates truth through images. It is visionary, not literal. If you want to read apocalyptic literature in a literal way, you have to address the fact that Jesus will have a literal sword coming out of his mouth and that you will become a physical pillar in the temple in the new creation. You have to read the Bible on its own terms.
We will worship God in the intermediate state and new creation, but any thought that heaven is a perpetual worship service is simply untrue. In that very song the souls sing they say, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” That language of reigning on earth alludes back to Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve weren’t commanded to spend twenty-four hours a day in religious ceremony. They were commanded to work and till the ground. That’s new creation language.
The teaching that heaven is an eternal worship service is not only untrue, it is counterproductive. I hope that you love our times of gathered worship and that you come to cherish them more, but I think that the idea of this being all that we will do in heaven minimizes the glory of heaven. Just think about the new creation. God created this world for us to enjoy. The next creation is for our enjoyment. Marilynne Robinson gets it right in what she says about her character Boughton, ‘Boughton says he has more ideas about heaven every day. He said, “mainly I just think about the splendors of the world and multiply by two. I’d multiply by ten or twelve if I had the energy…” So he’s just sitting there multiplying the feel of the wind by two, multiplying the smell of the grass by two.’ You could multiply the joy of a hug by two, a day on the lake by two, the taste of chocolate by two. Beware of viewing heaven in such a restrictive way that it only seems desirable because it’s not hell. A fair number of Christians have such a low view of heaven that they would rather stay alive than enjoy it.
Now it’s hard for us to wrap our minds around the nature of heaven because it is eternal. People are afraid they will get bored because it goes on forever. If you think that this creation is exciting and full of pleasure and that heaven will be boring, you didn’t get that thought from Scripture. Psalm 16:11, “You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.”
All your pleasures are fleeting at best in this life. You only have brief moments that you wish could continue forever and you know from experience that they do not continue forever. God is creative enough to offer eternal pleasures. He is creative enough to keep you satisfied forever. CS Lewis was right, “if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Now what about the connection between this life and heaven? Some people think that we won’t remember anything of this life. Jesus’ parable of the rich man and poor man and the words of the souls of the martyrs before his throne crying out, “how long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” indicate otherwise.
We will remember this life. Now some people struggle tremendously with that because Revelation tells us, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” These people can’t imagine having certain memories without the pain. Others can’t imagine enjoying heaven knowing that loved ones are in hell, and so they conclude that we cannot remember this life or anyone from this life. They conclude that we will not recognize each other in the new creation. If this is you, I get why you’ve made these conclusions, but I want you to consider that you are reasoning by emotion and not by Scripture. This view might serve to relieve some tension, but it actually raises far more tension because what does this view tell the Christian parents who have buried their believing son? It tells them that they won’t remember their boy. It tells us that when we say, “goodbye,” to our dying spouse, we are actually saying, “goodbye,” forever because we won’t remember them in heaven. You can’t reason emotionally without double binds.
Scripture indicates that in heaven we will remember this life and that we will recognize others be recognizable as ourselves. You see that in the fact that the disciples knew that it was Moses and Elijah who were with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. You see that in Jesus’ parable of the deaths of the rich man a poor man. You see that in the cry of the martyred souls in heaven. You see that in Isaiah’s view of heaven and hell in chapter 66. To return to the pastoral question though, how can we remember this life with its pains and still enjoy heaven even though we have loved ones in hell? The answer is that we will be changed. As 1 John puts it, “we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Do you think Jesus ever loved anyone who turned away from him? Luke 19:41, ‘As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”’ Do you think that Jesus knows who is in hell? Do you think Jesus will enjoy the new creation without “mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” even though he knows who is in hell? It’s safe to answer yes to both. Now I can’t currently get my mind around that when I think of love, but as Paul told us about love, “now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
Heaven can’t simply be whatever we hope that it might be. That’s wish fulfillment, and if the church actually is simply about wishes then we might as well hang it up. Wishes didn’t give us Jesus. Promises gave us Jesus, and heaven is Jesus-centered. That’s the final point to make on the nature of heaven: heaven is Jesus-centered.
Paul didn’t tell the Philippians, “I desire to depart and be out of this prison cell.” He said, “I desire to depart and be with Christ.” The book of Revelation doesn’t end with the words, “it’s all going to work out in the end.” It ends with the words, “Come, Lord Jesus.” The kingdom of heaven is about Christ because he is the king. He is on the center of the throne, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne.” He is the focus. He is the focus to such an extent that Martin Luther said, “I had rather be in hell with Christ, than be in heaven without him.” If you can imagine heaven without Jesus, you need to change your view of heaven because if you can imagine heaven without Jesus, I dare say that you won’t be in heaven. The kingdom of heaven is for people who love the king.
That is just the barest description of the nature of heaven. I hope that you want what was described. I hope you found it inviting. It is to that we turn our attention now in our last point: the invitation of heaven. Some of us might truly long for heaven, but by and large we American Christians don’t. We don’t because we have it so good. The book of Revelation was written to Christians many of whom were dirt poor and who were actively persecuted. They longed for heaven. We tend to be far more concerned with preserving what we have in this life as best we can.
We need to long for heaven. The longing for heaven fills the Scriptures. Adam and Eve were denied access to the tree of life. We are to long for the right to eat from it again, which is why we see that tree return in the new creation.
Abraham longed for heaven. We didn’t spend twenty-two weeks studying a man who was simply hoping for land. Hebrews tells us that he and the other patriarchs “were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”
Moses longed for heaven. Hebrews tells us that, “he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” That reward wasn’t entrance into the physical Promised Land; he never set foot in it. His reward was in heaven.
The exiles in Babylon longed for the fall of Babylon so that they might return home. Do you know that longing? Do you know that the pattern of this world is, “Babylon the great the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth?” Do you long for its fall? Do you long to go home? In the book of Revelation the angel yells, “Rejoice over [fallen Babylon], you heavens! Rejoice, you people of God! Rejoice, apostles and prophets! For God has judged her with the judgment she imposed on you.” Long for the judgment of Babylon. Long to go home.
Jesus tells you to long for heaven. He tells you to do whatever is necessary to enter it, even if that means cutting off your hand that causes you to sin. When he tells you, “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field,” he is telling you to be that man.
Jesus holds out heaven as an incentive to persevere. In the book of Revelation, he encourages these tired, suffering believers saying, “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God… the one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death… to the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.” Those people longed for that. On most days I would be happy if life would just return normal. I need to wake up.
“The percentage [of Americans] who say they believe in heaven has remained pretty constant the past 50 years, but what people mean by it has changed an awful lot.” God has no inclination to make wishes come true. He is into making and keeping promises. He holds out heaven as a promise to those who trust in Him. He does so out of love. “God loved the world in this way: He sent His one and only Son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.” Do you want what God promises? Do you want heaven the way God’s people have always wanted it or do you want wishes? Wishes didn’t give us Jesus. Promises gave us Jesus. “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will He not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” If you love Jesus, you will love what Paul called “all things.” If you love Jesus, you will love heaven. Amen.
“Genesis 7:11, “the floodgates of the heavens were opened.”
Nehemiah 9:6, “You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host.”
Genesis 28:17, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Revelation 5:9-10, “‘they sang a new song [to the Lamb], saying: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”’
Revelation 4:8-11, ‘day and night the four living creatures never stop repeating, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come,” and the twenty-four elders, representing the twelve tribes and twelve apostles, never stop falling down before God, laying their crowns before Him, getting up and doing it again, all while saying, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”’
Psalm 16:11, “You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.”
Revelation 6:10, “how long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”
1 John 3:2, “we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Luke 19:41-42, ‘As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”’
Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death for mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
1 Corinthians 13:12, “now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
Philippians 1:23, “I desire to depart and be with Christ.”
Revelation 22:20, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
Revelation 5:6, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne.”
Hebrews 11:16, “were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”
Hebrews 11:26, “He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.”
Revelation 18:20, “Rejoice over her, you heavens! Rejoice, you people of God! Rejoice, apostles and prophets! For God has judged her with the judgment she imposed on you.”
Matthew 13:44, “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
Revelation 2:7, 2:11, 3:21, “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God… the one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death… to the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
John 3:16, “God loved the world in this way: He sent His one and only Son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.”
Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will He not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
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