What Does God Say About Heaven?

Sunday, July 11, 2004 at 9:30 A.M.

Pastor TImothy Phillips

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, this is the goal of our faith. Heaven. We search your Word for comfort and guidance and, in it, we find beautiful descriptions of a place that is even beyond our comprehension. Bless us by your Holy Spirit to understand it today, that beautiful place you've prepared for us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today we're talking about heaven. What does the bible say about heaven? What does God say about heaven?

To start off, I begin my preparations by translating Revelation 21:1-4 from the Greek and I came up with a couple of words that really kind of tune us into what this is all about. The first word is etomodzo , which means to make ready, to prepare. In the gospel, Jesus said He went to prepare a place for us, right? And that is the truth. Jesus has prepared this wonderful and glorious place for us.

The second word is cosmetto and that sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's the root for the word cosmetic, so you can get a real good idea of what it means in Greek. To make orderly, to put in order, to adorn, to decorate, to make beautiful or attractive. This is the word used to describe what God is doing in heaven with the place He's preparing for us. He's making it ready. He's putting it in order. He's making it beautiful and attractive.

When you think about heaven, it's so abstract it's hard to really get a handle on it. And even in the bible, the way it's described is metaphorically and symbolically. God uses the most beautiful things we know of on this earth to describe what heaven is like. He describes it as having diamonds and rubies and sapphires and emeralds and streets of gold. Wonderful, beautiful descriptions. But you know what? Even those most precious things we are familiar with here pale in comparison with the reality of what heaven is like.

There are many ideas about heaven and many of them wrong. Some people don't even believe heaven exists, but the bible says very clearly that God has prepared a place for us. Other times, we just seem to come away with the wrong understanding about what this place is really like. My general feeling from scripture and just how God has comforted me with these thoughts is that it's a very peaceful and wonderful place that's similar to the Garden of Eden, just a great place to call paradise, a place of comfort.

I had a professor at seminary, though, who told me one time after church on Sunday he had a discussion at their table as they were enjoying their Sunday lunch meal. He was a pastor in England for a period of time, and this time was one of those occasions where he had preached a sermon and then his son was sitting at the table all depressed and he wasn't eating. He said, “What's wrong?” And his son said, “I don't want to go to heaven.” “What?!” The parents were shocked. Here was their little boy who they've taught the Christian faith, and now he doesn't want to go to heaven. He said, “What's wrong? Why don't you want to go to heaven?” “I don't want to sit on a cloud and play a harp.” I can't blame him. Think about it. Think about little boys. That doesn't sound too exciting, does it? Sit on a cloud and play a harp.

Sometimes we get the wrong idea of what heaven is all about, but we can cling to the promises God has made. First of all, it's a wonderful place where there's no suffering or pain. These are the words we receive in the Revelation according to St. John , Chapter 21, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City , the New Jerusalem; coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'” Wow. It's difficult for us to comprehend a place like that. And so scripture doesn't use words we can't believe or understand. It uses words that connect with our ordinary existence. We can't comprehend a perfect description of heaven, but we can comprehend the difficulties of this life.

Heaven is often described in the negative, the opposite of something else. It's the opposite of the pain we feel when we stand by the coffin of a loved one who has passed away. It's the opposite of the pain and suffering of divorce. It's the opposite of illness and struggling for life. It's the opposite of depression. It's the opposite of tragedy. It's the opposite of fear. We know all the negatives. Just imagine the positive. The absence of all of those things. Wow, what a beautiful place. No more pain. No more sorrow. No more struggle. No more conflict. Just peace and joy forever.

When I do evangelism, a lot of times people don't believe in heaven or maybe they have a poor understanding of what it's all about. The only thing they've ever seen was something on television or in a movie or something. So I try to describe it to them in a way they can hold onto, and I say, “Think of the best moment of your life on earth here. Think of the happiest day, the greatest joy. Maybe it was when your baby was born. Maybe it was when you got married. Maybe it was some wonderful birthday you remember a long time ago. Maybe it was a vacation someplace beautiful. Think of the happiest moment of your life. Freeze it. Extend it for eternity. That's heaven.” Except heaven's even better than that, because the world we see and the world we experience around us is tainted by sin. Our greatest experiences have sort of a bittersweet aspect to them.

C. S. Lewis said, “For believers, their experience of heaven begins here on earth because they live a life of hope. We know there is a life beyond this, free from all our pain and sorrow. And so we begin to experience the joy of heaven here and now. For unbelievers, it's the opposite. They begin to experience the pain and suffering of hell here on earth. Because when they grieve, they grieve without hope. When they suffer, they suffer with no one to call out to. So hell begins here for them.”

When I do evangelism, the way I describe hell, because that's hard to conceive, too. Even though we see lots of pain around us, it's hard to comprehend the fullness of that punishment, that eternal punishment. I just take the opposite of heaven. I say, “Think of your worst moment in this life, on this earth. Your worst moment.” That's usually not too hard to think of and when I did evangelism in Honduras , they had just suffered through Hurricane Mitch. An unbelievable hurricane, very powerful. And it moved inland, and it just sat over the top of Honduras dumping torrential rain, washing out all the bridges. Many, many, many thousands of people were killed. Because, in Honduras , the poorest of the poor build their homes, what you would call a home for them, in the worst place, on the land that's not stable right next to the gorge where the stream runs through. And when the floods come, guess what happens to their home and them and their loved ones? So many people I spoke to could grasp that concept of hell, the worst moment in your life. And imagine that being extended for eternity.

But we have hope. We have Jesus. We have eternal life promised to us, guaranteed to us by faith in Jesus. That's what we have. A lot of times, when we think about heaven, little children ask funny questions and they say, “Where is it?” Well, it's a special place that God has prepared, but you can't get here from there. “Well, how do you get there?” Sometimes, they want to know how do you get there? You trust in Jesus as your savior. Parents, bring your children to Jesus through the waters of baptism. You teach them God's Word so they know the way, the truth, and the life. What's His name? It's Jesus, isn't it? We all know that. We have the good news. We have the message of eternal life. We have the goods to set people free and to give them paradise.

And if you were to look on a map or to ask directions, it would be, “You can't get there from here.” You can't get there traveling around this world, experiencing different experiences. You can't get there buying material goods. You can't get there doing anything except trusting in Jesus as your savior.

Once a seminary professor named Francis Rosso wrote a sermon about death and life, and he described life like a three-stage experience. The first stage, conception to birth. While a baby is in the womb, could you imagine if somebody were able to communicate with that baby and say, “You know what, there's this wonderful world out there and it's really awesome and you'll be able to run and jump. And there will be huge skyscrapers and planes and cars and all kinds of wonderful things.” To a child inside the womb, that would be incomprehensible. And then if the child were to say, “Well, how do I get there?” “Well, that's the bad news. You have to go through this difficult process called birth. But there will be people to help you, good nurses and people out there to help you. And when you get there, everybody will love you and they'll want to spend time with you and comfort you.” So, lo and behold, you go through the process of birth and you're born and it's true. Everything you heard about the life outside the womb is true. Skyscrapers, cars, people, running and jumping, all that stuff. It's true.

Now we're at the middle stage, birth to death. Birth to death. And walking through this time, we hear of a wonderful place called heaven. Another stage, the final stage. And the words that are used to describe it seem incomprehensible. How could there be a place with no sorrow, no pain, where I never have to go see a doctor? There will be doctors there, obviously, but I'll never have to go see a doctor because my body won't wear out. I won't need medicine. I won't need surgery. That seems incomprehensible, a life without pain and suffering. And you ask, “Well, how do you get there?” Well, first you trust in Jesus. But then comes the bad news. You have to die before you can go to heaven. Wow. That's kind of scary. You have to die to go to heaven. But we know it's true, that when we die, trusting in Jesus as our savior, we will be delivered from all the pain and suffering of this world and enter into that beautiful paradise and all the words of scripture will be fulfilled. God will dwell with us and wipe away the tears from our eyes, and everyone we know who trusts in Jesus as their savior will be there with us for that glorious reunion, that wonderful, glorious reunion.

There are a lot of songs about heaven, Christian songs. I love the verse from Amazing Grace when it says, “When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.” Wow. Unbelievable. Incomprehensible. There are other songs. There is one that says, “I dreamed I went to heaven.” And then he meets all these people. And all the people he meets are people that God used him to bring to faith. As a Sunday School teacher faithfully preparing and teaching the lessons for the little children and how those little children came to trust in Jesus and now they're in heaven. As somebody who put an offering in a plate to support a missionary in Africa or some far off land, and those dollars supported that missionary proclaiming the word of eternal life. And now those people are in heaven. Of you living your life as a Christian, walking obedient to God's command and being a witness of God's love and mercy and because you live that way and people saw it, they trusted in Jesus, too, and now they're in heaven.

That will be exciting, won't it? When we get there and we see the fruits of all our labors, trusting in Jesus and teaching His Word. And then there's a song that talks about “if you could see me now.” And this is a song about our loved one who's died, who is very ill at the point of death but now is completely healed in heaven. And isn't that the way it is often in life? When our loved ones are close to death, it's just so sad and so hard. We don't even want to imagine what they're going through, but then God rescues them from it, and He delivers them. He releases them from the pain and suffering and gives them eternal life. And if you could see them now, they're walking streets of gold. They're running and leaping and praising God. That's our heaven.

And I'll tell you, that aspect has special meaning for me because this cross I wear was made by my grandfather, and my grandfather died in 1982. And he and I were very close, almost like father and son. We had many close conversations and talks, and I kind of took care of my grandmother after my grandfather passed away. But when he was dying, he was in a nursing home and it was hard for me to go see him because he was in such reduced state. Then he died in 1982 and, about five years later, his brother gave me this cross he made. And I was so thrilled to have something that he had made. And on the back, it says “June 3, 1943” because he gave it to his brother when his brother graduated from seminary. But now it's mine. And every time I look at it, I think of my grandfather and I think of Jesus and what he's done for us and, by faith in Jesus, I'll see my grandfather again. We'll be together for eternity. There won't be any separation anymore. Just that glorious reunion in that beautiful place God has prepared for us.

I guess one of the greatest descriptions or ideas about heaven that I find in scripture is with the thief on the cross where Jesus is crucified in the middle and a thief on each side, and one is rebuking Jesus and the other one says, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” What does Jesus say? “This day you'll be with me in paradise.” What a contrast. Can you image the contrast for that guy? The contrast from being nailed to the cross. You've been so bad in your life that you're crucified for it. Going from that pain, that misery, that shame, to the glory of heaven. Wow. Wow.

In a sense, that's what it's going to be for all of us. Because we know our sins. We know we're not saints and we're sinners. We struggle with our battle against sin, and we confess them on Sunday and other times of the week. We confess our sin, and we have forgiveness; but we still struggle with that sin. And when we think about God and His relationship to us, we think of our sinfulness. And when we arrive in heaven, oh my, the glory of God and the glory of heaven will overwhelm us. But all of our sin will be gone. All the pain and suffering connected to it will be gone. And the thoughts, the memories of pain here on earth will be gone. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church