Preached by Gregory W. Lee
18 May 2008
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5
1. Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
2. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,
3. because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.
4. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
7. We live by faith, not by sight.
8. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
-- Maria Shriver, the wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has recently written a children's book called, "What's Heaven?" -- this book is the story of Kate, a little girl whose great-grandmother has just died -- she's trying to understand what happens after you die, so her mother tells her all about heaven
-- in the book, Shriver wrote, "heaven is a beautiful place -- a place where you can sit on soft clouds and talk... If you're good throughout your life, then you get to go [there]... When your life is finished here on earth, God sends angels down to take you heaven to be with him."
-- as we talked about last week, that is the view of heaven that most Americans hold -- the view that heaven consists of living in the clouds with God and attending a 24-7 worship service -- and that's why a lot of people don't want to go to heaven -- to them heaven sounds anything but exciting -- in fact, heaven sounds boring
-- have you ever wondered why people have so many wrong views about heaven? -- why there are so many false teachings about heaven?
-- the answer is simple -- because they have been led astray by Satan -- in Revelation 13:6, John writes that the Beast -- the Antichrist -- is empowered by Satan to "blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven" -- this is what Satan does -- he attacks God by slandering God's name, God's people, and God's dwelling place -- heaven
-- by slandering heaven, Satan has been able to take God's most wonderful promise to us -- His promise of the kingdom to come -- of life everlasting filled with wonders and excitement and rest -- and turn it into a parody of disembodied saints floating on clouds and sitting in church all day
-- so, this morning, I want to finish our discussion of the life everlasting by looking at what heaven is all about
II. What happens when you die?
-- Sara Groves has a song called, "What do I know?" where she talks of trying to comfort an 88-year old friend of hers who is dying -- this friend was saved by Jesus and was strong in her faith when she was 34 -- but now she is old and is afraid of facing death and is seeking a word of hope and encouragement from her friend
-- Sara sings about trying to answer her friend's fears -- "And what do I know? What do I know? -- I don't know that there are harps in heaven, -- Or the process for earning your wings. -- I don't know of bright lights at the ends of tunnels, -- Or any of those things. -- But I know to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord, -- and from what I know of him, that must be pretty good."
-- Sara can't answer her friend's questions directly, because she has never experienced life after death -- but the author of this passage -- the Apostle Paul -- has
-- as we learned last week, Paul was caught up to the third heaven -- to Paradise -- where he experienced a glimpse of life after death -- of what happens when we die
-- so in this passage from 2 Corinthians 5, Paul talks about how our souls groan for our heavenly home -- how our spirits long to be clothed with immortality because we wish to be freed from our burdens and from life in this fallen world
-- Paul, speaking from experience, says that as long as we are in our mortal bodies, we are away from Christ -- but the moment we die -- the moment we are absent from our bodies -- we are with the Lord
-- he said the same thing in Philippians 1:21-23 -- ""to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain -- I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far"
-- this is what we long for -- this is what we are groaning for -- this is what we are made for
-- the Bible makes it perfectly clear -- for everyone who believes in Christ, the moment you die, you will be transported to Paradise -- to heaven -- to be in the presence of the Lord
-- all New Testament believers who die before the second coming of Christ will be translated to heaven -- to Paradise -- when they die
-- which begs the questions, "What about those people who die who don't believe in Jesus? -- and what about the people who lived in the Old Testament days before Jesus came?"
-- if you would, let's turn over to Luke 16 and look for our answers there -- verses 19-31 are a parable that Jesus told about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus
19. "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.
20. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores
21. and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22. "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.
23. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
24. So he called to him, `Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'
25. "But Abraham replied, `Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.
26. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'
27. "He answered, `Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house,
28. for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'
29. "Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
30. "`No, father Abraham,' he said, `but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
31. "He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
-- as best as I can understand from my study of life after death, before Christ came, everyone who died went to a temporary holding place -- not purgatory, as the Catholics teach -- but a holding place -- this place was called "Sheol" in the Old Testament and "Hades" in the New Testament -- and everyone who died before Christ went to this place
-- apparently, "Sheol" or "Hades" is divided into two parts -- one a place of torment -- the other a place of pleasure
-- now, because we don't have a word in our English language for these two areas, most Bible translations render "Hades" as "Hell" when it is apparent the Bible is referring to the part of Hades that is the place of torment -- like in this passage
-- in verse 23, the original Greek says, "In Hades, where he was in torment" -- not, "In Hell," which is the Greek word "Gehanna"
-- this is important and I want to make sure you get it -- Hell is the final place of torment -- also known as the Lake of Fire -- while the part of Hades that is a place of torment is temporary
-- so understand this, "Sheol" or "Hades" is a temporary place of residence after death -- everyone who died in the Old Testament and who died before Christ was crucified are in this place
-- apparently, when these people died, they stood before a judgment throne -- if they believed in God and the Promise of the Messiah -- even if they did not know the name of Jesus -- they are in the side of pleasure -- also known as "Abraham's bosom"
-- if they did not believe in God or if they rejected God and His Messiah -- they are in the place of torment
-- now, what about people who have died since the crucifixion of Christ -- including those in our day? -- apparently, we face a judgment throne as well that decides our destination in the after-life
-- because Jesus has opened the way to God through His own sacrifice on the cross -- because the veil was rent and believers were allowed access to the very presence of God -- believers in Jesus -- those who trust in His atoning death on the cross and ask Him to forgive them of their sins -- are immediately caught up to Paradise with Jesus when they die -- they do not go to Hades -- not even the place of pleasure in Hades
-- that's what we learned in 2 Corinthians 5 -- to be absent from the body is to be with the Lord -- and, as Jesus told the thief on the cross -- "Today you will be with me in Paradise"
-- for the others, for all of those who don't believe in Jesus or who have rejected Him, I believe they go to the place of torment in Hades until the end of the age
-- now, here's what I want to make sure you understand -- and this is going to be a revelation to some of you -- when someone dies -- whether that is before the crucifixion of Christ or after the crucifixion of Christ -- they go to a temporary abode
-- for those before the crucifixion of Christ and for those who die without accepting Jesus, they go to Hades
-- for those of us who have accepted Christ and die, we go to heaven or Paradise to be with Jesus -- but this is not our permanent dwelling -- this is only our temporary home -- as Randy Alcorn puts it, we enter into this "intermediate state, a transitional period between our past lives on earth and our future resurrection to life on the new earth"
III. Our Eternal Home
-- a lot of people have a problem believing in a temporary place after death -- of this intermediate state that Alcorn and other theologians have talked about -- but think about it like this -- "Only God is eternal and self-existent" [Alcorn] -- everything else -- whether we're talking about this world or the universe or heaven -- all of it was created by God and for God -- heaven is simply the place where God chooses to live
-- as believers, we will always be in the presence of God after death -- but the heaven or Paradise that we go to immediately after death is just a temporary lodging -- it is the place where we wait for the return of Christ and our bodily resurrection
-- our eternal home will be the new earth
-- if you would, flip over to Revelation 20
10. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
11. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.
12. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
13. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.
14. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
15. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
-- let me catch you up with the context here -- Revelation 20 opens after the Battle of Armageddon -- the seven-year tribulation period has ended -- and the Antichrist and his prophet have been defeated by Jesus and His armies at Armageddon and they were thrown into the Lake of Fire
-- this ushers in a 1,000 year period known as the Millennium -- at this time, all of the believers of Christ who dwelt with Him in Paradise are resurrected -- their spirits are joined with a new body -- an imperishable body -- and they reign with Christ for 1,000 years here on earth
-- look at verse 5
5. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.
-- John calls this, "the first resurrection" -- but notice what else he says -- the rest of the dead do not come to life until the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ
-- that brings us to the passage that we just read -- at the end of the 1,000 years, Satan is released from the Abyss and deceives a lot of the people and they rebel against Jesus -- but fire comes down from heaven and destroys them
-- in verse 10, Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire to join the Antichrist and his prophet -- and they are tormented forever
-- in verse 11, we read of the Great White Throne judgment -- at this time, everyone who is in Hades -- whether in the place of torment or the place of pleasure -- everyone appears before the Great White Throne to be judged
-- all of those who did not believe in the Messiah and who rejected God will be thrown into Hell or the Lake of Fire -- in verse 6, John calls this "the second death" -- this is the permanent place of torment for those people
-- but what about the rest? -- look at Revelation 21
1. 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.
2. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3. 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.
4. 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."
5. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"
-- this is why I said that heaven or Paradise was a temporary dwelling place -- after the second coming of Christ -- after our bodily resurrection, both heaven and earth will be made new -- they will be re-created and we will reside on the new earth
-- God tells us here that He will send to earth His holy city -- the new Jerusalem -- which will be His residence on earth -- the throne of God will be in this city -- and we will live with God on earth forever
-- heaven is wherever God chooses to live -- and so we will experience heaven on earth for eternity
-- I'm going to close now -- and next week, we'll try to finish up our discussion of heaven by talking about what heaven is really going to be like -- it's not going to be like Maria Shriver paints it in her book, "What's Heaven?" -- it's not going to be clouds and harps and Sunday morning worship all the time
-- it's going to be life in a new earth -- a perfect earth -- an earth freed of the curse and able to be enjoyed by us as God intended -- so, that's what we'll talk about next week
-- as I close, I want to once again invite you to consider your relationship with Christ -- as we have seen, if you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior -- if you have asked Him to forgive you of your sins, then you will be caught up to Paradise when you die -- and you will be looking forward to living life in your new resurrection body in a new earth
-- but, if you haven't accepted Jesus -- if you've just been coming to church and going through the motions -- if you've never personally made the decision to trust in Jesus and to ask Him to forgive your sins, then your destination is not Paradise -- it's a place of torment -- either temporary in Hades or permanent in the Lake of Fire
-- I don't want you to go there -- I want you to join me in heaven -- and I invite you right now, as we play the last hymn, to make sure that you turn to Christ in faith so that you avoid this terrible place -- the altar is open -- and I'd be happy to pray with you if you want
-- let us pray
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