11 MAY 2008
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Rev 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!"
-- once upon a time, twin boys were conceived in the womb -- seconds, minutes, hours passed as these little embryos developed -- the spark of life grew and each tiny brain began to take shape and form -- within the development of their brain came feeling, and with feeling, perception -- a perception of their surroundings, of each other, and their own lives -- they discovered that life was good and they laughed and rejoiced in their hearts
-- one twin said to the other -- "we are sure lucky to have been conceived and to have this wonderful world to live in"
-- the other replied, "yes, blessed be our mother who gave us life and each other"
-- each of the twins continued to grow and soon their arms and fingers, legs and toes began to take shape -- they moved about in their little world -- exploring it and learning more about it -- they discovered the life cord which gave them life from their mother's blood -- they were grateful for this discovery and sand, "How great is the love of our mother -- that she shares all she has with us"
-- weeks passed into months -- and every day, they noticed a change in each other and in themselves -- "what does this mean" -- "it means," said the other twin, "that we are drawing near to birth"
-- an unsettling chill crept over the two boys -- they were afraid of birth, for they knew that it meant leaving their wonderful world behind
-- the first one said, "If it were up to me, I'd live here forever"
-- the second one replied, "But we have to be born -- it happened to the others who came before -- remember, we found evidence that other children were here before us? -- I believe there is life after birth, don't you?"
-- "How can there be life after birth?" -- the first twin cried -- "Won't we lose our life cord and the blood tissue when we are born? -- have you ever talked to anyone who has been born? -- has anyone ever re-entered the womb after birth to describe what birth is like? -- NO!"
-- as he spoke, the first twin fell into despair -- "if the purpose of conception and our life in this womb is to end in birth, then truly our life is senseless -- and if this is so, then there really can be no mother"
-- "But there is a mother," the other twin protested -- "Who gave us nourishment? -- who else created this world for us?"
-- the first twin responded, "We get our nourishment from this cord -- and this world has always been here -- and if there is a mother, then where is she? -- have you ever seen her? -- does she ever talk to you? -- NO -- we invented the mother when we were young because it satisfied a need in us -- it made us feel secure and happy"
-- thus, one twin raged and despaired while the other one resigned himself to birth and placed his trust in the hands of his mother -- hours turned into days -- days into weeks -- and soon it was time -- they both knew their birth was at hand, and they both feared what they did not know
-- the twins cried as they were born into the light -- they coughed out fluid and gasped the dry air -- and when they had been born, they opened their eyes -- seeing life after birth for the very first time -- what they saw was the beautiful eyes of their mother as she cradled them lovingly in her arms -- birth was not an end after all -- instead, it was a homecoming
-- this morning, we are going to finish our series on the Apostle's Creed as we look at the final line in the creed, "I believe in the life everlasting"
-- I hope that as we've gone through this series that you've noticed how each line of the creed builds upon the other -- for instance, we proclaim that we believe in the Holy Spirit -- who, in turn, creates the holy catholic church through His indwelling presence
-- the holy catholic church, the church universal, comprised of all believers -- joins together in the communion of saints as one body and one people under the Lordship of Christ Jesus
-- as Christ's body, the church proclaims the forgiveness of sins and introduces people to the gospel of Christ through the Great Commission and the Great Commandment
-- through the forgiveness of sins, we look forward to the resurrection of the body -- the time when we will be given new, perfect bodies that are imperishable
-- which brings us to todays topic -- perhaps since last week you have been asking, "Why are we resurrected with bodies? -- why are we not just spiritually resurrected? -- what is so important about having a body? -- could it be that there is a place prepared for us -- not a spiritual realm -- but a physical realm where we will spend eternity?"
-- I'm glad you asked -- so let's spend some time talking about our future destination -- our life everlasting
II. Common Thoughts About Heaven
-- of course, when we talk about the life everlasting -- about life after death -- we are talking about heaven
-- I want you to do me a favor -- I want you to close your eyes for just a moment and picture in your mind what heaven looks like -- keep your eyes closed -- picture yourself there -- look around -- what do you see? -- who is there with you?
-- o.k. -- now open your eyes
-- what did heaven look like to you? -- for most of us, when we picture heaven, we imagine a city in the clouds -- everything is white and billowy and very bright -- everyone up there is wearing white robes -- and they're just sort of floating around on clouds all day -- playing harps and singing hymns -- and God is there, seated on His throne
-- generally, when we think of heaven, we think of it as one big, never-ending, church service -- and, truth be told, it just doesn't sound like that fun of a place
-- this is exactly the way Gary Larson, the creator of the Far Side cartoons, envisioned heaven -- there's a couple memorable cartoons about heaven that he drew -- in one, it shows two lines of people -- one line is going to heaven and the other is going to hell -- the caption for the top says, "Welcome to heaven, here's your harp" -- and the caption for the other one says, "Welcome to hell, here's your accordion"
-- but I think my favorite -- I think the one that really sums up the way we truly feel about heaven is the one that shows this guy in heaven -- sitting on a cloud with his legs hanging over and his head in his hands -- the caption says, "I wish I'd brought along a magazine"
-- honestly, when we hear about heaven, it really sounds boring -- it doesn't sound like the kind of place where we want to spend eternity
-- in his story, "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven," Mark Twain wrote, "Singing hymns and waving palm branches through all eternity is pretty when you hear about it in the pulpit, but it's as poor a way to put in valuable time as a body could contrive"
-- I think Twain spoke for the common man when he wrote that statement -- people think heaven is going to be nothing more than an eternal Sunday worship service -- and for that reason, a lot of people just don't want to go
-- I've even had people tell me that they want to go to Hell, because it'll be more fun and a lot more exciting -- kind of like the old quote, "heaven for climate, hell for society"
-- but, is that what heaven is really going to be all about? -- is that what the Bible teaches?
-- what really happens when we die? -- where do we go?
III. Paradise
-- if you would, turn over to 2 Corinthians 12
1. I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.
2. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows.
3. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows--
4. was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.
-- in this passage, the Apostle Paul tells us about a time when he went to heaven -- now, he calls it the "third" heaven, but don't get hung up on that -- the Jews recognized three distinct heavens -- the first heaven was the atmosphere -- the air that we breathe -- the second heaven was where the stars were -- where the sun and the moon were located -- the universe -- the third heaven was the home of God -- it is the place that we typically think of when we talk about heaven
-- so, Paul tells us here about a time when he was caught up and carried to the third heaven -- to the home of God
-- when Paul and Barnabus had been in Lystra, the Jews had surrounded him and stoned him -- they thought they had killed him and they dragged his body outside the city and left it there to rot -- several scholars agree that this may be the moment when Paul was carried to heaven -- it could be that he actually died and went to heaven, but God raised him from the dead -- all we know for sure is that Luke tells us in Acts 14:20 that all the disciples gathered around the body of Paul and that he got up and went back into the city
-- regardless of when and how it happened -- Paul tells us in this passage that he went to heaven -- now there are a couple of important things that I want you to see about heaven from this passage
-- first, notice in verse 4 what Paul calls the place where he went -- he calls it "Paradise"
-- do you remember what Jesus told the thief who repented of his sins on the cross? -- in Luke 23:43, Jesus told him, "Today, you will be with me in paradise"
-- paradise is the name of the place where you go when you die if you believe in Christ -- if you have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior
-- and this brings up the next important fact -- Jesus told the thief, "Today, you will be with me in paradise" -- not, "after a long time of sleep" -- not, "after the world ends and I come back" -- Jesus said, "today, you will be with me in paradise"
-- when you die, you are immediately transported to another realm -- believers go to paradise -- the rest go to a place of torment that we typically call hell
-- Paul makes this point earlier in this letter to the Corinthians -- in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul wrote that to be absent from the body is to be with Christ -- and that he would prefer to be away from the body and to be at home with the Lord
-- in Philippians 1:21-23, Paul also wrote -- "to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain -- I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far"
-- the Bible teaches that when you die, if you believe in Christ, you go straight to the third heaven -- you go straight to paradise
-- we see the same thing in the experiences of all of those here who have died and then have been revived and have written about it -- I remember reading a book when I was a kid about after-death experiences, and it was always the same -- immediately when a person died, they were carried to either heaven or hell
-- and, of course, there is the current best-seller by Don Piper called, "90 minutes in heaven" -- where he tells about his death experience and being immediately caught up into heaven when he died
-- finally, notice that Paul says that he was aware of his presence in Paradise -- he wasn't sure if he had a physical body or not -- but he had a body of some type -- Paul says that he heard "inexpressible things" -- he obviously was able to hear and to speak -- he was able to learn new things -- things that he didn't know before
-- so, Paradise is going to be a place where our senses are engaged -- where we can hear and speak and feel and touch -- where we will be growing and learning
-- the bottom-line that I wanted you to get from this passage this morning is that when you die, you don't quit living -- you simply change addresses -- and, if you believe in Jesus -- if you have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior -- the Bible tells us that immediately -- the very instant that you die -- you will be with Jesus in Paradise
-- now, I have absolutely run out of time -- this is a topic that we could spend years discussing -- so, I'm going to leave you with a couple more thoughts on the general topic of heaven and then we're going to pick up right here again next week and continue our thoughts about heaven
IV. Closing
-- there's a cemetery in Indiana that has a tombstone, more than one hundred year old, with the following epitaph:
-- "Pause, stranger, when you pass my by -- as you are now, so once was I -- as I am now, so you will be -- so prepare for death and follow me"
-- an unknown passerby scratched these additional words on the tombstone -- "To follow you I'm not content, until I know which way you went"
-- when we say "I believe in the life everlasting" we proclaim our belief in life after death -- in an eternity that exists outside of our world and our time -- usually, we mean heaven when we proclaim our belief in the life everlasting, but we should never forget the fact that there are two eternal destinations to which you can go when you leave earth -- heaven and hell
-- heaven is eternal life with God -- while hell is eternal separation from God and from all that God is -- God is love, so love doesn't exist in hell -- God is good and holy and pure -- so nothing good or holy or pure can be in hell -- God exists in community and invites us into community with Him -- so community will not exist in hell
-- hell will be a place of isolation, loneliness, and eternal separation from God
-- but, hell does not have to be our destination
-- although we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God -- although we are all condemned to death and to hell because of our sins, there is a way out
-- God Himself came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ and paid the penalty for our sins -- He went to the cross in our place and gave His own body and blood to atone for our sins -- and He offers us forgiveness and salvation if we only believe in His name and trust in Him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength
-- Jesus punched our ticket to heaven with the cross -- but we have to pick up our ticket in order to go -- we have to ask Him to forgive us for our sins -- to cover us with His blood -- and to save us from sin and death and from hell itself
-- if we do that, we can have the assurance that we are saved and are going to heaven to live with God -- as John tells us in 1 John 5:11-13 -- "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. -- He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. -- I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."
-- as I close, I want to invite you to examine your heart -- to really think about what you believe and what you know about your relationship with God -- do you know without a doubt that you are going to heaven? -- do you know without a doubt that you have personally asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to come into your life as Lord and Savior?
-- if not, then I want you to get that assurance before you leave here -- I want to invite you to respond to God's word -- to call on the name of His Son -- and to receive Him as your Lord and Savior
-- you can do so at your seat or you can come to the altar -- the important thing is that you come
-- let us pray
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