Where do we go when we die? Part 3 Divine Realities

When I was in the Miramichi I met a man named Joe Irving. Joe Irving was a man from the greatest generation … that generation of men who grew up during the deprivation of the Great Depression, then went on to fight in World War II (not for fame or recognition, but because it was the right thing to do) and then came back to rebuild our nation into one of the greatest countries on Earth. Joe was one of those men for whom the war was never really over … he lived and relived the horrors of that war every day of his life. I remember when I would stop by to see him he would always bring the conversation around to the war and then he would say “Reverend, tell me that there is a Heaven. Tell me that it is better place where people don’t hate, or hurt, or destroy. Tell me there is a place where there is no killing and where I don’t have to watch my friends die. Reverend, tell me that there is a Heaven because I already lived through hell on earth.” 

My friends, I don’t know what kinds of trials or tribulations that you have lived through, are going through presently but I am sure that you have gone through times or will go through times that will make you say “Tell me that there is a Heaven.”  

The Bible says this in Colossians 3:1 “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s hand in the place of honor and power.” 

Today, in the memory of Joe Irving, and for all of you who have ever asked these questions we are going to look at the realities of Heaven. More specifically we’re going to look at these three questions.  What is heaven?  Where is it?  What is heaven like? 

1.  What is heaven?

The Bible tells us three things.

1.  It’s where God lives and rules.

Through the Bible it’s called “the dwelling place of God… the house of God.”  It’s called “the city of God.”  Thirty one times Jesus calls it “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven” actually. It’s where God not only lives but He rules. 

2.  It is a real place.

Heaven is real and hell is real.  They’re not just states of being.  They’re not some kind of Morpheus, no body, float in the clouds.  They are literal places.  There’s a real place called heaven and there is a real place called hell.  Jesus said this in John 14:2-3 “I’m going to prepare a place for you.”  Notice.  Heaven is not an accident.  It’s a prepared place.  He says “I’m going to prepare a place for you.” It is an actual place, not a state of being, and who is heaven prepared for?  For you.  God prepared it for you.  To be a part of His family.  He says “And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am you may be also.”  I am there and I want you to come to. That is the miracle of Easter. 

3.  Heaven was designed for us

Since the very beginning God has been working to bring His children home. In fact, the Bible says that in heaven there are streets, there are trees, there is water, there are homes.  In all likelihood there’s going to be animals there.  It was designed for you and for me.  Specifically designed for us.  The Bible says, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you.”  Heaven was prepared for you and it was prepared for you from the foundation or the creation of the world.

Friends, this is such an amazing expression of the love of God.  The Bible tells us that God created the entire universe because He wanted a family.  He said, “I want to express My love by creating human beings.  I’m going to make them in My image.”  Why you might ask? Ephesians 1:5 “God’s unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ and this gave Him great pleasure.” 

So what is heaven?  It’s a place He’s preparing for His family. It is the home God is preparing for you. 

2.  The question then is Where is heaven?

The answer is I don’t know.  All we know is this.  It’s out of this world!  We know that.  We definitely know that it is not on earth.  That’s why the Bible says in many places like Psalm 53:2 “God looks down from heaven at people on earth to see if there are any who are wise, and who worship Him.”  While we don’t know the location of heaven –it’s a specific place but we don’t know the location – but we do know the way.  Jesus said, “I am the way.”  “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father but by Me.” 

3.  So what is heaven like?

This is the one we really want to know the answer to.  The Bible says that heaven is a mystery.  Part of it is, there are some experiences in life that are simply indescribable. When we were taking Sam to Disney World we tried to explain to him what it would be like but it was a lost cause. No matter what we did we couldn’t tell Sam how cool it was going to be. We had to wait until he experienced it for himself. Some experiences are like that … indescribable. When you see your newborn child for the first time, when you kiss your wife for the first time, watching the Leaf’s win the Stanley Cup (nobody as seen that in 46 years). You can’t describe these feelings. They have to be felt. That is an indescribable feeling.

There are some things in life you simply have to experience.  All the art and all of the songs and all of the writing and poetry and everything can’t describe what heaven is really like because the truth is there’s really nothing on earth to compare heaven to.  We are a poor carbon copy.  A Xerox.  An imitation of something much, much greater, more fulfilling, more beautiful, more exciting. 

The Bible tells us this in 1 Corinthians 2 “No eye has ever seen, and no ear has heard, and no mind has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 

So I don’t really know.  And even the things I’m going to share with you today are just a pale explanation of what heaven’s like, but the Bible does give us some very important information on heaven.  I’m going to give you four things that will not be in heaven and five things that will be in heaven. 

1.      The first thing that’s not going to be in heaven is sickness.

The Bible says in  Phillipians 3:20-21 ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. The Bible says that there won’t be any sickness in heaven.  Why?  Because you’re going to get a new perfect body.  You will have a body in heaven.  When Jesus arose and came back to earth and He walked with, spoke with, they touched Him, and ate with His disciples. He wasn’t some spirit, He had a body.

The Bible says this “Just as each of us now has a body like Adam’s [that means we have a human body] so someday we shall have a body like Christ’s.”  We will have a body, the new body like Christ’s.

2.  Second, no sadness.

The Bible says, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  Did you know that the Bible says God has stored up every tear in heaven that you’ve ever cried?  He’s kept a record of it.  Your tears, your pain, God knows about.  He cares about.  But when you get to heaven there’s going to be no more sadness.  No more broken hearts.  No more rejection.  No more loneliness.  No more sorrow.  No more sadness.  No more grief.  No more heartache.  That is heaven.  He will wipe away every tear from your eyes.    

Those of you who are right now going through grief and you’re carrying the grief for a loved one, or you’ve been going through a period of depression, one of the things that does in our life is it just makes heaven be a little bit more close.  We want to go to heaven when we’re in pain.  Why?  Because there is none there.  Not only is there no sickness and no sadness, the Bible says…

3.  No suffering. 

The Bible says, “No more hunger, no more thirst, no more scorching heat.”   But the truth is there’s no suffering.  Every one of your needs will be satisfied.  Not only that but no suffering, no sadness, no sickness…

4.  No death.

Immortality.  The Bible says this “There shall be no more death.  No sorrow, no crying and no pain.  All of that will be gone forever.” 

Those are four things you won’t find in heaven.

Now the list of the things you will find in heaven.

1.  The first thing you’re going to find in heaven is reunion with every other believer. 

All those people I love who know the Lord when we get to heaven, we’re going to have a party.  We’re going to be reunited together.  The Bible says this, we looked at this verse earlier “This is God’s purpose that when the time is right He will gather us all together.  [There’s going to be a reunion.  He will gather us all together…] from wherever we are to be with Him in Christ forever.” 

Who’s going to be in heaven?

Good question.  Who’s going to be in heaven?  God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are going to be in heaven.  Angels are going to be in heaven.  The church is going to be in heaven – everybody who’s put their trust in Christ.  And all the believers who were believers in God before Jesus came – in the Old Testament.  We look back to the Messiah.  They looked forward to the Messiah.  The people in the Old Testament were saved the same way that people today are saved.  By looking forward to a savior.  And we look back to a savior.  But we’re saved the exact same way.

Hebrews 12 “You have come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem [heaven] and to the gathering [notice all the people he mentions] of countless happy angels, and the church [the church is going to be there – every believer] composed of all those registered in heaven and God [obviously God’s going to be there] who is the judge of all and the spirits of righteous people made perfect.”  Who is that?  That’s the people born before Jesus Christ who in faith lived and listened and looked forward to the promise that God had made “One day I’m sending a savior.”  And Jesus Himself.  They’re all going to be there in heaven.

One of the most common questions I hear is What about babies?  What about babies who die? 

Friends, they’re all going to be in heaven. Miscarried babies. Aborted babies. Still birth babies. Unbaptized babies.   Every one of them will be in heaven.  Every single one of them.  Why?  Because we are not responsible for what we cannot understand.  The same is true of a child who grows up to full adulthood but does not have the mental capacity to understand the love of Jesus Christ.  They can understand some.  It’s interesting that when they first communicated to Helen Keller who was blind and deaf, they communicated to her the concept of God she said, “I’ve always known Him.  I just didn’t know His name.”  Isn’t that interesting? 

Often children are more in contact with God than we are.  They’re much more sensitive.  That’s why the Bible says, “Unless you become as children you shall not enter the kingdom of God.”  Kids are humble.  They’re open to God.  We close off with our pride and we say no.  God says they’re going to be in heaven. 

When they have not reached an age old enough to understand the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, good and evil and they are not the age when they could come to Christ and make that decision to come to Christ, the Bible says they are safe.  Not saved but safe. 

In fact the Bible says in the book of Psalms, “The Lord preserves the simple.”

You may have grown up in a religion that taught that unless a child is baptized before they die they’ll go to hell.  It’s wrong.  It is not in the Bible.  It is unscriptural and it is just wrong.  The Bible tells us very clearly that children who are not old enough to make a wise decision, who have not come to the age of accountability, they are not old enough to understand that if they die before they understand, before they have a chance to choose Christ, they certainly haven’t rejected Him, and they don’t have the knowledge to understand.  They go straight into the loving arms of Jesus.  Every miscarriage, every still birth, every abortion…

So the first thing we’re going to have in heaven is we’re going to have a reunion with these that we love in the family of God. 

2.  The second thing there’s going to be in heaven is responsibilities.

You’re not going to sit around on a cloud doing nothing in heaven.  You will have work in eternity.  Here’s the difference: you’re going to enjoy it.  Here’s the difference: there aren’t going to be any heartaches with it.  Here’s the difference: you’re going to be fulfilled one hundred percent.  Your role and your responsibility the Bible says in heaven will be meaningful, it will be fulfilling, it will be enjoyable, and you’re going to enjoy doing it in eternity.

What is my responsibility?  What are my roles going to be in heaven?

I don’t know.  But I do know this.  It’s based on how faithful you are with roles and responsibilities He gives you on earth.  God is watching you and He’s testing you.  Life is a test.  And life is a trust.  And life is a temporary assignment.  In Luke 16 “Jesus said, ‘Unless you’re faithful in small matters [talking about here on earth] you won’t be faithful in large ones.  If you cheat in little things you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities [He’s talking about in heaven] and if you are untrustworthy with worldly wealth [in other words, the money, the possessions God gives you here on earth] who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?’ 

3.  Rejoicing.

What does that mean, “rejoicing.”  We’re going to worship in heaven.  We’re going to fellowship in heaven.  We’re going to celebrate in heaven.  We’re going to enjoy each other in heaven.  We’re going to love each other in heaven.  We’re going to party in heaven.

The bottom line is here on earth, we’re put here to practice all the things we’re going to do in heaven.  We’re going to love God in heaven.  We’re going to love each other in heaven.  We’re going to serve God in heaven.  We’re going to believe God in heaven.  We’re going to honor God in heaven.  What does God want you to do while you’re here on earth?  Practice!  So that when you get to heaven you know what you’re doing.

When we started this series we started by saying that there are the spiritual realities of life. We said God made you to love you; you were made to last forever;  God has prepared two eternal places – heaven and hell;  we get to choose where you’ll spend eternity; and we have a lifetime to make this choice … but no longer. We have spoken about those two eternal places, next week we will talk about How do I get to heaven?