Good morning, Friends! Thank you all for coming today.
For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about Heaven. We talked about the big questions people are always worried about:
• Am I going to be OK? Are the people I love going to be OK?
• Does it all come to an end when we die?
• What’s next? Is it going to be better, or worse?
And if you were here, you remember how Jesus said, “My Father’s house has many rooms. If it weren’t so, wouldn’t I have told you? I’m going to prepare a place for you, and I’ll come back, and I’ll take you to be with me, so that you will be where I am. . .” (John 14:1-3)
If you were here last week, we talked about different ideas people have had about Heaven, stretching over the entire Bible. Because people haven’t always had the same idea. Our ideas have grown and changed.
But we have that great promise that Jesus himself made, when he said, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even though they die, yet they shall live; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. . .” (John 11:25-26)
But people are curious. We always want more details. And when we can’t find details, we tend to make them up, or imagine them, or put them together in pretty strange ways.
Just this past week – I don’t know if you saw this in the news – a number of Christians were convinced that the Rapture was happening. They confidently expected that Jesus was coming last Tuesday, and that they would be snatched up into the air and taken to Heaven. Many of them sold everything they owned, and put on white clothing, and were waiting and praying outside last Tuesday morning.
It started with a preacher who got all worked up, and convinced a bunch of others, and then it got onto the internet and went viral. This isn’t the first time people have predicted the Second Coming. It’s happened many times.
And this is in spite of Jesus’ very clear teaching, in three gospels, that “No one knows the day or the hour” (Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32, and Luke 17:26-37). Not even Jesus knows. So, why do we think that we can figure it out?
Talking about Heaven is kind of the same thing. We don’t know. But people like to imagine. And what happens is, that people take every idea they can find, in the Bible and elsewhere, and they throw all their ideas into a food processor, and hit the switch and hold it down for a while, and then pour it out.
It’s no wonder we get all mixed up talking about Heaven! It’s really better to keep our ideas simple, and carry them lightly, in our heart. And trust that God, who made us and loves us, God will take care of the details. We’ve all got plenty of work to do, in the meantime.
Paul thought about these things a lot, and everyone was always asking him questions. What Paul said was,
“People want to know, “How will the dead be raised to life? What kind of bodies will they have?” Don’t be foolish! A seed has to die before it can sprout from the ground. Wheat seeds and all other seeds look different from the sprouts that come up.
This is because God gives everything the kind of body he wants it to have. People, animals, birds, and fish all have bodies, but none of them are alike.
Everything in the heavens has a body, and so does everything on earth. But each one is very different from all the others. The sun isn’t like the moon, the moon isn’t like the stars, and each star is different. Even star differs from star in glory.
That’s how it will be when our bodies are raised to life. These bodies will die, but the bodies that are raised will live forever. Our ugly and weak bodies will become beautiful and strong. . .
We will all be changed. It will happen suddenly, quicker than the blink of an eye. At the sound of the last trumpet the dead will be raised. We will all be changed, so that we will never die again. Our dead and decaying bodies will be changed into bodies that won’t die or decay.
The bodies we now have are weak and can die. But they will be changed into bodies that are eternal. Then the promise will come true:Death has lost the battle! Death has been swallowed up in victory!”
1 Corinthians 15
That’s really what we have to go on. That’s the promise, according to Paul. We will be ourselves, but we’ll be different. Our physical loss and our physical weakness, will be put aside, and we’ll be more strong and more alive than ever. We won’t be less – we’ll be more. It won’t be worse. It will be much, much better.
But you want to know about Heaven? All we really have to go on are visions. The best, the longest, and the most complete vision of Heaven, is in the last chapter of the Book of Revelation.
The writer of Revelation, John, was a Christian preacher who had been arrested by the Romans. John refused to swear publicly, that the Caesar, the Roman emperor, was a god.
John could have stayed out of prison. He might have been executed, for failing to swear. Instead, he was sent to a prison island, in the middle of the ocean, where no one could listen to him.
John wrote the book of Revelation to a group of small churches that he loved. Probably what he wrote was being read and censored by the Roman officials. So he wrote everything in metaphors and images, kind of like writing in a secret code that only his fellow Christians would understand. In vivid, extraordinary language, John said that the rulers of this world would be punished for the evil they were doing. Even if they were getting away with it now, God would punish them.
John also said that his fellow Christians needed to stay awake, and not let themselves become cold or lukewarm.
“Christ is knocking at the door!” John said. “If you hear his voice and open the door, Christ will come into your house, and eat supper with you. Everyone who stays strong and overcomes will sit on a throne with Jesus. . .” (Revelation 3:20-22)
John goes on, for chapter after chapter, like this. And at the very end of Revelation, John shares his vision of Heaven.
First, John says that Heaven will be like a new city, the city of God, that comes down out of Heaven. It’s like Heaven coming down to earth.
The city will be filled with the glory of God. It will shine like a jewel. There’ll be a high wall around the city, to keep evil out. And there will be 12 gates to the city, to let people in. Each gate will have an angel standing by the door, to guard it but also to welcome people. I love that idea of guarding and welcoming angels. Each entry will be a giant pearl, and the gate will never be shut.
God’s city, in John’s imagination, is enormous, almost beyond our imagination. John loves details, and he says that God’s city is square and 1,500 miles on each side. If you want to be literal, that’s the size of a continent. Talk about room for everyone!
The city walls are made of jasper, which is a bright red mineral, a precious stone. On the foundations of the city are engraved the names of all the apostles, written in jewels.
The city itself, John says, is made of pure, transparent gold. Interestingly, there’s no Temple in the city, because God himself is the living Temple. There are no streetlights, not even any sun or moon, because God himself is the Light, and the Light is Christ.
It’s quite a vision of perfection. And John says, nothing unclean, or impure or false can enter the city. There’s no lies, there’s no trash, there’s no spiritual impurity. It’s clean and wonderful, inside and out.
Let me read what else John says. Remember, this is what Heaven is supposed to be like.
In the vision, the angel showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city.
On each side of the river stood the trees of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 22:1-5
I don’t know what you make of all this. A lot of it sounds pretty wild. Pretty strange.
We are all made out of earth, the common clay that all life comes from. As it says, “We are made from dust, and to dust we return.” (Genesis 3:19)
But we also have a foot in Heaven. We’re physical, but we’re also spiritual. We are bodies, but we are also souls.
Here and now, we care for our bodies, and we care for each other. But we also have a hope for something more. And that hope is grounded in the promises Jesus made, and in the living example of Jesus himself.
When Jesus was on the cross, he told the dying criminal who hung beside him, the man who repented, Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in Paradise. . .” (Luke 23:43)
One of the worst people we could imagine, was forgiven and went to Heaven. We don’t know if he was a thief, or a murderer, or a terrorist. But Jesus forgave him, and welcomed him home.
So, you don’t need to worry about getting into Heaven. If Jesus could forgive a criminal like that, he’ll certainly forgive any of us.
What I want you all to do, is to have a healthy idea of Heaven. Don’t be filled with fear. Don’t get pulled aside by weird ideas. Don’t get sucked in by people who are trying to scare you, or take your money.
Be grounded in faith, hope and love. Be grounded in the plain, straightforward reading of the gospel. If you get confused, read what Jesus says. Jesus made lots of promises about Heaven, but they’re all pretty easy to understand. Don’t get sucked down a rabbit hole by some misguided person.
Be confident. Be faithful. As it says, over and over again, “Don’t be afraid.”
Remember, there’s only two things you really need to do in life: love God, with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. When it comes to that second thing, remember what Jesus said: “Do to others whatever you would want them to do to you. . .” (Matthew 7:12)
If you want to be treated right, treat other people right. If you want people to help you, help them first.
If you want God to be merciful to you, forgive each other. If God has forgiven you a whole bunch of times, well, that’s how to treat everyone else.
If you’re down on your luck and want someone to help, help the next person you meet. Whether they’re hungry, or thirsty, or cold and naked, whether they’re sick or lonely or in a prison or wherever, if you don’t think they’re worth helping, help them anyway.
Jesus said it’s the same thing as helping him. And he’s waiting to welcome every one of us into Heaven.