John 10:28
Revelation 21:1-4
My dad died about 10years ago after a short illness and on the day of his burial, I experienced something that left a lasting impression on me. While the family took turns to pay their last respect, I understood in a profound sense the scripture that says “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev 21:4). While I stood by his lifeless body, I was engulfed by a sense of peace which made me smile at him. He was a Christian who faithfully served the Lord. And that was a comfort to my heart . A comfort that gave me joy that day, knowing he is with the Lord. This momentary joyful experience however didn’t take away the pain of death we experienced as a family. Death is a reality of life, as natural as birth is. Once we are born, we will die. “A time to be born, and a time to die…”(Ecclesiastes 3:2).
Dear friends, one day you will die. I will die. The crucial question is, where will you spend eternity when you die? Those who have trusted in Jesus will spend eternity with him in heaven. That is eternal life. And those who have not trusted in him will spend eternity separated from the peace and joy of God in eternal damnation. Simply, the believer will go to heaven and the unbeliever will go to hell. These are two destinations every of us is heading. As I said last week, you cannot hang in limbo where you are neither in heaven or hell. It doesn’t work that way. Either you will enjoy eternal life or eternal damnation: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
Last week we examined where eternal life will be: heaven. We desribed Heaven as a city (Hebrews 11:8-10), a beautiful city (Revelation 12:18-21), a City of Everlasting Joy (Rev.21:1-4). What I seek to answer today is where is this place, or where is Heaven? My hope is that this sermon will set a desire for us to add to our biblical study and meditations, the reality of heaven where we will spend life unending in the very presence of God. Often when a believer dies, it is said that “he now beholds the face of he whom he loved” This clearly is an indication death transports us into the presence of God in Heaven.
Where Is Heaven? That’s the question I seek to answer
Let’s call this sermon The Place of Heaven Part 2. I will address three understandings of the word heaven as used in the Bible. Then I will find point out the Heaven where believers will live forever. Paul in 2Corinthians 12:2, which we read as our 2nd Scripture reading, speaks of an experience he had where he was found in the 3rd heaven:
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven - whether in the body or out of the body I don’t know, God knows – and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter
It’s believed this is Paul’s own experience but speaks of it in humility so not to put unnecessary attention to himself. Observe that, if Paul speaks of a third heaven, then there must be a first and second heaven. Now for our purpose, I will join the 1st and 2nd heaven and call it the Physical Heaven
The Physical Heaven.
The Bible we must note doesn’t use the terms first and second heaven, but it uses heaven in a number of ways that gives weight to the idea of first and second heaven. The first heaven can simply be described as the skies above us: the clouds, the atmosphere. When you look up, what you see can be described as the 1st heaven
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And God said, “Let there be an expanse[a] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven (Genesis 1:1-8)
The word heaven in what we have just read is the sky. That is the 1st heaven. David the Psalmist uses the same language in Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. So this is the 1st Heaven and it is physical. The second heaven also can also describe the realm beyond the skies. The planets, the stars, the moon. The realm of the galaxies if you like.
In both the Old and New Testaments, the same words we translate as “heaven” can have different meanings depending on the context. First, heaven can mean simply the sky above us, either the atmosphere where the birds fly or space where the stars are flung. In that sense, heaven is simply part of this reality where we live (Gerrit Scott Dawson, Heavn, Ligonier)
When Jesus ascended to heaven the Scripture paints a picture of multiple layers of Heaven Jesus went through.
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens (Hebrews 7:26)
And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven (Acts 1:10-11)
What we have just read can be confusing if we are not careful.
(I) The disciples looked into heaven.
(II) Jesus was taken from them into heaven.
(III) Jesus Is Exalted Above The Heaven
Simply, the disciples looked into the sky. And Jesus went beyond the sky to heaven—what we will call The Third Heaven. But for the sake of my first point, let’s call this spiritual heaven to contrast it.
The Spiritual Heaven
Where is Jesus right now? He is in heaven. But this realm is beyond our physical eyes and perception. It is a place, yet we cannot see it. Jesus ascended to heaven with a body. He is seated at the right hand of the father interceeding for us. This imagery is a picture of power and authority. If Jesus ascended to heaven, then he went to a real place, the very dwelling of God: “Our Father, Who Art In Heaven” (Matthew 6:9).
The prophet Isaiah saw a vision of God
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple (Isaiah 6:1).
The third heaven – spiritual heaven– is the dwelling place of God, Jesus and all departed believers who are awaiting the resurrection of their body; so that body and soul will join together and live for ever. Jesus told the thief today you will be with me in paradise. Now while in heaven, Reformed theology consider this period as the intermediate period when we await the final resurrection and continue to live eternally in our new home
The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls (which neither die nor sleep), having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies: and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none (Westminster Confession of Faith 32.1)
The New Heavens and New Earth
God’s final work of salvation is not completed until the resurrection, when after judgement, believers will dwell in The New Heavens and New Earth. We will resurrect and come back here with a renewed heaven and earth. The world we live in will be renewed with God restoring again the perfection of his creation
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind (Isaiah 65:17)
But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2Peter 3:13)
Then the glorious scene is when all these promises are finally fulfilled. The apostle John saw a vision
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,[b] and God himself will be with them as their God.[c] 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:1-4)
Listen to what R.C Sproul said about this text
What is most notable about heaven is what is absent from it as well as what is present in it. Things that will be absent include: (1) tears, (2) sorrow, (3) death, (4) pain, (5) darkness, (6) ungodly people, (7) sin, (8) temples, (9) the sun or moon, and (10) the curse from Adam’s sin (see Genesis 3:14-19).
What will be present in heaven includes: (1) the saints, (2) the river of the water of life, (3) healing fruit, (4) the Lamb of God, (5) worship, (6) the wedding feast of the Lamb and His bride, (7) the unveiled face of God, and (8) the Sun of Righteousness. Heaven is where Christ is. It is the eternal bliss of communion with the God-man.
I close with a final quote from Wayne Grudem
In the new heavens and new earth, there will be a place and activities for our resurrection bodies, which will never grow old or become weak or ill. A strong consideration in favor of this viewpoint is the fact that God made the original physical creation “very good (Gen. 1:31). There is therefore nothing inherently sinful or evil or “unspiritual” about the physical world that God made or the creatures that he put in it, or about the physical bodies that he gave us at creation….
Therefore we can expect that in the new heavens and new earth there will be a fully perfect earth that is once again “very good.” And we can expect that we will have physical bodies that will once again be *very good” in God’s sight, and that will function to fulfill the purposes for which he originally placed man on the earth.
For that reason, it should not strike us as surprising to find that some of the descriptions of life in heaven include features that are very much part of the physical or material. creation that God has made. We shall eat and drink at “the marriage supper of the Lamb” Ike,19:9). Jesus will once again drink wine with his disciples in the heavenly kingdom luke 22:18). The “river of the water of life” will flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city” (Rev. 22:1). The tree of life will bear “twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month” (Rev. 22:2).
Heaven will be a great reunion with all the saints. We will see loved ones we lost. If we go ahead of any loved ones, they shall also see us. Indeed we shall recognise ourselves and it will be a great reunion. And most importantly, we will see Jesus. Don’t you look forward to that? You should. He is the one who loved us and gave himself for us on the cross. This joy of heaven and seeing Christ should be a motivation for us to have hope and live knowing whatever happens in this life, one day, we shall see Christ and all our pain and sorrow will be taken away.
See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as pure (1John 3:1-2)
But if you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, sadly, this day I am describing will be a moment of eternal doom and punishments and pain for you. You will be in eternal torment for ever. So this is the right time to to settle this matter. Put your faith in Christ and flee the wrath of God to come.
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