THINKING ABOUT ETERNITY: GETTING PAST YOUR MISCONCEPTIONS
SMWS- 07/12/09 Text: Revelation 21:1-6
SRBC #
INTRODUCTION TO SERIES
1) As most of you know today we’re beginning a sermon series on heaven and eternity
A) It’s a topic you ought to be interested in- because it concerns your future
B) But I’m guessing it’s a subject you know very little about
1) Funny thing- Lots of books have been written- and countless sermons have been preached- about Jesus’ Second Coming
2) But relatively little has written- or spoken- about what comes after that
3) We’re going to try and correct that over the course of the next seven or eight weeks
4) But before we get started I want to establish a few ground rules to guide our study
5) Rule 1- You will pray for these sermons
A) I’ve been praying- and seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit in preparing these sermons
B) But I need you to pray that God will lay the words on my heart what He wants you to hear
1) Nothing more
2) And nothing less
6) Rule 2- Understand that these sermons won’t answer all the questions you have about heaven and eternity
A) There’s no way a sermon series can reveal all the riches of God’s truth
B) But I’m confident you’ll know more about heaven at the end of the series than you know now
7) Rule 3- We won’t be bound by ideas found in old hymns or gospel songs
A) We’re talking about some great songs
B) Unfortunately they didn’t always get the theology right
8) Rule 4- I will not to engage in speculation
A) Now I may interpret some passages of Scripture more literally than they’ve been interpreted in the past
B) But I won’t go a step beyond where the Bible- and the Holy Spirit- takes us
9) Agreed? Great! Father- Take us where you want us to go- open Your Word and teach us your truth. Amen.
10) Choral Anthem
INTRODUCTION TO MAIN SERMON
1) Most Christians don’t like to think about heaven
A) Now they’re glad they’re going there as opposed the alternative
B) They find the whole idea of heaven to be boring
2) This was Huck Finn’s problem
A) In the Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Miss Watson tries to convince Huck to change his fun-loving way of living so he could go to heaven
B) Huck says: She went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. I didn’t think much of (that at all)…..
3) I’ve got to be honest with you:
A) For I long time I thought that’s what eternity would be like
B) My problem was- I’d fallen victim to some common misconceptions people have about heaven
4) Now the dictionary defines a misconception as: A mistaken thought, idea or notion
A) And many Christians have these mistaken thoughts and ideas and notions about heaven
B) Why? Probably because too much of our thinking about heaven is based more on…..
1) Books- movies- TV shows- and a lot of bad preaching
2) Rather than the authority of the infallible, inerrant Word of God
4) We’re going to change that today by addressing the three most common misconceptions people have about heaven
HUMAN BEINGS CAN’T IMAGINE WHAT HEAVEN WILL BE LIKE
1) When I was a younger man I once asked an older pastor-friend what heaven would be like
A) He didn’t hesitate: Oh- it’ll be wonderful!
B) Me: But- that doesn’t tell me what it’ll actually BE like
C) He: Well Steve…we’re not supposed to know that. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him…. That means human beings can’t even imagine what heaven will be like
2) Since my friend said that I’ve learned a few things:
A) First of all- Joe didn’t complete Paul’s thought
1) No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’-
2) BUT God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
B) Which means we CAN know the things of God- when we study the Bible guided by the Holy Spirit
3) And one other thing:
A) Paul wasn’t even talking about heaven in 1 Corinthians 2
B) So Joe was just plain wrong- bless his sweet heart
4) Another passage of Scripture people quote to claim people can’t imagine what will be like is 2 Corinthians 12:2-4
2 I know a man in Christ (the man is Paul himself) 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.
4) The argument here goes something like this:
A) God prohibited Paul from thinking and talking about heaven
B) Therefore- He’s prohibited us from thinking and talking about heaven
5) The problem with that theory is the Bible itself
A) If you study God’s Word- particularly the Gospels and the book of Revelation- you’re going to be doing a lot of thinking about heaven
B) Unless you take the meaning out of the passages by claiming they are symbols of some greater ‘spiritual reality’
6) A good example here is Matthew 8:11
11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
7) Some people read this verse and claim: Jesus didn’t mean we’ll have feasts in heaven- it’s a symbol He used to illustrate a deeper spiritual truth
A) Do ya really think so?
B) Sounds to me like Jesus is describing a terrific dinner party He’s preparing for us in heaven
8) Look-
A) The reason some people think it’s impossible for human beings to imagine what heaven will be like
B) Is because they’ve been missing what been in the pages of the Bible all along!
9) Now we’re going to be spend a lot of time talking about what heaven will be like over the next few weeks
A) But right now I want you to get excited
B) Because when we talk about heaven- we’re talking about the place Jesus is preparing for us
8) Someday I hope to visit Australia
A) And it’s all because of this book- In A Sunburned Country
1) Before I read it I’d never wanted to visit Australia
2) Too far away- too expensive- just not worth it
B) But after reading this book- everything changed
1) Bill Bryson’s writing fired my imagination
2) Now I’d got to see the land down under
9) God wants you to have the same kind of excitement about heaven
A) And it begins when you let the Bible trigger your imagination about heaven
B) Colossians 3:1 says: Since….you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
1) Think about this: Where is Jesus currently sitting at the right hand of God?
2) You guessed it? Heaven!
10) Folks- God has placed a longing- a deep desire- for heaven within you
A) It’s where you know you’re supposed to be
B) It’s your inheritance- your birthright- your home
11) Here’s the bottom line-
A) Not only is it possible to for you to imagine what heaven is going to be like
B) God wants you to dream of your heavenly home
Hebrews 11:13-16
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. (They were dreaming of- and imagining- the home God had in store for them)
15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
HEAVEN IS LOCATED SOMEWHERE OUT THERE
1) The second misconception many people have about heaven is that it’s located somewhere out there
A) Where that is- nobody can tell you
B) But they’re certain it’s not here
2) A lot of the old hymns and gospel songs have contributed to this misunderstanding. Songs like…..
A) When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder- When the roll is call up yonder- when the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there
B) I’ll Fly Away- I’ll fly away o glory- I’ll fly away (in the morning) When I die hallelujah by and by- I’ll fly away
C) This World Is Not My Home- This world is not my home I'm just a-passing through my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore
3) Folks- here’s why people think heaven’s got to be somewhere out there
A) Even though the present Earth offers great pleasures and joys and beauty
B) It’s also a fallen world corrupted by disease and destruction- sin and death- grief and sorrow
4) But that’s not the way it was in the beginning
Genesis 1:31
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Creation was exactly the way God intended it to be. He didn’t flub up a single detail) And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day.
5) I love to watch science programs like NOVA on television
A) On many of these shows scientists describe Earth as ‘the miracle planet’
B) What they mean is that Earth is the only place in the Universe where life is possible
6) Among other things- the Earth…..
A) Is just the right distance from the sun
1) Any closer and it would be too hot
2) Any further away and it would be too cold for life to exist
B) Earth has just the right amount of oxygen in the atmosphere
1) If our atmosphere was 100% oxygen most things would spontaneously burst into flame
2) We need the nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases in the atmosphere to keep us alive
C) The Earth’s magnetic shield protects us from the deadly solar wind and interstellar radiation
D) And Earth has an abundance of liquid water- the one thing that is absolutely essential to sustain life
7) These things aren’t some cosmic fluke resulting from a Big Bang
A) This was God’s plan
B) To make a perfect place for human beings to call home
8) And that’s what the Earth was in Genesis chapters 1 & 2
A) Adam and Eve lived in a paradise- a perfect place
B) A place where death didn’t exist!
Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
C) The fact is: Death was not part of God’s original plan for human beings
8) Here’s the bottom line:
A) The problems we see on Earth today have nothing to do with God’s Creation
B) These problems are caused by human sin
9) Our first grandparents- Adam and Eve- made a choice to sin against God
A) And we’ve been living
B) And dying- with the consequences ever since
9) Paul describes the results of sin in Romans 1:24-32
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
10) In a world filled with evil like that who wouldn’t to fly away to some place else?
A) Just leave the Earth behind
B) And get started fresh in some place new
11) But if God did that He would be admitting defeat
A) He’d be saying ‘I was wrong when I said My creation was very good’
B) This would mean that God was renouncing His ownership over the Universe He created
11) But that’s not God’s plan
A) The Bible says at the end of time God is going restore- redeem- reclaim- reconcile- resurrect the Earth
B) And make it what He intended it to be all along: The perfect place for resurrected human beings to call home for all eternity
12) Listen to what the Bible says:
A) Isaiah 65:17: Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth
B) Isaiah 66:22: As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me, declares the Lord, so will your name and descendants endure
C) 2 Peter 3:13: In keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness
D) Revelation 22:21: 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.
13) In each of these cases the Greek word that is translated as ‘new’ is kaine
A) Kaine doesn’t mean recently discovered or newly created
B) Instead it carries the idea of being changed for the better- rejuvenated- refreshed- restored
14) We’ll talk more about what this means over the next few weeks- but here’s what I want you to remember
A) Our dwelling place in eternity- our heavenly home- is not going to be somewhere out there
B) It’s going to be on a restored and redeemed Earth that will be a whole lot like Earth we know now only:
1) Only without all the sin, death, grief and destruction
2) And with the eternal and abiding presence of the Living God
15) Revelation 21:1-6
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!"
17) Seriously- is this awesome- or what?
IN HEAVEN WE WON’T HAVE BODIES- BUT WE’LL BE A SPIRIT LIKE GOD IS A SPIRIT
1) In the early stages of Christian history- some prominent theologians- made a stupid decision
A) They let their theological thinking be influenced
1) By pagan Greek philosophy
2) Rather than the inspired, inerrant Word of God
B) Unfortunately- their stupid conclusions still influence Christians today
2) Borrowing from the Greek philosopher Plato these theologians taught that:
A) During your lifetime, your sinful body acts as a prison trapping your eternal spirit
B) When death occurs-
1) Your spirit is set free to go to heaven
2) Where you will exist forever in a holy ‘spiritual’ state
4) All I can say is that if being in heaven means being some faceless, formless spirit
A) I hope my death will be the end of the line for me
B) Because I’ve got no interest in being a ghost
5) Good thing I don’t have to worry about that. According to Bible- in heaven….
A) I will live in a resurrected physical body
B) IOW: I’ll still be the same person I am now
1) I’ll have the same name- you’ll still call me Steve
2) I’ll look the same- you’ll recognize me then just like you recognize me now
3) My voice will sound the same- although I hope I’ll sing better
4) I’ll have the same gifts- the same talents- the same knowledge I have now- only they’ll be improved and strengthened for God’s glory
5) I’ll still enjoy a good meal with friends and loved ones
6) I’ll still know and cherish members of my family
7) I’ll still love to laugh- and to learn- and enjoy a good night’s sleep
6) How do I know these things?
A) Because Jesus was physically raised from the dead
B) And the Bible says-
1) That what happened to Jesus
2) Is going to happen to everyone who knows Christ as their personal Savior and Lord!
Luke 24:1-6
24:1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.
5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?
6 He is not here; he has risen! (Been resurrected!)
7) On Easter morning Jesus didn’t appear to be alive-
A) He was alive!
B) Physically alive in a Resurrected body that still bore the scars of Calvary
8) His disciples…./ They…/ Jesus….
A) Recognized Him as being the same person they knew before His death on the Cross
B) Were able to touch Him and embrace Him-
1) He wasn’t a ghost
2) But a real human being with a real human body
C) Ate with them and laughed with them and fellowshipped with them for 40 days after the Resurrection
9) And when Jesus ascended into heaven
A) He left earth in the glory of His Resurrection body
B) Then the angel told the disciples He’d come again in the same Resurrection body
1) Which proves Jesus didn’t become a spirit when He got back to heaven
2) And neither will we!
10) In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul talks about what all this means
12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead (One of the fundamental truths of the Gospel), how can some of you say that there is no (physical) resurrection of the dead?
13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless (it has no power to save or bring hope) and so is your faith.
15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, (liars, blasphemers) for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. (If God doesn’t intend to physically resurrect us from the dead then He didn’t bother to raise Jesus from the dead either)
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. (And bound for hell)
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied (objects of scorn) more than all men.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (What happened to Jesus- physical resurrection- is a preview of what will happen to all born-again believers)
21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (In a resurrected physical body. For Paul the idea of being a spirit ‘set free’ from a body is ridiculous- unimaginable)
23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. (Jesus first- with us to follow. But in the end- we’ll all be living together in resurrected physical bodies on the new earth)
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: (This is what will happen on Resurrection Day) We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--
52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53 For the perishable (Which describes the body you live in now) must clothe itself with the imperishable (your resurrection bodies), and the mortal (your present bodies which are subject to death) with immortality (your Resurrection body which is designed to last for eternity).
54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
1) I hope today’s message has left you excited
A) Excited about what God’s Word taught you today
B) And excited about what God’s Word will teach us over the next few weeks
2) But as we finish I want to ask you a question:
A) Are you sure that your eternal destiny is heaven?
B) There’s only one way to be sure- and that is to have a personal relationship with God’s Son- Jesus the Christ
3) Let us pray
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