 | David Mann
is on staff as one of the Pastors at Central Christian Church in Wichita and has served as both Pastor of Christian Education and Pastor of Communications. David has taught adult classes at Central for more than 20 years and is known for his teaching emphasis on the Character of God, The Nature of Man, and the work of Jesus on the Cross. David can be contacted by phone at (316) 688-4400, by e-mail at mannd@centralcc.org, or you can write him at: Central Christian, 2900 North Rock Road, Wichita, KS 67226. |
Religion
2001-09-01 10:45:00
Heaven doesn’t sound like all that much fun
Question: What exactly is heaven and what goes on there?
Answer: Thanks for your good question on heaven. Many people wonder what heaven is like and how they can be certain they’ll go there when they die. Let’s take a look at your questions one at a time and try to shine some heavenly light on them!Heaven 101 - What exactly is heaven and what goes on there?Heaven is a place the Bible talks about more than 500 times in both the Old and New Testaments. It is described as a very real place where God dwells and reigns in a holy and special way, a place where sin can never enter and a place of unimaginable beauty whose occupants include the angels of God as well as the souls of men and women purchased by God from every tribe and language and people and nation.Although other world religions put forth some idea of what happens after we die, heaven is distinctly Christian in nature and is a common theme of Jesus’ teaching and of the Bible as a whole.People conjure up all kinds of ideas about heaven and the notions of what they think heaven is like range from the bizarre to the sublime, but the fact is, heaven is not simply anything you might want it to be, instead, heaven is exactly what God has prepared it to be. With this in mind, just what does the God of the Bible say about His heaven and the activities that go on there? Let’s begin with a few general observations from the Bible about heaven.• Heaven is Beyond our Imaginations - The Bible says: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" 1 Corinthians 2:9 • Though God is omnipresent (present everywhere, all the time, at the same time), He dwells in a special way in heaven. (I Kings 8:27, Matthew 6:9-10, Matthew 10:32-33)• Heaven lasts forever (Revelation 22:5)• God is Worshiped in heaven (Revelation Chapters 4 & 5)• Not everyone goes to heaven (Luke 16:19-31, 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10)• Heaven is a source of Hope, Joy, and Strength in this life. (Colossians 1:5, 1 Peter 1)We can also learn about Heaven from eyewitness accounts of those who have seen it. In several Old Testament and New Testament passages, we get a glimpse of what heaven is like and the response of those who have seen it is always quite similar.• Ezekiel writes that he fell face down when confronted by the glory of Heaven and describes it in Ezekiel Chapter 1.• Isaiah was sure he was a dead man and fell face down. He describes the Holiness of the God of Heaven in Isaiah chapter 6.• The apostle Paul describes it as “inexpressible,” in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.• John fell at the feet of the Lord when he was shown heaven and describes it in great detail in Revelation chapters 21 & 22. In fact, from these last two chapters of Revelation, we learn a great deal about what will be in heaven, what won’t be in heaven, and what will go on in heaven. Let’s list some of the things that won’t be in Heaven.What Will We Not Find in Heaven?• The present heavens and earth will be replaced by a new heaven and earth. (2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1)• There will be no tears, no death, no mourning, no crying or pain. (Revelation 21:4)• The curse of sin is lifted and there will be no offense to the Holiness of God in Heaven. (Revelation 21:8, 21:27, Revelation 22:3 & 22:15)• There is no Temple in Heaven because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb of God are its temple. (Revelation 21:22)• There is no sun or moon in Heaven because the glory of God gives it light. There is no night in Heaven. (Revelation 21:23, 22:5)So What Will We Find in Heaven?• The Throne of God and of the Lamb will be in heaven. (Revelation 22:3)• The angels of God are in heaven. (Revelation 5:11, 21:9-12)• Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be found in heaven. (Revelation 21:27)• We’ll have new bodies in Heaven. (2 Corinthians 5)• All those who have died “in Christ” will be in Heaven. (2 Thessalonians 1:10)• There will be rewards in heaven. (Matthew 5, Revelation 22)With this brief overview of Heaven as a background, let’s address the questions you had about your friend’s comments.One of your questions seems to be how we can possibly be fulfilled or experience enjoyment in heaven if all we do is praise and honor God all the time for eternity.Living life to the glory of God in heaven does not simply mean that the redeemed stand as a group and sing hymns all day, every day for eternity. Rather, from a biblical perspective, God’s children are to be living even our present lives so as to give praise and glory to God all the time, every day, right here and now. So if we are living according to His plan while we are here on earth, the biggest change in Heaven will be that we can live life to His glory without the constant burden of sin weighing us down and holding us back. For those who dwell in heaven, it will be the living of life free from the weight of sin, free from the faults and failures of this life. Heaven will be life lived the way God created us to live originally. Learning of His infinite wisdom and knowledge, exercising all of our faculties and abilities at a level unheard of on earth. Heaven will be anything but dull. Heaven will simply free us to fully live to His glory, which was the reason we were created in the first place. If you’ve ever thought of it, God, in His infinite being, is the pinnacle, the zenith, the ultimate of any and every area of knowledge and abilities we experience here. He is the ultimate development of every discipline. He is the ultimate engineer, He is the ultimate designer, the ultimate decorator, the ultimate painter, the ultimate father, the ultimate counselor, the ultimate mathematician, the ultimate musician...the ultimate everything. Whatever in our experience that we find to be glorious on this earth will find its supreme fulfillment in heaven, in an ultimate way we cannot even imagine here. All of eternity will not exhaust the exhilaration of living life the way God designed it to be lived. Heaven boring? Hardly. Furthermore, heaven is really the “Natural Habitat” of those whom God calls His children, so when those who are of God’s household speak of heaven, we’re identifying the place where our Father is, our Savior is, and where our brothers and sisters are. In heaven, our name is written there, our eternal inheritance is there, our citizenship is there, our reward is there, and the only treasure we will have for eternity is there as well. This is why the Apostle Paul says we are strangers, we are pilgrims, and we are as aliens in this present world while we await our future home in heaven. Now while all this talk about heaven sounds great, the fact is that the ruler of Heaven has said that there is only one way to get there and that not everyone will go there. Instead, Jesus said many will spend all of eternity in a destination they never planned on nor desired. This is what the Bible names as Hell, where the blessings of God have been exchanged for His eternal punishment. We dealt with the topic of Hell in our last article and with the love of Jesus and the Grace of God in mind, I would challenge you and your husband to examine tail the claims of the Bible about both Heaven and Hell, about life and death, and about the salvation to be found in Christ alone. Just before He was crucified, Jesus was talking with his followers about heaven, that He was going there to prepare a place for them and telling them by what way they could get there. Here is what He said to them as recorded in John 14: 1-6"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”So the good news is, that the one who created heaven tells us He made a sure and certain way for us to spend forever with Him in a place of glorious beauty, inexhaustible wonder, and never ending joy. Thanks again for the great question! Let’s finish the topic with a passage that gives us the words to one of the songs we’ll sing in heaven: Revelation 5:13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”Amen.
