June 11, 2006
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Thoughts
on Heaven
Revelation
21:1-7
I was tremendously impacted by a funeral I once had. The service was for the mother of a member of the church who
was a great Christian woman. During
the service, one of her former pastors stood to share his gratitude for the life
of this woman. He was retired from
ministry at the time, and he talked about losing his father and mother, his wife
and several friends. Then he sort
of looked up as though seeing something no one else could see and said, “I now
have more family and friends in heaven than I do here on earth.
Heaven is looking more like home all the time.”
That thought has stuck with me for a long time.
In talking of the great people of faith, the author of Hebrews wrote,
“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.
People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of
their own. If they had been
thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to
return. 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” (Hebrews 11:13-16).
The first thing we learn from the Scripture today is that: Heaven is a place of joy. Heaven
is a place of joy because of our joyous God who is there.
The Scripture clearly states that heaven will be a place where God will
wipe away every tear and there will be no more crying.
So often when we see scenes of heaven in the Bible there are great
exclamations of joy and glorious singing. I
think we often pass over the ecstasy of heaven.
We see the holiness of heaven and the glory of God, but we miss the
ecstatic joy. We understand that there will be no more pain and no more
evil, but something in the back of our minds whispers that it might just be a
little boring.
In another church I served, I was talking to a man who had become a close
friend. He was a trial lawyer.
We were talking about heaven and he really confounded me when he said he
didn’t know if he liked the idea of there being no evil in heaven.
Evil, after all, in his opinion, was what made life interesting.
Without any evil at all he thought heaven might be a little boring.
Maybe he was a little worried that he would be without a job too.
He reminded me of Mark Twain’s famous story of Miss Watson, a rather
stodgy old fuddy-duddy. She began
to tell Huck Finn about heaven, and Huck later mused: “She said. . . she was
going to live so as to go to the good place.
I made up my mind I shouldn’t try for it.
But I never said so, because it would only make trouble and wouldn’t do
no good. Now she had got a start,
and she went on and told me all about the good place.
She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long
with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So
I didn’t think much of it. But I
never said so. I asked her if she
reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and, she said, not by a considerable sight.
I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.”
Where did we get this idea that heaven was about flying around through
the clouds playing harps? To tell
you the truth, if that is what heaven was all about I wouldn’t be interested
either. I believe there will be
meaningful and purposeful activity. I
believe there will be indescribable joy. When
Jesus was on earth he said that his purpose in coming was, “so that my joy may
be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). If that was his desire and purpose on earth, how much more is
it his purpose in heaven. He said
that there was great joy in heaven when one sinner repents (Luke 15:7).
There is great joy over the repentant sinner, because there is one more
person who will share in the glories of heaven.
Part of the joy of heaven for God and for us is that you will be there.
The Psalmist talked of the joy and pleasures in heaven when he wrote:
“You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your
presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11).
The second thing I notice about this passage of Scripture is: Heaven is described as a city.
What this means is that it will not be just you and Jesus.
You will be part of a city. What
this means is that you will not be living alone in your “mansion on a
hilltop,” cocooning with your celestial CD’s and heavenly TiVo.
You will be part of a community. The
Scripture talked of new heavens and a new earth, for the old heavens and earth
have passed away. And we are told
of a new city coming down from heaven. I
began to think about this passage, that I have read so many times before, and
was struck by a new thought. A city
is a city only because it is filled with people — otherwise it is only a ghost
town. This is not just a walled
compound with streets and gates. This
is a group of people. The
foundations are people. The gates
are people. The city is described
as a “bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
And who are these people? These
are the redeemed, those who have been filling the city for thousands of years
and waiting for their return to the new earth, to dwell there in their new
bodies. The Bible says, “Now we
know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from
God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (2 Corinthians
5:1). Paul is using the word tent as a metaphor for our bodies.
Jesus says to us, “I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives
and believes in me will never die. Do
you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). So
we will have new bodies that will never die.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying, “I declare to you, brothers, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable
inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep,
but we will all be changed — 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” (1
Corinthians 15:50-52). I get
excited when I think about what it will mean to be changed.
So what is the purpose of these new bodies living in a new city?
It means to live in deep, meaningful, wonderful, fulfilling
relationships with other people. We
will live in community with other believers and find them to be part of what
makes heaven so wonderful. Gone
will be the egotism, wounds, personality flaws and misunderstandings that make
relationships so difficult here. We
will see as we are seen and know as we are known.
Paul said, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when
perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. . . .
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face
to face. Now I know in part; then I
shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:9-12). The online dating services promise to help you find your
“soul mate.” What if you had an
entire community of soul mates — and not just people who were exactly like
you, but people you loved who were wonderfully different from you?
There will be people who lived a thousand years before you; people who
used to speak another language; people of other races, nationalities and
personalities — all reflecting the glory of God through their individual
personalty, as well as their ethnic and cultural background.
Randy Alcorn, in his book simply titled Heaven,
says, “Consider what it will be like to see the Masai of Kenya, the Dinka of
Sudan, the Hmong, Athabaskans, Tibetans, Aucans, Icelanders, Macedonians,
Moldovans, Moroccans, and Peruvians. Hundreds
of nations, thousands of people groups, will gather to worship Christ.
And many national and cultural distinctives, untouched by sin, will
continue to the glory of God. Isaiah
60:11 gives us biblical basis to suppose that the best culture, history, art,
music, and the languages of the old Earth will be redeemed, purified, and
carried over to the New Earth.” I
think that is beautiful and exciting. We
got a glimpse of it last Sunday as Joanna read the Scripture to us in Mandarin,
Gothogo Mukuria read the same Scripture in Swahili, and Rachel Hoffman read the
Scripture in Spanish. What a thrill
that was. How richly diverse and
how interesting heaven will be. If
you are racially prejudiced, or you don’t like people who are different from
you, heaven is not the place for you, because God is bringing together a people
from every economic, ethnic, racial and social background. The Bible says that Jesus has, “purchased people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).
Doug and DeDe Denbow, members of our congregation have had the privilege
of providing a home for a foreign exchange student. Daichi boarded a plan to return to his home in Japan last
week. Doug sent me an email that
said, “He has never grabbed me with both arms and drawn me to himself as he
did in that moment. His pressing
chest actually popped one of the lenses in my reading glasses, folded on my
chest. DeDe has done a wonderful
job of collecting materials for him to share with his mother who, as you two
know, wants to learn about Jesus. . . . Then
this morning en route to the airport, he said, ‘I told my mother on the phone
last night that I see that Christians have relationships better than any we see
in Japan.’ To this his mother
replied, ‘I want to be in relationships with loving people like you met.’
Daichi told her that he would find a church for them somewhere in their
city.” That is what it is all
about. What excites me is that the
Christians he was speaking about were you.
Heaven is a city.
The third thing I see in this passage is that: Heaven
takes seriously the difficulties we are facing now.
The Lord said, “To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost
from the spring of the water of life. He
who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my
son” (Revelation 21:6-7). The
Lord understands that in this present world there is a thirst for something new,
a world where our longings are met and fulfilled.
He understands that sometimes there are things we will face and have to
overcome. This whole passage was
written to give us hope, because the Lord knew we would need hope. In a world that can be difficult and unsatisfying, we need to
know that there is another world coming where all our needs and deep longings
will be met in ways that cannot be explained because they cannot be comprehended
now.
One of the great joys in life is being a grandparent. What a thrill to see infants grow to be toddlers, toddlers
grow to be children, children grow to be adolescents and adolescents grow to be
adults. In the beginning you watch
them struggle to recognize their colors, learn their numbers and the letters of
the alphabet. Then you watch them
sound out words and begin to read. You
see them play the scale on a piano.
They may be learning to read, but if you could try to tell them, at that
stage, what it will be like to read a novel by Dostoevski, it would be
impossible for them to understand. They
may know their numbers, but if you try to tell them about algebraic equations,
calculus and quantum physics, you would be met with blank stares. You could talk to them about a Beethoven concerto, but they
are having trouble playing out of the beginners lesson book.
In the same way, God could tell us what it will be like in heaven, but it
would be impossible for us to understand much beyond the basic concepts of
having our tears wiped away, and mourning and death being eliminated from that
world. Even the most exalted
passages of Scripture are but the beginner’s book of lessons on heaven.
For 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).
If it was not for the hope of heaven, life would be very difficult at
times. However, we do not use the
hope of heaven as a means to escape the difficulties of life.
No, this hope is the means of facing the realities of life.
Heaven is a part of the reality of life, and even though it is largely in
the future, it is beginning right here and now.
It is the hope of what God has for me tomorrow that enables me to face
today. I really don’t know what
those people do who believe that life is an accident and there is no meaning to
life or our personal existence. How
do you live like that, especially when it is not true?
What would it be like to believe that there is not a loving God living at
the center of the universe and no purpose to the things we face?
What if instead of a smile at the heart of all things, there was a frown,
or worse, there was only a blank stare. What
would you do if you just believed that you died, rotted and that was it?
Life would be very dark and joyless.
But when you know that this is your Father’s world, that he created it
all with a grand purpose in mind; when you believe you are loved by the Creator
of the universe and life has meaning; when you understand that God is in control
and that he is bringing the world to a wonderful conclusion, then you face life
with joy and optimism. Life has
meaning, purpose and direction. Your
life began in God’s love and will end in his love.
Lee Elcov says, “We focus on heaven not as a respite from real life, but to gain strength for real life.” We
focus on heaven because we need to remember that this is not heaven here and
now, and was never intended to be. We
don’t expect what life cannot give. We
don’t demand something from this world which it is incapable of giving.
We know that day is coming, but it is not now.
So we do not lose heart.
Philip Yancey, in his book Reaching
for the Invisible God, tells the story of Commander Richard Byrd who once
spent six months in a metal hut at the South Pole.
In the Antarctic winter, the sun made no appearance during four of the
six months he was there. Yancey
quotes from one of Byrd’s journal about the experience: “I find that I crave
light as a thirsting man craves water. . . .
A funereal gloom hangs in the twilight sky.
This is the period between life and death. This is the way the world will look to the last man when it
dies.” In the journal he tells
what it was like as he anticipated the return of the sun. It was only three weeks before the sun was due to shine
again, when Byrd wrote in his journal: “I tried to imagine what it would be
like, but the conception was too vast for me to grasp.”
The day the sun made its appearance was overwhelming to Byrd.
Like Spring sunshine at the end of a long, hard winter, heaven will break
like the dawn of a new day — a day of joy and celebration that we cannot at
the present time begin to grasp. Jill
Carattini writes: “In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian and the
Interpreter along their journey come across a man with a muck rake in his hand.
Steadily raking filth from the floor, the man ‘could look no way but
downwards’ and so, could not see the celestial crown being offered him from
above.” Like that man, we can
look down at the muck, or we can look up. This
is the gift that God is offering, but we have to look up to see what is being
offered. We have to open our eyes to the God who seeks to embrace us
and take us to his eternal reward.
Rodney
J. Buchanan
June 11,
2006
Mulberry
St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Mulberry
Street United Methodist Church