Sermon Notes

Calvary, I am so glad that you are here tonight. On Easter Sunday you guys blew me away. I’m very proud that last Sunday was the single largest attended day in our church’s history. One thousand one hundred sixty-five people were in attendance from Sunday morning to services and Wednesday night last week. I don’t get really wrapped up around numbers except this 1165 people represent 1165 souls that will dwell forever somewhere in Heaven or in Hell. Many people came to the Calvary I’m convinced on Easter Sunday or Wednesday who go to church maybe one time a year. So I’m proud of you for reaching out to your friends and your neighbors.

If this is your first time with us, we are in this a sermon series about Heaven. I’m trying to take something that’s kind of fuzzy in most of our minds and make it a little bit clearer. I started thinking maybe one of the reasons why Heaven is so fuzzy for us is because we try to imagine what Heaven is going to be like. We try to look at Heaven through the lens of Earth when really what we should be doing is looking at Earth through the lens of Heaven because the very first week of this topic I said that this Earth is not your home. If you know Jesus personally Heaven is your home and all of this around us is temporary. So let me put you on the spot. If you were forced to make a choice today about Heaven what would you say is the single aspect of Heaven you are most looking forward to. I’m going to give you a couple of things to think about. Perhaps one of these is the aspect that you most want from Heaven. Let me remind you when we say this word Heaven it is two things. It’s both a very real place and it is a state. If you remember I said that it is the final resting place for the believer and it’s the place where Jesus dwells. Heaven is also the state of being in a perfect relationship with God and a perfect relationship with others. That is Heaven.

I. Heaven is peace forevermore

Here’s what I mean by the word peace. I mean you are incorruptible in Heaven. I’m not just simply talking about no more wars. If you’re one of the guys and gals in this room that are in the military, you know that the U.S. has now been involved in the longest war in our country’s history. We’ve never been at war as long as we’ve been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and all over the world in the global war on terrorism. I assure you more than any other person in this room I want to see the global war on terrorism end. However, the kind of peace I’m describing about Heaven is not just the absence of war. This peace goes deeper. This peace is better. It’s much bigger than that. It’s found in First Corinthians Chapter 15. This is kind of a long passage but you’ll see how amazing this peace is when nothing can get you down and nothing can hold you back

1 Corinthians 15:35-44
But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory. 42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.

When Jesus’ people die so do our struggles and so do our difficulties. The body goes into the ground kind of like a seed is planted. God makes it rain. One of these days the body comes back up out of the ground. The body that comes out of the ground is qualitatively different than the body that went into the ground. It is bigger and better then what went into the ground like the sun is better than the moon and like the plant is better than the seed. When we come back up out of the ground when we get to Heaven there is no more suffering. There’s peace because there is no more sickness. There’s no more sin in Heaven anymore. We come back up out of the ground with the body that God originally created us to have. The kind of body that gives God the glory that he deserves not this physical body that you and I have that’s constrained by the difficulties and the problems of this this Earth. We come back out of the ground with a body that is glorious, literally glorious. That’s the kind of peace the incorruptible nature that’s waiting for us when we get to Heaven. As awesome as the peace in Heaven is I think there’s something even better than that waiting for you because Heaven is power over death.

II. Heaven is power over death

If you’ve ever been to a funeral of somebody you love dearly only you know how painful death is but you’re immortal when you’re in Heaven. Herodotus wrote about it, Louis Cranach painted about it, and Ponce de Leon sailed the world to try to find the fountain of youth. It’s not in a park in St. Augustine, Florida! There really is a fountain of youth. It’s called the tree of life and it’s waiting for you in Heaven. Let me show you from the book of Daniel what an eternal everlasting life looks like when you are immortal never again to be touched by the power of death.

Daniel 12:1-2
At that time Michael, the archangel who stands guard over your nation, will arise. Then there will be a time of anguish greater than any since nations first came into existence. But at that time every one of your people whose name is written in the book will be rescued. 2 Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace.

What book is Daniel talking about? He is talking about the book that Moses described. Exodus chapter 32 when Moses said, “God if you’re going to wipe these people out you can blot my name out of the book too.” Daniel is talking about the book that is found in Revelation chapter 20 that describes the Lamb’s Book of Life. It is the book of Jesus’s people. The names in that book belong to Jesus. It’s called the Lamb’s Book of Life. Every name in that book will live on forever. God has a great future waiting for us. One day he plants these bodies in the ground and then he raises a physical body up out of the ground. Initially the soul goes to be with God but after the resurrection of the dead the body goes to be with God as well. One of these days you’re going to come back up out of the ground both body and soul. I’m not going to tell you too much more about this because in three weeks Pastors Steve Pate and Alan Smith are going to answer some very specific questions about what that body looks like. Let me just say this. Ladies, you will never again have to worry about your weight when you get that new body. Guys, you won’t have to deal with Dunlop syndrome where your belly dun lopped over your belt. That will never be a problem again when you get this perfect body that’s waiting for you in Heaven. It’s going to be awesome and as great as the power over death is, as great as the peace forever more is, there’s something even better than that waiting for the believer in Heaven

III. Heaven is no penalty for sin

In Heaven sin no longer has power over you. In Heaven there is no more penalty over sin because in Heaven there is no presence of sin. In Heaven you no longer struggle against yourself and against your circumstances. None of us in this room can understand what this feels like. Truly only our first parents Adam and Eve knew what it felt like to be in a perfect relationship with God where the guilt and the shame of sin never entered into that relationship. All of us in this room have experienced sin so to some degree our relationship with God has been impacted by that sin but not when we get to Heaven.

2 Peter 3:10-13
But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. 11 Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, 12 looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. 13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.

Just like fire burns away the impurities from gold and silver and then all that you have left is pure perfect precious metal. One of these days God is going to burn away all of the impurities of this world that’s been infected and infested by sin. Then all that’s left is the world that God originally created, a world that gives God the glory that he deserves. A world that’s no longer stained by sin because sin is no longer prevalent and sin is no longer possible there.

You’ve been sending in questions and we’ve been trying to answer those questions as the sermon series goes along. Several of you have asked questions about Heaven and sin. They fall into the same category. The question basically asks, is it possible to fall from Heaven? Is it possible to fall back into sin and to lose Heaven? This is kind of the opposite of the question that you asked during the series about Hell. When you’re in Hell can you eventually make your way out of Hell to Heaven? We said that the answer to that is absolutely not. On the date of your death your eternity is fixed forever. That means when you’re in Heaven you’re no longer influenced or impacted by sin there is no possibility of falling from Heaven and losing your eternal reward. One of these days Heaven comes down to earth and you and I dwell for eternity (you can’t even understand what that feels like, what the timeline of eternity is like) here on Earth when God remakes everything new and sin is no longer part of the equation. As awesome as that is, as awesome as peace forever more is, as spectacular as power over death is, there’s something even better…

IV. Heaven is paradise restored

Heaven is God writing all of the stuff that went wrong; fixing all the stuff that was broken by Adam our first father’s sins. It’s the world as it should be not the world as it is. I really mean this. I don’t know about you but I feel this every day. Every morning when I get up and I’m working out I feel it. When I go home after work and I’m spending time with my family I feel it. I feel it at the dinner table. I feel it at church. I feel it when everything is right around me it’s still seems like something is not quite right like something is missing. I’m dissatisfied even when everything is perfect around me because everything even this earth that we live in has been impacted by sin.

Romans 8:18-24
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved.

On that day the struggle is over. On that day sin no longer impacts the equation. On that day you are no longer under the curse that went along with Adam’s failure in the garden. This is the curse reversed. In two weeks you’re going to here what life is like when you’re no longer under the curse of sin. This world itself will no longer suffer under the consequences of sin.

Randy Alcorn in his book Heaven which I’m using extensively through this series said, “Biblical Christianity doesn’t give up on humanity or the Earth.” We’re just dissatisfied with the Earth that we have. We’re saying this is not how God created it to be. We will not be pleased or satisfied with what we see around us because we want something bigger and better. We want something that’s not stained and not impacted by sin. It’s a perfect world. It’s a world where everything is right. It’s a world where there is peace between animals and nature, peace between animals and man, peace between man and man, and peace between man and God. This is creation as it’s supposed to be. This is Eden restored.

Let me ask you, have you found it yet? Have you figured out what the real grand prize of Heaven is? Do you have the other jackpot that you’re looking for? Is it peace and power over death and no penalty for sin? Are those the things that would make it Heaven for you? There is something even better waiting for you. In my opinion, this and this alone equals Heaven and if this wasn’t present none of the rest of these are acceptable. The last aspect of Heaven is Heaven is the presence of Jesus.

V. Heaven is the presence of Jesus

In the Old Testament when God promised to Abraham and his sons, Isaac and Jacob, that he was one day going to give them a rich and fertile land, the Promised Land. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants waited for 400 years for that plan. The day that God was ready to give them the land, he started to divide the land. He showed Moses and Joshua the borders for those tribes. Every tribe that he distributed land to received good, fertile land. They all received more land than they needed. One tribe didn’t get land. All of the rest of them got amazing plots of land except for the tribe of Levi. Because Levi was the tribe that worked the temple of God they didn’t get land. In fact God said they wouldn’t get an inheritance of land because he had a better inheritance for them. God said he was their inheritance. They got all of him because they were his people and because they served him. This is the idea that David paints for us in Psalm Chapter 16.

Psalm 16:5-11
Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine. 6 The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance! 7 I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. 8 I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. 9 No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. 10 For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. 11 You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Did you see in verse five and eleven David said, “God, you and you alone, are my inheritance I will not be satisfied with anything else but you. If I have you I have joy and pleasure for evermore.” This is the inheritance that the believer has waiting for them… you get Jesus and I mean you’ll get all of Jesus for all eternity. In my opinion everything else that’s waiting for you in Heaven is dependent on that one. If you don’t get that one, none of the rest of it is worth going to Heaven. That and that alone makes it Heaven.

Let me try to give you an illustration of how spectacular this is. My wife, Dawn, and I are high school sweethearts. We met when I was a senior in high school. We were dating for about four or five months before I left for the Army. I knew before I left that I loved her. We spent four years in a long-distance relationship. I was here and she was back in our hometown. During those four years I saw her perhaps five or six times at the most during those entire four years, never more than for two weeks at a time. This was before the cell phone and the Internet age. So we didn’t have emails and we didn’t have cell phones. We wrote letters and often if I talked to her at all I would have to walk to a bank of pay phones out at Fort Benning and stand in the rain to wait to talk to her for just a few minutes. After four years of a long-distance relationship, I really, really looked forward to marrying this woman. I was passionately looking forward to our wedding because our wedding represented I would get the chance to spend the rest of my life with the person that I waited the last four years for. This is the relationship that’s waiting for the believer in Heaven.

There is a wedding today and this is no gimmick. Heaven is the consummation of your relationship with Jesus. There is a wedding in Heaven and it is the bride of Christ, his church. Jesus said nothing on earth that was worthy of him. Jesus was literally preparing himself and preserving himself. He said at the Last Supper that he would not do this again until he does it with his church in Heaven. There is a wedding waiting for us in Heaven and it is you the church, Calvary Baptist Church and every church on planet Earth that confesses faith in Jesus Christ. You get Jesus and you get him for eternity. That’s Heaven and when you get that you got all that you need. I’m convinced you got all you need. That’s what’s waiting for every believer in Heaven. The bride of Christ is finally reunited with her groom and they get each other for eternity.

I want to answer a couple of your questions. The first question, it’s fascinating that the person would ask that question on a night like tonight, will I have a relationship with my family in Heaven? Okay, this is an easy question to answer yes. The relationship with your family in Heaven is no longer mom and dad to son no longer husband to wife but it is now everyone in Heaven brother to brother and sister to sister. All of us are children of the father in Heaven, which makes all of us brothers and sisters in Heaven. I think it will be a deep intimate relationship with each other as brothers and sisters in Heaven. Will you have a relationship with your family in Heaven? Yes, if you know Jesus and if they know Jesus, you will be brother and sister for eternity.

Second question is actually multiple parts. First, will we have a free will in Heaven? Then they wrote that they are having a tough time wrapping their head around a place where everyone agrees about everything. Then they asked will we really enjoy our life where we can remember our differences? Let me answer the first part of the question and then go back and answer the second. Will there be free will in Heaven? Yes for the first time in your life. The truth is your will isn’t free right now. Your will has been affected and stained by sin and until Jesus liberates it your will is not free. It’s finally and fully free when you get into Heaven. I wonder who gave this person the idea that there are no differences in Heaven. It’s obvious that the person who wrote this question thinks Heaven is going to be boring because we’re not going to be different in Heaven. I think you’re absolutely wrong. I think in Heaven you take your color of skin, your culture, your memories, your experiences and all that makes you unique and who you are in Heaven. I think for the first time and forever those differences don’t divide us anymore. Now they unite us. Now we celebrate those differences forever. I’m looking forward to getting to know a lot of people from a lot of different cultures for eternity in Heaven. That’s what’s waiting for us in Heaven and I assure you it’s not going to be boring.

Next Steps

• Today, for the first time, I trust Jesus as my Lord and place my life and my eternity in his hands.
• I have been struggling with sin lately.  Please pray for me that I would live with the power of Jesus’ resurrection over the sin that is in my life.
• I’m going through a really difficult time right now.  Pray that Jesus will give me the strength to remain strong as I look forward to peace in Heaven.
• Please contact me about getting plugged into a small group where I can learn more about Heaven and eternity.

Discussion Questions

1. What aspect of Heaven are you most looking forward to?
2. Share with the group one of the struggles that you can’t wait to put behind you in Heaven forever.
3. Who have you lost that you are looking forward to seeing again in Heaven?
4. Describe what a world without sin looks like to you.
5. Heaven will be paradise restored.  What is something that is broken or missing that you want to see replaced or repaired in Heaven?
6. Read Luke 19:11-19.  Notice that the master was pleased with both servants.  What does his reward demonstrate about Heaven?  What does it demonstrate about the different gifts that God gives us right now?
7. Pray for each other that we would keep our eyes on our great reward in Heaven this week.