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Heaven is a real place, so where is it?
If I were to die as a Christian, will I go to Heaven immediately?
If I do go to Heaven immediately, how long will it take to make the trip?
When I get to Heaven, will I know my friends?
Will they know me?
What will I look like in Heaven?
Will I have a body?
Can I eat in Heaven?
Will my loved one know me?
Will I know my grandmother who is already in Heaven?
Have these questions crossed your mind at one time or another?
This morning I want to try to answer your questions about Heaven:
1. IS HEAVEN A REAL PLACE?
The Bible teaches that Heaven is a real, literal, physical place.
We read a few moments ago where Jesus said,
"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
I wish we had time to read REVELATION 20-21 so we could see a beautiful description of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, which
is the eternal home of the saved.
In those chapters we find that Heaven has foundations filled with all types of precious stones. It says the walls are made of
jasper.
It says there are three gates on the east,
three on the west,
three on the north,
and three on the south.
It says the gates are made of pearl and every gate is ONE GIANT PEARL!
They tell us that the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, is a fifteen hundred mile square - large enough to hold every person ever born!
YES, Heaven is a real place.
2. WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS HEAVEN?
First, Heaven is a place of indescribable beauty and glory. The Bible says in I CORINTHIANS 2:9,
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which hath prepared for them that love
him."
The Bible tells us that there is no way to imagine the indescribable beauty of Heaven!
When we read REVELATION 20-21, we only get a glimpse of that beautiful place called Heaven.
One beautiful night a young boy was walking with his grandfather.
The sky was deep blue, and it seemed like a million stars were on parade.
The boy pulled at his grandfather's elbow and said, "Grandpa, Grandpa, if Heaven is so beautiful on the outside, just think what it must look like inside!"
Second, Heaven is a place of perfect rest. The Bible says in REVELATION 14:13,
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."
Most people never know what it is to experience complete and perfect rest with no worries - no schedules to meet - no time
clocks to punch - no alarm clocks in the morning.
But in heaven, we'll have that perfect and complete rest!
Thirdly, Heaven is a place of open vision.
See, God knows what He is doing. I can't explain everything now.
I can't see as God sees.
But in Heaven, I'll know as He knows.
Heaven is a place of open vision, with no glass between, and there we will understand it all.
I CORINTHIANS 13:12 - "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS HEAVEN?
Heaven is a place of indescribable beauty.
Heaven is a place of perfect and complete rest.
Heaven is a place of open vision.
3. DO THE SAVED GO TO HEAVEN IMMEDIATELY?
The answer is YES!
The Bible says is II CORINTHIANS 5:8, "to be absent from the body" is "to be present with the Lord."
We also learn in PHILIPIANS 1:23,
"I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better"
Man is not a body - he is a soul. He has a body. The Bible says that God created man in His own image and breathed into his nostrils and he became a living soul.
My body is not me - it is mine.
My body is my possession. If I bump my head, I say, "I bumped my head" It is my head, my hands, my feet, my ears, etc.
BUT, this coat is my possession - just as my body is my possession.
This body is simply the house in which I live.
I am the soul and spirit on the inside.
I THESSALONIANS 5:23,
"I pray God your whole SPIRIT and SOUL and BODY be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
When a man dies, his soul and spirit leave his body and immediately go to be with Christ.
In London, England, a tombstone has an unusual epitaph. A man named Solomon Peas gave instruction before he died to put these words on his tombstone:
Beneath these clouds and beneath these trees,
Lies the body of Solomon Peas;
This is not Peas; it is only his pod;
Peas has shelled out and gone home to God.
When a Christian dies, he goes immediately to be with Christ:
"....absent from the body...."
"....present with the Lord..."
4. WILL WE KNOW EACH OTHER IN HEAVEN?
The Word of God indicates we will. Jesus once said,
"....when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God."
Here the Bible teaches we will know Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared before Christ. Now keep in mind that Moses lived and died long before
Elijah was born.
BUT, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses knew Elijah, and Elijah knew Moses. Not only did they know each other, but they
still had the same names.
WILL WE HAVE THE SAME NAMES IN HEAVEN? I don't know for sure, but
I do know that Moses was still Moses, and Elijah was still Elijah; Abraham was still Abraham, Isaac was still Isaac, and Jacob was
still Jacob. Maybe we will.
WILL WE KNOW EACH OTHER IN HEAVEN? YES.
Moses knew Elijah, and Elijah knew Moses, though they had never met on earth. They not only knew each other, but they knew what would happen in the future.
LUKE 9 says that they discussed the death that Jesus should accomplish in Jerusalem.
Remember what Paul said,
"Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
One day, I will SEE and KNOW my dear sweet grandmother.
5. WHERE IS HEAVEN?
When I was a little boy, I used to say, "up in Heaven." But when I got older, someone reminded me that if I died in China and went
up I would be going an opposite direction from a man who died in America. Since the world is round and China is on the other side,
that seems reasonable.
But I have discovered from the Bible that Heaven is in a fixed location in the sides of the North beyond the highest star.
PSALM 75:6-7
"Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another."
Isn't it strange that the word "north" is left out?
In ISAIAH 14:12-17, Lucifer, who became Satan, said,
"I will exalt my throne above God's throne.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will go into the sides of the NORTH.
I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God....."
Now, if Satan is talking about literal stars, then he is talking about a position in the north, beyond the highest star.
So when I was a little boy and said, "up to Heaven, " I was right.
6. WHO IS GOING TO HEAVEN?
Suppose I were to ask this morning, "Who is going to Heaven?"
Some would say the man who reads his Bible and prays.
Others would say the man who lives good and keeps the Ten Commandments.
Still others would say the one who attends church faithfully.
Some even say that the man who has been baptized.
At the Post Office one day a lady said, "Preacher, the way I see this business about Heaven is like this: We are all here at the
Post Office. You went down Hillside, down Broadway, left on Fair, right on California, and here you are.
She said, "I came here from ...........left on .........right on..........left on ................left on California and here I am.
She went on to describe how a number of people had all arrived at the Post Office. When she was finished, she said, "Now that is
the way it is about Heaven. We are all working for the same thing, and as long as we are sincere we will all go to Heaven when
we die. Now what do you think about that?
I replied, "There is only one thing wrong with that: when we die, we are not going to the Post Office."
THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO THE POST OFFICE - BUT ONLY ONE WAY TO HEAVEN!
JOHN 14:6 -
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me."
ACTS 4:12 -
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
NOW, who is going to Heaven?
Let me explain:
ROMANS 3:23 teaches that all men are sinners:
"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
Now, I realize that not all men have committed the same sins or the same number of sins, but all have sinned. Since all men are
sinners, all men own a penalty.
Sin demands a price says EZEKIEL 18:4, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
ROMANS 6:23, "The wages of sin is death....."
JAMES 1:15, "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
Now, here is the picture: I have sinned. And being a sinner I owe a penalty. The penalty for sin is death. But that death is more than dying with a gunshot or wound.
That death is described in the Bible as the second death, the lake of fire.
REVELATION 20:14, "Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."
NOW, if I pay what I owe as a sinner, I must go to Hell and stay there forever and ever.
BUT, here is the bright side of the story. The Bible teaches that two thousand years ago God took every sin I ever have committed and
all I ever will commit and placed those sins on Jesus.
That is not just preacher talk but exactly what the Bible says in ISAIAH 53:6,
"....the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
2,000 yrs. ago God looked down through the telescope of time and saw every sin that I would ever commit - and He took those sins -
one by one - and placed them on Jesus according to
I PETER 2:24,
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree."
II CORINTHIANS 5:21,
"He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
NOW, you can never change the fact that 2,000 years. ago God took every sin you have ever committed, all you will ever commit, and
placed those sins on Jesus.
And while Jesus was bearing our sins in His own body, God actually punished Him in our place to pay the debt we owe so that when we
die we won't have to pay it.
Here is what happened. God transferred your sins to Christ, on the cross Jesus died for you. He shed His blood. When Jesus shed His blood for you. He paid what you and I owe. He suffered what we should have suffered.
That is why we sing:
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
HEBREWS 9:22,
"Without shedding of blood is no remission."
Now let me briefly sum up what I have said.
We are sinners.
We owe the sin debt.
God transferred our guilt to Jesus,
Jesus shed His blood,
He died on a cross,
He paid what we owe,
That is what He meant when He cried out from the cross, IT IS FINISHED!
Now for us to be washed in the blood, or to accept the payment, we must do it by faith.
JOHN 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
NOW, the main hangup is over that little word, "BELIEVE"
I hear it all the time, "I have always believed in Christ. I'm not an atheist."
BUT, the Bible word "BELIEVE" does not mean to accept the historical fact that He was a person who lived and died.
To "BELIEVE" means to trust, to depend, to rely on.
We can illustrate faith by a plane. We go to the airport.
You say to me, "Is that a plane?"
I answer, "YES."
"Do you believe the plane will fly?"
"YES"
"Do you believe that plane will take you to Ohio?"
"YES"
But I never make the trip. I must not only believe it is a plane, that it will fly, that it is going to Ohio; BUT there must come a time and point when I make a decision that I will definitely trust that plane and that pilot with my physical life.
When I get on that plane, I am depending on that plane and that pilot to take me to Ohio. My physical life is in his hands.
That is what it means to believe on Christ:
It means I admit that I am a sinner,
I believe that I do owe the sin debt like the Bible says,
I accept the fact that Jesus has
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