What Heaven Will Be Like

Introduction:  He lay in a hospital bed dying. The doctors had told him to set his affairs in order because they had done for him all which was medically possible. His wife and children were at his side. His best friend, his minister was also there. The two men had played golf together and had taken both of their families camping together. He is here to comfort his friend in his dying hour. He looked up from his bed and smiled and said, "In just a short time, I'll be with God in Heaven." But the minister did not smile.  Instead he looked toward the floor and shook his head.

"What's wrong? You don't think I'm going to heaven?" he asked from his hospital bed.

The minister said, "You really believe that stuff?"

"You don't?" The sick man grabbed the preacher by the lapels of his coat, "You mean all those years you preached about heaven, you really didn't believe in it? What kind of a man are you?" 

The man did not die. He recovered. And when he was finally able, he left that church & found another congregation.

 

Do you believe in heaven? Are you living as if there is a heaven? 

 

What Is Heaven?

In the year 58 AD, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians in which he described an incident that happened 14 years earlier.  This would make the timing of this event in the year 44 AD when Paul was on his 1st missionary journey.  Perhaps this occurred in Lystra when he was stoned and left for dead.

With great modesty, Paul talks about this incident in the 3rd person. I know a man who was caught up to the 3rd heaven. Who was the man? Paul himself. What is the 3rd heaven?  The Jewish rabbis spoke of 3 heavens. The 1st was where the birds flew. The 2nd heaven was where the heavenly bodies, stars & planets. But the 3rd heaven was where God lived.  This 3rd heaven is called by Paul—Paradise.  God lives in a Paradise. The ancient Persians and Hindu people in India also spoke of Paradise which was a heavenly garden and park, a beautiful and lush place, a peaceful home of all the righteous people.  Paul went to this place. Whether he was in his body or in a trance, he could not say. What happened while he was there? He heard unspeakable words. He heard a heavenly language which Paul could not describe with words. It was a language he could not verbalize. Furthermore, even if he could have described this language, Paul was prohibited from talking about it. It was unlawful for him to speak any more about this. God prohibited him.

This incident confirmed in Paul's mind that heaven was a genuine place. The 3rd heaven is a Paradise. There is a heavenly language that we might even call the tongue of angels but it is not the kind of language we know. Paul wanted to go there and he wanted to take many with him. Do you want to go to heaven?

Jesus spoke about heaven.  John 14:2-3 shows several things about heaven. 1) It is a place. It is not a fantasy or a myth. The fact that Paul was there and Jesus was there is sufficient proof it really exists. 2) It is the Father's house.  The Godhead lives here. When Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem in 1 Kings 8:27, he prayed, "Lord we know that if the earth or even the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, that this temple will not contain you." The heaven of heavens is this Paradise, the 3rd heaven, that God even fills up His heavenly home.  3) Heaven is a place of many mansions. The word mansion can also be translated "a living place, or apartment."  Heaven can hold many people. Hebrews 11:22 this heaven is called Mt Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where an uncountable number of angels live. How many angels are there to live in Heaven? Revelation 5:11 mentions angels who numbered 10,000 times 10,000= 100 million. Daniel 7:10 mentions 10,000 times 10,000 who stood before God's throne but thousands of thousands ministered to God. 100 million is too small of a number to measure the angels. 4) Heaven is a place which is under construction. Jesus said he needed to leave to construct a place for the apostles. At the time Jesus was speaking, heaven was not yet ready for the apostles. We might presume that even now, Jesus is making a place for us based upon what we are now doing for Him.

Revelation describes heaven. Rev. 21:12,14,19 describes it as a walled city. v. 17 shows that the wall was 144 cubits high, 239 ft. The walls are as high as a radio tower. Heaven is a protected city. In ancient times, walls were used as a barrier to keep enemies out. Heaven is a place of security where we can walk & not worry about crime.  The walls of heaven have 12 foundations made of precious stones. 21:19-20 mentions jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, etc. There are the colors of the rainbow.   v. 16 shows that the city of heaven is a perfect cube of 12,000 furlongs.  This would be a 1500 mile cube, the distance from Maine to Miami or from Tulsa to Los Angeles. Someone has estimated that in a literal city of this size that more than 41 trillion apartments could be made.

 

How Does Heaven Compare To Earth?

 

It is better than anything on earth.  Hebrews 11 says that  Abraham look for this city which God built. He believed in an afterlife and lived accordingly. v. 16 says that he desired a better place. Better than what? Anything on earth. Paul said in Phil 1:23 that it was better for him to die & be with Jesus than to stay on earth. If we could pass into the great beyond and return minutes later, we would say, "You're not going to believe this!"

Will we know one another in heaven? Death does no cause us to lose our identity. Matthew 17:1-5 shows that Moses, who had been dead for 1500 years, and Elijah who had been dead for 800 years still retained their identity. Even Peter, James, and John knew in some who they were even though they had never been formally introduced. We will recognize one another in heaven. We will have bodies in heaven. Luke 20:36 our bodies will be like angels bodies. Phil. 3:20-21 God will change this vile body into a glorious body, "According to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself." 1 John 3:2 our body will be like Jesus' body.

Will there be sadness in heaven? Suppose that some of our loved ones go to hell, how can we be happy with that knowledge? Revelation 21:4 God will wipe away all tears from our eyes. Do you believe that? Our earthly relationships will change. A child skins its knee and cries for its mother. But when that child becomes an adult and suffers an injury, he/she does not cry for mother. Why? relationships change.

What about small children? Will they be in heaven? Matthew 19:14 "suffer the little children and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Children who die before the age of accountability will be in heaven. A woman who carries a child for 9 months only to deliver a stillborn child will see that baby go to heaven.

What about old Christians? They are headed for a land where they will never grow old. They will find the fountain of youth.

 

Conclusion:  Heaven is a place of rest (Hebrews 4:9). "There remains a rest for the people of God. " Heaven will be like a permanent vacation. 

Marco Polo was a 13th century explorer who traveled all over the Orient and returned to Europe with fantastic tales of what he had seen. When he was dying, he was told to renounce all those stories of lies and fabrications. But he said, "The half has not yet been told."