Heaven – a place on earth? (Matthew 22:23-33; Revelation 21:1-4; 2 Peter 3:10-13)
Billy Milton - July 2, 2006
[PDF print version]
Over the next two weeks we are going to be looking at 2 subjects that between them probably account for more hazy, and lazy, thinking than almost any other topics in the Bible. Heaven and Hell. Next week we will be looking at Hell but this week we want to examine Heaven and try to dispel some of the myths that have been built up about it.
First of all let me conduct a little straw poll. Without thinking too much about this I want you to point to Heaven – quickly! Okay, nearly everyone pointed upwards. Why? Is that really where heaven is? How far up is it? Is it possible that we could reach it in a space rocket? The Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin said, “I’ve been to the other side of the moon and I didn’t find God there!” If he had gone a bit further would he have found heaven? Or do we instinctively believe that heaven is not a physical place? Lot’s of questions!!
Secondly, put your hand up if you’re going to Heaven? Okay, I’ve got news for you – you’re not! N.T. Wright, the well-respected NT scholar, said this, “Very often people have come to the NT with the presumption that “going to heaven when you die” is the implicit point of it all… They acquire this view from somewhere, but not from the NT!”
Now before anyone walks out complaining that I’ve become a heretic, let me explain. Or maybe I should say, let you explain. What I want you to do, without getting too theological about it, I want you to shout out just a few words that you have heard used to describe Heaven. GET A RESPONSE AND THEN SHOW YOUR PRE-PREPARED P.P.
Isn’t that interesting? So many views – so much nonsense!! I guess if I’d to summarise what you’ve just told me it would be something like this:
Heaven will be sitting on a cloud wearing a halo, or a crown, while little cherubs play harps as they float through the blue skies. Others see it as an unending church service, or singing hymns for all eternity. Some think of it as a sort of a celestial retirement city. It all seems like an apparition — so unreal.
Is that about right? With misconceptions as prevalent as they are its no wonder so many people see heaven as a place of numbing boredom, or secretly say to themselves, “Is that all there is?”
The question is though, is there any truth to this vision of cherubs, harps and halos? Does the Bible really lead us to expect eternity to be an ecstatic spiritual experience as we worship continuously around the throne of God? Are we to spend the age to come as happy spirits basking in a ‘realm of light’ out there somewhere beyond the blue? Many hymns, particularly the older ones, would lead us to believe that this is the case but I don’t believe that this is an accurate picture at all of where, or how, we’re going to spend eternity. Two doctrines in particular strike a discordant note when we think of this ‘spiritual’ view of heaven:-
First, what are we then to make of the physical resurrection of our bodies? Why do we need our bodies if we are going to be raised to a purely spiritual existence? Doesn’t a physical resurrection imply a more physical eternity than traditional views of heaven have allowed?
Second, if heaven is to be our home, what are we to make of passages like Rev 22 and 2 Peter 3:13 which talk of a ‘new heaven and a new earth’? What is the purpose of this ‘new earth’? If its to be renewed what will it be like? Who will inhabit it? And if there is to be a new earth how does that change your understanding of heaven as your eternal home?
But before we go any further – a word of caution. When talking about heaven and hell we all need to exercise humility because, as Paul reminds us in 1 Cor 13, we only see an indistinct view of what the future will be like. You may well disagree completely with what I say here this morning, and probably millions would, but all I ask is that you then go away and do some studying based on what I’m going to propose. Paul wrote, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor 2:9). There are many things about our future which will always be speculative to a degree, because it is beyond our ability to conceive it, but one thing we can be sure of is that it will fulfill our greatest longings, it will dazzle us with its beauty, it will obliterate our greatest problems with its power and splendor, it will be greater than anything we could imagine or dream, it will be a place where love and joy will reign unspoiled. God himself has prepared it. Whatever lies ahead is just going to be wonderful.
There is so much that could be said about the new heaven and the new earth, but first let me say that it will be real and physical. The place where we will spend all of eternity will not be some ethereal existence where we float about as spirits without bodies. What was it that Jesus promised the meek in Matthew 5 in the Beatitudes? “The meek will inherit…” what? That’s right.. “the earth.” When is that likely to happen? Not in this lifetime. Not in this world. The meek will get trodden underfoot in this life. So my understanding of this is that Jesus is making a future promise to the meek. It will be the earth that the meek inherit but it will be the ‘new earth’ in eternity.
Why would God take the trouble to create a new earth if there was not going to be anyone to live on it? Why would we be given new bodies if we were not going to live in a material world? It is my understanding of Scripture that we were originally created to live as earth dwellers in a material world. Adam and Eve were not placed on a cloud, but on the earth. The new earth will be like Eden restored. We have been living in a fallen world since Adam and Eve sinned, but the day will come when the original paradise God intended us to be a part of will be restored, only better. And if you think this world is beautiful then just remember that no mind can conceive of what God has prepared for us in this new earth.
No, our eternal home will not be a sterile, gold inlaid, far-eastern type palace place. It will be a real place with real, meaningful and rewarding work for us to do. And as Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:13, the old earth will pass away and God will create a new earth which will be the home of righteousness.
So here is the second truth about the new earth: it will be right. It will be a place of righteousness, or right-ness. All the wrongs of the world will be made right. It will be a place where, as John wrote, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4). I know this is hard for us to understand but everything that depresses, damages, disappoints or daunts us will be banished and all that will be left is that which delights. That’s what we look forward to.
The prophet Isaiah wrote: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind” (Isa 65:17). The corrupted, fallen element of this world one day will be gone, and God will restore the world to the way it was meant to be in the beginning — unspoiled by human sin and unthreatened by Satanic attack. Everything false will disappear, and everything good and true will prevail. Talking of the New Jerusalem which John pictures coming down out of heaven to rest at the centre of the new earth, he writes: “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev 21:27).
The third truth it’s important to understand about the new earth is this: it will be relational. In 1991 Eric Clapton lost his five-year-old son, Conner, after he fell from the window of their forty-ninth floor Manhattan apartment. Clapton poured out his grief in song and wrote, “Tears in Heaven.” In the song he asks the question:
“Would you know my name, if I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same, if I saw you in heaven?”
It is the question to which a lot of people would like an answer. The truth is, you will meet again those you have lost who have known Christ and lived for him — if you belong to Christ. Our relationships will not be lost; they will be regained and renewed. We will experience these relationships at a level we have never known before. Deep, rewarding and fulfilling relationships will be the hallmark of the new earth. On earth we let each other down and disappoint each other. Many times, without knowing it, we hurt each other and fail each other. But there, “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 Cor 15:51-52). Our fallen, imperfect nature will be healed and we will be capable of intimacy in relationships that we cannot even imagine here and now.
Our relationship with God will be healed as well. No more will our love for God be compromised by a selfish love for ourselves and an enchantment with the things of the world. Our love for God and our relationship with him will be unspoiled. There will be nothing between us — no separation. Our sinful nature will be taken away, and we will no longer struggle with sin and temptation. Our relationship with God will be so intimate that the book of Revelation describes it as a bride coming to her husband — full of love and passion, with arms open wide.
The fourth thing that it is important for us to understand about the new earth is: it will be rewarding. You might feel just now that its pretty tough being a Christian and that the ungodly seem to prosper. A day is coming when that will be set right. God will not always balance the books in this lifetime but on the new earth we will be rewarded for our service in this life. I don’t know what that reward will be. The Bible talks of crowns being handed out, but that might be metaphorical. One thing is certain, God is no man’s debtor and I am convinced that we are going to be quite stunned at the reward that awaits us. And, surely, the reward of meeting Jesus face to face would be enough in itself?
But finally, what of heaven? Heaven will be the residence of God. The greatest reward of heaven will be God himself. Nothing we see or experience will be greater than the fact that we will be with God and see him face to face. Paul wrote: “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 Cor 13:12). How wonderful it will be to be in the presence of God where we will perfectly know him and know that we are perfectly known and loved. John writes in the book of Revelation: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’” (Rev 21:3). That’s why in John’s vision he sees no temple in the New Jerusalem because God will no longer be ‘house bound’. We will have no greater reward or relationship than being with God and seeing him face to face.
In C. S. Lewis’ wonderful books The Chronicles of Narnia, the characters who have lived in Narnia have completed their time and work there. In a closing chapter entitled “Further Up and Further In,” Aslan, the lion who represents Christ, has come for them in order to take them home. They are headed away from Narnia and are about to enter Aslan’s land. But they are met with familiar scenes. One of the characters cries out: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”
I believe that when we enter the real ‘heaven’, we will say, “This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old earth so much is that it sometimes looked a little like this.” It will be a new earth — restored and redeemed — the place we were meant to live.