Heaven

Practical Christianity 4

Prayer: Father, we come this morning as your children asking You to provide us bread just as You have promised. But just as You provided Israel with bread from Heaven, we ask You to do the same, but give us the faith to receive and be truly satisfied. Use Your Word to shine the glory of Christ upon us, so that we may be changed into His glorious likeness and so burn away our dross. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction
It has sometimes been said that some people are so heavenly minded they are not any earthly good, but this is a malicious slander. The fact is that Christians are commanded to be heavenly minded so that they can be the most earthly good. 

Heaven is the end toward which all things on earth are bending, growing up into. So, to focus on Heaven, where Christ is seated, is to focus on what you and all things are becoming in Christ. Heaven is not an escape. Heaven is the future. In this sense, Heaven is the most practical thing there is. 

The Text: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God…” (Col. 3:1-10).

Summary of the Text
If we have been raised with Christ, Scripture says we ought to be seeking everything that is heavenly, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). We ought to think about those things which are in Heaven because to be a Christian means that we have already died, and our true lives are hidden with Christ in God in Heaven (Col. 3:2-3). When Christ appears, who is our life, then we will finally and fully appear glorified and heavenly (Col. 3:4). Therefore, put to death your old, earthly ways: “fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence [passions/emotions], and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).

These “things of earth” are what God is destroying in order to heal this world, and those are the things you used to live in – but they don’t define you anymore (Col. 3:6-7). And since you don’t live in them anymore, put them off with all the deeds of the old man, “anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth” and lying, and put on the new man who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the One in Heaven who made man (Col. 3:8-10). So the logic of this text and the whole gospel is that since we have been united to Christ, and Christ has died and risen and ascended into Heaven, we are to set our minds on this fact, putting to death our sin and focusing on what we have become in Christ and therefore what we are becoming, where we and all things are going: Heaven.

What is Heaven Like?
The Bible teaches that Heaven is where God dwells: He is “our Father in heaven” (Lk. 11:2). Heaven is where Christ is seated on a great throne in all majesty (Mk. 16:19). Heaven is our Father’s house, full of many mansions prepared by Jesus for His people (Jn. 14:2-3). And since it is our Father’s house, Heaven is truly going home. If you are in Christ, Heaven is where your heart is. And Heaven is where you are fully known (1 Cor. 13:12). Heaven is described as a new heaven and a new earth, with a new capital city, a resplendent garden-castle coming down out of heaven (Rev. 21:1-2). 

Heaven is that place where there is no death, no dying, no sin, no curse (Rev. 21:4, 22:3). And the God who has kept a record of all our tears, will personally wipe away every tear (Ps. 56:8, Is. 25:8, Rev. 21:4). This means that every sad thing will be completely undone, and we will have a fullness of joy that only grows and pleasures that only increase (Ps. 16:11).  

The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8), but to be absent from the body is to be “unclothed” and therefore, the fullness of Heaven will be when our bodies are raised from the dead and we are given new immortal bodies (2 Cor. 5:2-5). It’s possible that there is an intermediate state while we await in spirit our new bodies (Eccl. 12:7, Heb. 12:23), but since time need not work the same way in Heaven, it’s also possible that when we die, we are immediately taken to the resurrection at Christ’s second coming (1 Cor. 15:20-26). Since even creation groans for our redemption (Rom. 8:19-22), and Heaven includes a new earth, we are invited to believe that all of creation (including animals and stars) will be raised to incorruption, which could certainly include beloved family pets (1 Cor. 15:38-44). Isaiah foretells a future in which wolves and lions will lay down with the lambs and calves and little children will play with serpents, and there will be complete harmony (Is. 11:6-9, 65:25).

All of this of course means that we will have plenty to do with our new and perfect bodies in this new creation: good work and games, inventions and discoveries, cheetah and dragon rides, the loveliest arts and architecture, and the best adventures forever and ever. But it will always be without the burdens of pain and anxiety, and full of perfect rest (Heb. 4:10). It should seem obvious, but the Bible teaches that Heaven will not be immaterial (floating on clouds, etc.) which would be really boring, but if anything, Heaven will be more material, more solid, certainly more real than ever. And nothing good from creation will be missing, and it will only get better and better.  

In that place, we will be reunited with our believing families: “gathered to our people,” as it was said of the patriarchs (Gen. 25:8, 35:29, 49:33). We will be with our fathers and mothers, grandparents, spouses, children, brothers and sisters, and dear friends who have died in the Lord. It is worth mentioning that this includes unborn children and siblings that we never met. Children of believing families are holy to the Lord, and therefore, we have every reason to believe they are washed in the Redeemer’s blood. And given how Christ welcomed children, we may even have a strong hope for all children. 

We serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the living, the God of generations and families, and therefore, while marriage will not be the same, we will know and love one another even better there than we ever did here (Mt. 22:29-32). We will be with all the saints, all the angels, and there will never be any sad goodbyes again. 

And at the center of it all will be the greatest Wedding Feast, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9), full of the best food, a feast of wine and fat things, full of marrow and the finest wines (Is. 25:6). And there will singing and music like we’ve never heard, vast choirs and orchestras and bands, from all the nations, with all their instruments and distinctive languages and styles and rhythms, praising the Lamb who was slain, the King of kings (Rev. 5:8-9, 7:9-12, 14:2-3, 15:2-4). And every one of us will see His face (Rev. 22:4). And we will cast our crowns before Him, and He will give us lavish rewards that we don’t deserve and put crowns on our heads that defy all reason (2 Tim. 4:8).

Applications
Since all of this is true, put to death your sin. As the old hymn says, “Fading is the worldling’s pleasure, all his boasted pomp and show; solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion’s children know.”

Your wrath and anger and lust and envy are weights holding you down, bending you down, deforming your life into nothing. But Jesus Christ died so that you might die, so that your sin might die in Him, and He rose from the dead so that you might rise with Him from the dead (without your sin) now in this life and rise in a new body in the Resurrection of Heaven.

Heaven and Hell begin here in this life. In Isaiah 65:17-20, it foretells the new heaven and new earth, but it describes a time of a great peace and harmony when children are still born and the elderly still die, but it says that you will be considered a child if you die at only a hundred. For those who know Christ, Heaven begins here and now. But for those who do not know Christ, you are already in the beginning of Hell. Either you are being pulled down into increasing selfishness and pettiness and bitterness and idolatries and fading, or else you are being set free to love and forgive one another as true human beings, real men and women, and beginning to enjoy creation as it was meant to be enjoyed and gathered to the Heavenly Mt. Zion to worship the King forever.

So which one are you? Where are you? Are you in Hell or are you already in Heaven? If you think you are in Hell but somehow when you die you will go to Heaven, you are very much mistaken. Heaven is for those who have already died and their lives are hidden with Christ in God. Heaven is for those who know Christ who is in Heaven at the Father’s right hand. 

Prayer: Father in Heaven, we are about to pray that prayer that Jesus taught us, to call on You as our Father who is in Heaven and to hallow Your holy name. But please do not let us call on Your name in vain. Please give us Your Holy Spirit which teaches us to call You Abba Father and to truly know You as our true Father in Heaven who cares for us more than any earthly Father and who will never leave us or forsake us because of Jesus. Please do this because we ask in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray, singing…