The Burning Question
What Is Heaven Like? Part 2
February 17, 2008
Various Scriptures
Alright, we are looking at some burning questions and have begun with “What is heaven Like?” First of all, we noted that there is a key to these questions and all burning questions. Humility is that key. We are human and we don’t know everything.
Speaking of humility take a look at this picture. These men are putting in posts anchored in cement as barriers so cars can’t accidentally crash into the building. They are cleaning up after a long day—finally finished. How long do you think it will take for them to humbly realize where they are parked?
We also started with the way Jesus would have understood heaven. Heaven is the place where God reigns. For Jesus heaven is the kingdom. And this kingdom is made up of kingdom-minded people who follow the ways of Jesus. And one day when all is complete and the kingdom is consummated, these kingdom people will worship, dwell with God in full relationship, and serve him. Now we turn to an important issue regarding heaven and God’s kingdom. How do we understand it to be like? Specifically, is it strictly a spiritual kingdom or are there physical manifestations of it? What say ye? Is it strictly spiritual? Is it only spiritual kingdom? Is it only an other-worldly kingdom?
I dropped hints at this last week. My conclusion: no, the kingdom is not exclusively a spiritual kingdom. Jesus would have understood the kingdom that he announced to be something very real and something God was doing on earth. “May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is important for how we understand heaven and ultimately what things will be like at the end of time.
What is heaven like?
• An earthly and a spiritual kingdom
This is where the Church of God has begun a rethinking and expansion of its beliefs regarding the kingdom. The Church of God has consistently held that the kingdom was a present experience that would one day be brought to completion. The millennial reign is symbolic and it is happening now. Jesus inaugurated the kingdom and the kingdom life. Jesus died to provide the way for the kingdom to become manifested. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus ascended to take his throne and continue to bring the kingdom into our midst through the lives of those that recognize his Lordship and follow his ways.
In a sense the Sermon on the Mount is a sort of manifesto of kingdom-life. It is how the kingdom becomes real to the waiting world. Don’t worry about food and clothes, The Lord Will Provide those because God reigns.
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. This was an indication of a Davidic kingdom that was long awaited and expect. It was the Anawim or pious Jewish poor hope. Jesus expects that the kingdom that comes will be a social and political kingdom as well. It starts small like a mustard seed and grows. It works like the seed below the ground suddenly bursting forth to bear fruit and we don’t realize how.
o Social
It deals with the social order. It is setting relationships right. It means dignity for everyone. It means that the oppressed will finally be vindicated. Jesus said in Luke 4 that he had come to set the prisoners free and release their chains. Yes there is a spiritual application to passages like these but we do a disservice to the nature of the gospel and we ignore the context by jumping to spiritual application without applying it to the social, real-world context of its original setting. Jesus expects his followers to show the world that we belong to God by not just how we love God but by how we love others.
o Political
This is tough for us in a privatized and individualized culture. But the prophets repeatedly described a political kingdom. A real live kingdom. By bringing Jesus in on a donkey, the crowds were saying that they expected Herod and Caesar’s reign to be done. And Jesus apparently agreed that this was happening. What the people didn’t understand was how this was to happen by suffering and dying and when it would finally be fulfilled.
• A new creation (Revelation 21:1)
Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.”
A new heaven AND a new earth my friends. Last we saw a passage from Revelation 15 that said “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
How about this passage from Isaiah 11:1-10:
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.
This indicates the root of Jesse which is David which refers to Jesus that give decisions for the poor. Notice also how animals will behave differently. With the new heaven and new earth, the animals will behave differently.
Paul talks about getting a new body physical body. Jesus was resurrected physically with scarred hands to be touched. New heaven. New earth. Physical bodies. Paul even talks about creation groaning for the end and for our redemption. If the earth would be completely anniliated, then why would it groan.
• Caring for the New Creation (Isaiah 2:2-4)
What will we be doing? Caring for this new creation.
How about Isaiah 2:2-4
In the last days
the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
There seems to be a return to the state of humankind in the Garden. Perfect fellowship with God. There is no struggling with the earth to survive. Adam’s role was to tend the Garden and care for it. So perhaps the plowshares and pruning hooks are a sign that serving God will be a return to caring for the creation.
Why have I missed this?
Frankly I’ve wondered that. Here is what I believe. We live in an age that for the first time in human history looks at everything first from an individual perspective. Other cultures and ages looked at the world through a community perspective. So we look at the spiritual aspect first as it relates to me. Combined with how rich we are compared to the rest of the world. We spiritualize everything.
Additionally, the modern age created a distinction between secular and sacred. This is not a biblical way of looking at the world. We put things into one of these categories. Church is sacred. A church building is sacred. My job is secular. This creates a dualistic way of looking at reality. The result is that spiritual things are good and worldly things are bad. The bible does call worldly things bad but we mistakenly equate worldly with the earth.
Psalm 24:1, The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
The early church struggled against a heresy called Gnosticism that looked at the world and everything in it dualistically. They went as far as saying the physical is bad and that death would free the spirit, which is good, from its physical prison. In fact, they contended, Jesus as the Son of God was not really a physical human being. It just appeared to that he was.
We have come dangerously close to this worldview with the sacred/secular division. The Hebrew perspective in the bible was more of the holy and the not-yet-holy. Paul said that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities in the high places.
Another example is our view of sex. It is dirty. It is filthy. The bible looks at sex as something beautiful. It is something created by God to be enjoyed (in the right covenantal parameters). The Hebrew word used to know God (Yada) is the same word for sex. It is not filthy but holy. It is a holy union where two become one. It is literally an act of worship.
Another result is that we pervert our assignment to care for the earth. Humans have misunderstood the use of having dominion over the earth as a license to do what we want with the earth. After all, since it is all going to be incinerated (rather than purified by a refiner’s fire), then let’s use it all up before the end.
Instead of a dualistic worldview, we need to have a holistic worldview. The environment is a spiritual issue. There are issues of justice. My abuse and neglect of my environment has huge negative consequences for my neighbor not just down the street but around the world. My waste shows that I don’t really care for what is right. I don’t care about what is the Lord’s. I don’t really love my neighbor.
The Celtic was of spirituality was amazingly holistic. It did not reflect the dualism of the modern age. The Irish such as Patrick understood that the earth was the Lord’s. They saw God’s hand at work in nature (in their environment). They saw their work on earth to be part of their spiritual existence. So they prayed as they got up and when they would go to sleep. They prayed before they traveled. It is very much like a good tsadiq might have done in Jesus’ day.
Peregrine literally means wanderer. They were Celtic wanderers. They were missionaries. They trusted in the Lord to guide them simply going about their day and often literally wandering from place to place looking for God’s hand at work. One wanderer was in a boat with his crew and was reported to have met a stretch where the wind died. So the sailors got out the oars and started rowing. Suddenly the captain ordered everyone to stop. His reason was that they were fighting to do their own will and they just simply needed to let the ocean be the Lord’s and go where His current would take them.
I wonder how many times we try to impose our own will too much. Instead recognizing that the Lord is the Lord and all the earth is His, we often overstep out bounds to “get r dun.” Heaven is something so far later that we put ourselves on the throne instead of seeking that God’s will is done on earth now. Maybe there are some areas in your life that you need to go with the flow. You need to go with the flow of God’s Spirit instead of imposing your own will. You need to let go and let God take care of the details.
This doesn’t mean that you are completely passive. The peregrine would actively seek the presence of God. They would take the steps in front of them. But they would try to be aware of when they needed to stop and perhaps just get out of God’s way. It is a fine line sometimes.
Let’s take a few minutes to quiet our minds before God to allow God the space to move. Let’s just go with the flow for a few minutes. Allow God to show us the areas of our lives where we need to let go and let the Lord of all the earth take care of the details.
