God is love. We hear that fairly often if we come to church much. God is love. It’s a simple statement. It’s a simple statement but it’s really profound when you think about it. Not the least because most of us think of love as the highest good.
And sometimes when we think about God, when we think about that statement, “God is love” we think about heaven… because heaven is God’s home.
What do you think of when you think of heaven?
So we’re pretty pumped about the thought of heaven. The thought of God’s home, and the faith that we have that rightly tells us that one day, a day yet to come in eternity, God’s home will be our home.
We will dwell with God forever in an unending relationship of love. Why? Because God has made this possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So we’re good…with thinking about heaven. We kind of get heaven. We know that what we understand is just a little really. Just a small part. We see as through a glass darkly. Sometimes very darkly, but nevertheless, we might say that we see, we at least appreciate heaven.
But what about hell? Now that’s not quite as comfortable a topic. Hell is not a happy thing to think about. We may have an idea of hell…either one that we’ve seen in a movie or one that we’ve kind of pieced together in our minds from the Bible passages that we’ve read about hell.
What are some words that come to mind when you think of that word…hell? What are some feelings you have about that word?
So…here we have a word, ‘heaven’ that we think about, some of us a lot, some of us not so much, but it’s there. And we have another word, ‘hell’, that most of us would prefer not to think about at all.
As we continue our series today on “Recovering the Meaning of Our Sacred Words”, we are looking at the words ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’, my purpose today…I’ll be up front about it…my purpose is really to help us grow in our understanding of God, and perhaps to grasp something of the love of God in the reality of Heaven… and even the love of God in the reality of Hell.
This is, of course, a huge topic and no one sermon can cover it all. So today we’ll perhaps turn the knob on the door to this topic a bit, and then open the door just a crack.
First we’ll look at heaven. Now the OT doesn’t say a great deal, compared to the NT, about heaven, but what it DOES say is pretty powerful. Here are a few passages that
1 Ki 22:19 "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left.
This speaks of God revealing Himself in prophetic revelation, as a king enthroned in heaven and surrounded by angels who do His bidding.
Psa 14:2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Psa 14:3 All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
This speaks of God who is Other, who observes humanity from some distance and who laments our waywardness.
Psa 85:11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.
Here God embodies the qualities of faithfulness and righteousness, and He observes the activities on earth from a place of some distance.
So even in these few verses we get a glimpse of a God who wants to be known by His creation, who dwells in heaven, in perfection, Who is perfection.
Who seems to be in a relationship of some distance from his creation…not so much distance best understood in terms of geography, although there is some suggestion of that…but rather distance best understood as based on holiness. God is righteous.
God is holy. God wants nearness of relationship, but that nearness is challenged by a pretty drastic difference between God and us. Again the scripture says, in a blunt evaluation that we might find ourselves agreeing with or disagreeing with: “All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one”. [Ps 14:3]
So the picture of heaven that seems, to my ear, to be emphasized in the OT, is that it is the dwelling place of God. And we see, through the eyes of the OT writers, that God is watching.
He is looking to see if there is anyone interested in Him. Anyone who seeks God. Anyone who understands God’s holiness. Anyone interested, perhaps, to find a way to God.
It is a melancholy picture, I find. Not in the sense of “God is lonely”, because we understand that from the beginning of all things God has existed in perfect communion and relationship within the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It is melancholy because there seems to be a yearning on God’s part for communion with humanity; he wants to relate to you and to me. He wants to be known, to be sought. And that seems to be the point.
Now the NT gives us pictures of both heaven and hell. Since we’ve looked at heaven a bit from the OT perspective, let’s look at hell through the eyes of a NT story authored by Jesus.
Luke 16:19 "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
There is a modern myth that is very much like an ancient myth. That myth says that if you have much, you are blessed by God. There is even a huge modern heresy popularized on some Christian TV that says that God wants us to have great material wealth and that if we are not wealthy it is because we lack faith and if we lack faith we lack God’s blessing.
Of course that kind of teaching flies in the face of Jesus’ own embracing of poverty, of Jesus’ call to obedience through self-denial (denying ourselves)
Mark 8:34-36 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
But it’s evident here that wealth and riches are evidence of nothing other than wealth and riches…and perhaps conspicuous consumption. A man of some dignity who had much on this earth finds himself, perhaps perplexingly to him, in hell.
A man who had been a beggar and who had suffered greatly in this life, even the indignity of having his sores licked by dogs, finds himself in heaven.
Perhaps both are perplexed. There is some strong evidence in Scripture that those who find themselves in God’s favour upon final judgment will have a bit of a tough time figuring out why. Likewise those who do not find themselves in a good position in the final judgment will also wonder why. I encourage you to read Matthew chapter 25 for more on that. It seems like humility and living a life of actively loving others as an expression of our faith is the key there.
So we have the rich man and we have Lazarus, and what happens next is pretty dramatic.
Luke 16:24 So he (the rich man) called to him, ’Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
Hell is, apparently, not climate controlled. It is hot. According to this story, hell is a place of conscious awareness. Awareness of one’s own state, but also…perhaps worse, awareness of other states of being that are much better.
The rich man begs not for an end to his suffering, but for just an instant of relief. And in Jesus’ story Abraham, the father of all those who believe, appears.
And Abraham appears in order to remind the rich man why he is in the state he is in.
25 "But Abraham replied, ’Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
The rich man, having received good things in this life and having consumed them on himself, it would appear, is left without any good left in his existence. It’s worth noting that the rich man continues to exist, whether or not he wants to.
Life is, in reality, not a temporary thing. This mortal shell that we wear has a shelf-life, of course. But the spirit that animates our bodies does not cease to exist, again, even if we wish it did. The spirit has one of two futures…one of only two eternal options: to be with God, or to not be with God.
And of course that future is decided not once we’re dead (we see that the rich man is unable to alter his predicament in hell because it is not in his power to do so…a “great chasm” has been fixed, says Abraham in Jesus’ words). That future is decided here. Now. While we have breath. So this is serious stuff.
The rich man has an unselfish thought in Jesus’ story.
27 "He answered, ’Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
The rich man wants to warn his family. He asks that Lazarus might go to his home to warn his brothers so they can avoid hell.
29 "Abraham replied, ’They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30 "’No, father Abraham,’ he said, ’but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 "He said to him, ’If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’"
The rich man supposes that the living will listen to Lazarus, who can be a sort of spokesman for God and warn people of the realities of living selfishly, the realities of rejecting God. He’s actually asking for Lazarus, who is extremely well-off now in heaven, to leave heaven and go as a prophet to the rich man’s family.
Abraham replies, in Jesus’ story, that Moses and the prophets were sent for just such a purpose…to warn people that it is important what we do here and how we live here and what we believe here on earth.
Those who don’t listen to Moses and the prophets will be unimpressed even if someone rises from the dead. There is a terrible poignancy in this story of course, because Jesus is really speaking of his own desire to reach people with the message of God’s love, to find people who will hear with open ears about the way to God.
Elsewhere in Scripture Jesus says this: PPT John 5: 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" The poignancy is that even when Jesus did rise from the dead, ultimately proving his divinity and the truth of all that He said, those who simply refused to believe were not convinced.
That’s the way it was 2000 years ago, and that is, of course, the way it is now. That phrase that we hear a fair bit: “I believe it when I see it”, is a quaint cop out. Jesus said [PPT] John 20:29 “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” Why?
Because seeing with the eyes has limited value unless we also see with eyes of faith. Seeing and responding with the eyes of faith gets us where we need to be with God.
So that is just one little window into hell that we find in the NT. There are a great many others. There are, of course, also a great many opinions on what the Bible says about hell.
There are also a lot of opinions that outright reject what the Bible says about hell and that refuse to really interact with the Word of God on this matter because it seems just so unpleasant.
I would hope that we as a community of faith would never do that, that we would never just settle into our comfortable opinions about hell and consider the matter closed. I would hope that we would continue to allow the Word of God to really challenge and stretch our understanding.
That’s really an important factor in living as authentic believers in today’s world.
Now, let’s spend a few moments looking at what the NT has to say about heaven.
Reader 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. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ’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."
This may really challenge what some of us think of when we think of heaven. Far from clouds and angel’s wings, and a kind of static, blithe ‘happiness’, we find that heaven is described as a new heaven and a new earth, just without the sea.
We see the holy city, the new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God like a bride. We hear in verse 3 a bold proclamation of a new beginning where God dwells among the people as their God. God personally wipes every tear from their eyes. How does He do this? By removing the source of tears: by removing death, mourning, crying and pain.
Reader 2: Revelation 21:5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
Apparently there is no human need for the sea. God gives to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. Jesus says: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End”. For the Jews this was a literary way of saying “Everything”.
The “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” mean ‘the tree of the knowledge of all things”. When Jesus says that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, He is saying, in the same way, that He is Everything. He becomes in Himself for us in a very real way, the very definition and defining feature of heaven.
Reader 3:10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
[Thank you Christopher Hilling for the following illustration]
“I recently read of a man who visited a distinguished artist at his studio. He found the artist there with an open Bible in front of him while he was arranging squares of colored glass.
"I have made a singular discovery," he said, "these are the precious stones in the foundation of the New Jerusalem, and when placed in the order described in the vision they form a perfect harmony of color. Were a convention of artists called to produce a perfect color-scheme, they could not improve upon it."
”God loves beauty or He wouldn’t have put so much of it in this world. Who painted the butterfly’s wing with all those gorgeous hues and threw around the evening sun her drapery of a thousand colors?
Who put the red on the robin’s breast? From whose pastel were the colors mixed that gave the rose its blushing charm and touched the lily with its dreamy white? Who taught the raindrop to take a ray of light from the sun and pencil it on the sky in one huge arch of bewildering elegance? God did it all! He made everything beautiful and only sin has marred it, and in Heaven you’ll find God’s beauty at its best!
”A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father.
“Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; "Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!"”
In this vision of heaven, John the revelator sees no temple, no singular place of worship in heaven. Why is that? The overwhelming fact about heaven is that the source of everything in heaven is God. He is all around. John speaks of the presence of God as both the Lord God Almighty And the Lamb.
In verse 23 as well John says there is no need for external sources of light like the sun or the moon as it reflects the sun’s light in the night. That’s because the glory of God gives the light and the Lamb of God is the lamp. The gates of the city of heaven are never shut. There is no need for security as we know it. God is the security of the city.
And there will be a place of welcome for all the nations in heaven. Philippians 2:9-11 says this: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.
Now, why does the Lamb, Jesus, figure so prominently in heaven? In our last verse we find the answer. 27 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.
The problem with heaven, from a fallen human perspective, is that heaven is a holy place. It is holy because God Himself lives there. He dwells there.
If nothing impure can even enter heaven; if, as the scriptures say, [Isaiah 64:6] “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”…if we can never be good enough to get into heaven…that’s a real problem. And yet we see, again, that humanity DOES find a way into heaven.
Well…Jesus is that way. Romans 5 says this: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
Heaven is God’s way of having a permanent home for you, a home in His presence. Heaven is God’s gift to all those who want God. Those who choose God. Those who acknowledge His authority, His love and His saving grace.
Now, just for a minute, put yourself in the shoes of someone who does not want these things. Someone who does NOT want God, who does NOT love God. Who will NOT acknowledge and bow down to His authority.
What would heaven be like for someone like that? If I put myself in the shoes of someone like that, I’d have to say that heaven, which again is all about the presence of God and of the Lamb, I’d have to say that heaven would be extremely unpleasant. Terribly un-heavenlike. Stay with me here for a minute.
Now, if that’s the case, and if God knew that some would absolutely not want to be in His presence, that some would absolutely not want to accept the only way into heaven, Jesus Christ, that some would find heaven, as it is in truth, really terribly the opposite of what they want…what might God do?
Might God, in His mercy, create an alternative eternal location where nothing of Himself has to be endured. Where His glory does not impose itself, where His love, being as it is the very definition of His nature…where His love is not something to contend with.
Might he dignify humanity and human choice with an eternity where His light and holiness does not fill every inch and every breath?
I would suggest that the existence of hell is God’s way of honouring human choice, of honouring human free will. Think about that for a moment. The most important and overwhelming thing about heaven is the presence of God.
There will be no relief from the presence of God in heaven, and those who are there will seek no relief, because for them the presence of God is the very meaning of joy. So again, the most important and overwhelming thing about heaven is the existence and intimacy of God.
The most important and overwhelming thing about hell is the absence of God. The absence of God who is Light, which is why hell is described as a place of deep outer darkness.
The absence of God who is the Fount of Joy, which is why, in various dramatic and stark ways hell is described in Scripture as being a place of numbing sadness and unpleasantness.
Nevertheless, we have heaven and we have hell. Two eternal locations. Some would say ‘two eternal states of being’. That’s probably a more accurate way of putting it. There are no other locales in eternity.
No other ‘states of being’. One of them, hell, honours and dignifies the human choice to reject God and live eternally in His absence, as it were. The other, heaven, is the eternal home that God INTENDS for all humanity. He intends it, but will never force it upon anyone.
So that’s a little bit on heaven and hell. It’s a huge topic and, like I said, we’ve just perhaps opened the door a squeak on this subject. Perhaps for some of us it’s enough to be an encouragement.
For others, this whole message might just be entirely unpleasant and best soon forgotten. For others here though…I wonder, might someone here today make a choice for Jesus?
Might someone here be wondering, “If God has made a way for me to be in heaven, if God has made it possible to live my life in Him, if God has such of view of my life and its purpose, maybe this is for me”.
If you are that person, I encourage you to speak with myself or Ronda or Maryellen or anyone on the Leadership Team here at Church at the Mission.
They will be very happy to talk with you, pray with you, and…when you are ready, to lead you in a prayer of faith, so that all the promises of heaven will become yours.
Let’s pray. Holy God, you are amazing. We try to find words in our songs and our sermons to describe something of how beautiful and loving and mighty you are, and we always somehow fall short, because nothing compares with Your glory, no language can convey Your heart. But we thank You for Your Holy Word that gives us great insights to learn from and to struggle with. Give us a taste of heaven, we pray. Open our eyes to behold you, even just a little as we continue to worship you today. In Jesus’ mighty and saving name we pray. Amen.
