Take your bibles this morning if you would, turn to Revelation 21.  The heaven scene; always one of the most powerful moments at Judgement House. When people have come from that hell scene; it's hot, and it's dark, and it's terrible.  They walk down that long hallway in what we call the Long Building, the Winnie Long building, and they come down through heaven. They have that little white robe placed around their shoulders to symbolize a new body. They get to line up there in the heaven scene and Daniel comes by to every single person in there, and just speaks some word of encouragement. You know my wife, Jenny, she noted a long time ago... I honestly had not even noticed this, and she caught it, and when she told me this it moved me so much... she said you know no matter how anybody kind of laughs off the drama,  no matter how they sort of poke fun at the hell scene, whatever, she said when they get to heaven everybody wants to see Jesus. Everybody wants to see Jesus.

I found one exception to that last night. I went through one scene early on, as most of you know I was in Florida for the first night, and had a hard time getting back, but we made it back.  I decided to walk through with Brandon, our worship pastor, and just kind of see the thing and get my heart tuned into it. So we went through with a group and there was one mother. She took her little girl down into the hell scene, which I'm always a little “ahh, ehhh, you sure you want to do that?” but she took a little girl, little girl did great through the whole thing, but definitely we could tell as we were climbing the steps out of the basement, that little girl was very happy to get out of that hell scene. Her mom leaned over and she said she said “Honey, are you excited to see Jesus?” and the little girl goes “nope!” “Nope!” I think what she was thinking is “I don't want to go to heaven or hell; I just want to get out! I want like some chicken nuggets and climb in the car and let's get out of here.”

Here's the thing this morning, if we can kind of unscrew the Halos for just a minute and get really, really honest in church today; I wonder how many Christians, if the truth were known, aren't really all that excited about heaven; if the truth were known. Now let me be careful to say I think everybody is thankful to make it to heaven. I mean the alternative is pretty awful. I definitely don't want to go to hell, I want to go to heaven, I want to be in that good spot, I want to be with Jesus absolutely, I want to make it to heaven.  I'm just not quite as thankful for the idea of spending eternity there. I wonder how many children feel like heaven will steal away their favorite toy or take their favorite pet. I wonder how many men honestly feel that heaven will somehow steal their masculinity. I wonder how many wives and mothers feel that heaven will steal away their family, it'll somehow take away their husband and children in a way that they can't comprehend. I wonder how many Christians in general feel that heaven will somehow steal their identity. It will reduce them to just one member of a mob of white robed robots, fully content, fully happy to strum a harp for all eternity.

I want to pose this question this morning in our short time together and the question is this: what is heaven really like?  Okay? What did the authors of scripture, the men who heard from God, and proclaimed God's message all those years ago, what did they have to say? What did God have to say about what heaven is really like? We're going to read one of the most definitive passages about heaven in the Bible here in just a moment. Before we get to that let me just set the stage by saying in 1 Corinthians 2 we find a man talking about heaven who was incredibly well suited to that task, the guy named Paul. The Apostle Paul, as many of us know him, had some insights about eternity that were given to him in his lifetime that no other human had experienced. To the point that Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:9, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

    nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

If I can paraphrase that, Paul was saying nobody's ever seen or heard anything like this. Nobody's even been able to imagine anything quite like what God has waiting in heaven for his people. Okay?  He says ditch your five physical senses, you can't even come up with it. That sounds like a conversation ender, right? It sounds like Paul is saying “hey I know stuff about heaven you don't even bother dreaming of.” Then comes the next verse 1 Corinthians 2:10 “but God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit”. Okay?  You can't come up with it with your eyes. You can't come up with your ears. You can't come up with it with your feelings. The culture can't tell you what eternity is going to be like, right?  Movies will throw you off. Jokes about St. Peter at the gate won't give you any proper information. Only the Spirit of God can reveal it and Paul says he already has to a great degree.

Here's the idea; Paul said if you want to know what eternity is going to be like be real careful about asking the culture, why don't you ask the book? Be real careful about looking to what people think might happen, go to what God says will happen. Friends listen, I think for a lot of us we've looked to the culture to such a degree that we've come up with a distorted view of heaven. We've come up with harps and halos. We've come up with St. Peter at the gate. We've come up with one day we'll all be angels trying to earn our wings and let me just say none of that's biblical though it is cultural. Somebody wrote this “make no mistake, one of Satan's favorite tactics is feeding us an unworthy, dull, distorted view of heaven. he knows will lack motivation to tell other people about Jesus when our view of heaven isn't that much better than our view of Hell.” Wow. Then he says this “if you lack a passion for heaven, I can almost guarantee it's because you have a weak, deficient, and distorted theology of heaven. A robust, accurate, biblically energized view of heaven will bring you a new spiritual passion.”

So here's the question what is heaven really like? This week, God willing, I want to talk about the ultimate place. Next Sunday in another abbreviated service I want to talk about the ultimate people.
How many of you still with me now? Say Amen.  In John 14:1(-2) Jesus said to his disciples ““Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” You know, growing up I think I kind of always pictured creation as being solely a work of God the Father, right? 

God the Father speaking the universe into existence; God says let there be light and light explodes into being. God says let there be an earth, let there be planets, let there be stars, let there be the cosmos, let all these things come to be and exploded into being, but here's the thing.  

The Bible tells us in Colossians, the Bible says without Jesus was not anything made that was made.  Christ had this massive role in speaking the universe into existence. the same Jesus that came down to Planet Earth 2,000 years ago, and lived in a human body, and did miracles, and spoke those powerful words, that same Jesus was the one who said let there be light, that there be trees, that there be animals, let there be creativity, let there be art, let there be music, let there be passion, let there be love; the same Jesus.  I want you think about this for just a minute, Jesus said to his disciples I'm leaving but I'm going to prepare a place for you. I'm going to take you and bring you to that place one day. What do you think heaven will be like if Jesus the creator of all that is, spent the last two thousand years getting it ready for us? On earth Jesus was a carpenter and I want to suggest to you this morning he still knows how to build. Look in Revelation 21:1. We're going to do a fair amount of reading and then we're going to be done today. Revelation 21:1. John says this, God's given him a vision, heavenly things, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”

Before we go any further, I always had the view for years that God was going to take the present world and obliterate it, replace it, start over, okay? He was going to take this entire world that we know and erase the board and bring about a new one. I've come to a different belief about that. One author wrote this “the newness of the heaven and the earth shall be like our own. We will be the same person in eternity and have the same body and the same soul that we have now, but these will be made entirely new. The same will be true with regard to the new heaven and the new earth.” In other words when you think about God making a new heaven, and a new earth, in eternity for us to live in, don't think replacement, think renovation, okay? He is going to take away the curse!  He's going to take away the sin! He’s going to take away the erosion! He’s going to take away all the effects of that fallen angel, Lucifer's activities!  He's going to make it perfect. When the Bible says there'll be no more sea, that doesn't mean there won't be any more bodies of water on this new earth. What it does mean is revelation talked constantly about out of the sea will come the beast, out of this world system that's so corrupt that it's so banged up will come the Antichrist, and all these events and basically John is saying that's gone. That’s done there's a new heaven there's a new earth.

Revelation 21 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

If you were to go on and read verses 9 through 27 God describes an eternity where we are not only on a brand-new renovated earth that's perfect, we're not bored, and we're not sitting on clouds, and we're not just strumming harps, we are doing the activity of Jesus Christ the king. There’s still work but now its holy work. There’s music and its perfect music. There’s art and it's dedicated to the lamb. And now on this brand-new earth that we get to travel, that we get to live on, there's a new Jerusalem. It’s like heavens come down to earth and it is literally a city in the sky above a newly renovated earth. I want to encourage you, read that chapter.  For time’s sake we won't read it today. Read it this week, meditate in it.

I want to close out our time with it with a book that I've recommended numerous times. It was given to me by somebody who was going through a season of grief and it blessed their heart. It’s called In Light Of Eternity by Randy Alcorn.  I don't usually read this much, but this so touched me I want to read to you a little bit today:

How about you- when you get to heaven, how astonished will you be by the tangible existence of what the Bible told us about beforehand?

Will you be surprised to see that heaven is an actual place? It's a location that has been traveled to and from by Christ (the Bible tells us in John 6 and Acts 1), by angels and in rare circumstances by people prior to their deaths (2nd Kings 2, 2nd Corinthians 12, Revelation 11).

Where is heaven? It is referred to as “up” in location. It could be a place in the universe beyond the earth. Or it may exist entirely outside our space-time continuum.

Will you be amazed to see an actual city in heaven? Heaven is described as a city in Hebrews and Revelation. The normal understanding of city is a place of many residences and near proximity with inhabitants under a common government.

The city at the center of the future heaven is called the New Jerusalem. The city's exact dimensions are measured by an angel (in Revelation 21) and reported to be cube-shaped, with each side measuring nearly 1500 miles. A city in the sky shaped like a cube!

While these proportions may have symbolic importance, this doesn't mean they aren't literal. In fact, revelation 21 expresses the exact dimensions with care and emphasis that they are “man's measurements” (Revelation 21:17). If the city really has three dimensions (and there's no reason it couldn't), what more could we expect God to say to convince us?

The base of the city adds up more than two million square miles. A metropolis of that size in the middle of the United States would stretch from Canada to Mexico and from the Appalachian Mountains to the California border. Big city!

Even more astounding is its 1,500 mile height. That would be 780 thousand stories high. Perhaps this is the reach of the city's tallest towers and spires, rising above buildings of lesser but equally impressive height.

The dimensions of that city often are cited as proof that it isn't a literal city at all. A theology professor once told me he writes, “No one can breathe 1,500 miles off the ground; there's no oxygen.” Why would it be a problem for God to make it so our new bodies don't require oxygen or to extend the atmosphere the new earth above 1,500 miles?

Others say there can't actually be 12 gates of the city made of single pearls (revelation 21:21)”If the pearls are that big, how big are the oysters?” but again, why would this be a problem for God? An omnipotent Creator can certainly make pearls as big as he wants! Our limited vision of heaven flows out of our limited vision of God.

Will you be amazed to see heaven's earth-like beauty? The New Jerusalem will be filled with visual magnificence, including streets of gold so refined and pure that it's clear as glass, buildings of pearl, emeralds, and precious stones.

Heaven has light, water, trees, fruit. It contains some animals - including wolves, lambs, and lions –

Trying to go one-handed hang on...

Even before the Millennium there are enough horses in heaven for the armies of heaven to ride. Other animals aren't mentioned in these passages, presumably because they don't play a role in Christ's second coming. But it seems likely that since there are innumerable horses in heaven, there are all kinds of other animals too.

Apparently within the vast and beautiful New Jerusalem we'll find the personal dwelling places Jesus has prepared for us. Like the current earthly Jerusalem, the city will be a melting pot of ethnic diversity, with those of “every nation, every tribe, every people, every language” but unlike today's Jerusalem all these people will be united by their common worship of King Jesus.

The cities gates are said to always be open, people will travel in and out, some bringing glorious items into the city. This outside travel suggests the city is not the whole of heaven, but merely its center. The gates that are opposite each other will be 1,500 miles apart, allowing access from every direction.  Even the inside will be a huge area to investigate. The gates will lead out to an entire planet, the new earth, and a cosmos with vast realms to explore. Why did he make this vast universe? It had to be for something beyond decoration. Perhaps we'll travel it.

Perhaps it will be a center for arts and culture and large gatherings and events... maybe even some great restaurants since we know that in heaven we'll be eating and drinking (Jesus said so in Luke 22:30) we'll be feasting (Matthew 8:11). Heaven's capital city will have all the advantages we associate with earthly cities but none of the disadvantages. No crime, no litter, no smog, no sirens, no seaminess, no corruption. The streets can be walked safely.  Every stranger could soon be your friend heaven will be a vibrant community a new place populated by new people.

Many assume heaven will be unlike earth. But why do we think this? God designed earth for human beings. And nearly every description of heaven includes references to earthly things – eating, music, animals, water, trees, fruits, and a city with gates and streets.

The Bible speaks of the new heavens and the new earth - not as non-heavens and non-earth. “New” doesn't mean fundamentally different, but vastly superior. If somebody says, “I'm going to give you a new car,” you’d get excited. Why? Not because you have no idea what a car is, but because you do know.

I'm almost done. A new car doesn't mean a vehicle without a steering wheel, seats, doors, and tires. If it didn't have those, it wouldn't be a car. The new car is a better version of what you already have. Likewise, the new earth will be a far better version of this earth. That’s why we can anticipate it.

 I want you think about this. Niagara Falls, some of you been there, right? Lake Victoria, the Grand Canyon, the world's greatest mountains and coastlines, all these will just be rough sketches of heaven.

If we think of heaven as a place where disembodied spirits float around-which is never depicted in the Bible-we can't get excited about it. It is not a non-earth we long for-it's a new earth. And we long not for a non-body but for a new body.

As Lord Digory explained to the children in C.S. Lewis’s classic work The Chronicles of Narnia: “our own world... is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan's real world.”

My friends our own world is only a shadow or copy of something real in Jesus world. That’s heaven. That’s the new earth. Listen we'll do the best we can in that heaven scene but we can't come close. I made this comment the other day and it's not original to me, most anything good I've ever said, I stole from somebody. Most people think of life as a dot.  I only get one. I better cram everything into this life. I better guard my resources and live for today, because I only get one life.

God says don't imagine that your life is just a dot. Death is not a period but a comma in the story of your life. God says think about a dot with a line on the end and an arrow on that line. Eternity is the life we are created for. This is the trial. This is the war. This is the shaping place. This is the refining point. But one day my friends, for those of us that know Jesus Christ, that's what this weekend is all about. We're going to that place where the Creator of all that is good has designed his masterpiece.