The Hope of Heaven
THE HOPE OF HEAVEN:
A BRIEF SURVEY
“Heaven” is a catch-all term that represents the hope of the Christian. We use the term to express a variety of different hopes. It is a place of peace and rest for those who have died. It is an alternative to the phrase “eternal life,” the next life that we share with Christ. We use “heaven” to express perfection, a place where all things horrible, faulty, weak, damaged, broken, and marred will be restored to their original intention. Heaven represents hope.
Unfortunately, many writers and speakers talk about heaven in ways that cannot be supported. They take a verse and run with it and make wild claims about what heaven will be like. I watched one sermon where the pastor went on and on about the word “new” and what that meant in heaven. He said that after 10,000 years in heaven, we will be called to supper, and someone will ask what’s being served. And the answer, he said, was, we don’t know, it’s new. If he had studied the Greek word for new, he would know that’s not what it means. He went on to say that this world will be gone – Grand Canyon and all – because this world is a dumpster fire compared to what heaven will be like. This is just a sample of what’s out there in describing heaven. Lots of wild speculation.
I have studied heaven a lot in scripture. There are 692 direct references to “heaven” in the ESV and I skimmed them all this week. I have read several good and bad writers on the topic of heaven. And I have concluded that there is only one way to answer this week’s question in our series: What does the Bible really say about heaven? We need to let scripture speak, and we need to limit our personal conjectures and speculations in submission to the biblical text.
Obviously, we cannot unpack 692 verses today. Instead, we will look at some of the major themes running through the Bible and conclude with Revelation 21:1-6 and the hope of heaven as John saw it in his vision on the Island of Patmos.
Heaven is a created place. We read in Genesis 1:1, a very succinct and loaded statement, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” We must observe two things about this statement. First, “heavens” is plural. The Jews believed that there were different levels of heaven, and as late as the 3rd century believed there were seven levels. Paul talked about having a vision of the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2). There is no biblical support for the Jewish levels. But we do see “heavens” and we do see that they are created spaces.
Second, the heavens and the earth are a unit. That is, the sense in the original creation order is that they were intimately connected. Sin, of course, created a fracture in this relationship.
Heaven is the sky. In ancient cosmology, how the writers of the OT understood the universe, observing the sky was likened to gazing into heaven. Look at Genesis 1:6-8 (read). The ancients believed that earth was covered by a dome and that dome kept the waters above from the waters below. That space in between is the sky, and God called it “heaven.” Then in verses 14-16, God orders that there be lights in the expanse (sky), the sun, moon, and stars; these will be visible in the heavens so that humanity can tell time, to know what day it is.
The Psalmist confirms this when he writes, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place…” (8:3). David observed the night sky perceiving some level of heaven, marvelling at the creative ability of God. The great expanse humbled him so that he then says, “What is man that you are mindful of him?”
With Genesis 1:20, God commands that birds fly above the earth, filling the heavens. Again, we perceive that heaven is part of the created order in terms of sky and the galaxy beyond.
Heaven is where God’s throne is situated. Heaven is the sky, and if God’s voice was heard by people like Moses, it was natural to think that God spoke from the sky. Yet God cannot be seen; he is not visible as the sky is visible. So, in a deeper sense, the heaven where God speaks from is another dimension that somehow coexists with ours. God taught Moses that there is one God and only one God in Deuteronomy 4:32-39. Two phrases confirm this revelation of God: “Out of heaven he let you hear his voice…” God says. And then we have this piece of the puzzle, “The LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath,” (39). For the purposes of distinguishing the source of divine revelation, God tells Moses that God speaks from heaven as opposed to speaking from an earthly origin. God rules from a place that is holy and separate from a corrupted earth. Again, the psalmist concurs with this revelation saying, “The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven,” (Ps. 11:4).
Solomon, however, makes a startling observation. When he was building a temple for the LORD, he suddenly realized how pointless it was to build a physical house for an eternal and transcendent God. He said, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you…” (1 Kgs. 8:27). Beyond trying to fit God into a house made by human hands, Solomon realized that even heaven could not house God. Heaven is too small for God, as it were. Yet the NT writers continued to convey the source of God’s voice as heaven. At Jesus’ baptism, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son,” (Mt. 3:17). Heaven was the default source of God’s speaking and ruling.
Heaven refers to God’s Kingdom in Matthew. Closely tied to God’s reign is God’s kingdom. Matthew uses the term “Kingdom of heaven” to refer not only to God’s reign, but also to the ethics of the kingdom. Jesus came preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” (3:2). Two things stand out in this preaching. First, Jesus is saying that God’s kingdom rule coincides with a way of living. This is what is meant by ethics. Those who choose to live in the kingdom of heaven will behave differently than those who live in the kingdom of the world. Therefore, Jesus calls for repentance. Second, the kingdom of heaven is not something you enter when you die; the kingdom is made visible in the lives of its citizens in the present. We bring heaven to earth by loving our neighbor and giving a cup of water to someone who is thirsting.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray in that spirit. He said to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” (6:10). Praying this, we are asking that heaven’s vitality be seen in us as we live, play, and work among other people. We are praying that those we connect with will get a taste of heaven through us.
Heaven is embodied in Jesus. Nowhere is the life of heaven more clearly seen than in the person of Jesus. As the Son of God, the king of this kingdom, he is the perfect embodiment of how a person represents the heavenly man. Jesus said to the crowds he fed, “…I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me,” (John 6:38). That’s how a citizen of the kingdom of heaven operates: in obedience to the will of God.
Jesus is from heaven, and when he died and rose again, he returned to heaven. Mark ends his gospel account with these words, “So when the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God,” (16:19). In a nutshell, if you want to know what heaven is like, look at Jesus.
Heaven is a realm of the spirits. There is another aspect of heaven that we need to emphasize. I used the word “dimension” before; you could say that heaven is an unseen realm. While God “sits” on his throne in heaven, scripture reveals that there is more to heaven than royal courts. In the book of Job, Satan approaches the throne of God, and a contest ensues involving Job. It seems that heaven is a place of conflict as well as reign.
When Jesus sent out the 72 disciples to preach the kingdom and to heal, they returned with glowing reports. Jesus responded to this news saying, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” (Lk 10:18), as if to say that when the good news is preached, Satan is thwarted in the spiritual realm.
Paul explained the Christian struggle with sin and evil in similar terms. We may be tempted to think of our conflicts in earthly terms with the people in our workplaces, schools, and homes, as our adversaries. But Paul wrote that the real struggle is not against flesh and blood, “but against the rulers…authorities…cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” (Eph. 6:12).
Heaven is often imagined to be a place of peace. Yet the picture we are getting in these verses do not paint that image. Consider this snapshot from Revelation 12:7, “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back…” We can debate when this takes place historically – did Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection end that war? – but what we cannot deny is that there was war in heaven. War is destructive ending any kind of tranquility, marring perfection.
Perhaps this is why Peter speaks of heaven being destroyed at the end of the age. Peter wrote, “The heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire…the heavens will pass away with a roar,” (2 Peter 3:7, 10).
The New Heaven and the New Earth. We come full circle as we conclude with Revelation 21 and John’s vision of the new heaven and the new earth. Among all the things we can say about heaven, it is my conviction that this passage tells us what we need to know about the hope to which we cling.
John wrote, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…” (21:1). As I mentioned in the beginning, we need to understand what is meant by the word “new.” Newness here refers to quality and not time. The first world, the one we know now, is impermanent; it is temporary. Things die like plants, animals, and humans. Things rot and decay. In the new world, everything will be permanent and enduring. As the preacher I mentioned in the beginning said “new” meant different, the Greek implies not “different” but transformed. An oak tree will still be an oak tree, for example, but it will be transformed into an enduring oak tree that never dies. Transformation is key. Some like C.S. Lewis and G.K. Beale suggest that the new heaven and earth will be an identifiable counterpart to the old, but a renewal of it. Like our bodies that will be raised and renewed, but still recognizable to a degree, the new heaven and new earth will also be recognizable.
When we look forward to the new creation, there is an aspect of it that we tend to overlook. I am convinced we don’t hear this important detail when it is read: “Then I saw a new heaven (and a new earth *whispered*). The new earth…it’s a mental block or something.
Think back to the Genesis narrative on creation. I mentioned that before the fall (when sin entered the world), there was a synchronicity between the heavens and the earth. They were a unit in God’s original creation. We have seen how God lived in heaven and humanity on the earth. Before the fall there was an overlap; God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. After the fall there was a disconnect and God was not as near because the earth was corrupted.
Here in Revelation 21, we read of the return of that synchronicity. “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,” (2). Jesus said in John 14, I go to prepare a place for you…this is it, the new Jerusalem. And it comes down out of heaven and is established on the earth. Cities are the gathering places of communities. Winnipeg is a community with agricultural roots. The new Jerusalem is a community with faith roots. This is the new community of the people of God. This is heaven on earth, the overlapping of two realms.
John describes this existence as being centered on God. He wrote, “Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God,” (3). Whatever else you imagine heaven to be, this is the hope of heaven. There is a song we sing, “Oh what glory that will be when my Jesus I will see.” That fits this image perfectly. Whatever Bart Millard thinks he can “only imagine,” the presence of God in the new creation will be overwhelming.
An existence with the Father-God means peace and joy and enduring love. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away,” (4). Our hearts yearn to be reconciled with God in the new heaven and the new earth; we long for the presence of God that will be so near that whatever broke our hearts in this life will seem a dim and fading memory. This is the hope of heaven.
Jesus went to heaven to prepare a place for us, a new community, a new Jerusalem – the city of God. It will be the jewel of the new creation. NT Wright illustrated this point with an analogy of a parent telling a child in advance of Christmas that there is “a present kept safe in the cupboard for you.” This does not mean that once Christmas comes, the child has to “go and live in the cupboard in order to enjoy the present there. Rather, the present will be brought from the cupboard to enrich the life of the child in the day-to-day world.
What does the Bible say about heaven? I could not cover all the wonderful details about heaven, but I hope I gave you a taste that will send you to your Bibles to discover more. If heaven is your hope, then make every effort to ground your faith in Jesus, the heavenly man, by following him.
AMEN
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