A Sneak-Peek Into What's Up There - Part A

Even believers rarely talk about heaven, even though we're going to spend forever there.

We ought to have some consideration. What fills the pulpits of most churches is talks about the here and now. How do I live now? How do I stay married now and raise children now?

How do I manage my finances now? And all of that is certainly important, but there should be some consideration for heaven. Maybe you've noticed that movies don't start when they say they're going to start. Before the actual movie starts, first you get to see previews, a lot of previews. And regardless of how you feel about the number of trailers played before the actual movie starts, it's kind of fun to get a sneak peek of coming attractions. Well, today here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, Skip Heitzig has a sneak peek for you. It's one that you'll want to pay attention to.

Now, before we get to the message he's titled A Sneak Peek at What's Up There, let's find out about this month's special resource offer. It's pretty obvious that this world is filled with imperfect people, and that's on purpose. God is into restoring human beings.

You know, He could make perfect people and then populate heaven with perfect people, but He doesn't do that. He takes people who are dinged up, who've been beat up, bruised by time, damaged by sin, and He does a full resto job on them. Complete restoration. Celebrate the joy and beauty of redemption with The Morning That Changed Everything with Skip Heitzig. This DVD collection of six hope-filled Easter weekend messages is our thanks to you when you give $35 or more today to help connect more people to God's Word and the redeeming love of Jesus Christ. Restoration is based on redemption, and redemption is tied to resurrection.

To give, call 800-922-1888, or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Open your Bibles or Bible apps to Revelation Chapter 4, and as you do so, Skip Heitzig will talk about the happiest place on earth and how it started as anything but that. How many of you have ever been to Disneyland? Show of hands.

See, we should probably reverse that. Who hasn't been to Disneyland? Really, a few of you haven't.

Well, we'll pray for you. Well, Disneyland is called the Magic Kingdom. That's what Walt Disney called it. Disneyland opened nine days before I was born, and on opening day, 35,000 people thronged into the Magic Kingdom to shake hands with Mickey and Donald and Goofy and Gnarly and whoever else was there. And he was so excited, Walt Disney.

He called it the Magic Kingdom, but it was anything but magical. On the day that it opened, traffic was backed up in 1955. People came. They were mad because it was hot outside. It was in July. And they ran out of refreshments in Disneyland halfway through the day. Mark Twain's steamboat almost capsized on its maiden voyage. It was not a good day.

In fact, Walt Disney and his crew for years to come referred to opening day as Black Sunday. Now, Disneyland is fun. It's exciting. It's great to go there.

But at the end of the day, you're exhausted and broke. And it was all just a memory. Well, we want to turn this morning to not the Magic Kingdom but the Master's Kingdom, the eternal, unspoiled, perfect place that will not be a memory but an ongoing reality for those who trust Christ. Now, we've been doing this series for seven weeks. And what have we covered so far? Well, we covered the death of a believer and the hope that we have in death. We talked about the reunion we're going to have with other people who are in Christ. We spoke about our condition prior to the bodily resurrection. We spent a couple weeks talking about the resurrection body itself and the capabilities of that body.

We even spent a week talking about the death of children, the death of infants. In all of those, we have yet to talk about heaven. We haven't touched on the rewards we're going to get in heaven called the Bema Seat of Christ. We haven't touched at all about the throne room of God, which we look at today. We haven't considered the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is a future event. We certainly haven't considered the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. And then after that, the eternal age, the eternal state of the new heaven, the new earth, and the new Jerusalem.

All of those future events we now turn our hearts toward this morning. When it comes to heaven, most people really don't live with the thought of heaven at all. I mean, if you talk and look at the average life, heaven isn't even on the radar screen except when a person dies. And suddenly it's all talk about heaven, heaven, heaven. But in life, who's thinking about heaven? Even believers rarely talk about heaven. Even though we're going to spend forever there, we ought to have some consideration. What fills the pulpits of most churches is talks about the here and now. How do I live now? How do I stay married now and raise children now?

How do I manage my finances now? And all of that is certainly important. But there should be some consideration for heaven. Time Magazine did an article. It was called, Does Heaven Exist? David Wells from Gordon Conwell Seminary said in that article, quote, We would expect to hear of it, that is heaven, in evangelical churches, but I don't hear it at all. I don't think heaven is even a blip on the Christian screen from one end of the denominational spectrum to the other, close quote.

That's wrong. That's sad because the Bible often encourages us to consider our future. Colossians chapter 3, verse 1, If you then be risen with Christ, set your affection on things above, not on the things of the earth.

Listen to it in the New Living Translation. Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's right hand in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts.

Do not only think about things down here on earth. Well, that's exactly what we want to do this morning and the next few weeks is fill our thoughts with the truths of our future in heaven. What does it look like? What will it sound like? What will we see? No better place to start than Revelation chapter 4 because this begins John's extended tour of heaven. Chapter 4 and 5 is all what he saw, all what he heard. What will heaven be like? Well, listen to this little letter from a reader to Ann Landers' column. It says, Dear Ann Landers, our cocker spaniel Rags died yesterday.

He was 15 years old and everyone adored him. Our son asked, Is Rags in heaven? So I asked our clergyman how to respond. He said, Tell him no, animals don't go to heaven. I believe this is an insensitive response to a nine-year-old. Can you give me a better one? Signed, San Juan.

So Ann Landers answers back. Dear San Juan, I checked with several authorities and the best reply came from Andrew McKenna, who's not a theologian but vice chairman of the board of directors of Notre Dame University. He said, listen to this, he said, Tell the boy that heaven is anything you want it to be. Assure him that he will see everyone he wants to see in heaven, including his pets. Now I'm not here to answer the question, do your pets go to heaven?

This morning I'm not going to deal with that topic, all right? But I share this with you because that is how most people think about heaven. What's heaven like? Well, it's whatever you want heaven to be.

No, it's not. Heaven is everything God made it to be. And so we want to see what he made it to be like. So we turn to Revelation chapter 4, and we're just going to get a peek this morning.

We're just going to look through the portal this morning as we see what John saw. After these things, verse 1, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. Immediately I was in the Spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne. And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance.

And there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. Now this morning we only have time for just a few thoughts. That's why I've only chosen three verses to introduce this whole theme now of heaven.

There's a few things I want you to see from our text. First of all, heaven is a real place. It's not made up, ethereal, metaphor of a certain condition. It's a real place.

When the Bible speaks about heaven, when Jesus spoke about heaven, when Paul, John, Peter all spoke about heaven, they spoke of it as a real place. Now I'd like you to notice some of the language that we read here. John said, I looked. I looked. Twelve times in Revelation that phrase is used.

I looked. Another 34 times in Revelation, John writes, I saw. Another 12 times in Revelation, John says, I heard. So his senses are engaged.

He's a spectator of things that he looks at and sees and he hears. All of that to say heaven is not false. Heaven's a real place. Now you know, there were two people in the New Testament that saw heaven, two of them. What are their names?

Paul is one and John is the second. Paul said he was caught up into the third heaven, but he didn't tell us anything about that visit, right? He says, I heard inexpressible words. It's a shame.

It's against the law for me to even say anything. So he just zips up the whole cool experience of heaven. John, on the other hand, writes everything commanded by Jesus Christ to reveal, to tell. John tells us about his extended visit to heaven. Now, rather than trying to squeeze these verses into some symbolic metaphorical condition, it's best to see it as a real place. This is what he saw.

This is what he heard. And I'd rather believe what John says he saw and heard than those people who say, well, heaven is not real. It's just a projection.

It's a wish fulfillment made up by weak people who are trying to cope with the hardships of this life. I'd much rather believe what John says he saw and heard than all of those lame jokes about Peter standing at the gate of heaven with a clipboard checking you off as you go in. I'd much rather believe what John said he saw and heard than even books written about their experience of life after death and those books seem to contradict each other. This is God's revelation. In chapter 1 of Revelation, God gives the revelation to his son, Jesus, who gives it to a messenger, an angel, who gives it to John.

That's why it's called the revelation. So John said, I saw a door standing open in heaven. Now, that word heaven appears in the Bible 532 times.

That's in the singular. In the plural, heavens, it appears another 171 times. So over 700 times in the Bible, heaven is mentioned.

It's a huge, important topic. And it's your future home. Paul says in Philippians, for we are citizens of heaven. That's home, sweet home. I think we should change the lyrics to sweet home, Alabama. Sweet home up in heaven. Lord, I'm coming home to you.

Can you hear it? That's your home. Why is it your home? Your father's there. Your savior's there. The Holy Spirit's there. Everybody in Christ who has died is there. Your reward is there.

So it's home. That's why Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Because when a believer dies, what does he gain? Heaven. Heaven.

That's the reward. Now, since we're opening up the topic of heaven this morning with John 4, let me tell you this. When the Bible, in those over 700 times it mentions heaven, it speaks about heaven three different ways. Sometimes it speaks about heaven with the atmosphere.

We call this the first heaven. This is the terrestrial heaven. The troposphere. It's the breathable layer of atmosphere around the earth. It's what you see during the day. The Bible sometimes speaks of heaven just as the atmosphere around the earth.

Isaiah 55, for example. As the rain comes down and the snow from heaven. It's from the atmosphere. That's the first heaven, the terrestrial heaven. The second heaven is the celestial heaven. It's what you see at night. It's the planets, the stars, the moon. The Bible sometimes speaks of the heavens, meaning beyond the atmosphere what you see up in space. Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God.

The firmament shows his handiwork. Night into night they reveal knowledge. So this is space. This is what James T. Kirk called the final frontier. It's the second heaven. Then the Bible sometimes speaks of the third heaven. Now this is the heaven. This is heaven with a capital H. This is where God hangs out. This is where God dwells. And so Paul said, 2 Corinthians 12, I was caught up into the third heaven. This is the heaven that John sees in Revelation chapter 4.

Psalm 33 agrees with that. The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.

From his place of his dwelling he looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. That's why it was ridiculous the day that a cosmonaut who went up into outer space and went to the moon stood in front of a group in an audience and said boldly, I went to space. I went to the moon. I did not see God. Well, he didn't go far enough. He only made it to the first heavens and the second heavens. He didn't make it to the third heaven.

There was an American astronaut in the audience who said to his buddy next to him, if he'd have stepped out of his space suit, he would have seen God. Now some of you who are sharp Bible students and you like to ask questions, and I love people who do that, maybe right about now you're thinking, now wait a minute. If God is omnipresent, everywhere present, as the Bible says he is, then how can God dwell in heaven? In fact, how can any being whose omnipresent God be said to dwell any particular place? That's exactly what even Solomon remarked on when he built the temple in Jerusalem. And he prayed and he said, behold, even heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, much less this temple which I have built.

Well, when we say that God dwells in heaven, we don't mean that heaven contains God completely. It's just that heaven is the unique place of his habitation. It's uniquely his home. It's home base. It's HQ headquarters, the base of operations. It's the place where his throne is, the place from which he operates. That's why when we pray, we say our Father in heaven.

That's uniquely the place of his dwelling. Now I'm going to throw something else into the mix because this will be important later on. I don't want to confuse you, but I'll throw it in. Though heaven is real, heaven doesn't seem to be permanent. What I mean by that is even this heaven seems later on to be replaced.

Now listen carefully. Both Old Testament and New Testament, Isaiah, Peter, John, all speak about not just a new earth, but behold, a new heaven and new earth seems to indicate that there's going to be phases of the eternal glory, some of those things we want to discuss in the next few weeks, these different phases. Even Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

So what does that mean to us practically? It means your home is going to be gone. Calvary of Albuquerque is going to be gone. The United States is gone. Himalayas is gone.

Swiss Alps is gone. And so God's going to make new things in the future, a new earth. It's as if God is saying, you think this is cool.

Wait till you see what I've got coming. New heaven, new earth. Now why would God ever make a new heaven? What's wrong with heaven as it is?

Earth we understand. It's been polluted by sin, etc. Why a new heaven? Well, that's a question I'll answer in the next few weeks. I want to leave you hanging a little bit this morning.

Let's go back to our text. Heaven is a real place, number one. Number two, the second thing I want to point out is that heaven has a relative position. I want you to notice this. Verse one, after these things, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, come up here. Where is heaven? I was asked that question last week. Where is heaven? Simple answer, heaven is up. In fact, in the Bible, that's always the orientation when speaking of heaven.

It's up. Our word heaven, the original word comes, it's an Anglo-Saxon word. Heaven comes from heaven. I know you don't say, well, when you die, you go to heaven because it just sounds weird.

So we say heaven. But heaven comes from heave on, and heave on means to be lifted up or uplifted. That's the original term in the Anglo-Saxon origin. But the term heaven goes all the way back to the Old Testament. The Hebrew word shemaim, shemaim, same connotation. It means the heights. Topographically, the place that is higher than the rest. In the New Testament, the word heaven is uranus in the Greek. And uranus is the word that inspired the seventh planet in our solar system, Uranus.

Seventh planet from the sun. Again, it means to be up and away, the idea of heaven. You know, a trip to Disneyland is always fun, but the happiest place you'll ever travel to isn't found anywhere on earth, but only in God's presence. So do you have your admission pass? You can get one for free, but only through Jesus Christ.

And that's all the time we have for today. But if you'd like to get a copy of today's teaching or the entire series from the Edge of Eternity, simply contact us at 1-800-922-1888 to place your order. And you can also order online at connectwithskip.com or write us. That's P.O.

Box 95707, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87199. And you can always connect with Skip in your social media for regular updates and encouragement. You can like Skip on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, and add him to your Instagram feed. And the hub for all that is connectwithskip.com, where you can also find out about this month's special resource offer. The aftermath of 2020 has left so many of us wrestling with questions about the future and wondering, what's next?

Here's Skip Heidzig. That's a question, by the way, that people ask anytime there is a catastrophe. Any kind of catastrophic event causes people to ask the question, what's next? If there's a car accident that happens, well, what's next? Am I going to be able to walk after this? If a disease strikes someone, what's next? Am I going to be cured? If somebody we love dies, we ask, what's next? Am I going to be able to go on? We want to help you live with confidence no matter what the future holds by sending you a powerful collection of Easter weekend messages from Skip Heidzig on the hope of the resurrection.

Anything's possible. If the one who said he's going to die and rise again died and rose again, that means all of the promises Jesus ever made are possible and can come true. That's why it's called The Living Hope. The Morning That Changed Everything with Skip Heidzig is a DVD collection of six life-changing Easter messages. And it's our thanks for your gift of $35 or more today to help connect more people to the living hope of Jesus Christ.

To give online securely, visit connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. We'll continue our sneak peek of what Heaven has in store for us next time, so I hope you'll set aside some time to join us here on Connect with Skip Weekend Division, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross. Cast all burdens on His Word. Make a connection, a connection, a connection.