A Sneak-Peek into What's Up There - Part B

I know Jesus said, We're two or three gather in my name. I'm in their midst. I know that.

I know that he said, Behold, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. I know that. It's very different right now than it will be. Right now it's very limited. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, we see through a glass darkly, but then we will see how face to face. Have you ever thought about what heaven will be like? Did you ever wonder if there will be fantastic golf courses or if we'll get a chance to fly a spaceship? Have you ever imagined what your house will look like or if you'll get to have a pool or a ski slope in your backyard? Well, today here on Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, we may not answer all of those questions, but Skip Heidzig will share with us a small taste of what heaven will be like and what we can expect to happen when we get there. But first, we'd like to let you in on details about our brand new resource for the month of April.

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Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely or call 800-922-1888. To see him face to face, that's really what's going to make heaven so wonderful. Open your Bibles once again to Revelation, Chapter four.

And as you find your place, we'll join Skip Heidzig for some more previews of our future heavenly home. He who descended came from heaven, the incarnation, is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens. The rapture of the church, it's a combination of Jesus coming down and those who are on the earth going up. 1 Thessalonians 4, the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. With the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord. And this orientation continues all the way through to the very end when in the eternal state, we see the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21, verse 2 says, I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. So heaven is up. It's called up in the Bible. How far up?

Well, here's a clue in Psalm 8. You have set your glory above the heavens, above the troposphere, above the atmosphere, above the stratosphere, above the mesosphere, above the exosphere, ionosphere, whatever. You sphere out. And beyond all of that, out and up is heaven. You've set your glory above the heavens. Now, let's just take a little imaginary journey.

Let's just play with this. Last night, if you saw the moon, it's pretty beautiful. It's not quite full.

It's a waning gibbous, it's called. It's about 90 percent full. But it's pretty big in the sky. The moon is about 200,000 miles from us, give or take a few. You could actually walk to the moon if there was a bridge to the moon. You could make it there in about 27 years if you went 24 miles a day on foot.

If you could walk 24 miles a day, you get there in 27 years, 200,000 miles. However, if you could go up toward the moon at the speed of light, you'd make it there in 1.5 seconds. But you've got to be going 186,000 miles per second. One and a half seconds, you go up, go to the moon. If you kept going up, you could make it to Venus in two minutes and 18 seconds going the speed of light. You could make it to Mercury in four and a half minutes. You could go to Jupiter in 35 minutes and 18 seconds. You'd go by Saturn, keep going up, up, up in one hour and 11 seconds. You'd go by Pluto in four hours. That's going the speed of light. If you kept going up, up, up, out, out, out and made it to the nearest neighbor star, Alpha Centauri, it would take you 4.3 years going the speed of light. It's 4.3 light years away from the earth. And if you were to go through your galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy, going the speed of light, get this, it would take you 100,000 years to go from one end to the other end of just your galaxy. And once you get to the other end of your galaxy, you haven't even made it out of the front yard because scientists say there are as many as, one source suggests, 500 billion more galaxies. So how long does it take to get to heaven? If it's that far up, how far?

Instantly, right? To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Jesus didn't tell the thief on the cross, in 100 billion years you'll be with me in paradise.

It's today you'll be with me in paradise. So I understand that perhaps it's a bit naive and erroneous to start measuring the third heaven distances like this because it's in a whole different dimension. But in the very least, when we say heaven is up, we mean it's up above the commonplace experiences of the earth, the commonplace conditions of the earth.

It's up. That's the orientation. Notice how John was there. He said, immediately, I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne. So he was transported to heaven by the Spirit. It could mean that. It could mean I was in a spiritual, ecstatic state. It could mean that. It could also be a clue to the believer's condition in heaven prior to the bodily resurrection, there in spirit, experiencing all of these things.

Something else to notice before we move this toward a close. Notice when John was taken to heaven, it was just John. There's no suitcase that John packed. He didn't say, God, can I take my laptop and my cell phone?

I just want to text a few people. Maybe a cup of Starbucks because I don't know what's going on up in heaven. It's just John. There's no baggage.

I say that because it's true. You can't take it with you. Naked I came into the world, Job said, naked I will leave. You can't take anything with you. All of the preparations, all that you do for heaven are done here and when that time comes, you go alone. That's why Jesus said, don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. You can start storing them up now so they're there when you get there.

All right, let's go to the third and final section of this today. Heaven is real. It's a real place. Heaven has a relative position. It's always up in the scripture. The third thing I want you to notice is that heaven highlights a remarkable person. This is to me the greatest thing about heaven. Verse 2, immediately I was in the spirit and behold.

And whenever you read behold, it means it's like saying, wow, check this out. 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 the appearance of an emerald.

Now, what's the first thing to catch John's eye when he gets there? A throne. By the way, the word throne is mentioned in chapter 4 alone 13 times, 12 times it refers to God's throne. And when you see that word, don't think of a piece of furniture as much as a symbol of authority for the one who sits on it. This is home base for God. This is headquarters.

This is where he exercises his sovereignty from, his throne. Now, what I'd like to get you to do in your thinking is not to think of heaven so much as a place, though it is a place. And though it's a real place, I'd like you to start thinking of heaven more in terms not of a place but of personalities.

Let me give you an example. There's a little booklet by Don Baker. It's just simply called Heaven.

Here's his experience. He writes, I've always been fascinated with heaven. When I was younger, though, I thought of heaven only as a great shining city with vast walls and magnificent domes and soaring spires and with nobody in it but white-robed angels who were total strangers to me. And then my beloved pastor died. And then my grandfather died. And then my father died. And then my son died. And then my father-in-law died.

And then one by one my dear friends began dying, three of them this past week. He continues to write, heaven is no longer walls and domes and spires but people, people who are loved and missed, people who are precious and whose faces I long to see. Heaven is like home in many respects.

It's not what we have in our home that makes it precious but whom. That's how I'd like you to think about heaven in terms of not what but whom and the ultimate whom is God himself. Folks, listen, the main attraction in heaven will be God.

That's what gets John's attention. He sees the throne and one who sat on it. So though you'll be in heaven if you trust Christ, if he is your savior, if not, you won't be but if you do, you will be. But it's not just you in heaven. It's not just about the people that you know in heaven. It's not just about are your pets in heaven. The real big main attraction, central focus of heaven is going to be God. Heaven's supreme delight will be unbroken fellowship with God, real fellowship. Listen to Revelation 21 verse 3 as I read it to you. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they will be his people. It's like saying, hey, look, God lives in the neighborhood. His house is right here, right down the street. He's with us.

John continues, God himself will be with them and he will be their God. Now the word dwell, skeinao in the Greek, means to pitch a tent, to pitch a tent. The idea is to hang out with. The idea is to enjoy the company of. Fellowship. Now I know, I know that we enjoy a certain level of fellowship with God now. We call that a personal relationship with God, but you don't see him now.

You don't hear him, audibly, now. I know Jesus said where two or three gather in my name, I'm in their midst. I know that.

I know that he said, behold, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. I know that. But it's very different right now than it will be.

Right now it's very limited. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, we see through a glass darkly, but then we will see how? Face to face.

Face to face. You see right now when you pray, it's something like our Father in heaven. But you won't be praying like that then.

You won't even be praying. It's, you'll be in heaven. It's like right there, Father.

Right there. Right now we say, why, I hear God speaking to me. He spoke to me this morning. Sometimes we're not sure. Was that God's voice?

Was that my mother's tapes playing? What was that? No mistake in heaven. You'll hear, you'll look, you'll see, and it will be face to face. Revelation 22. The throne of God and the Lamb are in it, and they shall see his face.

You see how different that experience will be than this one? We live by faith, the Bible says right now, not by sight. Not in heaven, you'll live by sight, not by faith.

Full fellowship, unbroken, eternal fellowship. Now, real briefly, notice John then goes on to describe God. And it's an interesting description because he says nothing of his form, nothing of his features. He just describes God in terms of what he knows on the earth, the gems that are so brilliant and resplendent. It's like a light show. He who sat there was like a jasper.

What's that like? It's not like the modern jasper, which is a bit clouded and a little green. The ancient jasper, we believe, was crystal clear. Probably what John saw was a diamond refracting all the brilliant colors of the rainbow. That's the clearest gem we have. And back in Revelation 21, the word jasper is used, and this is what it says, I saw jasper as clear as crystal. So he probably saw this brilliant diamond-like appearance of God. Second, and like a sardius stone.

Sardius stone is ruby red. Maybe it would be better to say it was blood red. And most theologians will say this infers the redemptive nature of God, the blood that was shed to get people to heaven, providing sacrifice for us. And then I saw a rainbow like an emerald, a rainbow dominated by a green hue.

So think of it. John gets to heaven and he sees a throne and it's like the ultimate light show, the ultimate light show. Now if you have ever heard of this term, I'm going to throw it out. Some of you have heard of it if you've read some theology books. Theologians call this, some do, the beatific vision. I don't know if you've ever heard that term, the beatific vision. And the beatific vision was an old theological term that describes direct contact with God. The definition of it is those in heaven beholding God or perceiving God face to face, being able to see and hear, the beatific vision. Thomas Aquinas said the beatific vision is the ultimate experience of any human being. In fact, Charles Spurgeon himself preached a sermon entitled the beatific vision.

Here's a snippet. The thing for which I'd pray above all others would be forever to behold his face, forever to know that I am his, forever to dwell with him. Yes, one short glimpse, one transitory vision of his glory, one brief glance at his exalted and beaming countenance would repay almost a whole world of trouble.

It's like all the bad stuff. You see God, it's like, who cares, it's gone in an instant, says Spurgeon. So it's safe to say that heaven will display the glory of God. And I mean fully display the glory of God.

A hundred percent uncut, unedited, take your breath away. Wow, seeing the glory of God. And here's what I want to end with. This glorious, brilliant, sovereign, resplendent being that John sees, he's your father. He's your father. Jesus said, in my father's house, that's heaven, are many mansions. And he's your father. You have a relationship with him.

The glorious, all-consuming one is your father. You're going to be living at God's house. You're going to be moving in with him.

And note something about your father. He's going to have a lot of kids in his house, a lot of us children running around in heaven. But that doesn't mean heaven is going to be impersonal. God isn't like the busy dad, gone all day, home late at night, never sees his kids, absent father. Even though heaven is real and heaven is big, that will not take any of the intimacy away from it. And the Bible often will describe heaven as that intimate face-to-face closeness with God. And friends, folks, I don't think we're ever going to get tired of it.

I don't think we'll ever get used to it. I don't think we'll ever be in heaven after a couple thousand years saying, you know, this God thing is getting a little old now. We've been here a long time.

Is there anything else? Because the Bible describes heaven as always new. Behold, I make all things new.

And it's a continual idea. So this is his kingdom. This is the master's kingdom. It's a lot better than the magic kingdom. Better than a memory.

Better than an e-ticket in Disneyland, if you can remember that far back. This is the kingdom of the lamb. It's a lot better than the kingdom of the mouse. This is the kingdom your father has prepared for you.

Now, understand this. God's purpose in creating you is to get you there. Get you there. The way that he gets you there, the only way to get there, isn't by making up heaven what you want it to be or being a good person or making up your own way to get there. There's only one way to get there.

It has to be God's way. If it's his heaven, it's his house, you can't just decide to go there unless he invites you and he has invited you. And the provision he has made for you to get there is for you to just simply believe in his son, receive his son as the payment for your sin, as your Savior, as your Lord, and you'll get to heaven.

If you haven't done that, I want today to be the day you do that. If you haven't done that, I don't care if you were raised religiously, if you haven't made personally Christ your Savior, then you make that decision today. Heaven is going to be a wonderful place, but there's only one way to get there, through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Like an exclusive club, the only way in is through who you know. Unless you know Christ and he knows you, you won't get to heaven. Now if you'd like to learn how to know him, just call us at 1-800-922-1888. Or you can learn more when you click on the Know God link at ConnectWithSkip.com. And now here's Skip and Lenya with a few more thoughts about today's message. Today you finished a teaching that gives a preview of what heaven is like, the preview of coming attractions.

There you go, a trailer, if you will. That's right, and sometimes we really need that perspective. We get so earthly focused, we forget we're headed somewhere, somewhere better, the best is yet to come, right? So how will an accurate view of heaven impact our daily living? Well first of all, it's important that our listeners really believe that heaven is a real place. Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. And heaven is spoken of 532 times in scripture.

That's a lot. There's an enormous amount of biblical real estate devoted to it. Also, remember what Paul said, he said as he was facing possibly his own demise, he said that to die is gain. So there was a looking forward, there was an anticipation that biblical authors had toward this real place of heaven.

And C.S. Lewis once said that the Christians who do the most for this present world are those who think the most of the next world. He said if you aim at heaven, you'll get earth thrown in. If you just aim at earth, you'll get neither heaven nor earth. And so to live with the anticipation of what's coming next is the motivation, the blessed hope is the motivation that carries us through life and gives us purpose.

Why am I doing this? Because there are eternal consequences for what I do, either a reward or the loss of a reward or the eternal impact on another life. And I love that, that heaven is real. I loved the songs that help us to meditate and think about heaven.

And they're just such a good reminder for us. And when we think about heaven, I think it also gives us a purity for now. It's that eternal perspective that kind of cleanses and causes us to realize that there's something so much better.

Yeah, John did say even that. He said that this hope purifies us even as He is pure. Do you remember that Charlie Peacock song? It was a great song. I want to live like heaven is a real place. And what a great thought that's put in that song, that I want to live now. Like C.S. Lewis said, like heaven is real.

There's nothing like it. Well, thanks, Skip and Lenya. And to get a copy of today's teaching, just give us a call at 1-800-922-1888. Or visit our online store at connectwithskip.com. Today's message, a sneak peek at what's up there, is available on CD for just $6.

Or you can get the entire series, From the Edge of Eternity, all 17 messages for only $39, plus shipping on both those options. If you've ever wondered what kind of activity there is in heaven, you'll want to be sure to join us again next time here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection, a connection. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.