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How Can I Know I’m Going to Heaven When I Die? – Part 2A

Pathway to Victory / Dr. Robert Jeffress
The Truth Network Radio
January 22, 2025 3:00 am

How Can I Know I’m Going to Heaven When I Die? – Part 2A

Pathway to Victory / Dr. Robert Jeffress

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January 22, 2025 3:00 am

It’s been said that in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes. And while most of us deal with our taxes in April, the fact is: nobody gets out of this life alive. So what’s going to happen to us after we die? Dr. Robert Jeffress shares five biblical facts about Heaven and how to get there.

 

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Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, it's been said that in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.

And while most of us deal with our taxes in April, the fact is nobody gets out of this life alive. So, what's going to happen to us after we die? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shares five biblical facts about heaven and how to get there. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce you to the Bible. Let's introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Think back over the last five years. It's shocking to realize how many disasters have fallen upon our country and our world. From the global pandemic to hurricane and floods, these tragedies have forced people to think deeply about their mortality.

We know this is true because we've seen an influx of new listeners to Pathway to Victory. Men and women are searching for answers to their deepest questions. Well, today and again tomorrow, we'll be addressing what I believe to be the most important question of all.

How can I know I'm going to heaven when I die? Securing our eternal destiny is not something we can postpone for another day. The time is now. We'll be answering the most important questions.

And right now, you're invited to request your copy when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. As a pastor, I've learned that people often harbor deep insecurities about God and the Bible, but they're somewhat embarrassed to voice those doubts. Well, God can handle our questions. In fact, He's eager to provide clear answers. And again, the title of my book is How Can I Know I'm Going to Heaven?

I'll describe more about this offer later, but right now, let's get started with the next message in this teaching series. Today, we're tackling the question, how can I know I'm going to heaven when I die? It was the patriarch, Job, who asked perhaps the most consequential question of life. If a man dies, will he live again? Is this life all there is, or is there something that awaits us beyond the grave? The answer to that question has grave, so to speak, implications for every one of us. If there is an existence after the grave, then what is it, and how do we conform our beliefs and behavior in a way to ensure our well-being and that existence after the grave?

That's what we're looking at right now in our series, How Can I Know? Last time, we began looking at the question, how can I know I'm going to heaven when I die? We saw last time that although you can't prove that there's life after death, there's a lot of evidence even outside the Bible to suggest an existence that transcends death, and we talked about some of that evidence. But if we believe that there is life after death, then it stands to reason that the Bible, if you accept it as God's word, is the best depository of truth about what life is like beyond the grave. We saw last time the Bible gives us a lot of insight about life after death. First of all, the Bible talks about the inevitability of death. None of us gets out of this world alive.

You don't need a Bible verse to teach you that. You can look around you and see we all are going to die. The Bible teaches that, but it also teaches that even though we suffer the same fate, everybody's going to die. We don't all go to the same place when we die. There's a possibility of heaven or hell. All roads do not lead to heaven. All religions are not simply tributaries in the same stream. They're not paths up the same mountain that lead to the same truth. There's a possibility of heaven or hell.

Last time, we began looking at the reality of hell. Jesus told a story in Luke 16. It may have been a real-life occurrence about two men who lived two very different lives, but they both suffered the same fate.

They died, but they went to two very different locations. The rich man, not because he was rich, but because he didn't need God, he thought. The rich man went to hell. Jesus went into quite a bit of description about the reality of hell. In Luke 16 and other passages, he taught us that hell is an actual location.

People in physical bodies are in a physical location. He taught us that hell is a place of indescribable and eternal torment. Remember what the rich man cried out, help me, somebody, for I am in agony in these flames. There's real physical suffering, and it goes on forever and ever. It is a place where the worm never dies.

It's a place where there is continual weeping and grinding of teeth. Thirdly, Jesus taught hell will contain the majority of humanity. He taught that in Matthew 7. There is a narrow gate that leads to salvation, but few are those who find it. But there is a broad way, a broad path that leads to hell, and many are on it.

Relatively few people will be saved, Jesus said. The majority will spend their time in hell. And then perhaps the most terrifying truth about hell is it is a forever destination. There's no repentance in hell, and if there is, it's too late. In hell, everybody's a believer, but they've waited too long.

It's a terrifying truth about hell. And if you believe Jesus was the Son of God, if you believe that he is the truth, then you can't discount what he said about hell at all. But Jesus also offered another possibility of life after death, another possible destination, and that's heaven.

And that's what we're going to talk about for the few moments we have today. The possibility of heaven. Jesus and the other New Testament writers had a lot to say about heaven. Interestingly, Jesus talked more about hell than he did about heaven. But he did teach about heaven, and although the information we have is accurate, it's not complete. Jesus doesn't tell us everything we want to know about heaven.

Sometimes I wonder why that is. I think if we really knew what awaited us as Christians, there probably would be mass suicides. We would all want to get there as quickly as we possibly could. And if not, at the very least, it would be a distraction to us if we really knew what was waiting for us in heaven. It would be like the little boy who was told by his parents to eat his meat and vegetables, but he had a hard time doing that because there was also an ice cream sundae in front of him.

He couldn't get past the sundae in order to concentrate on his meat and vegetables. I think that's the way we would be. We'd find it very hard to fulfill our responsibilities here on earth if we understood the truth about heaven. Nevertheless, Jesus gave us just enough information about heaven to whet our appetites. What I want to do is look at five truths that the Bible teaches us about heaven, the kind of heaven you're going to experience if you know Jesus as your Savior. First of all, the Bible teaches heaven is an actual location. It's not a state of mind. It's a very real place. And we have that on the authority of Jesus himself.

John 14, beginning with verse 1, Jesus said, do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling, what? Places. Underline that word, places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a, there it is again, a place for you. And if I go and prepare a, there it is again, a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Three times in three verses, Jesus uses the word place.

That word is topos in Greek. It literally means a geographical location. Let's just say for a moment, Jesus was trying to communicate heaven as a literal place and not a state of mind. How could he more clearly do it? Place, it's a place, it's a place, it's a place, Jesus says.

And yet some people believe it's just a state of mind. Or consider what Luke wrote in Acts chapter 1. Remember after Jesus had spent 40 days in his resurrection body, the time came for him to depart from earth and go into heaven? Acts 1 verse 9 says, after Jesus had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky as he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, and they said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing, gawking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. Many of us have stood on that Mount of Olives where this event took place.

The Mount of Olives is not a figment of our imagination. It's a real geographical location. Now if heaven is a state of mind, how much sense does it make to say that Jesus ascended from a geographical location and where did he go? He went into a state of mind. That doesn't make sense. And does it make any more sense to say Jesus exists in a state of mind someplace, but one day he's coming back to this geographical location?

No. Jesus went from one geographical location, a place, to another geographical location. And guess what? He's coming back one day from that real place, that real geographical location. He's coming back to earth so that he can reclaim us. Heaven is an actual location. Secondly, heaven is both an immediate and an ultimate destination. It's both an immediate and an ultimate destination.

Let me explain what I mean. We saw last time when we looked at the rich man, the Bible says he was in hell. Some versions say he was in Hades.

It tells us, among other things, that when a non-Christian dies, he doesn't cease to exist. He doesn't go into some waiting station. He doesn't go into soul sleep. An unbeliever begins suffering immediately in a very real place, but it's only a temporary place. An unbeliever doesn't go to the lake of fire. He goes to Hades. The Hades is the waiting place of the unsaved dead. It's a place of immediate torment and pain, as Jesus described, but it's not the forever destination of the unbeliever. The unbeliever is in Hades awaiting what?

That great final white throne judgment in Revelation chapter 20, when all people whose names are not written in the book of life will be deposited into the lake of fire. The ultimate destination for unsaved people is the lake of fire, Gehenna, where they will also be tortured and suffered day and night, forever and ever. We use the term hell as a catch-all term to describe both the immediate place of the unsaved dead and the ultimate place, the lake of fire. In the same way, heaven, we use as a generic term. It describes where Christians go immediately when they die, but where they go immediately is not where they will go ultimately.

Let me explain. In Luke 16 22, Jesus said, Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. That was an Old Testament expression for simply where God dwells. There are four heavens in the Bible. The first heaven is the atmosphere where the air is we breathe.

It's where the birds fly and the jetliners fly. The first heaven, the second heaven is outer space. The third heaven is where God is. We don't know where it is, but God is in that third heaven. Paul was lifted up into the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12. But there is a fourth heaven that is yet to be created.

It's the new heaven and it is the new earth. Right now, when a Christian dies, he doesn't go to his ultimate destination. He goes to this temporary place where God is.

But he's very aware of what is happening. Remember what Jesus said to the thief on the cross? Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Luke 23 43. Or 2 Corinthians 5 8. Paul said, we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. The Bible says if you're a Christian, the moment you shut your eyes for the last time here on earth, you awaken in the presence of God. To be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord, but that's not your final dwelling place. There is a new heaven that is under construction. In John 14 2, Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. In my Father's house are many dwelling places.

If it were not so, I would have told you. Jesus is involved right now in the biggest construction project in history. The construction of the new heaven that is one day going to come descending down out of heaven to the new earth.

We'll get to that in just a moment. Thirdly, the Bible says heaven will be primarily a recreated earth. When we talk about this fourth heaven, this ultimate destination that we're going to spend eternity in, what does the Bible teach us about it? Well, it will primarily be a recreated earth. You know, one of the biggest misconceptions about heaven is that when we die, we become these disembodied spirits that just float around up there somewhere in a galaxy far, far away.

Dr. Crystal used to say, if I felt like I was going to spend eternity on some distant rotating ball billions of miles away, one that I'm not familiar with, I wouldn't get excited about heaven at all. I like this earth. I like everything about this earth except the sin, the sickness, and the sadness of it, and that will be gone forever. Ladies and gentlemen, we were made not for another world, we were made for this world. And that's why the Bible says ultimately our ultimate destination is not up there somewhere, it's right here on the recreated earth.

Now if you think I'm making that up, just jot down these scripture verses. Psalm 37 verse 9, but those who wait upon the Lord shall inherit the what? Earth. Earth. Our inheritance is the earth. Or 2 Peter 3, 13, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the what?

The earth. 2 Peter 3, 13, but according to God's promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth. In which righteousness dwells. That shouldn't surprise us that God is going to recreate this world. Remember that God originally created man to be perfect and to enjoy perfect fellowship with a perfect God. And he made a perfect earth for man to dwell in, but sin ruined all of that, at least temporarily. Not only did the fall of Adam and Eve, not only did it result in the corruption of man, but it corrupted the earth as well.

Paul writes about that in Romans 8. He said the whole creation is groaning right now, longing to be released from the curse. Remember this, earthquakes, famines, floods, cancer, death, none of these were part of God's plan.

None of it was. It was all the result of sin. But one day, all of that will be eradicated with the coming of the new heaven and new earth. God is not just in the process of recreating mankind. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, new things have come. He's not just going to recreate man, he's going to recreate this world. If God allows this world to continue forever in the state that it's in, if God says, well Satan, you stay in your corner of the earth, you can have the earth and I'll have the heavens, then Satan wins.

God's not going to allow that to happen. He is going to reclaim this whole world and recreate it as he intended it to be. And so the Bible teaches that there is a new heaven that is coming. Well, what is that new heaven going to be like? Well, the new heaven and the new earth, the center of it is going to be a new city called the new Jerusalem.

Look at it in Revelation 21, verse 16. Jesus talked about this new city, the new Jerusalem, that is going to be the center point of the new earth. The city is laid out as a square and its length is as great as the width. And he measured the city with the rod, 1,500 miles its length and width and height are equal.

John says, I saw this city and it was 1,500 miles in length and width. Now, by the way, some people say, oh, well John, you can't take that literally. He was speaking symbolically.

Why would you think that's symbolic? Nowhere else in the scripture is 1,500 used symbolically. He didn't just pull that number out of the air. He meant it to be taken literally.

Listen, when the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense when it comes to interpreting scripture. He says it's going to be 1,500 miles in length and width. That means the new Jerusalem is over 2 million square miles. Now, to put that in perspective to you, New York City, Manhattan, where 8 million plus people dwell, is 305 square miles. The new Jerusalem is 2 million plus square miles.

But that's not all. Not only did he say it's a square, he said it's a cube. It's more than 2 million square miles, 1,500 miles high. Do you know how tall that is?

The average skyscraper, the average floor of a skyscraper is 12 feet high. So that would mean the new Jerusalem is not only 2 million square miles in length and width, it goes up 660,000 stories into the air. Somebody did the calculation that would be enough space for 20 billion people to live and to have 75 acres each to themselves.

That's a big city. And by the way, that's not the only place we can dwell. It's just the center place. There's no reason to think we can't zip around the universe in our new bodies just like Jesus had.

We'll talk about that in a moment. The point is this is going to be a new heaven, a new earth with a new city. Verse 3 of Revelation 21, And I heard a loud voice saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and He shall be among them. Look, our eternity is not a case of us going up someplace unidentified. That's not what heaven is.

It's not our going up there. The new heaven and the new earth is God coming down to where we are. We are not going up to dwell with Him. He's coming down to dwell with us. The full meaning of the word Immanuel, God is with us.

He is coming down and will rule over us forever and ever. And that leads to a fourth truth about heaven. Heaven is a continuum of our earthly existence. It is a continuum of our earthly existence. This is one of the most frequent misconceptions people have about life after death. They think our life after death has nothing to do, no connection with our life on earth.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Our existence is a continuing between now and eternity. For example, there's a continuity between the present earth and the new earth. What is the new earth going to be like? It's going to have trees and rivers and water and mountains. I mean, just think of the most beautiful place that you have ever gone here on earth. That's only a pencil sketch of what heaven is going to be like and the new heaven and the new earth.

But it's going to contain those things that we're going to be familiar with. I'm so pleased you chose to listen to this program today, because the majesty of heaven will elevate your hope on those days when you feel discouraged. Along those lines, let me suggest you take intentional steps today to learn more about the place God has prepared for those who love Him. Earlier, I mentioned my book called How Can I Know? This book will give you every confidence that you can know with certainty your eternal destiny. When you give a generous gift to Pathway to Victory, I'll make sure you receive your copy of How Can I Know? Answers to Life's 7 Most Important Questions. My book not only equips you with clear and credible answers, it's a powerful book to give to others as well.

I recently heard from one of our television viewers. Mary wrote, Dr. Jeffress, I've been personally impacted by your teaching, and then it hit me. I realized that I believe and that I am saved.

But I have friends who follow other religions, and they are not saved. I can't wait to get the book so I can share this message. When you give a generous gift to Pathway to Victory, request my book, How Can I Know?

In fact, when you respond today, I'll send you a bonus resource. It's my booklet that answers the question, Is Christianity the Only Right Religion? In closing, let me say a profound thank you to anyone who supports Pathway to Victory, and especially our growing family of Pathway partners. God is using your generous gifts to pierce the darkness with the light of His word.

David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. You know, when you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory, or when you sign up to become a Pathway partner, we'll say thanks by sending you the best-selling book by Dr. Jeffress, How Can I Know? Simply go online to ptv.org or call 866-999-2965. And when you give $75 or more, you'll also receive the complete collection of audio and video discs for the newly updated teaching series.

It's also titled, How Can I Know? To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Here's that address. P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.

Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us again next time when Dr. Jeffress continues to answer the question, How Can I Know I'm Going to Heaven When I Die? Right here on Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Picture yourself relaxing aboard a luxury cruise ship as you sail the Mediterranean Sea on the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise, May 5 through 16, 2025. This 11-day journey will take you to unforgettable destinations in Italy, Turkey, and Greece.

Plus, you'll have the option to extend your trip with additional adventures in Rome. To book your spot on the 2025 Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise, go to ptv.org. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-22 05:03:47 / 2025-01-22 05:13:55 / 10

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