Heaven: An introduction

There is a lot of confusion about what happens when we die, and many people have many different opinions. This lesson begins a set of lessons focused on heaven. I will brush by hell, and return to discuss hell through a set of lessons later this year. Both heaven and hell are real places, and every single human being born of this Earth will spend eternity in heaven and the New Jerusalem or in hell and the Lake of Fire.

I've been around a lot of death and dying over the past two years. I've preached funerals, I've attended funerals, and I've prayed over people who have lost friends and family. And, I'm perplexed at just how confused we are about what happens when we die, and specifically how confused we are about heaven. Most of what I teach in this lesson set about heaven will be in concert with the writings of Randy Alcorn in his book, Heaven. But, I will also cross-check Alcorn's teachings with Baptist teaching and with my own Biblical research.

Most of us, in the Television Generation, grew up with an image about heaven that we've maintained even today: Good people die and go up in the sky somewhere. They greet St. Peter at the gates of heaven. He checks a list like a bouncer at a night club. If that person is on the list, he or she is granted entrance into heaven. The new heaven-dweller is given wings, a harp and a cloud. Then, that person floats around in happy bliss, forever, occasionally coming down to sit on someone's shoulder to help that person make choices between right and wrong. Or, as in the case of the movie, It's A Wonderful Life, the person serves to protect a still-living human being from harm.

If you believe that is your future, and the future of the ones you love, I only ask you to research and present Scripture that confirms it. Because, honestly, that image is not true. The future of confessing followers of Jesus is so much more wonderful and "real" than that.

Before we dive into some of the myths and realities of heaven, I'd like to give you some disclaimers:

• First, I'm not going to plunge so deep into the theology about heaven that you and I get bored with all of the opinions and thoughts. I'm going to keep it simple, presenting what Scripture tells us. I invite you to go deeper on your own should you desire that. Reading Alcorn's Heaven is a great start. But, even then, I would take the Scripture passages, and read Bible commentary and chase Scriptural cross references. Personally, I use the Life Application Study Bible with its commentary supplemented by the complete Life Application Bible Commentary Series of the New Testament. Be very careful about chasing a lot of internet links related to Bible study. Many sites distort Scripture or supplant opinions for Scripture. If Scripture is silent about something - you should be silent about it, too.
• Second, Don't get so consumed with "tomorrow" that you fail to follow Jesus "today." People who get over-consumed with heaven and the next chapter of life, beyond death, won't have the necessary energy to build relationships today and help people discover Jesus. If we follow Jesus today, our future is secure. We don't need to worry about our future. This lesson set is simply to provide you with hope about where you will spend eternity as a believer.
• Third, I cringe when I hear people accept Jesus because they want to go to heaven. We accept Jesus because we need salvation from God's wrath up on sin. Heaven - and peace on Earth - is a benefit of that. My mama would not let me proceed with faith conversations because I wanted to one day be with my family in heaven. We receive Jesus because of the need to be saved from sin. Motive behind faith decisions is important.
• Fourth, We're not going to study The End Times though we will lean on Revelation and John's look into heaven. Revelation gives us a beautiful portrait of heaven. But, we aren't going to dwell on the end of the world. This set of lessons is about what happens if you die within the next 10 minutes.

What happens when we die.

John 3:16-19 reads, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him (Jesus) will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. There is no judgement awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. Their judgement is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil."

John 3:36 reads, "And all who believe in God's Son have eternal life. Those who don't obey the Son will never experience eternal life, but the wrath of God remains upon them."

Here's what we know:

1. There is life beyond this life and it lasts for an eternity.
2. This life is available to everyone who trusts Jesus as the Savior from God's wrath upon sin. Everyone is born into sin. Not everyone will choose Jesus, and for those the wrath is in their future.
3. Eternal life pointing toward heaven and the New Jerusalem begins at the moment a person accepts Jesus as personal Savior. My metaphor is this: At the moment a person accepts Jesus' sacrifice for them, they literally "jump the track" to a "new track" and become a new supernatural being. They are literally and figuratively "born again." The sting of death is removed. They are now "aliens and strangers in this world." Death becomes a door through which we live on.
4. What does John mean, in v. 3:36, when he writes that believers must "obey" the Son. To "obey" the Son means to believe in salvation; to believe in salvation means to confess it and live it before men. (Romans 10:9).

What you and I must stop doing is falling into the funeral parlor cliche,where we say things like "Well, he's in a better place" or "At least she's not suffering now." The truth is that that unbelievers are not in a better place and the suffering is a lot worse. If I don't know a person's heart toward Jesus, and I use cliche that's not true, I become a false testifier. I give people hope that does not exist. That's not good. If you don't know, personally, having heard someone confess Jesus as their Savior, it's better to be quiet about their future beyond death. You don't know. However, if you know someone knew Jesus and is saved, well, it's your responsibility to make that known to everyone and to use the above Scripture to make it known. That's standing up for Jesus.

Upon death, a believer's soul and spirit immediately go to be with Jesus.
We are saved, but Jesus reviews our lives with us. He died for us; He has that right.
We enjoy heaven until The End Times are complete. Then, we are given new bodies. We join God in building the New Jerusalem, which will be this Earth remade without sin and the ravages of it.

In 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, Paul writes that we are away from our Earthly bodies and at home with the Lord. Even believers will have to stand in front of Jesus and be judged according to the good and the evil we did in our bodies. This won't affect our salvation, but we will give an account. (Matthew 16:27, Romans 14:10-12, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:50-54 that "we will all be transformed . . . when the trumpet sounds, Christians will be raised from the death with new bodies." Listen to Paul's words, "But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die." He goes on to write, "Death is swallowed up in victory . . . O death, where is your sting?"

John writes in Revelation 21:1 and 20:11-15 about these new reunited and glorified bodies - now with our soul and spirit - entering the new heavens and the new earth.

One other note. The new bodies will not be the old bodies. Those old bodies have rotted and decayed. Those who are cremated or who die in fire and water are not left without heavenly bodies. No, all believers are given a new body. 

Heaven is actually a temporary place for a believer's soul and spirit. It's the place of God's throne. It is the place where Jesus is today. It is the real, physical place where believers go when they die. But, at the very end - with the last trumpet - God will move all of those with him in heaven to the New Jerusalem, which will be this Earth remade without sin and the damages of it. While the New Jerusalem and Heaven are different places, the New Jerusalem will be quite heavenly by my Earthly definition of it.