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St. Philip Church

Why Heaven Matters

Why Heaven Matters

Locations & Times

St. Philip Church

8850 Davona Dr, Dublin, CA 94568, USA

Saturday 9:00 AM

Saturday 11:00 AM

Today's Message
Why Heaven Matters

What comes to mind when you think of heaven? Clouds? Harps? Angels? Singing? Now, honestly, does that really sound like a great way to spend eternity? The good news is, that is NOT what heaven is like. And when you discover what really awaits you there, it will radically change your view of your future and of heaven.

In this 3-part series, we'll dig into Scripture to reveal what our heavenly home will be like, what we’ll do there, what we’ll experience, and how we’re to prepare for eternity today. If you’ve secretly thought that heaven sounded kind of boring, well, think again. In this series, you will discover the amazing truth of what awaits you there.
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Sadly, this is most people's mental image of "heaven." Clouds. Mist. Other-worldly. And who, honestly, is excited about going to this kind of heaven? NO ONE.

Why Study Heaven?
1) Our misconceptions are CRIPPLING us

A pastor once confessed, “Whenever I think about Heaven, it makes me depressed. I’d rather just cease to exist when I die.” When asked, ‘why?’, he explained, “I can’t stand the thought of that endless tedium. To float around in the clouds with nothing to do but to strum a harp… it’s all so terribly boring! Heaven doesn’t sound much better than Hell. I’d rather be annihilated than spend eternity in a place like that.”

A faithful Christian woman recently wrote, “I’ve been a Christian since I was five. I’m married to a youth pastor, now. When I was seven, a teacher at my Christian school told me that when I got to Heaven, I wouldn’t know anyone or anything from earth. I was terrified of dying. I was never told different by anyone… and it’s been really hard for me to advance in my Christian walk because of this fear of Heaven and eternal life.”

Where did these faithful believers get such a dim view of Heaven? Certainly not from Jesus, who described Heaven, not as a boring or strange place, but as a place made just for us. (John 14:2) Certainly not from St. Paul, who wrote to say that it is certainly “far better” to be in Heaven with Christ than to stay on sin-cursed Earth. (Philippians 1:23)

And it’s not because the Bible is silent about Heaven, either. Many people, even good Christians think that the Bible doesn’t have much to say about Heaven. But nothing could be further from the truth! The Bible says a great deal about Heaven… the problem is, we don’t believe what it says!

The Best Book about Heaven You Will Ever Read

"Heaven" by Randy Alcorn(click below to learn more)
http://store.epm.org/product/heaven
Why Study Heaven?
2) We're COMMANDED to study Heaven

Some Promises Related to Heaven
It's a real, tangible place (John 14)
The Father is there (Matthew 6)
Jesus is at his right hand (Hebrews 9)
Believing loved ones are there (Hebrews 12)
Our names are recorded there (Luke 10)
We have an inheritance there (1 Peter 1)
Our citizenship is there (Philippians 3)
Sin, death, and sorrow are absent (Rev. 22)
Adventure, work, learning, and rulership await us (Gen. 1-2)
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Why Study Heaven?
3) Our faulty view of heaven destines us to a WASTED life on earth
Jesus gave a crystal-clear view of what was HEAVEN is like. And this vision for his disciples -- more here -- would sustain them in the most difficult times in human history.


They had a sense of the future that was clear and real and tangible....
Heaven in Historical Context
Our life with God can be summarized in three phases

Genesis 1-2
The Garden of Eden, with God and humanity together

Genesis 3 - Revelation 20
Humanity on earth, God in heaven

Revelation 21-22
The new heaven and new earth; God and humanity together again


BIG IDEA: When we die RIGHT NOW in this era of human history, we go immediately to be with God in the present heaven. This heaven will not last forever, but will pass away when the new heaven and new earth are created.


The Bible clearly tells us that the places where unbelievers and believers go NOW after death are NOT permanent. The book of Revelation describes in chapters 20 & 21 that these places, while real, are NOT permanent. St. John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…” (Revelation 21:1).

Understand me clearly… this means that, when we die, believers in Christ will NOT go to the Heaven where we’ll live forever. Instead, we’ll go to a stopover Heaven – described in Jesus’ parable here as Abraham’s bosom. In this present heaven, where Jesus is now, where believers in Him are now, we’ll await the time of Christ’s return to the earth, our bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and new earth.

Both unbelievers and believers remain, conscious and aware, in their different, temporary stops on the way to their final destinations.

Put it this way. Imagine you are flying from Dallas to Hawaii. On the way, you have a stopover in LA. You’re going to wait there a few hours, change planes, and then fly on to Hawaii. Now, as you plan your trip, you don’t tell people that you are going to Los Angeles, even though you’ll be a LA dweller for a few hours. No, instead you’re going to Hawaii… even though there will be a brief stop along the way.

This brief stop is what I’ll call, for lack of a better word, the “present Heaven”. The heaven that exists RIGHT now… but it is not permanent. It’s just a stopover, on the way to our true home. It is VERY, VERY good… but even the present heaven is not as good as the new heaven and new earth we’ll experience at the end – and beginning – of all time.
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Compare Genesis 1-2 with Revelation 21-22
They look to be very parallel... and that is not a mistake!

Our life in the new heaven and new earth - a restored Eden! - will be very similar to the tangible, real, physical life that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God in the first Eden.

There will be adventure. Exploring. Eating. Drinking. Ruling. Working. Learning. Growing. For the rest of eternity.

Without sin. Without death. Without sickness or sorrow. Forever.
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The Real Heaven
All throughout Scripture, God describes Heaven in familiar terms that we can understand… as a city, a country, a home. Life in heaven is described as a feast, a wedding, a kingdom. Our purpose in heaven is described as ruling, working, celebrating, growing. And on and on and on it goes!

God describes the new heaven and the new earth filled with animals, people, trees, rivers, streets, cities, food, and more… but the truth is, many times we just don’t believe what the Bible tells us. Why is that?

Well, it all goes back to someone called Plato. Say that with me, please. “Plato.” Plato was a Greek, one of the great thinkers of the early Western world. And Plato suggested that the material world, the things we can see, touch, taste, smell, and more… the material world is corrupt, evil, and not truly REAL. For Plato, the only REAL thing was the spiritual world, the world beyond our sight. The world that could not be corrupted, or changed, or destroyed.

And Plato’s ideas influenced many Western thinkers, even some early Christians, who began to think that anything having to do with physical things… the body, food, clothing… eating, drinking, & sex… animals, people, trees, and more… was evil by nature. Only the spirit… and spiritual things… were truly good, truly real.

And this is now a common idea among many Christians today! One Christian author wrote of Heaven, “Only our redeemed spirits can live in a spiritual realm like heaven. Therefore, the life we know now as spiritual reality will continue in heaven, but we shall not need or desire the things associated with our physical bodies, simply because we will not have physical bodies in heaven.” (476)

There’s just one problem with that… it’s a lie! Our bodies, physical things, even matter itself are not evil, in themselves. Who made our bodies? Who made the animals? Who made waterfalls and sunsets, fruit and trees, beaches and the ocean… and pronounced them “very good”? God did!

Who invented physical pleasures? Who invented food and water, eating and drinking, marriage and sex, friendship and games, art and music, celebration and laughter? God did!

The new heaven and the new earth will not be a spiritual realm unlike anything we know. Instead, the new heaven and the new earth will be physical, real, material… resurrected, redeemed, re-made…. to be lived in and experienced by humans beings.

Remember what Jesus said, as he was preparing to go back into heaven? He told His disciples, “In my Father's house are many rooms… I am going there to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2) Not for the angels. Not for spirits. Not for ghostly people with no bodies. But a real place, a physical place, a place meant to be enjoyed and experienced by human beings. A place… for you.

Which brings us to one of the key fears – and greatest LIES – about heaven… that you will be BORED there. Gary Larson captured this common misconception about Heaven in one of his Far Side cartoons. In it, a man with angel wings and a halo sits on a cloud, doing nothing, with no one nearby. He has the expression of someone marooned on a desert island with absolutely nothing to do. A caption shows his inner thoughts: “Sure wish I’d brought a magazine.” (6-7)

And today, most people sum it up like this, “I’d rather be having a good time in Hell than be bored in Heaven.” Many people imagine Hell as a place where they’ll hang around, shoot pool, and joke with friends. That might happen on the New Earth, but not in Hell.

Hell is a place of torment and isolation, where friendship and good times don’t exist. Hell will be deadly, painfully, eternally boring. For everything good, enjoyable, refreshing, fascinating, and interesting comes straight – not from the devil – but from God. And apart from God’s providence & presence… all these things do NOT exist. As King David wrote, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Our belief that Heaven is boring betrays a great and terrible lie… that God is boring! But there is no greater nonsense. Our desires for pleasure and experiences of joy come directly from God. God designed our taste buds, adrenaline, sex drives, and nerve endings that convey pleasure to our brains. Even our imagination and ability to experience joy comes from the very God we accuse of being boring.

Are we so arrogant to assume that human beings came up with the idea of having fun? We didn’t. GOD did!

“I’d rather be having a good time in Hell than be bored in Heaven,” some say. But notice the basic assumption: that sin is exciting and holiness is boring. We fallen for the devil’s lie, the same one he used with Adam and Eve, to make us believe that sin gets us what we really want. But in reality, sin does the exact opposite! Sin offers fulfillment, but in truth steals it from us. Sin offers to make life interesting, but really makes life empty. Sin offers to create adventure, but instead makes life more and more hollow. Sin offers to make you even more alive… even as it sucks life out of you.

For example, drug addicts are convinced that without their drugs they can never live happy lives. In fact – as everyone else can see – drugs make their lives miserable. So it is with every sin. EVERY sin.

Complete freedom from sin – the freedom dearly won for us by Jesus on the cross, the complete freedom those who trust in Him will fully experience in Heaven – means that in Heaven we can finally be free to experience true joy the way God fully intended, finding far greater pleasure and fulfillment in everything and every moment.
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An accurate view of heaven provides 3 powerful things:

a) PERSPECTIVE in Times of Trouble
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 ESV


b) PERSEVERANCE in Times of Temptation


c) PRIORITIES that Truly Matter
The moment we fully comprehend that there is more to life than just here and now, and realize that life is just preparation for eternity, we begin to live differently. We start living in the light of eternity, and that colors how we handle every relationship, task, and circumstance. Suddenly, many activities, goals, and even problems that seemed so important suddenly appear trivial, petty, unworthy of our attention. For the closer we live to God, the smaller everything else appears.

When we live in the light of eternity, our values change. We use our time and money more wisely. We place a higher premium on relationships and character instead of fame or achievements or even fun. Our priorities get reordered. Keeping up with trends, fashions, and popular values just doesn’t matter as much anymore. Like St. Paul wrote, “I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.” Philippians 3:7 NLT

Now, if you believe that your time on earth was all there is to this life, I would suggest you start living it up immediately! Stop being good and ethical. Don’t worry about the results of your actions. Indulge in total self-centeredness… because your actions have no long-term results.

But – and this makes all the difference – if you truly believe, as I do, that death is not the end of you… that death is just your transition into eternity… than that means there are eternal consequences to everything you do on earth. Every act of our lives strikes some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
Walt Disney - Beginning with the End in Mind
By the way, what is your favorite classic Disney movie of all time? Peter Pan, Dumbo, or the Jungle Book? Robin Hood, Fantasia, or Alice in Wonderland?

Did you know that, whatever movie Walt Disney was working on – Snow White, Cinderella, Pinnochio, or others – he would always storyboard the movie, starting with the ending first. It’s true! Disney first designed how he wanted the last scene to look and feel and sound… and then write the rest of the movie, all to lead up to that final moment.

As believers in Christ, that’s why each and every day we wake…we do well to begin with the end in mind… to think hard about heaven, to reflect on life with Jesus, to yearn for the joys of the new heaven and new earth.

I promise you – it helps guide every moment of this life. You find that, along the way, you gladly cut out some scenes (behaviors, desires, actions) that don’t belong or lead up to that ending. You’ll find yourself writing in some others that enhance the joy and excitement, that will make a lasting difference in the end.

For those who think the most about living in Heaven… are often those who make the most difference, here on earth. Because they begin each day, every day – with the end in mind.
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Audio Messages

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