Sermon Tone Analysis

THE FINAL STATE OF THE SAVED (HEAVEN)

The biblical words for “heaven” (Heb: shamayim; Gk: ouranos) are used in several different ways.

There are three heavens: The first is the sky above us (earth’s atmosphere—Matt.

6:26), the second is the stars (the realm of space—24:29), and the third is the very abode of God, called “the third heaven” or “paradise” (2 Cor.

12:2, 4).

It is in this third sense that “heaven” is used in this chapter, namely, as God’s dwelling place, the final destiny of the righteous.

THE BIBLICAL BASIS FOR THE DOCTRINE OF HEAVEN

The Bible is filled with references to heaven.

Though many questions are left open, making heaven the subject of a wide range of speculation, there are also many truths we do know about it.

Heaven in the Present: A Place of Bliss for Departed Spirits

Heaven now is a real place of departed spirits, the place of bliss in God’s presence where believers go when they die.

Enoch entered heaven when “God took him” to be with Himself (Gen.

5:24).

Elijah also “went up to heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:11).

Jesus went there at death after saying, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

A repentant thief did also after Jesus said to him, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Paul referred to it as being “absent from the body” and “present with the Lord” (2 Cor.

5:8 NKJV).

Heaven is God’s home; Jesus spoke of “Our Father in heaven” (Matt.

6:9; cf.

5:16) and said it was an actual place, reminding His disciples:

In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.

I am going there to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

(John 14:2–3)

Jesus said He came from heaven and would return there: “No one has ever gone into heaven [bodily] except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man” (3:13); “The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth.

The one who comes from heaven is above all” (v.

31); “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he wll live forever” (6:51).

Jesus told Mary Magdalene, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.

Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’ ” (20:17).

This He did at His ascension, when the angels said He would return the same way He’d just departed.

Angels also are said to be “in heaven” (Matt.

18:10), to come “from heaven” (28:2), to dwell “in heaven” (Mark 13:32), and return to heaven (Luke 2:15).

In heaven is God’s “throne” (Matt.

5:34), where Christ sits at His “right hand” (Rom.

8:34; Heb.

1:3), where angels surround Him in praise and adoration (Rev.

4–5), and where the seraphim sing the tersanctus: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” (Isa.

6:3).

That God dwells in heaven does not mean He is localized and not omnipresent.

Solomon prayed: “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you” (1 Kings 8:27).

God is everywhere, as the psalmist revealed: “Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (139:7–9).

The reality of heaven as God’s dwelling simply means that there is a place (like the old covenant tabernacle and temple) where God is manifested in a special way, a center or “throne” from which He rules the universe.

Whether heaven is within the physical universe or in another physical dimension, it is an actual place where the righteous will “see his face” (Rev.

22:4).

Heaven in the Future: The New Heaven and the New Earth

According to Revelation, after the resurrection, after all believing human spirits have been reunited with their bodies, heaven will descend to earth in the form of the New Jerusalem:

Then I [John] saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

(21:1–3)

Heaven has foundations, gates, and dimensions:

One of the seven angels … came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates.

On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.…

The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.

The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide.

He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long.

He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man’s measurement, which the angel was using.

(vv.

9–12, 14–17)

The Constituents of Heaven

The innumerable occupants of heaven, in addition to the triune God, include angels and the great multitude of the redeemed from all ages.

The Triune God

At the heart of heaven is the throne of God, which John described:

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.

And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian.

A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.

(4:1–3)

Not only is God the Father in heaven, but so is God the Son: “The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.

He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals” (5:5).

Paul spoke of “Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—[and] is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Rom.

8:34).

John added, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.

But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1).

In heaven Jesus lives forever, with a permanent priesthood: “He is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb.

7:25).

The blessed Holy Spirit of God is likewise in heaven.

John described Him symbolically as “the seven spirits before his [God’s] throne” (Rev.

1:4).

This is the “sevenfold Spirit” of Isaiah 11:2: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

When we get to heaven, we will see Christ in His physical glorified resurrection body with our physical eyes, and we will see the essence of God with our spiritual eyes.

This is called the Beatific Vision.

Good Angels

Further,

Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders.

They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder.

Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing.

These are the seven spirits of God.

Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back.

(Rev.

4:4–6)

Redeemed Humans

In addition to God and a great multitude of angels, there are incalculable redeemed human beings:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.

They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

(7:9)

The writer of Hebrews added,

You [believers] have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.

You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect.