God Has Swallowed Up Death Forever

Colossians 3:1-4 says this:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Do you ever reflect on the hope of Heaven? Do you ever dream about the glories of Heaven? Do you ever think about the beauty of Heaven? It seems as if Paul is instructing us, maybe even commanding us, to reflect on the hope and beauty of Heaven. Do you regularly do that? Do you ever reflect on the hope of Heaven as part of your spiritual walk with the Lord? Do you ever sit and reflect on the perfection, rest, peace, and stunning nature of Heaven?

If you’re anything like me, you don’t. For most of my life, reflecting on Heaven has not at all been a regular part of my spiritual walk. Yet, Paul seems to make clear that it should have been.

There is a common line of logic that says that if you focus too much on the age to come then you’ll be useless in the present age. While I think there are elements in truth to that, for Christians, I think on the whole that line of logic is utterly false. For Christians, it is precisely people who consistently reflect on the hope of Heaven that do the most good in this present age. It is the very people who are most enthralled by the beauty of Heaven that live with a reckless abandon in this life. In fact, if I had time, I think I could clearly argue from the Bible that it is the people who cling most to the hope of Heaven that have the fullest and best lives on Earth

Group Question 1:

When you think of Heaven, what comes to mind? What do you think Heaven will be like?

Read Isaiah 25

Notice how the individual voice of praise in verses 1-5 turns into a communal voice of worship in verse 9. It’s like you can imagine individuals marching into Zion each singing this praise and then when they step into the city they all join together in one communal voice. The New Heavens and New Earth will not just be each of us in our own individual ecstacy. It will be a body of believers rejoicing together and singing the praises of God forevermore.

New Heaven and New Earth, Heaven as it is now, New Jerusalem and city and mountain themes in Scripture and Isaiah

Physical, Concrete Reality. Redeemed Earth.

On the cross, Jesus didn't just secure the redemption of the saints, He secured the redemption of the entire world.

Even the greatest sunset, the greatest mountain, the greatest day you've ever had is in some way broken and fractured by sin. If God is so kind to us now that He allows us these incredible sights and views, imagine how incredible Heaven will be. Make a sunset joke about yourself.

Romans 8:19-23- “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Romans 8:19-23“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Group Question 2:

Why is it significant that God renews creation and our bodies? Why do you think it’s significant that we will have resurrected, physical bodies in the New Heavens and New Earth?

Revelation 7:9-10 “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Revelation 21:1-5 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

God is faithful to his promises Revelation 5 and Jesus claiming the throne and opening the scrolls when they thought no one could.

Cubic dimensions and New Jerusalem and holy of holies. Only 2 cubic dimensions in Scripture

God is the Gift of Heaven

Talk about how in other religions you get earthly rewards (72 virgins-Islam, a planet-Mormonism, etc.) but in Christianity you get God Himself.

“{The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling-place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honour and glory. They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world. The Lord God is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem; and is the "river of the water of life" that runs, and "the tree of life that grows, in the midst of the paradise of God." The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast." -Jonathan Edwards, "God Glorified in Man's Dependence"

Reflect on the beauty of Jesus Christ

Psalm 73:25-26

“Whom have I in heaven but you?     And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail,     but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Psalm 27:4

“One thing have I asked of the Lord,     that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord     all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord     and to inquire in his temple.”- Psalm 27:4

We will be totally free to sin and yet we never will because we will be so utterly satisfied in Jesus.

Revelation 19:6-9- “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Heaven Will Be Miserable

Suppose for a moment that you were allowed to enter heaven without holiness. What would you do? What possible enjoyment could you feel there? To which of all the saints would you join yourself, and by whose side would you sit down? Their pleasures are not your pleasures, their tastes not your tastes, their character not your character. How could you possibly be happy, if you had not been holy on earth?

Now perhaps you love the company of the light and the careless, the worldly-minded and the covetous, the reveller and the pleasure-seeker, the ungodly and the profane. There will be none such in heaven. Now perhaps you think the saints of God too strict and particular, and serious. You rather avoid them. You have no delight in their society. There will be no other company in heaven.

Now perhaps you think praying, and Scripture-reading, and hymn singing, dull, and melancholy, and stupid work,—a thing to be tolerated now and then, but not enjoyed. You reckon the Sabbath a burden and a weariness; you could not possibly spend more than a small part of it in worshipping God. But remember, heaven is a never-ending Sabbath. The inhabitants thereof rest not day or night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” and singing the praise of the Lamb. How could an unholy man find pleasure in occupation such as this?

Think you that such an one would delight to meet David, and Paul, and John, after a life spent in doing the very things they spoke against? Would he take sweet counsel with them, and find that he and they had much in common?—Think you, above all, that he would rejoice to meet Jesus, the Crucified One, face to face, after cleaving to the sins for which He died, after loving His enemies and despising His friends? Would he stand before Him with confidence, and join in the cry, “This is our God; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation”? (Isa. 25:9.) Think you not rather that the tongue of an unholy man would cleave to the roof of his mouth with shame, and his only desire would be to be cast out! He would feel a stranger in a land he knew not, a black sheep amidst Christ’s holy flock. The voice of Cherubim and Seraphim, the song of Angels and Archangels, and all the company of heaven, would be a language he could not understand. The very air would seem an air he could not breathe.

I know not what others may think, but to me it does seem clear that heaven would be a miserable place to an unholy man. It cannot be otherwise. People may say, in a vague way, “they hope to go to heaven;” but they do not consider what they say. There must be a certain “meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light.” Our hearts must be somewhat in tune. To reach the holiday of glory, we must pass through the training school of grace. We must be heavenly-minded, and have heavenly tastes, in the life that now is, or else we shall never find ourselves in heaven, in the life to come. J. C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots (London: William Hunt and Company, 1889), 63–65.

Group Question 3:

What things on this side of glory can we do to prepare ourselves for the New Heavens and New Earth? What foretastes of Heaven can we have here on earth?