What is Heaven?

Psalm 121:1–2 NKJV

1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

Today, I want to begin a series for that I will preach over the next four weeks about Heaven. We will answer various questions aboiut heaven, including,

What is Heaven?

Where is Heaven?

Who Goes to Heaven?

Why do we need a New Heaven?

Today, the title of my message is, [What is Heaven?]

The question, what is heaven, might seem simplistic and a no-brainer. Most everyone thinks they know about heaven.

I remember my first memory of learning about heaven. A year before I was born, my great-grandmother died. Her pictures were around my grandmas house and I heard stories about her a lot.

When I would ask, where is grandma Burgos, I heard the same answer— she is in heaven. To me, heaven was a play way far away, and it is where you go when you die.

Sunday School helped me get more interested in heaven. I can still remember my grandma showing us a “picture” of heaven. Jesus was in the middle, and people surrounded him.

When I got the picture, I looked at it very thoroughly. I scanned the picture over and over and guess who I did not see, Grandma Burgos.

I asked, my grandmother, where is Great-Grandma. Hurriedly she answered, “um, I will have to bring that picture next week.” That was over twenty-five years ago, and I have still not see the picture.

But that is the point, heaven is a real place. We believe in heaven, but do we really know about heaven?

I have decided there are many misconceptions about heaven. With a lack of concrete evidence of heaven, people often form their own theories about heaven.

Some assume anyone and everyone gets in heaven, regardless of if they knew Jesus or not. I will preach on that in a few weeks.

Then I heard an interview of a Hollywood Actress that was in her nineties. She was asked, do you believe in a life after this one and if so, do you think you will go?

She answered, I hope so, but my mother had the nicest way to describe the afterlife. There is so much about life we know, but no one can say for sure what will happen when we die.

So her mother always said when someone passed away, now they know the secret.

There is much about heaven we do not know, but Scripture does not keep us in the dark about the reality and truth of heaven.

The word heaven is found 728 times in Scripture, but there are still many questions. So this morning, let’s look at what is heaven.

The Psalmist wrote about heaven in our text in what was called A Song of Ascent. Every year Jewish people would go to Jerusalem to worship.

They would sing on the way up the mountain where the Temple was set. As they ascended the hills, they would take time to talk about God.

I can envision them singing this particular song— I look to the to the mountains, but does my help come from there?

The answer was simple, yet profound, no, my help comes from the Lord who made HEAVEN and EARTH.

Let’s look about Heaven and what it is all about. I have two points, [Heaven is a Place for God] and [Heaven is a Place for Us].

Let’s begin

1. Heaven is a Place for God

Genesis 1:1 NKJV

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Everything that exists, be it in this world or out of this world originated with God. Creation was His decision. No one coerced God to create heaven and earth.

In His divine wisdom and will, He determined to create EVERYTHING. It all started with Him and it will all end with Him. After six days of creative power on display, God rested.

He created a Garden, a Paradise for His creation. He would visit with Adam and Eve in the Garden, every day when the cool breezes began to blow.

It was God’s intention to have this paradise for His people. Sin got in the way and separated them. The days were gone where God would stand before humanity, face to face.

Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, living on this earth. Where was God, He was also in heaven.

One interesting event about heaven came with a man named Enoch:

Genesis 5:24 NKJV

24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

Enoch was fortunate enough to get to go to heaven and be with God, without dying.

I heard the story of a girl who learned about Enoch walking with God. She told her mom, “One day Enoch and God took a long walk together until Enoch said it was getting late. And the Lord said, ‘We are closer to my home than to yours… why don’t you just come to my home tonight?’”

Enoch was unique, because most of humanity grew more wicked and judgment came from heaven. God flooded the earth and spared Noah and his family. But even they fell into wickedness and sin.

Genesis 11:4–5 NKJV

4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

First the tower was so small and insignificant in God’s eyes that He CAME DOWN from heaven.

Evidently, so far in Scripture, we see that Heaven is a place for God. That does not mean that He was far removed from His creation.

He had His eye on people. He turned His attention to one man, Abraham and his wife Sarah. He made a covenant with them, giving them promises from heaven.

Eventually, people discovered, God is in heaven. Heaven is His home.

Throughout the early history of Israel, we read of Moses. He had encounters with God.

God spoke to him from a burning bush

He experienced the glory of God in the form of fire

He went to the mountain where God came down and met with him

But he provided an eloquent and excellent description of heaven:

Deuteronomy 26:15 NKJV

15 Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’

He described heaven as God’s holy habitation. There was an understanding in the Old Testament that God dealt with people on earth, but His abode, His home was in heaven.

But people, like King David, longed to know more about heaven. Their love for God made them curious for the presence that dwelt in His Holy Habitation.

Psalm 27:4 NKJV

4 One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.

Psalm 26:8 NKJV

8 Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, And the place where Your glory dwells.

There was a dissatisfaction with earth. They knew heaven was the place for God, and he desired, above EVERYTHING to dwell in the house of the Lord.

Was David referring to the Tabernacle?

Inside of David was the thirst and longing for something more. He wanted to experience the glory and power of heaven.

God took notice on those who loved Him and wanted a closeness to Him. The prophet Isaiah was one of these people who got to experience the holy habitation called heaven.

Isaiah 6:1 NKJV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

As a prophet to kings, Isaiah had been in earthly habitation of wicked kings. But God gave him a glimpse of His holy habitation.

He went to God’s abode and saw the Lord’s throne. He shows that God is not alone in heaven, but is filled with angelic beings crying out holy, holy, holy.

No wonder, later in life, Isaiah explained,

Isaiah 66:1 NKJV

1 Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?

God has dealings with people on earth, but Heaven is where His thrones sits. Right now, He is seated on His throne in His holy habitation.

So what is heaven, it is a place for God. But in God’s great love, He also shows us that...

2. Heaven is a Place for Us

John 14:1–6 NKJV

1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

For thousands of years, heaven was the place where God was. We only know of TWO out of the thousands of the Old Testament who went straight to heaven to be with God.

Enoch and Elijah, both left this world without dying. But what about the rest? What was their hope?

Jesus comes on the scene, not as a messenger from heaven, but as God in flesh, who left His home in heaven to come down to this earth.

But why?

Why would the God of heaven leave His holy habitation to take on our weakness, temptation, and sin?

One songwriter explained it this way:

He saw me in His likeness, He saw me just like Him!

Pure, clean and holy, spotless, white within

But He saw me bound in heavy chains and longed to set me free

But He knew if I became like Him, He must become like me

He knew because of the bounds of sin, we were trapped in a cycle that was unbreakable. So He came to overcome sin on our behalf.

Now, because of His sacrifice, we are redeemed and forgiven. That is what happens in the present on this earth, but Jesus showed His disciples the day before His death what else He had planned.

The disciples were confused and concerned, unable to fully grasp or comprehend what was about to take place and why Jesus planned to leave.

He begins to speak about the Father’s house. Remember the Holy Habitation, God’s abode. And for the first time He shared with them— I am leaving to prepare a place for you.

In my Father’s house are many mansions.

It is interesting the Greek word for mansion is also abode/a dwelling place.

Remember, Heaven is God’s abode. Now Jesus said, because of me, you will also have an abode, a place in heaven.

I will go and you know the way to get there. Thomas was shocked and curious, how can we know the way?

Jesus provided the timeless promise of HIM being the way, the truth, and the life. Because of Him, they will have a place in heaven.

This hope stuck with the Early Church. Not long after Jesus’s resurrection the church began to grow. They were called people of the WAY.

They were on their way to being with God and they wanted to take as many with them as they could. But they had an issue— persecution.

The first man to lose his life for his faith in Jesus was Stephen. After staunchly defending Jesus as the Messiah, the angry mob armed themselves with rocks ready to stone him.

But Stephen knew the way. He believed in heaven and his faith became sight:

Acts 7:55–56 NKJV

55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

As he was about to leave THIS place, God opened his eyes and he saw heaven. He witnessed the throne of God and there was Jesus, STANDING at the right hand of the father.

All throughout the New Testament we read of Jesus being SEATED at the right hand of the Father. But when one of His own was about to make his departure from THIS place to THAT place, He stood from His place of honor ready to welcome His own.

Stephen told the crowd what he saw, telling them about THAT place called heaven.

Heaven was a real place for the Early Church. It was THE place where God dwelled. It was the holy habitation of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.

Their love for God made them homesick to go to THAT place. Heaven was real and it was awaiting those who were faithful.

Close:

What is heaven?

It is a place for God, it is His holy habitation. But thank God for the grace of Jesus, for now, because of His work, Heaven is a place for us.

This message and the next three messages come from a burden within me. As I have prayed, and I have shared this with our Wednesday night crowd, but I feel the Lord has showed me something.

We live in a day where people are FAR TOO comfortable on earth. And I am not speaking of the lost, those who do not know Jesus.

I mean, it is as though many Christians have grown so comfortable on earth that there is little hope for the life beyond this one.

There is a mindset that says, when I die, I will go to heaven, but we do not think about it much, and it almost seems that we’ve grown accustomed to life on earth.

But life on earth as it stands currently, was never part of God’s plan for life on earth means a life without a physical closeness to God.

Yes, He is with us by His Spirit, we feel His presence, but Jesus longs for the day when the saved of all the ages are reunited with the Father, face to face.

This comfort for THIS place has caused people to even shift their doctrine, twisting Scripture to promote the idea that life will get better and better on earth and when we’ve prepared the earth, THEN Jesus will come back for us.

For the one who really knows Him and has personal experiences with Him on earth, there will be a desire. The closest I can get to heaven on earth is by being close to Him on earth.

And it hit me, could it be that many do not long for heaven, because we do not talk about it much?

I am not speaking of escapism, we have to go to work, the grocery store, we need time for recreation and relaxation.

But we must NEVER forget, this life is temporary. And what we do NOW, will prepare us for the place where God is now.

Paul summarized the feelings of the Early Christians and God’s desire for us:

2 Corinthians 5:1–2 NKJV

1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,

2 Corinthians 5:6–8 NKJV

6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

This life is like a tent, it is not a permanent dwelling. Tents are not comfortable. Tents are moveable. All that we build and do on earth is like a tent, which can quickly get destroyed.

But God has a home built for us, one in HEAVEN. It is our habitation, it is our abode.

So we walk by faith and not by sight. We remember, that eternal life does not begin when we die, it starts now, we are living for eternity TODAY!

And when we are absent in this body, we will be present with the Lord.

So what is heaven?

It is a place for God, His holy habitation, His abode.

It is also a place for us, it is our habitation, it will become our abode.

Heaven is nearer than we realize. Let’s not grow so comfortable and adjusted to this world that we forget, Jesus is preparing a place for us.

He will share His place with us.

How do we get there?

Place our faith in Him and live for Him.

Psalm 121 NKJV

A Song of Ascents. 1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.

This world has little to offer, but the God who made heaven and earth will keep us, help us, preserve us, and keep us from this time and forever.

Thank God we know the secret. We know about heaven.