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CHAPTER 1
Heaven Is a Gift
There is an ever-growing interest these days in living a long life. Think about all the emphasis on good health. Television and radio ads focus on how to strengthen and lengthen life. Off the presses come book after book about health. Magazine and Internet articles are filled with ideas about health practices that can prolong life, or at least allow for a higher quality of life. We have an unquenchable interest in living long, which is natural, and living a high quality of life, which is desirable. So we are focused on the quality of our food and on exercise. There is a lot of emphasis on living in the here and now, but it is all earth-bound. It is all concerned with the immediate, present moment. It asks, How can I live a better quality of life right now? How can I live longer now? These are certainly natural and normal impulses. Perhaps you want to live longer because you want to prolong a good thing — you may have everything you need here in this life. You may feel at least some sense of satisfaction with what you have, and the things that you're trying to accomplish. But what about life after this one?
A Gift from God
If somebody asks you, "What is eternal life?" you might say, "Well, it's everlasting life."
"Okay, what's that?"
This is the answer: Eternal life is a gift from God. It isn't something we work for, something we pay for, something we worship for; it is a gift of God from God.
It's written in the gospel of John and repeated in that passage that all of us know so well from Romans: "The wages of sin is death, but the ... gift of God is eternal life [through] Christ Jesus our Lord" (6:23).
A Precious Gift
Eternal life is the gift that God has offered to all humankind. Now, how do we get this gift? How do we access it? Think about this for a moment. When you and I were born, we were born to live forever. Unlike God, we have a beginning. But like God, once our life starts, it is not going to have an ending. God is eternal and everlasting, from Alpha to Omega, the beginning and the end. He has no beginning and no ending. Humans do pass away. We know it's going to happen. It can come at any point in life, at any age. It doesn't make any difference when or where it happens. It's a part of life. But the questions to ask before that time comes are these: Will I be ready to inherit the gift that God has provided for His children? Am I willing to receive it, willing to accept it, willing to take it as a gift from almighty God?
Be Ready for Eternal Life
It's important to be ready for the ultimate gift of eternal life. We can focus on two main things when it comes to eternal life: one of them is quantity, and one of them is quality. In regard to quantity, eternal life is everlasting. It has no ending. It cannot be stopped. It is ceaseless: you can't slow it down, can't speed it up. As far as the quality of eternal life is concerned, it is a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is a fellowship, and it is a companionship. There is intimacy in our relationship with Him.
Eternal life is a gift, and it is a relationship.
Promises of Eternal Life
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16 NIV
For those who find [wisdom] find life and receive favor from the Lord.
Proverbs 8:35 NIV
"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
John 17:3 NIV
They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night ... They will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.
Revelation 22:4–5
CHAPTER 2
Jesus' Wonderful Promise
When you and I face hardship, sometimes it feels as if it's never going to end. Well, the one thing that's for sure is that it is going to end. There's no such thing as endless trouble. There's no such thing as endless despair for a believer, because every single one of us who is a believer has an awesome promise that Jesus gave on the night before He was crucified.
When Jesus was in the upper room with His disciples, He said to them:
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:1–2)
Jesus makes a very specific promise about heaven here. He reveals Himself to us and saves us. He works in our life moment by moment, day by day; conforms us to His likeness; builds a relationship with us; comforts us in our hurts; and empowers us. He says, "One of these days life's going to be over, and I want to assure you that when it's over, I have prepared a place for you."
So it's very definite, according to the Scriptures, that heaven is a place that the Lord Jesus Christ has provided and is preparing for all of us who are His children.
Jesus began by saying, "Stop being troubled in your heart." These are words of comfort; remember: the disciples were troubled in this moment. They were feeling despair and unease. What caused them such perplexity?
Back to the upper room. Jesus was washing the disciples' feet. Then, in the middle of washing their feet, "He became troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me'" (John 13:21). Now imagine sitting there with Jesus, and all of a sudden, He says, "One of you shall betray Me," without identifying which one. No wonder they were agitated.
Jesus continued, "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'" (v. 33).
Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later" (vv. 33, 36).
So imagine the kind of distress in their hearts at this moment.
Here's the Lord Jesus Christ, with whom they have walked for three years. They've done what He said to do, followed Him where He said to go. Now He says to them, "One of you is going to betray Me." And to make it worse, He says, "Now, where I'm going you can't follow Me. I'm going to leave you. I'm not going to be with you very much longer, and where I'm going you won't be able to follow Me."
All of a sudden there's frustration, anxiety, wonderment, and uneasiness. "What do You mean, where You're going we can't come? We've been faithful to You. We've followed You. You said You were the Messiah. You are God. You can't take us where You're going?"
Jesus' Words of Comfort
Then Jesus made this wonderful promise of preparing a heaven for the disciples and for us. He said it as a word of comfort: essentially, "Don't allow your heart to be troubled in the midst of turmoil, strife, disappointment, and despair in life, because it's not going to last forever. You believe in God; believe also in Me." That is always the right response to difficulty, hardship, and despair. That is the right answer to doubts and questions and fears. The right reaction is always to focus upon the Lord and to trust Him.
All trouble will end one day. All suffering, all hardship, all heartache — no matter what it is, it will end. Nothing is forever except God and that which He has promised us.
Now let's think about what Jesus is preparing for us. For two thousand years He has been working on it. Remember: He was a carpenter. It is no accident that Jesus was a builder. I'm sure He's the one overseeing the creation. He's the one working on the holy city called the New Jerusalem — a place that, as the Scripture implies, is the heavenly city (Revelation 21:2). Of this place He says, "Listen. Your citizenship will be inscribed. Your name will be written there. You will be a child of God forever and ever and ever. You can mark it down, set it down, live by it, die by it. If you're a child of God, you are going to heaven."
This is hard to imagine for us. We think in earthly ways even though we attempt to think spiritually in our relationship to God. We have limitations of thought, of abilities, and of capacities. How could there possibly be such a place? We are talking about a heavenly city our Father has provided for us, and there will be enough room for every single child of God: all the way back from Adam to the last person who enters the kingdom of God. There's going to be plenty of room for everybody. And He says He has prepared it for all of us. What an amazing blessing. What an incredible and caring God.
Promises of Belonging
For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Romans 14:7–9 NKJV
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.
Psalm 5:11 ESV
CHAPTER 3
A Glimpse Of Heaven
If I asked why you want to go to heaven, what would you say? You might say you want to go there because you think that it is a wonderful place to spend eternity. Perhaps you want to go because you have some loved ones who are already there, and you want to be with them. Or you might want to go because Jesus is there. That's the reason I want to go. We know it will be something greater, far more satisfying, far more fulfilling than earth for the simple reason that nothing in heaven is going to be less than what God has provided here on earth.
Although we rejoice in the idea of heaven, no one alive is qualified to talk about what heaven is going to be like in all its glory. Even though there is much revealed by God, there is much that is unrevealed. All we have is a little sketch of what heaven is going to be like.
Let us take a glimpse of heaven as God has given it to us in His Word. The Bible talks about three heavens.
The Three Heavens
First, there's the heaven that surrounds this earth, where we get our rain, moisture, and frost. This contains the clouds, snow, hail, and sleet. It contains the tornadoes and hurricanes, everything in the atmosphere around the earth that inspires awe and grace in all of us. That's heaven number one.
The second heaven is out there in the stellar heavens, where all the galaxies and constellations are. There are billions and billions and billions of stars out there, millions and millions and millions of light-years away. There's no way for us to conceive how mighty and great and majestic and powerful our God is. There's no way the human mind can absolutely contain the greatness of God.
Think of this earth you and I live on — all the beauty, the color, the detail, and the different creatures are things that God has made. Where did it begin? It began in the mind of almighty God. Now, if God can create this earth in six days as He said, can you imagine what heaven is going to be like?
God wants to give us a glimpse.
Paul talked about how God had given him visions, sights so precious that he could hardly speak about them. He said, for example: "I know a man in Christ who ... was caught up to the third heaven ... and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak" (2 Corinthians 12:2–4).
The third heaven is where God is.
Nobody knows the geographical location of heaven. But let's just say that it is beyond all the galaxies and universes that we know of. Jesus said that heaven is not a figment of the imagination, a fantasy, or a dream.
Everything New
Notice the words John used: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away ... There is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down" (Revelation 21:1–2). God is going to renovate this earth. It is going to be absolutely brand-new.
John said there are going to be three new things: a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem. When we think of the new heaven, we think in terms of this renovated earth. We liken it to the garden of Eden, in all of its absolute perfection. But that is only part of it.
God described the outside of this new city through John. Now remember this: John was seeing the revelation that Jesus was giving him. As he looked, he saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down, descending toward the earth.
And he said it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
What Does Heaven Look Like?
John said the holy city is going to look like the beauty of a bride dressed in her finest and looking her best for her husband. Then, he said:
And he ... showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. (Revelation 21:10–11)
If you looked in a dictionary, it would say that jasper is probably a brownish color, yellowish or reddish. But I believe the indication here is that jasper is crystal-clear, more like a diamond. Imagine John seeing this great holy city coming down from God out of heaven, and its brilliance is like a glowing diamond. The glory of God projected from this city.
John described the city in detail. He said it had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates stood twelve angels. Names were written on each gate, which were the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. He described three gates on each side: three on the east, three on the west, three on the north, and three on the south. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Revelation 21:12–14).
Now, that should say something to us about God's beautiful remembrance — that on these gates are all the names of the tribes of the nation of Israel, and that in these foundations are all the names of the apostles. Here is the awesome beauty and power of God. Here is the remembrance of the love of God. Even in the heavenly city, He is remembering the names of those who were so very important in the nation of Israel.
Whether you and I are going to literally walk on streets of gold is not the point. What John saw was a majestic creation of God, and the only way for him to describe it was to use words that reflect opulence and beauty. It was so overwhelming that he described heaven by using images of gold, silver, and jewels, images that to him were the most valuable and stunning of all. Imagine seeing something so lovely, that's the only way you could describe it!
Promises of Heaven's Beauty
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there. Revelation 21:21-25 ESV
The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass.
Revelation 21:18 NLT
For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:10 ESV
CHAPTER 4
What Will Be in Heaven (and What Will Not)
We are all curious about what we'll see in heaven. What does the Bible tell us about it? What we see is an indication of what the praise and the worship and the honor of God are going to be like.
Scripture says, "I heard a loud voice from the throne." (Revelation 21:3). It also says, "And He who sits on the throne said ..." (v. 5). This is followed up with, "Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God" (22:1). And still later it says, "There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it" (v. 3). So what is going to be at the heart of heaven? The center of all of heaven is going to be the throne of almighty God.
Who are we going to see in heaven? We are going to see Jesus, and we will recognize Him. The disciples recognized Him, and we will recognize Him too. How will we recognize Him? We will have intuitive knowledge. We will know, as the Scripture says, even as we are known (see 1 Corinthians 13:12).
You and I are going to come into heaven, and at the center of all the activity we will see the throne of God. God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, sit upon that throne. Then the scripture talks about the river of the water of life.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Gift of Heaven"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Charles F. Stanley.
Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
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