God's Last Words

“When We All Get to Heaven”
Revelation 5: 11-14 (NRSV)
An Army man, a marine, and an airman got into a fight about which service is best. The fight was so heated, that the car they were riding in crashed and they all died. Soon, they found themselves in Heaven. They see St. Peter walk by and ask, “Which Branch of Service is the best?” 

St. Peter replied, “I can't answer that. But, I will ask God what He thinks the next time I see Him.”Sometime later, the three see St. Peter again and ask him if he was able to find the answer. 

Suddenly, a dove landed on St. Peter's shoulder. The dove was carrying a note in its beak. St. Peter opened the note and read it out loud :  

“Gentlemen: All the Branches of the Service are ‘Honorable and Noble.’ Each one of you has served your country well. Be proud of that. (signed) GOD, USN (Ret.) 

Heaven’s going to be a good place that a lot of us are going to wonder why we were so apprehensive about getting to. We should look forward to it! 

Two Christians have lived very good, and also very healthy lives. They die, and go to heaven. As they are walking along, marveling at the paradise around them, one turns to the other and says "Wow. I never knew heaven was going to be as good as this!"

"Yeah", says the other. "And just think, if we hadn't eaten all that oat bran we could have got here ten years sooner." (Tell yourself that as you are eating sausage, cheese, and other high-fat foods!) 

“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might  forever and ever!”And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshipped.

Sometimes I am caught off guard by the words used in the Greek text. The most significant words are often represented by a word that seems underwhelming.  

The Greek word for heaven, “ouranos,” seems to be such a word. Yet it’s used 273 times in the New Testament. It means “the lifted place or place of ascension.” 

The Hebrew word is much more interesting, It is “shamayim,” and means  “the realm of the sky, the dwelling place of God.” 

You can see these words do complement each other. The Hebrews defined the place and the Greeks described the verb about getting to it. Thanks be to God! 

What exactly do we know about Heaven? Here’s some information from some Christian authors. 

We know that Heaven is the spiritual realm in which the glory of God's presence is manifest, and in which dwell the angels of God, and all believers who have departed this world (Hebrews 12: 22-24).

 

The glimpses of Heaven given in Scripture reveal the supreme Holiness of God (Isaiah 6; Revelation chapters 4 and 5), which gave a wake-up call on those who were granted such visions  such as in Isaiah 6 or Daniel 7: 9-28.  

Isaiah, when he saw the Lord sitting on His throne, said, "Woe is me . . . for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."  

Heaven seems to be a place where human words fail. In writing about his apparent visit to heaven, the apostle Paul said that he "heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak" (2 Corinthians 12: 4).  

What Paul saw was not only impermissible but impossible to describe in human terms! Heaven is among those things he described elsewhere as "things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man" (1 Corinthians 2: 9)!  

No wonder Paul says we will be "astonished" when we see the Lord at His coming in glory. (2 Thessalonians 1: 10)

We know that for those who belong to Christ, Heaven is an immediate destination after death. To the thief on the cross, Jesus said, "Today you shall be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23: 43). Paul, writing in 2 Corinthians 5: 8, said that "to be absent from the body (is to be) at home with the Lord." 

Oswald Sanders said: "God has not told us all we'd like to know, but He has told us all we need to know" about Heaven. There are a couple of more things I want to tell you about our existence in heaven, but I can’t cover it all unless we take the rest of the day.

Mark Twain once sarcastically said that in Heaven, for twelve hours every day we will all sing one hymn over and over again. Doesn’t sound appealing, does it? The Bible, however, paints a much different picture of what life in Heaven will be like.  

Consider just a few of Heaven's most significant characteristics.  

We know that our transition to heaven will result in a change in our spiritual nature. Paul spoke of "the hope of righteousness" of being released from the internal struggle against indwelling sin, through being set free from our mortal body (Romans 7: 23-24).

In Heaven our comprehension of the nature of God will be fully realized. Paul says that "though now we see through a glass darkly," then we shall "see face to face" and "shall know fully, as we are known" (1 Corinthians 13: 12).  

There is every reason to believe that there will be opportunity for growth in Heaven . . . not growth toward perfection, but growth in perfection. As a man, Jesus was indeed perfect. Yet Scripture tells us that He "grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man."  

Once God's purpose for life on earth is done, our physical bodies will be changed to a new order of life. Philippians 3: 20 says that Jesus himself will "transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory."  

There will be a creation of a new heaven and earth in which we shall live with Christ forever. Jesus referred to this transformation of the creation as "the regeneration." (Matthew 19: 28) It will be the creation made perfect again!

In the Book of Revelation we are told that in this new creation there will be "no more sorrow, pain or death." (Revelation 21: 4).  

Isaiah's prophecy told us that the glories of the new creation will be so marvelous that "the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind" (Isaiah 65: 17)!  

How will we occupy our time in Heaven? Scriptures tell us that in addition to engaging in united worship of God, we will serve (Revelation 22: 3) and reign with Christ (Revelation 20: 6; 22: 5).  

The domain over which we will reign will no doubt encompass all of creation, for we're told that for Christ "all things have been created" (Colossians 1: 16), and that with Him we will inherit "all these things."  

As believers, the promise of Heaven should transform our perspective on death. Our scriptures do not teach that as believers we are immune from or should deny the reality of the sorrow that death can bring. But in Christ, we share in His victory over death!  

We grieve, but we grieve not as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4: 13), rather as those who are certain of our reunion with loved ones who have gone before, of receiving a glorious body that will never weaken or decay, of entering a wonderful new life beyond our fondest dreams, and of forever being with the Lord!  

At the end of his "Narnia Tales" C. S. Lewis describes the events that transpire as the characters in his story enter Heaven: "The things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after.  

But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." 

I can’t wait for us all to get to Heaven! Amen.