Today we’re stepping forward in our sermon series. So far we’ve talked about Adam and Eve and how God shapes each one of us, and last week Trevor stepped in to talk about how we shape one another out of love - even in uncomfortable and difficult situations. These are two important parts of what we believe together and today we’re going to look at another part of what we believe. And this is a weird topic because on one hand it’s one of the very basic ideas of our faith and on the other hand, we’re going to get into the weeds a little bit here. There were quite a few questions that were offered up that fit into this topic but, as you might imagine, it’s a pretty big topic so those topics are a little scattered. Now I tried to think of some common thread that would put all the different questions and topics together, but in the end I settled on this. What I would like to do with y’all this morning is to step through some of the things that are maybe the popular opinions about heaven and hell, then compare and contrast them with what Scripture has to say to us.
What’s it look like?
One of the first popular understandings about our eternal resting place is what heaven is going to look like. I mean, how many of us when we picture heaven picture everybody just floating around on clouds? Maybe there’s an angel playing the harp in the background, and everyone is wearing togas? We say “pearly gates” when we talk about heaven, but most images I’ve seen of people trying to capture it have gold ones for whatever reason. And maybe a shining city somewhere in the background. Now that’s not entirely wrong, because a lot of those details actually come out of the book of Revelation where John is given an extensive vision of heaven. Revelation 4 describes a throne that’s surrounded by 24 other thrones and in front of it is a sea that’s so calm you might think it was glass.
So maybe when we talk about heaven, some of that imagery isn’t bad. But that’s not where we’re spending eternity. In Revelation 21, among other places, God points to eternity calling it a new heaven and a new earth. Our eternal resting place isn’t floating around in the clouds, it’s on earth. How many of you picture being back here in eternity? I think the reason most of us don’t is that our only experience with earth is with its brokenness, with it full of sin and death and pain and sadness. But God tells us that He is going to make a new heaven and a new earth. He promises that this new creation will be perfect in every way. That’s why you’ll usually hear me using that language, saying “new creation” instead of “heaven.” Because that’s what God promises us, He promises us a new creation. So when we picture eternity, when we picture this future paradise, the picture that we should paint is one of a perfect version of earth. A world where the air is never filled with smog, a world where the water is always clear and the perfect temperature to swim in, a world where people are always honest and kind and compassionate, a world where there is no disease or pain or death, a world where no one is trying to cause division. It’s a world that perfectly aligns with God’s will for us. And honestly, as far as I’m concerned, that’s even more exciting and hopeful than the heaven that so many people picture with the clouds and the harps and the golden city.
What will we look like?
Which leads into another misconception that we sometimes have about eternity and about heaven. Because who or what lives in the clouds wearing togas and playing harps? Angels. So if you picture heaven as an eternity in the clouds with togas and playing harps, what do you picture - becoming an angel. You’ll hear phrases like “so and so got their angel wings” and things like that. But there’s no evidence for that in Scripture, like at all.
What Scripture does tell us is that we will be part of this perfect new creation. And our best idea, our best understanding of what that looks like - of what humanity perfected looks like, is Adam and Eve before the fall. They are never described as angels, they’re never described as having wings. They’re people, like you and I.
But I do want to take a second here to give some pastoral counsel. If you are walking with a friend and comforting or supporting them after they lose someone close to them, and they say “I’m so glad that they got their wings,” that is absolutely not the time to say “well actually, they didn’t. We are promised an eternal new creation so they won’t become angels, just perfect humans.” If the idea of angel wings is comforting to someone who is mourning, maybe wait to talk to them about it.
Together with all the Saints
And whether we’re talking about what heaven is going to look like, or what we’re going to look like in eternity, the reality is that we cannot really grasp it. Honestly, it’s a little bit like trying to understand multi-variable calculus without having any knowledge of how variables work. We just have such a limited grasp on what perfection is that we can’t picture it. And the Bible doesn’t spend a lot of time talking about what heaven will be like, except on one point that’s boils heaven and hell down to their core characteristics.
Heaven is being in the presence of God. Hell is being totally separated from Him.
God is the source of all good things, so being totally separated from Him means being totally separated from all good things. Hell is a place without love, without kindness, without grace, without patience, without joy, and without peace. Heaven, on the other hand, is a place where we will be in the same space as God. Where we will be able to talk to Him personally. Where everyone will keep His commandments perfectly, a place with nothing but love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. So often we can get caught up in trying to define heaven on our terms - but we should start by thinking about the designs God expresses for our lives in His Word.
Road Map
Where I want to close today, the last comparison I want to make, is to talk about how we get there.
There are a lot of ideas out there about how to get to heaven and I think we can broadly put them into three categories. First, there is the idea that all roads lead to heaven, that no matter what you do or what you believe, everyone gets to go to heaven. And that can be a pretty harmful idea, like a mechanic telling you your brakes are fine when they aren’t - sure you feel good not having to pay for new brakes . . . until you need knew brakes. 2 Timothy 2 tells us that God does desire everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth, but John 3:18 tells us that “whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Second, there is an idea that you have to do certain things and God will let you into heaven. And this varies from having to be a good person, having to accept Jesus into your heart, having to make a decision for Jesus, having to follow the Law closely enough. But again, that’s not what Scripture teaches, in Ephesians 2 we learn that it is “by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing: it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
But the final approach, the Biblical approach, to how we get to heaven is simple and it’s said beautifully in our Romans text for today. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. The Holy Spirit gives us the gift of faith, and that is what saves us. It is not how much we know or how good a person we are or what we do, it is faith in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. When I was a vicar in Boca Raton, I was teaching a Bible Class on Revelation, there’s a part of the book, Revelation 9 and 10 specifically, that describes some terrible things going on to nonbelievers. And there was this old lady in the class, June, who raised her hand and asked about her friend in the senior living community she was at. She witnessed to this friend almost every day and still the other lady did not believe. What about her? Is she going to hell?
And that’s a really uncomfortable question to have to deal with, but in the midst of these terrible visions in Revelation there is a spark of hope. In Revelation 9:20 it says “the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.” And you might ask, “Josh, how in the world do you think that’s a hopeful verse?!” Here’s why I find hope even there, because God is still giving them a chance to repent. And it reminds me of the centurion who oversaw Jesus’ crucifixion who said “surely this was the Son of God” and the sinner on the cross besides Jesus who asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom.
The centurion didn’t know about Jesus, and He confessed Him as Lord. The sinner on the cross was on deaths door, and He trusted in Jesus’ promises. So when I see in Revelation that, even at the bitter end, there is space for repentance, I find hope. Because I might never see someone’s faith, they might never say to me that Jesus is Lord, they might never tell me that God raised Him from the dead - but the Holy Spirit still works, even up to the last moment. And I cannot say for sure that faith took root, but I am forever hopeful in the Spirit's work so that, one day, they will be with me in paradise.
Amen.