Do you remember the old movie The Time Machine? In it, a scientist sits in the machine, and pushes the lever forward. Time begins to accelerate. The sun and moon pass rapidly before his window. Furniture scoots around the room. He pushes the lever forward faster. The room itself disappears. He is now in a vacant lot. He sees the mannequin in a store window--skirt hemlines go up and down with the changes of fashion. Then the store itself disappears. The town disappears, too, and greenery grows around him. Finally, he is encased in rock and then the rock itself wears away.
The older I get, the more I feel like that time traveler. Everything I know fades away. Old friends age and die. My hair turns from black to white. Just as soon as I get used to one bit of technology it's obsolete.
Think of the things we have known--records, black-and-white television, newspapers, books, full service gas stations, board games, milkmen, door-to-door salesmen, big cars, written letters, balancing your check book, soft drinks in glass bottles—all are either gone or fading. Those things we thought would last forever fall away and we are in an unfamiliar world. We are the strangers in our own homes, even strangers in our own bodies.
Desperately we try to slow things down. We pull on the lever. But the world will not go any slower because we want it to. Everything disappears--including ourselves.
Every generation has experienced obsolescence, decline and death. No one grows old gracefully. Everyone hates to see the old go.
Our reaction to aging depends on one thing--what we think comes afterward. If I were that man in the time machine, I would enjoy the ride only if I knew I was going back to my own time. If I thought it aging was permanent, then I would fight furiously to slow the world down. .
"To be, or not to be," Hamlet said. "That is the question." When he thought of ending his life, he thought of eternal judgment and changed his mind.
Either we believe that we are headed for oblivion, or we believe we are headed for heaven. Which is more appealing? Which give some reason for living?
The Bible gives abundant evidence of the existence of heaven. Consider these verses.
1 Thess 4:13-18. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
Rev. 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, he new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
John 14:1-4 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
What is heaven like? We cannot really know. The pearly gates, streets of gold, wedding feast, and thrones are all just metaphors meant to express to our earthly something indescribable.
Forget everything you have heard about heaven. Forget everything you imagine it to be. There is nothing this side of heaven that can even begin to express its true nature. What kind of existence we will have we could not begin to grasp. The images we get of heaven are either our attempts to grasp the ungraspable or God's method of expressing the inexpressible. It is the fulfillment of all things on earth, and the surpassing of all human joys. It is a real place where all the pleasures and joys of this world are multiplied many times over.
What do we know of heaven? We can at least say four things about it.
First, in Heaven there is no time. When God chose a name to give Moses, He called Himself “I am.” "I exist always in the present." When Jesus wanted to tell who he really was, he said "Before Abraham was, I Am." He lives in a present, which was before Abraham.
Eternity is beyond time and beyond space, when we live in all moments at once, as God does. I do not understand this, I only know it is.
I don't know about you, but this is a great comfort to me. In heaven I will literally have all the time in the world to enjoy what I want forever.
Second, in heaven there will be no sin. Once upon a time, God created a perfect world. We messed it up, by not obeying Him. This led to all the problems of the world, disease, war, famine, destruction, and death. Jesus redeemed out of this world those who would believe. One day when the world ends and our lives end, we will live happily ever after.
We would live happily ever after now, if it were not for one thing--sin.
We all suffer because of something someone has done, either ourselves or someone else. Drug use leads to addiction which leads to poverty. Promiscuity leads to unplanned pregnancy which leads to poverty. Drunken driving leads to accidents which leads to poverty. But many, many more suffer because they are victims of someone else. In a world without sin, there would be no poverty, either. And if there is no poverty without sin, then it must also be true that in a place where there is no poverty, there was no sin.
We battle sin our whole lives. But once we get to heaven, that battle is over. The drunkard is clean, the lustful are faithful, the lazy are industrious, the proud are humble, the greedy are satisfied, and the violent are calm at last. God wipes away every tear from our eyes and every temptation of our heart.
Third in heaven, there is love.
Yes, we will see our mothers and fathers and all those who have gone before (assuming they have trusted in Christ and arrived safely) But this is just a tiny part of heaven's joys. Without the restrictions of this world, and the sin of this world, our love broadens, as so does everyone else. There will not be separate families in heaven. Instead, we will all be part of one great family. Instead of one mother, we will have millions. We will have millions of fathers, too. Everyone we meet will be our brothers and sisters. In heaven, all children will be our children, and we will be children of all.
Love is the substance of heaven, as it the substance of God. We will live in it. Every relationship in heaven is rooted and grounded in the love of God.
Remember what Jesus said "Those who do the will or My father are my mothers and brothers." Remember when He said no one will give up father and mother without having a hundred more in the kingdom of Heaven. Remember when He said that in heaven there is no marrying or giving in marriage. We will all love each one. Divisions on earth are so ridiculous—if we are going to spend all eternity together, who why quarrel about what doesn't matter?
Fourth, in heaven will be the living presence of God. Here's the best part.
In Revelation 21: 22-26 John likens heaven to a city, shaped like an enormous city. The streets and the avenues of the city on every level are transparent gold, like glass
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
The glory of God lights the city, from top to bottom. It fills every nook and cranny of the dwelling place of the dead with glorious light.
On earth, we only catch glimpses of that light Imagine what it would be like to experience that moment of glory every moment of every day, for the rest of eternity, to be frozen in wonder forever.
In James Hilton's novel, Lost Horizon, a man visits a place called Shangri La, a place so beautiful that he spends the rest of his life trying to get back to it. Heaven is such a place. It is worth everything to go there.
So how do we get to heaven? It is simple. We put our trust in Jesus. Jesus' death on the cross washes away not only the guilt, but the power of sin in our lives. Whatever our sinful minds have done, whatever sinful lusts have driven us, he breaks the power of them, so that we can walk free of them.
Don't let the littleness of this life get you down.. God is in charge. He has a better place waiting for us, if we will only believe.
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