there the famous part of the beginning of chapter 14 where the Bible says let
not your heart be troubled
you believe in God believe also in me 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
and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again
and receive you unto myself that where I am
there ye may be also. What I want to preach about this morning is the subject of heaven
now when people think of heaven and hell
it's probably a lot easier to get a picture of hell in your mind right away
just to know exactly what's there exactly what it's like
just because there's so much detail in the Bible on hell and the Bible talks so
much about hell
in fact a lot more than it talks about heaven it's really easy to get an image
and a picture
of what hell's going to be like but when it comes to heaven
probably your average person or your average person in church this morning or
person that's saved
doesn't really know a whole lot about what heaven is like maybe they
just haven't thought it through very much or maybe they just
have a totally wrong idea just because they kind of just imagined it a certain way
so I want to preach this morning on what the Bible says heaven is like
now one of the things that the Bible really emphasizes about heaven
is that heaven is about being with Jesus Christ
it's about being with God that's who we're going to be with in heaven
that's why Jesus said here in verse 2 in my father's house are many
mansions
if it were not so I would have told you and by the way I'm glad I have a King
James Bible this morning
it says in my father's house are many mansions in the NIV it says
in my father's house are many rooms now I you know I like a mansion a lot better
than a room
you know that the NIV readers have been downgraded to something like a
Motel 6 or something where you just get a room
you know but I like the mansion a lot better and so you know
the Bible says I I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you
and if I go and prepare a place for you so it says he's going to prepare a place for us
somewhere
and he says and receive you unto myself
that where I am there ye may be also
so us going to heaven is about going there to be with him
he's preparing a place for us so that we can go there to be with him
now a lot of people will teach a doctrine that says you know the people who are
saved aren't going to go to heaven like sometimes you'll be out knocking doors
soul winning
and you'll ask somebody hey if you died today do you know for sure that you're going to heaven
and they'll say well I don't want to go to heaven or I'm not going to heaven I'm going to live on this earth
have you ever had people tell you that and they're always Jehovah's Witnesses or Jehovah's false
witnesses
and they always are on this doctrine that says you know you don't go to heaven
as a believer well that's a false doctrine because
the Bible says in my father's house are many mansions and he said I'm going there to
prepare a place for you
that where I am ye may be also how do you get there
because they teach only certain people are going to go to heaven and so forth
no how do you get there he says right in the next verse
he says in verse 4 whither I go ye know
he's saying you know where I'm going and he says
the way you know he's saying you know how to get there so Thomas is a little
confused by that Thomas saith unto him
Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way
so he's saying well I don't know where you're going he said well it's my father's house
where I'm going how can we know the way Jesus saith unto him
I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me
therefore anybody who believes on Jesus Christ
that's the way to get there and there is only one way to get there
and it's through Jesus he said no man cometh unto the father but by me
the father's in heaven that's stated many times in scripture
he's saying you go through me and you get to the father
and in my father's house there are many mansions that's where there will be a place
prepared go to Philippians chapter 1
be a place prepared for you so going to heaven is about going to a special
place that's prepared it's a mansion
and a mansion is just a really lavish rich dwelling place
where you can be there in order to be with Jesus Christ go to Philippians
chapter number 1 verse 21 here's proof that believers
don't just lie on the ground as the Jehovah's false witnesses teach
waiting for a resurrection no they go straight to heaven according to the Bible
we saw it in John 14 but look at it in Philippians chapter 1
the Bible reads in verse 21 for to me to live is Christ
and to die is gain but if I live in the flesh this is the fruit of my labor
yet what I shall choose I want not for I am in a straight betwixt two
look at this now having a desire to depart
and to be with Christ so he defines dying
as departing to be with Christ not as laying in the earth
he said I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better
nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you
so he said there's two options either I'm going to live or die
he said in verse 21 to live or to die he said to live is to abide in the flesh
he said to die is just to go
depart and to be with Christ so when the believer dies he's not really
dying he's just departing to be with Christ the body does die
but the soul departs to be with
Christ and so that proves again we know Jesus Christ is seated at the right
hand of the Father
so in John 14 he said if you go through Christ you're gonna be
with the Father where is he at in heaven here it says you're gonna be with
Christ where is he
he's in heaven so there's not a whole lot of details about heaven go to
Revelation chapter 7
there are not as many details about heaven
in the Bible as there are about hell but one of the major things that comes up
over and over again is just that we're going there to be with Christ we're
gonna see the Lord Jesus Christ
we're gonna be with him and that but secondly I want you to see this in
Revelation 7
the Bible teaches that in heaven we will be serving him constantly
day and night we will serve him we will not be sitting around
doing nothing floating on a cloud or whatever
you know people having their idea I remember I talked to a girl one time when I was a teenager
and she said when I get to heaven I'm gonna have my own snowboarding hill
I'm just gonna snowboard all day every day you know well
I don't think it's just a choose your own heaven you know I guess it's exactly how you
want it
in your own mind no the Bible teaches we're gonna be
serving him now that's a good thing because it's gonna get boring
if we're just up there just sitting around doing nothing so he's gonna have
works for us to do he's gonna have labor for us to do the Bible says
therefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him
whether we're present in the body or absent from the body
we labor we serve him get used to serving him now by the way because you're gonna be serving him for a long time
look at Revelation chapter 7 the Bible read this is that the
the rapture has taken place and I'll read for you the famous rapture passage
while you're looking at Revelation 7 it says for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout
with the voice of the archangel with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first
then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air and again this is what is emphasized
and so shall we ever be with the Lord we'll go to Revelation 7 this is where that has just taken place
the rapture just took place
it says in verse 9 after this I beheld and lo a great multitude
which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues
so this is everybody who's ever been saved the dead in Christ
also those who are alive and remained under the coming of the Lord
everybody's caught up every nation every tribe
every language is represented in this huge multitude
no one can number it because of so many millions and millions of people
and it says they stood before the throne and before the Lamb
clothed with white robes and palms in their hands
we can get a few things about heaven from that right there
number one we're going to be clothed we're up in heaven we're going to be wearing clothes
there will be people of all nationalities okay that are represented
and notice it doesn't show them segregated out like you know different sectors
you know it's just a whole throng of people all nations tongues tribes and so forth
and then notice they have palms in their hands what's a palm?
not talking about the palm of their hand they have palms in their hands
now this is a basically a palm tree so basically they have tree branches of palm trees in their hands
so look at verse number 10 and cried with a loud voice saying salvation to our God
which stood upon the throne and under the Lamb so they're shouting
that's what it means to cry out and all the angels stood round about the throne
and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces
and worshiped God saying
Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might
be unto our God forever and ever
Amen
and one of the elders answered saying to me
what are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they? where did they come from?
and I said unto him sure thou knowest and he said to me
these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb
therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple
and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them they shall hunger no more
neither thirst anymore
neither shall the sunlight on them nor any heat
for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them
and shall lead them under living fountains of waters
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes
so we can see more from this in verse 15
it says that they serve him day and night in his temple
so the Bible again says we'll be serving him day and night the next thing we can see
is that we will hunger no more neither thirst anymore
now some might interpret this as oh you're never going to eat or drink
but that's not what it says it says we'll never hunger or thirst
that means we're not going to go without food or go without drink
and that's proven in verse 17 because it says for the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them
so there is going to be a feeding taking place and shall lead them under living
fountains of waters
so there will be food and drink in heaven and it's going to be a perfect place
God will wipe away all tears from our eyes and look at this
talk about the best of both worlds now I love living in Phoenix
because I consider it like a paradise I mean you got palm trees you got
sunshine you got blue skies
but see in the summertime it's just really really hot
but the rest of the time of year it's great like today it's January and what is it
seventy-some degrees outside sunshine blue sky perfect weather
about half the year and then the other half the year is like an inferno
but you see in heaven it's like the best of both worlds
because the Bible says neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat
so it's not going to be too hot in heaven but you still have the palm trees
I mean it's an exact perfect balance okay
of a nice beautiful paradise and the Bible calls heaven a paradise
but without the extreme heat it's like basically here's what it's like
it's like being in Phoenix in January that's just how it always is
in heaven so we're getting a little taste of it on earth right now I'm just
kidding but anyway the Bible teaches we will be eating and drinking let me give
you some more scriptures on eating and drinking
go to Psalm 78 Psalm 78 so we're going to be with Jesus Christ forever
we're going to be a special mansion that he prepared for us
specifically so that we could be there with him we're going to be
in a great multitude of other believers we're going to be
serving him day and night we're going to have works to do
and we're also going to be fed and given
crystal clear water to drink and so let's look at more on eating now I'm
going to show you some scriptures that prove that we're going to be eating
in heaven that we're not just going to stop eating
first of all in Psalm 78 the Bible says in verse 24
and it rained down manna upon them to eat
remember this is when the children of Israel were eating the manna when they
came out of Egypt and it says had given them of the corn
of heaven man did eat angels food
he sent them meat to the full so the Bible says that when they ate the manna
they were eating the corn of heaven and they were eating angels food
so therefore the angels eat therefore there is food up there
that people in heaven eat this is probably what was being quoted in John
6 when the the Jews said to Jesus in
John 6 31 they said our fathers did eat manna in the desert
as it is written he gave them bread from heaven to eat
and he says that man was eating the angels food that's what the angels ate
up there okay and then also go to luke 24 if you would
luke chapter 24 and while you're turning there I'll read for you what
one of Jesus's followers said this guy was listening to
Jesus preach and Jesus told about the parable of the
great supper how God had had laid out a parable about a man
who laid out a great supper and invited people and they would come
and eat of the supper and so forth and and one of the guys
who's sitting there at that in that same
time period said and when one of them that sat at meat with them
heard these things so this is a guy that's sitting down eating with Jesus
he said unto him blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God
and Jesus didn't correct him he just went on to talk about the story about
God preparing a great meal and so forth and inviting people to come to that
meal the Bible calls it the marriage supper
of the lamb it takes place in revelation chapter 19
it says the marriage of the lamb has come
and the supper is there now where did I return chapter 24
is that where I had your turn all right look at verse 37
this is when Jesus has risen from the dead he appears unto his disciples
so he's already been resurrected into his glorified body
into his uh his body that's newly resurrected
it says in verse 37 but they were terrified and affrighted
and supposed that they had seen a spirit and he said to them
why are you troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts behold my
hands and my feet that it is I myself
handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me
have and by the way this proves the bodily
resurrection of Jesus Christ
he didn't just come up as a spirit or something like that no he
physically rose again from the dead it even says in verse number 40 and
when he had thus spoken he showed them his hands and his feet
so he showed them the holes in his hands the holes in his feet
he said I have flesh and bone now some people will
say well you know flesh and blood should not inherit the kingdom of God did he
say I have flesh and blood no he said I have flesh and bone and so the
body that was resurrected Jesus Christ
not a flesh and blood body but a flesh and bone
body a physical body okay now the blood is the life the bible teaches
right now the life of the flesh is in the blood
okay but see uh the life of the flesh is in the blood but but in the
spiritual body the spirit is going to provide the
life it's a spiritual body it's not a natural body
it's a spiritual life but it is a body and it is flesh and it is bone
now just to prove that point further that he wasn't just some kind of a
spirit or that we're not going to be
resurrected just as a spirit look at the next scripture it says in
verse 41 and while they yet believed not for joy and wondered
he said to them have you hear any meat so Jesus
first of all he shows them in the holes in his hands and his feet
they still just can't believe it because they're so happy you know
they just can't believe for joy and they're wondering they're amazed
Jesus decides to prove the point further
he's already showed him his hands and feet said look i'm not a spirit i have
flesh and bone but then to take it a step further he
says okay i'll eat something you know i mean how's the spirit going
to eat something okay and so he says have you any meat
and they gave him a piece of a broiled fish
and then honeycomb and he took it and did eat before them so he's showing
them look see i'm eating well the bible says that one day our body he says
he shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned
like unto his glorified body in Philippians 3 20 according to the
working whereby he's able even to do all things unto himself
the bible says that our body will be fashioned like unto his glorified body
and so we see that his body was a body that still ate food
and drank and so we will eat and drink as well when we get to heaven
because we'll have a similar body not only that go to matthew chapter 8
so so far we've seen that we'll be with christ we'll serve him constantly
we will eat and drink we will be in a great multitude
of the believers and so forth there are going to be palm trees and palm
branches look if you would at matthew 8 11
jesus is speaking and he says and i say unto you
that many shall come from the east and west
and shall sit down with abraham and isaac and jacob in the kingdom of
heaven but the children of the kingdom talking about the kingdom of israel
the earthly kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth he's referring to the fact that
a lot of gentiles that are going to be saved and a lot of jews that are
going to be unsaved and they're going to be cast out into
hell and then the gentiles are going to be hanging around with abraham isaac
and jacob but what i take from this is that when we're in heaven
we're going to be able to fellowship and talk with
the believers that have gone before us including bible characters
now that's going to be pretty cool isn't it think about saying when you get
to heaven you're going to get to be with jesus
you're going to be shouting these praises to god in a huge congregation or
a huge church of people you're going to be up there you're
going to be eating and drinking bread in the kingdom of god
and not only that you're going to be sitting down with abraham
isaac jacob another place when jesus says the same thing in luke he
talks about abraham isaac jacob and all the prophets
imagine how great it's going to be to get up there and meet these characters
and you know how you picture people a certain way and
then they look totally different i know i have a lot of business contacts in
today's world a lot of your business contacts you just talk to them on the
phone and you never actually see them
and so you'll talk to somebody for years i mean literally you talk to
somebody for years and then you meet that person and you're like
oh and they look completely different than you expect
you know you picture uh you picture maybe a big hefty guy it's a little
skinny guy you're like huh you picture a blonde hair guy they have
brown hair because a person's voice does not tell you what they look like
you can't tell but you think you can and so i have all kinds of business
contacts that i talk to every week and i picture them a certain way in my
mind and then you meet them and it just shatters that image you're never
right you're never even close and so you
think you know what moses looked like or you think you know what david looked
like or and you know whoever your favorite
bible character who do you want to meet when you get up there
somebody tell me who do you want to meet who elijah yeah what's what's he
looked like you know well we know he was a hairy man vial
says he was hairy and so who else has somebody that
you want just call it out to me joseph esther all right uh
you know whatever all the different names you know it's funny i asked
that i was talking to my kids about this i was telling them yeah we're
gonna get up there and see the bible characters
and john said i want to meet legion now i'm thinking like legion but he was
talking about that guy who was filled with all the demons
and when he said his name was legion he wasn't talking about his name
he said he was legion because it was the demons that the devils that were
talking because there were so many devils possessing this guy
he said my name's legion so john meant that he wanted to meet that guy
because remember the guy got saved jesus cast out all devils and the guy got
saved and so i was thinking about when we get to heaven
it's probably going to be a big long line to go talk to noah
and abraham and isaac you know everybody's going to be a big long
line to get to esther and joseph and and uh john the
baptist and then there's going to be you know
john my son john said legion
it's like really you want to see me
son you're not going to have to wait in line long for that one
oh man so yeah but isn't that going to be great
it's going to be fun to see all the different characters and me ask them
things and talk to them about the experiences they had
you know clarify stuff about what happened in this story what happened in
that story so you get to meet all these bible
characters the bible says we're going to sit down
with abraham isaac and jacob the king we're just going to sit down with
them just like we could sit down i could sit down with you today and we
could talk you're going to be able to sit down and talk to noah
just sit down and talk to joseph sit down and talk to whoever you want isn't
that a great uh that's going to be cool that's going to
be fun it's going to be exciting not only that go to hebrews chapter 12
so we're going to get to see jesus we're going to get to see all our
favorite bible characters we're going to be eating and drinking
you know the food's going to you know it's not going to be some
partially hydrogenated soybean oil like you know genetically modified food
you know it's going to be some really good food now you want to talk
about organic you know there's there's no pesticides in heaven
okay and so it'll be perfect food and that'll be good
uh not only that but what we think of as heaven a lot of times we think
of what the streets of gold the gates of pearl and so forth
what that's talking about is the the heavenly jerusalem or the new
jerusalem that's a city in heaven that's not really the whole heaven
but that is part of it because that city is located there right now
the heavenly jerusalem the new jerusalem i'm going to show you that in
the bible later that city's going to move down to
this earth more than a thousand years from now
we're talking when there's a new heaven and a new
earth and that city will descend down and and come down to this earth but
right now it's up in heaven so when we go to heaven we'll be
there let me show you that hebrews chapter 12 verse 21
the bible reads and so terrible was the sight that moses said i exceedingly
fear and quake but jeer come unto mount zion
and unto the city of the living god the heavenly jerusalem and to an
innumerable company of angels so what's the city of the living god the
heavenly jerusalem to the general assembly and church of
the firstborn which are written in heaven
and to god the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect
and so we see right there that the heavenly jerusalem is the city of the
living god so the reason it's called the heavenly jerusalem is up in heaven
it's not the jerusalem on this earth right now go to galatians chapter 4
i'll show you that galatians chapter 4 so i'm just going
to kind of show you a few scriptures on what
the new jerusalem is that way we can look at a description of the new
jerusalem and see that we're talking about things that are in heaven
it says in galatians chapter 4 verse 25 for this agar
is mount sinai in arabia now you remember mount sinai is where
moses got the 10 commandments and answer it to jerusalem which now is
which is in and is in bondage with her children so the jerusalem that we know
of today the earthly jerusalem that now is
is in bondage with her children why because jesus christ said
if you uh if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed
and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free
the jews told him hey we were never in bondage to any man and he told him
oh yes you are in bondage because the thing is
that the children of israel today over in the uh
so-called promised land over in the uh the nation of israel
they don't believe in jesus christ and therefore they are in bondage
just like every other unsaved person you say oh they get a free pass
because they're jews no way john the baptist dealt with that he said think
not to stay within yourselves we have abraham to our father
don't even think for one second that that's going to get you anywhere
he said think not to stay within yourselves we have abraham to our father
for i say to you that god is able to be stones to raise up children unto
abraham so god can call god says that the
gentiles if they believe in christ are abraham's seed
the children of abraham and he looks at those people and says you're your
father the devil because you you don't believe in christ you believe in
in anti-christ you believe in a false messiah you know they don't believe
in jesus christ now i'm sure there are some people in jerusalem that
believe in jesus christ and there are some jews that believe in jesus
christ they are the remnant you know of the
believing remnant but but as a whole the city of
jerusalem on this earth is not free it's in bondage because of
unbelief in jesus christ but look at what he says
but jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all
so right there there's another jerusalem up in heaven
jerusalem above the heavenly jerusalem okay and that is where our
citizenship is go to revelation chapter three
revelation chapter number three and then we're going to go to revelation 21 but
look at revelation 3 verse 12 the bible reads
and i saw i'm sorry revelation 312 him that overcometh
will i make a pillar in the temple of my god
and he shall go no more out and i will write upon him the name of my god
and the name of the city of my god which is new jerusalem
which cometh down out of heaven from my god
and i will write upon him my new name go to revelation 21
revelation chapter 21 is where we see this new jerusalem
come down the heavenly jerusalem the new jerusalem it's also called the holy
jerusalem it says in verse 2 of chapter 21
and i john saw the holy city new jerusalem
coming down from god out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband verse 9 and there came unto me one of the
seven angels which have the seven vials full of the seven last plagues
and talk with me saying come hither i will show thee the bride the lamb's
wife and he carried me away in the spirit
to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city
the holy jerusalem descending out of heaven
from god and he begins to describe it having the glory of god and her
light was like unto a stone most precious
even like a jasper stone clear as crystal so when we get to heaven we're
going to see this city right away it's already up there waiting for us
later it's going to come down but the bible says in verse
21 12 it says and had a wall great and high and at 12 gates
and at the gates 12 angels and names written there on which are the names of
the 12 tribes of israel it says in verse 14 and the wall of
the city had 12 foundations and in them the names of the 12 apostles
of the land and he had talked with me had a golden
reed to measure the city and the gates thereof and the wall thereof
and the city lieth four squared the length is as large as the breadth
and he measured the city with the reed 12 000
furlongs the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal
you say what is a furlong 12 000 frogs that's 1500
miles that's a big city so this is a huge city up in heaven
1500 miles so think about how it span almost halfway across the united
states this is a massive city up in heaven
you say why is it so big you know i mean it's this huge 1500 miles
one city and it's 1500 miles high because it's big enough
for everybody that's ever been saved to be able to go there
you know and it just shows that god wants people to be saved and he created
a huge place for them to be i mean this is all the people who've
been saved throughout history and they're going to need a little bit of room in
this place so it's 1500 miles square and then the
bible says in verse number uh 18 it says the building of the wall of it
was of jasper and the city was pure gold like unto clear glass and the
foundation of the wall of the city foundations of the wall of the city
were garnished with all manner of precious stones and he lists all the
precious stones there verse 21 and the 12 gates were 12
pearls every several gate was of one pearl
and the street of the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass
and i saw no temple therein for the lord god almighty and the lamb
are the temple of it and the city had no need of the sun
neither of the moon to shine in it for the glory of god did lighten it
and the lamb is the light thereof and the nations of them which are saved
shall walk in the light of it and the kings of the earth to bring their
glory and honor into it so this is a pretty amazing place a golden city
with streets of gold gates of pearls now that's not all of what heaven
is but that's a part of what heaven is that's a place in heaven is this
gigantic city now not only that but we see uh go to matthew chapter 6
we see that heaven is a place of private property
not a communist utopia paradise now a lot of people think that you know
oh we get to heaven we're all going to share everything
and no one will own anything and and we'll all just be
equal and we'll all have the same stuff no wrong
totally wrong couldn't be any more wrong
heaven is a place where you have your own stuff private property
i don't know about you but i like having my own stuff
you know everybody says like oh equality equality you know
i don't really like equality very much
i mean think about it if everybody's equal then nobody's the best or
nobody has more than somebody else they say oh that's it bad i think that
way no because everybody runs in a race only one person wins
and the bible says run that you may obtain
run to win run for the crown you see we like to win a race
not just okay we're gonna have a big race everybody and then we are
well how do we do who won well you're all equal what
that's not cool i mean oh we play a board game for three hours and it's
like well who won oh we're all equal i mean i'd rather lose than be equal
at least i know where i stand you know what i mean and plus wouldn't it be a
bummer you work your whole life you serve god
you break your back and then you get to heaven and some guy who just
basically believed on jesus christ and then never went to church you know
you believe on jesus christ he never went to church he never did any soul
winning he never read his bible he just
lived the way of the world and then you're both
the same mansion same thing everybody's the same you know you say well you're
just wrong no you know what if i were if i felt that
way and god said hey you're all going to
be equal i'd just say okay whatever god knows best
but that's not what he said he never said that anywhere because look at
matthew 6 this is one example he says in verse 19
lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth
where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves
do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your
heart be also so if i was to be a lay up and treasure
and somebody else isn't going to come and take it away from us
now here people steal your treasure and you know sometimes they even call it
sharing or communism or whatever but they come
and take your treasure away from you god says well if you lay it up in
heaven nobody's going to take it away from you it's yours
now look at mark chapter 10 there's a lot of scriptures on this i'm not
just uh pulling this out of my head you say
everybody's going to be equal in heaven okay well here's another verse for you
while you're turning to mark 10 it says in matthew 519 whosoever
therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so
he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven
so let me ask something if everybody's equal in heaven then how come a guy
who breaks god's commandments is going to be called the least
and he says but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven so is everybody going to be called
great in heaven no there'll be some that are greater than others and some
that are lesser than others okay uh you say well i don't like that well
you know so what i mean yeah you know there's only one heaven the other
option's not very good it's kind of like let's see do i want to go to hell
or do i want to go to a heaven where i'm not equal with everybody
yeah okay i'll take heaven i'll put up with it you know i can't have my
equality my my uh social and financial
equality it's not biblical okay when you run
a race you run to win some people are better than others at
certain things you know we all have different talents
there are people who are better than me at certain things i'm not going to go
around saying that's not fair we're all the same it's like well no you're
better than i am at that you know and maybe i'm
better than you at something or whatever
maybe you're better than me at everything okay that's just the way
life is but it's not about equality when we
get to heaven there's going to be a difference if you
keep god's commandments that's when he'll call you great
you blow off and say god's commandments don't matter and
teach people that you don't need to obey them and that and that they're
just optional and that they're just you know well you know we're free in
christ just do what you want to do it you know when you get to heaven and you
lived your life that way you're going to be called mr least for
the rest of eternity and that's not a good name to carry
around with you you're going to have or you can lay up treasure in
heaven and have all kinds of treasure be called great and everything like that
uh where did i have you turn
anybody turn there all right verse 21 it says then jesus beholding him
loved him and said to them one thing thou lackest go thy way sell
whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven and come take up the cross and
follow me so he tells this guy hey if you sell stuff and give it to the
poor you'll have treasure in heaven it's not
just well and if you don't do it you'll still have treasure in heaven
no the more you are generous with others and the more you give and the more
you help people and the more you keep god's commandments
the more souls that you win to christ the more treasure you're gonna have in
heaven that's what the bible says go to first peter chapter one first
peter chapter number one uh it says in verse three blessed be
the god and father of our lord jesus christ
which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again that's like
born again begotten us again unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead
to an inheritance what's an inheritance
something that you received from your father right
let's say your father passes away you receive his money
his inheritance well god the father is going to allow us
to inherit all things he that overcometh shall inherit all things
and i will be them a father he shall be to be a son
we are joint heirs with jesus christ as children of god
we will inherit the kingdom of god we will inherit with christ
and the bible says there's an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled
and that fated not away reserved in heaven for you
so there it's reserved up there in heaven for you an inheritance
treasure a good name being called great versus being called
least so it's not a utopia for communists
now the you know they're not you know carl marx is burning in hell anyway so
he doesn't really have to worry about this you know lennon and lennon and
trotsky they don't have to worry about this okay because they're not even
there anyway they're burning in hell but it's not going to be a place where
it's just everybody's equal now a lot of people will say this
well it's not fair you can just believe on jesus christ and go to heaven it's
true you just believe on jesus christ you're going to heaven
it says that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have eternal life but here's the here's the other side of
that anybody who believes on christ is going
to heaven period say well then why serve god well
one one i mean there's a lot of reasons why to serve god
but one of them is that you want to have some treasure up there when you
get there you don't want to be called least
because guess what you're only living on this earth for a short time
our life is but a vapor that appears for a little time the advantage of the
way 60 70 80 years 90 years you're done
but you know what you're going to be up there for a really long time
and then you're going to be for all eternity living on the new earth here
with the heavenly jerusalem come down you're going to be there for a really
long time and so you're going to want to have
that treasure you're going to want to have those crowns you're going to want
to have that that legacy of what you did on
this earth with your life because only one life so soon has passed and only
what's done for christ will last and so that's something to think about
but not only that it's a paradise go to second corinthians chapter 12
second corinthians chapter 12 here's another verse
the bible teaches of course that the angels are in heaven right
talks about the angels of heaven and big throngs of
angels around the throne here's an interesting verse while you're turning to
second corinthians 12 the bible says in matthew 18 10 take
heed that you despise not one of these little ones
for i say to you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my
father which is in heaven so the bible talks about you say is
it true that there are guardian angels but that is a biblical concept
because the bible teaches that uh first of all he said
that the angels and uh hebrews chapter one he said
but under which the angels said he at any time sit on my right hand until i
make thine enemies thy footstool are they not all ministering spirits
set forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation
and then the bible says in matthew 18 10 where i just read that the
that that the little children he said that the little saved children there
he said don't despise them because their
angels do always behold the face of his father which is in heaven so
basically up in heaven there are all these angels
and basically the angel that's maybe assigned to let's say
you know my son or your daughter you know they always
basically behold they basically have an audience with god they can speak to
god and they can tell god and say hey you
know i need to go mess this guy up because you know he's saying this or
that one so that's interesting that all the
angels are in heaven and we see that that's where they get their marching
orders they basically behold god's face
and he gives them instructions and he basically
sends them out with their marching orders and their mission and so forth
that's an interesting thing look at second corinthians chapter 12
verse 2 it says i knew a man in christ above 14 years ago
whether in the body i cannot tell or whether out of the body i cannot tell
god know it such a one caught up to the third
heaven and i knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body i
cannot tell god knew it how that he was caught up into
paradise so where did it say he was caught up in at the end of verse 2
the third heaven where does it say he's caught up in in verse 4
into paradise caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which is not
lawful for a man to utter now paradise the word paradise in the
bible is used three times only three times
one time is when jesus said to the thief on the cross
today shalt thou be with me in paradise
the second time is where it's used right here where he said he was caught
up into paradise up into the third heaven then in
revelation 2 7 it says to him that overcome it will i
give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise
of god so that tells us three things about paradise right there
number one it's where the saved go because the guy who believed on christ
he went there the other thief that did not believe in christ
he did not go there okay he went to hell and so
number one we see from the first mention of paradise that's where a saved
person who believes on christ is going to go when they die
to paradise the second thing we see is that it's equivalent to the third
heaven it's equivalent to heaven paradise is heaven because he said he
was caught up to paradise he was caught up to heaven same
place same event same direction going up to heaven
and then the third mention we see is that him that overcome it
which is those who believe in jesus christ according to first john chapter
five he said will i give to eat of the
tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of god
so the tree of life that was in the garden of eden with adam and eve
is now located in heaven and when you go to heaven as a saved person
you will eat of the tree of life you will eat of the fruit of the tree
of life so there's a tree there and there's
fruit growing on the tree and you're going to eat the fruit off the tree
that right there is is uh evidence of the fact that
heaven is not just a golden city but rather it's a place of of plant life
as well we talked about this on wednesday night when i was preaching on
genesis chapter one where it showed how god made the plants
before they were in the earth okay and so there were plants up in
heaven and so forth there's the tree of life there were palm trees for the
palm branches you know uh it's basically not just a
total concrete jungle you know and thank god for that now
you say well what exactly does it look like what exactly is it like
i don't know what it's like but i will say that you know i'm giving you
everything i know here you know we're going to be with christ
we're going to be eating and drinking uh there's a city there
but we can kind of figure that it was probably
in a lot of ways heaven in some ways it's probably similar to the garden of
eden in a lot of places because god seems to have a pattern of
taking stuff that he does on heaven that's perfect and then recreating it
upon this earth like for example the tabernacle that
moses built the big tent where they would worship the lord in the old
testament in the tent that tabernacle was based upon a
literal real tabernacle that exists in heaven according to hebrews chapter 9
and i'm not going to turn there for sake of time but in hebrews 8 and 9 the
bible talks about how jesus christ took his blood into the holy place in
heaven in the tabernacle in heaven and
sprinkled it on the ark of the covenant in heaven
okay so when moses built the tabernacle he was told to build it according to
the pattern that was showed him in the mount and
in the mount he was showed images of the tabernacle in heaven
and the bible is really clear on that if you read hebrews 8 and 9 you'll
see it very clearly that there is a physical literal
tabernacle in heaven and that they pattern that tabernacle on earth
after the tabernacle in heaven so it appears that after god created the
whole earth okay
on day six he planted a garden in eden in day six and that's where he put the
man and he set up this garden and he
he started forming animals out of the dust of the ground and showing them to
adam and then he formed eve and out of the rib that was taken from adam and
so forth you know if you look at the
similarities with the garden of eden we think of garden of eden as a
paradise even though the bible doesn't use the word paradise
but it did have the tree of life in the midst of it it was a place of
rivers and and the bible talked about gold there and the bible talks about
uh fruit and trees and so forth and and that
that's probably what heaven's like because we know there's a river we know
there's there's uh the tree of life and so forth
and we know it's called paradise so that pretty much gives you a little bit
of a feel i think part of the reason why the bible doesn't really go into
great detail about what heaven looks like it's probably just
hard to describe i mean i know god can do anything
but the bible says that for example uh the man who was caught up into
paradise he heard words that it was not lawful
for a man to utter your unspeakable words okay
you say what's an unspeakable word you know but we don't know because
we're not there obviously it's on a higher plane than we are
so when we get there it's probably going to be more amazing than anything we can
imagine so it's probably if god took the time
to describe it in words in the bible it probably would not do justice to it
you know we'd probably read about it if god described it to us and we just
wouldn't really understand what it's like or be able to picture it
because the bible says i have not seen nor
ear hurt neither have entered into the heart of man the things
that god's prepared for them to love him and so god has prepared some great
things for us some wonderful amazing things that are
so great we could probably not even comprehend it
we could try to compare it and say oh maybe it's like you know yosemite or
maybe it's like hawaii or maybe it's like this paradise that we know
but truth be told it's going to be so far beyond that
that we just have to wait to see when we get there
now he goes into more detail describing hell just because he really wants to
send a strong message don't go there okay whereas with
heaven it's we're going to be pleasantly surprised when we get there
another thing let me just finish with this last point go to luke chapter 15
luke chapter 15 this is one of uh several scriptures i could show you
so what's it going to be like in heaven you know are we gonna have
are we gonna have food we're gonna have food you know are we gonna have a
place to live yeah we're gonna have a mansion
are we gonna have our own stuff or do we just have to share everything are we
gonna have some of our own stuff oh we're gonna have some of our own
stuff is everybody gonna be equal everybody's the same no no we're all
gonna be different you know there's gonna be different
rewards the bible says behold i come quickly and my reward is with me
to give every man according as his work shall be so yes salvations by faith
alone but guess what rewards are based on your works
don't do any work well guess what you're going to be up there and you're going to
have a mansion with a few empty rooms in it you know
and i'm going to have all the furniture and everything that somebody
else might have okay so we're going to have our own
stuff absolutely all right is it going to be just totally devoid of
plant and animal life no it's not because the bible talks
about there are horses in heaven the bible talks about how there are the
four beasts around the throne a beast is an animal you know there are all
kinds of other creatures and life besides just human beings there's
going to be angels there's going to be animals there are going to be plants
and so forth those type of things are going to be
there you say well what is heaven is it like a planet is it round like
the earth is round i mean that's possible
you know probably i mean if i had to guess it probably is round like the
earth is round because it seems like things on earth
are patterned after things in heaven in a way
it's almost like a lot of the things that go on in earth are mirrored after
the way things are in heaven it's just heaven is a perfect place the
bible says thy kingdom come thy will be done in
earth as it is in heaven you know and you have a city
relocating from one to the other you know it's very possible that heaven
is somewhat of the earth in many ways
except just a totally perfect version we have cities we have trees we have
fruit we have water we have food we have church services
we have work to do we have all these elements
but in heaven is a perfect place where you know here thieves break through and
steal your treasure there they don't so is it a planet i don't know you know
do we know exactly what it's like i would say it's probably as similar
to the earth you know but who knows if god doesn't
really describe it to us we have to just kind of go with what he said it's
going to be but whatever it is it sounds pretty cool so far you know that
it doesn't have to be exactly the way we want it to be or
think it's going to be and uh the last thing i wanted to show you here is in
luke chapter 15 let me find my place here
luke chapter what verse did i tell you which verse it's going to be
all right where in the world stop everything i gotta go through all my
notes here and find this did i say luke 15 though
there it is all right luke 15 7 it says i say unto you that
likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth
more than over 99 just persons which need no repentance
now that verse tells me right there that the people in heaven
are aware of what's going on on this earth in some level
right because the bible talks about you know a sinner repenteth and
there's joy in the in heaven okay and the bible talks about how we're
compassed about what's so great a cloud of witnesses
and those witnesses that it describes are the basically the believers who've
gone on before us listed in hebrews chapter 11
in that faith chapter that they are basically witnessing abraham
jesus said abraham rejoiced my day he saw it and was glad
jesus said abraham saw my day so somehow those in heaven are aware of
what's going on on earth and there are a lot of other passages we
could turn to in revelation where it talks about people in heaven
observing what's going on on the earth and knowing what's going on on the
earth so i don't know to what degree or to
what extent but when you get you say what do i
expect you know let's say i and hopefully this doesn't happen but let's
say you know i get in a horrible car accident
today and today's the day and i die physically what's going to happen to
me well instantly your soul will be carried
to heaven because the bible says to be absent from the bodies to be present
with the lord second corinthians chapter five and
so you will go to be in heaven in a perfect place and you'll be
in a place where you'll be with jesus christ you know
all the other details we don't really know
we told you what we know but you'll be in that perfect place
and you will still be able to be kind of aware of what's going on on
this earth behind you you can kind of know what's happening
you know in between in between visiting with uh with
abraham isaac and jacob and king david and king solomon
you know in between that you'll go okay so what's going on down on earth you
know it's how how faithful were baptists doing
you know they're still oh they've gone liberal now you know they got some new
pastor he's uh he's preaching to niv or
whatever so anyway it's an exciting place to be
it's it's exciting so look lay up not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth lay up for yourself treasure in heaven
because i guarantee you the stuff you're going to have in heaven
is way better than the stuff you're going to have on this earth period
and so the bible says set your affection on things above
not on things on the earth let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer
father we thank you so much for loving us and preparing a place for us
and preparing us a mansion where we can
be with you for all eternity and and how exciting that's going to be to
sit down with abraham isaac and jacob to be with you to eat and drink in the
kingdom of god and to rejoice with you and to see you
face to face and we thank you so much for giving us
that privilege none of us deserves heaven but it's been given to us by
grace and we're thankful for that and please just help us to live our
lives realizing that this earth is not our final home
and no matter what happens on this earth this is not our final home
we're going to be in heaven for for a long long time
and we're going to be on the the perfect earth with the the heavenly
jerusalem for a long long long time help us to
live our life in that way with eternity in view not just the
the short life that we live and to lay up our treasures they are
not on the earth in jesus name we pray amen