Luke Parrott

When Heaven Becomes A Place On Earth

 

To close out a week long discussion on heaven, I have a few final thoughts.

So is heaven our final destination?  And how does this all affect my life today?

The first Christians were looking beyond that time of 'life after death' when we would be in the presence of Jesus to something bigger...the coming resurrection of each of our bodies.

"Life after life after death" as it has been called by NT Wright.

This was their's and it is also our final destination.  Paul spends a whole chapter in I Corinthians 15 trying to clarify this point using phrases like "we will be made alive" and "we will all be changed".  In Philippians 3 he writes of his longing to attain to this resurrection (v 10) and how he awaits a Savior from heaven who will come down and "transform our lowly bodies" to be like his (v 21).

This is where our final destination is.  A kingdom of heaven brought down to earth (see Rev 21,22) where we will have new, resurrected, changed bodies.  

Implications:

If you think heaven is just about a big old church service with harps and clouds, then you are really missing out on how good the story is going to get.

If you're hope is just in "going to heaven when you die", then you forgot about the beautiful transformation God is going to do in you beyond that.

If you are ready to "go home" and "leave this earth" just remember that Jesus' plan is to bring heaven to earth (and that process has already been done in part...and it's being done IN YOU!).

If you are trying to share your faith with someone, just remember the story is a lot bigger than just trying to scare people out of hell.  

If you long for heaven because you want to "leave the problems of this earth", remember that God has already begun to bring his rule to this earth and he wants you to take part in the renewing process in the same way that he is renewing you personally from the inside out today.

Final Thoughts:  Can you see the massive implications?  If we see heaven as our 'retirement package', a long needed permanent vacation, then we're just buying time till we finally get there.

But if we see beyond death to the resurrected life he offers, then we see a new heaven, new earth, new bodies, and a new kingdom that is God's reign come in full.  Then, we become energized to engage in a broken world today that needs food, clothing, shelter, clean water, forgiveness, love, a listening ear, healing...  And we can begin to see ourselves as change agents of Jesus who are using our passions on a global scale to bring "his kingdom to come, his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven."

If you want to explore this further I would recommend 2 books to get you started. Surprised By Hope by NT Wright  and  Heaven by Randy Alcorn.

The First Transformed Body

...I think we've hit a nerve.  The past few days there have been more than 3x's as many hits on this site!  Which is exciting to see because this topic can't be taken lightly.

I'm gonna pick up right where I left off. (Remember, I am going somewhere with this.)

The twist came when Jesus started talking about his coming death.

In Mark 9 we see Jesus teach his disciples that he must suffer many things, be killed and after three days rise again.  Common words to fall on our ears who know the end of the story already, but for anyone of that time it was very confusing.

In fact, Peter goes as far as to rebuke Jesus for saying such a thing (Mark 8:32).  The whole idea of Jesus himself rising from the dead was confusing before and even after he was crucified and resurrected (Mk 9:10, Jn 20:9).

You see, the Jewish belief was that someday everyone, all together, would be raised in the coming resurrection at the last day.  It was not supposed to happen to one person in advance as NT Wright makes clear in his book, Surprised By Hope.

So what did the first Christians believe and hope for after seeing Jesus experience this coming resurrection in advance of everyone else? 

Those who saw Jesus after his resurrection were looking first hand at what a "bodily life after a bodily death" looked like.  Jesus appeared to the disciples who were locked away in a room, but he wasn't a ghost.  Cuz when they touched him and saw him eat, he was real, recognizable, tangible.

(Side Note:  If you ever wonder what your new transformed body will be like, consider first what Jesus' body was like in the 40 days he visited between his resurrection and ascension!)

So, with that experience behind them, the first Christians drew some startling conclusions about life after death. 

The verses we look at tomorrow will help us see what early Christians saw as our final destination and future hope.  It's not necessarily heaven.  (At least not in the way heaven is popularly understood today.)  We will also see the massive implications that can be drawn from a correct understanding of what is to come.

Here are some verses if you want to read ahead.  I Corinthians 15 and Philippians 3:20-21.

A Bodily Life After a Bodily Death

So we have been talking about heaven the past few days.  Thanks for those of you who have commented on this topic via facebook.  Let's keep going with this conversation.

It is helpful to know what the Jews, Jesus, and the first Christians thought of this topic in order for us to re-align ourselves to the truth today.  That is why I am taking this approach...so hang in there!  We are making progress.

To pick up where we left off, the Jews believed that at the coming resurrection they would see God's reign come down to earth in full.  At this time, each of them would receive a new body. 

To make this clear, most Jews believed that after their bodily death they would come back to bodily life.  Not as a ghost or some improved spiritual, bodiless being.  But in bodily, physical, tangible form.

This is important to realize as we try to better understand the question, "Is heaven our final destination?"  because if you picture yourself someday floating in the clouds in an endless church service, you must understand that your perceptions are horribly mistaken and reflect more of a Simpsons-inspired belief than one that is scripturally sound.

Jesus lined up right with the Jews in his understand of life after death.  He anticipated this very same coming resurrection.   Yet, he was about to interject a wild twist that no one (not even his closest friends) saw coming.  This twist is what led the first Christians to put their hope in something other than what we today would commonly understand as "going to heaven when we die".  In fact, their focus was on something beyond that (although being with God after death was much anticipated as Paul shows in Phil 1:23).

But let's tackle that tomorrow.

What Jesus believed about life after death

What did people believe about life after death before Jesus arrived on the scene?

Pagans either denied any existence of life after death while others believed a bodyless soul would exist beyond death.

Jews, on the other hand, believed in a coming resurrection (disregarding the Sadducees and some others who adopted pagan beliefs).  They believed God would look after the soul until "the resurrection at the last day" as Martha says at the tomb of Lazarus (Jn 11:24).

They awaited a coming resurrection that would occur after death but not immediately following death.

In fact, the Sadducees tried to corner Jesus on this very topic (see Luke 20:27-39).  They gave him a scenario of a woman that marries a man with 6 other brothers.  The man dies, and his oldest brother remarries the woman.  This brother dies, and his next oldest brother marries the woman.  This process runs it's course until the woman dies after having been married to all 7 brothers!  Crazy scenario.

So....they ask skeptically, "at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"

Jesus' answer describes another age where things are so radically different that this problem is not an issue.

So is Jesus basically refering here to the 'heaven' that we all talk about today?

And where did the Jews believe people went as they awaited the coming resurrection, that waiting time between death and resurrection?  And what did they think would actually happen at this coming resurrection?

Is Heaven Our Final Destination?

When we think of heaven, we think of "going home".  Our final destination.  Leaving the world.  Going to be with the Father and living with him forever. 

But are these thoughts biblical? 

We even use this language in our efforts to bring others to the faith.  "If you were to die tonight, would you be 100% sure you were going to heaven?" 

But is heaven the end goal?  Did Jesus come down to earth in order to "get people in to heaven"?

When we face trials, we "long to go home" and "leave behind the problems of this world".  When someone passes away, we explain that they are "now in a better place" or they are in their "final resting place". 

But how accurate are we holding to the scriptures in our perceptions of heaven? 

The reason I ask the question, "Is heaven our final destination?", is because the answer has massive implications as to how we live our lives today in light of what we see ahead of us.

I love doing multiple little studies throughout the year in areas where I have many questions.  Currently, my topics of interest have been the Beatitudes, South Africa's recent history, the genocide in Darfur, and the issue of Heaven.  So my paradigm of heaven has been shifting as I have sunk deeper into scripture and  recent writings about this topic among christian authors. 

Here is an article recently published in Time magazine that can sweep you into this conversation
Christians Wrong About Heaven

Join me as we examine how we should think rightly of heaven.  What it is and what it is not.

What Will Heaven Be Like?

I've been thinking a lot lately about heaven.  Life after death.  I remember speaking to a group of students about this topic a few years ago and realizing, "I don't really have a clue what heaven is REALLY gonna be like."

If you ask around, you get a lot of interesting answers, even from fellow believers.  Heaven is sitting on our own personal clouds playing harps.  Heaven is one endless church service.  Or as the song says, "Heaven is a place on earth".

What do you think heaven will be like?