Heaven - Part 1

So we're looking at the subject of heaven. I really thought I knew a lot about heaven until I started this study last week.

Now I realize how much I don't know. In Luke 23, verse 43,

Jesus said to the thief on the cross, you remember this, right? What did Jesus say? Yeah, actually he said, most assuredly,

I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

So we're gonna see in a few moments that paradise really can be a synonym for heaven.

So Jesus is saying, most assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with me in heaven.

That's what Jesus is saying. So when a believer dies, where do they go?

They go immediately into the presence of Christ, to be with him in heaven.

But have you ever wondered, where is heaven? Have you ever thought about this?

Has anyone ever asked you, where is heaven? And that's kind of a hard thing to answer.

Is it a million miles away? Is it among us, just in a different dimension?

If we spend most of our, I think we do spend most of our time talking about how to get to heaven, instead of the details and where is it, and questions like that, most of the time we're talking about how does a person get there, and we know the answer to that.

So a person needs to place their faith in Christ, place their faith in the gospel in order to get to heaven.

But there's a lot of questions about heaven, like where is it, and what is it gonna be like?

Will we recognize our loved ones in heaven? That's one of the most common questions.

Will we remember our former life here on earth? So this evening, these are the things we're gonna be looking at, as we study the subject of heaven.

This will be part one of at least a two -part, if not a three -part series.

It'll somewhat depend on how much interaction I get from you, how many questions you have.

But let's start at the beginning. So turn to Genesis chapter one.

So depending on the translation of the Bible you use, you find the word heaven somewhere between six and 700 times in scripture.

So that's a lot. Heaven is mentioned a lot. And obviously the most important thing for us is that we have this hope of heaven.

Because no matter what happens in this life, no matter what difficulties or tragedies we might face, if we know and have that hope that we're gonna go to heaven, it really eases whatever might happen here.

So let's look at the scripture. You might've thought that to study heaven, we should go to the book of Revelation, right?

Because that's where, towards the end, that's where you get most of the details in the book of Revelation. But we're starting literally at the beginning.

So Genesis chapter one, starting in verse one. Why are we starting here?

Because this is the first time the Bible uses the word heaven in the very first verse of chapter one of Genesis.

Genesis 1 .1, we read these words. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Now, right away, somebody's tempted to put their hand up. I know, at least one or two people. But that's what it says.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And you notice, and I'll get to that other thing in a second, but you notice it's heavens, plural, right?

Heavens with an S, which kind of begs the question, how many heavens are there?

If it's heavens, plural, how many heavens are there? Well, there's a simple answer. There's three heavens, okay?

Who knows this? Or maybe this is a totally new thought that there are three heavens.

There is the first heaven, which refers to the sky. So all that is within our atmosphere, that is the first heaven.

The second heaven is outer space. And the third heaven, that's kind of heaven proper, what we think of as the dwelling place of God.

Now, for those two or three people who are ready to put their hand up, what are you gonna say?

Well, in the King James Version of the Bible, who noticed this? That it doesn't, yeah, that it doesn't say heavens, it says heaven.

So in the King James Version, it says God created the heaven, singular, heaven and the earth, right?

Can I get a witness? That's what the King James says, all right. Well, which is it? Did God create the heavens, plural, or the heaven?

Well, yeah, there's always, no matter what I say tonight, there's gonna be somebody out there who disagrees.

That's just, I mean, that's always true, I guess. But the Hebrew word translated heaven or heavens is shamayim, and the yim suffix is plural.

So most of the translations do render it heavens, plural with an S. And I would agree with that, the plural translation, that in the beginning,

God created the sky and he created outer space.

So he created the heavens, the first two. Here's the thing,

I'm not so sure that God, in the beginning, created the third heaven. I'm not so sure about that.

Because Genesis chapter one, what's he talking about? He's creating what we might call the universe, right?

The heavens and the earth, the universe, all that it contains. The dwelling place of God, is that contained within our universe?

It doesn't appear that it is. So while it's difficult to be dogmatic on this, it appears, or we would assume, that the abode of God where the angels dwell, the third heaven,

I submit to you that it may have already existed by Genesis 1 .1.

And that the angels already existed in Genesis 1 .1. Who, that was your understanding to begin with?

Okay, who disagrees with that? Okay, well, and some of you are unsure, and quite frankly,

I'm a little unsure. I'm not saying that this is definitely the case, but that's what it appears on the surface.

So angels are not humans. Angels are not the beasts of the field. So the angels and the abode of God don't really seem to be part of the universe, part of the creation.

So our focus tonight is not so much on the first heaven, the sky, or outer space. It's on heaven as you typically think of it, that a person, they die and they go to heaven, or at least a believer dies and goes to heaven.

So that's our main focus, the third heaven, the dwelling place of God. So when a believer passes away, or when

Jesus comes at the rapture, people will be taken to heaven.

Before we get deeper into the subject, though, I just want to kind of establish that fact that the word heaven, when it appears six or 700 times, however many times it is, sometimes it is not referring to the dwelling place of God.

It can refer to these other things. You're in Genesis 1. Okay, look at verse 20. And just to prove this to you, now the first and second heaven, this is how

Bible teachers and theologians categorize it. But notice Genesis 1 .20

says, then God said, let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the what?

Heaven. Okay, so we see that the birds are flying in the heavens.

And obviously the birds are not in heaven with God. They're within our atmosphere.

All right, let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2

Corinthians 12, as you're turning there, I'm just gonna read Genesis 26, verse four, because that's where God tells

Abraham that he will multiply his descendants as the stars of what?

As the stars of the heavens. So obviously the stars are not within our atmosphere, despite what flat earthers might try and tell you.

But that's a whole other subject. So the first heaven and the second heaven.

And now Paul is going to talk about the third heaven. Now this term is in scripture.

Third heaven, this is explicitly mentioned in the Bible. So 2 Corinthians 12, look at verse two.

The apostle Paul says, I know a man. Now, who is he talking about? Almost every commentator agrees that Paul is referring to himself.

Paul says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body,

I do not know, or whether out of the body, I do not know. God knows.

Such a one was caught up to the third heaven. So there are two heavens that are part of this creation, two heavens that we can see with the visible eye, but then there is this third heaven that Paul was actually taken to, whether in his body or his spirit, he doesn't even know.

Now, just to test you, Psalm 19, verse one says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork.

That's referring to what? The third heaven? Yeah, it's talking about the creation, what you can see.

Okay, so, but Paul is talking about what I would call heaven proper.

So again, one would think that since God has always, this is gonna be a little bit of speculation.

Normally when I'm preaching, I try not to speculate, but with this subject, it's almost impossible not to.

I mean, I could just read you Bible verses all night and not comment on it, but I don't know how much you would learn from that.

So this is speculation, but one would maybe assume that since God has always existed, therefore his dwelling place must have always existed.

So if that is true, which it may be, that would mean that the third heaven has always existed with God, because God has always been somewhere.

Or the other possibility is whenever God did create the angels before Genesis chapter one, that God created heaven for them.

Because on the other hand, God doesn't really need a dwelling place, and what can contain God anyways?

Right, God could create something, and God is bigger, so to speak, than whatever he creates.

So does God even need a dwelling place? I don't know. So at the very least, we would say that heaven existed for the angels, or God may have created it at that time.

So I'm not saying all this to confuse you. Who's confused? Like, at this point, yeah, this is what

I thought. I know about this subject. I'm a pastor, I know about heaven. And then I start looking at some of these questions, and I say, well, yeah, there's a lot that I'm not sure about.

So I don't bring this up to just speculate or to confuse you. Rather, I bring it up, hopefully, to pique your interest.

I find it interesting, number one. And then number two, just to give you a sense, really, of the majesty and glory of God.

Because whatever heaven is like, whatever the real answer is, whatever you think of, what heaven is, where it is, what it's like, it's so much greater than you can even imagine.

Whatever I say tonight, and say, wow, that's amazing. No, it's way more amazing than words, right?

Okay, so when it comes to heaven, the dwelling place of God, it doesn't seem to be part of the creation.

But on the other hand, I saw some of your heads, you know, yes, I agree. But at the same time,

Jesus, remember he said, I go to do what? Prepare a place for you. Now, that's probably a reference to the

New Jerusalem. So it seems that at least that part of heaven, the new heavenly city,

New Jerusalem, it does seem like that is prepared, or maybe created.

So again, just so much information, we're just trying to make sense out of it all.

But back to Paul. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, three and four, again,

I know such a man, referring to himself, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know,

God knows. What is he called heaven so far, the third heaven? Look at what he says in verse four.

How he was caught up into what? Paradise. So you see that paradise in the third heaven, these are synonyms.

So paradise is heaven. So Paul says he was caught up into paradise, and he heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

So going back to the thief on the cross, we see that Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, refers to the third heaven as paradise.

And he says the things that he, he didn't say he saw anything, but the things that he heard, he can't express it, and even if he could, he couldn't tell you anyways.

Now, to me, that just settles this whole issue, because part of this study, there's all these books about heaven written by who?

You know, Joe Schmoe, who died, and had this near -death experience, and they went to heaven, and they came back, and they wrote a book to tell you all about it.

And if you just pay $24 .95, you can find out all about heaven. And some of these books have been turned into Hollywood movies.

And I know there is at least one where the child grew up, and he admitted, yeah,

I made the whole thing up. And obviously, those people are out there that would claim to have visions, and dreams, and near -death experiences.

I'm sure some of them are sincere. If you have a near -death experience, I don't doubt that people really think they encountered something.

That may be true, but are these reliable sources? No, you cannot take what they say as gospel truth.

We need to look, where? Yeah, we need to look at scripture.

So some of these things might be interesting, but I would just encourage you, don't read these books.

It's probably a scam. And even if somebody is well -meaning, what they say really has no authority anyway.

So as far as Paul said, he couldn't even tell you about it.

It's unlawful for him to tell you what he heard. So how did these guys get off telling you all about it?

To me, that's a big problem. On the other hand, there's two sides to every situation here.

And that really adds to the mystery. And I know we would rather it be clear and straightforward.

But John, in the book of Revelation, he does tell us about things he saw in heaven and some things that he heard, doesn't he?

So what do we make of that? In Revelation chapter four, who's in, what book are you in?

Where did I tell you to go? Second Corinthians. All right, look at Revelation chapter four. Revelation chapter four, we're just gonna see what

John has to say. And we're gonna cover chapters four and five probably next week because John really gives us a glimpse into heaven's throne room and we will spend time on this.

But look at Revelation chapter four, verse one. John says, after these things,

I looked and behold, a door standing open, where? In heaven.

And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, come up here, or come up hither, and I will show you things which must take place after this.

And immediately I was in the spirit and behold, a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne.

So what happens to John? John is caught up, right?

So John is caught up into heaven and he sees these things that we'll get into next week.

The thing that I would say about this, this is, again, my theory, my best theory, why could

Paul not tell us but John could? I tend to think that Paul was actually taken to heaven in bodily form and that John is just seeing a vision.

So John was able to tell about it because he saw a vision. Paul was actually taken there and something special, unique happened.

But again, I'm not exactly sure. Any questions up until this point? Yes, Erin.

Could the reason John could tell us because he was told to write things down tell us? Well, yes,

John was told specifically, write this in a book. And Paul apparently was told, somehow he knew he was not allowed to say anything.

So that's interesting. But yeah, absolutely, John was told that he was to communicate this.

Yes. How did Paul, did he die? Yeah, that's the thing. We don't really know what, there's one instance in the book of Acts, right?

Where Paul is stoned and left for dead. And the theory is that he may have either died and God raised him back to life and that's when he went to heaven and then came back.

He had a lot of near -death experiences. Yeah. Stoning, shipwrecks. Right, but there was one instance in particular where Paul, we don't know if he actually died.

He probably didn't die, but we don't know if that's, we don't really know anything about Paul's experience.

Because he doesn't wanna boast, but he does tell them this, but he doesn't go into the details. Okay, any other questions?

All right. So I'm trying to give a broad overview and then

I'll come back and deal with some of the common questions like will we recognize our loved ones in heaven?

What will we be doing in heaven? Here's something that I'm sure you've heard, maybe you've thought this, and I think

Christians know better than to say something like this. But some would think, well, if I'm gonna be in heaven for all eternity, like what am

I gonna be doing? Aren't I gonna get bored in heaven forever and ever? And like no, no, you're not gonna get bored.

What are you gonna be doing? Yeah, I mean, obviously worship and serving

God in whatever capacity, how that works out. But that's what we're gonna be doing in heaven, having fellowship with God, fellowship with one another.

But the focus is not on yourself. Like in this life, we can't help but kind of focus on ourselves and what we want and our agenda and this and that.

We have to fight that every day. Well, that's not the way it's gonna be in heaven. The focus is gonna be on the

Lord and we're not gonna have to fight that other battle. But these are some of the questions. What are we gonna be doing?

What does heaven look like? Let's go to Revelation chapter 21. We'll just deal with this now.

What does heaven look like? Everyone's heard of at least two things. And what are those? Give a description of heaven.

What's it gonna look like? Street of gold. Pearly gates and streets of gold, right?

Yeah, and then you wanna be a stickler about it and say, well, it doesn't say streets.

It's only one street. So it's not being a stickler, I guess. That's what it says.

So everyone lives on Main Street, right? Yeah, heaven is 1 ,500 miles or the heavenly city,

New Jerusalem, is 1 ,500 miles basically cubed. So it'd be 1 ,500 miles high.

So yeah. But again, it's hard to say exactly. But yeah, it mentions one street,

Lenny. Yeah, and that one street, if you don't know where it is, it's 22 verse two. If you remember two, you know where the street is.

It's the gates to the throne of God. 22 verse two. So maybe that'll be your address on Main Street.

22, two, okay. Okay. But yeah, everyone has heard of the pearly gates or the street of gold.

But the question people ask, right? You know the question? Well, is that to be taken literally or is that symbolic?

Well, look at Revelation 21 verse 21. It says, the 12 gates were 12 pearls.

Again, with translations and all the translations that are out there, I mean, it could say something different, but at least my

Bible does not say that the 12 gates were as 12 pearls. Because if it said they were as 12 pearls, we'd say, okay, they're probably not actually pearls.

But it says they were 12 pearls. Did everyone's Bible say that? Yes. Okay.

So hey, that's what it says. 12 gates were 12 pearls. Each individual gate was one pearl.

I mean, that sounds pretty specific. And the street of the city was pure gold.

And here's the curve ball, like transparent glass. So it's not transparent glass, but it looks like transparent glass.

Now, I've never seen gold that is transparent, right? So, I mean, that might cause me to think that it's not actual gold, because gold is not transparent, but some will say, well, in heaven it is.

But it says that it is a pearl. So listen, we always try to take the

Bible literally, unless there's a reason not to take it literally. So it doesn't say as a pearl.

So I'm gonna say it says a pearl, that's what it is. If it is symbolic, it's symbolic of something even more amazing.

I will add that, because John is seeing this in visionary form. So John, you have to understand, he's doing his very best to describe heavenly things in earthly terms.

How do you even do that? So Paul's talking about inexpressible words.

Well, John's doing his best to describe it. But again, it's even more amazing than we can imagine.

So words fail to express, I think. But speaking of amazing, here in Revelation 21, to me, this is like key, this is the key.

Revelation 21, it appears that in the end, when the new heaven, the heavenly city,

New Jerusalem, it descends from heaven. It appears that heaven and earth, in the end, they become one.

So heaven comes down to earth, and heaven and earth are joined together as one.

So I think this is the key to understanding the nature of heaven and what it is, and maybe even where it is.

Heaven and earth become one. Because for the past 6 ,000 years, there has been a separation, right?

So if you go back to Adam and say that's about a period of 6 ,000 years, heaven has not been here for at least that long.

Was it here originally? Well, where was Adam in the beginning? Well, he was in the

Garden of Eden, which is also called what? Paradise, okay. So it's possible that heaven was here on earth, or tied together to the earth in the beginning.

Adam sinned, there is the separation, and then at the end, it's put back together. Is that a new thought for some people?

That's not the way most people think of heaven. But I think that is key.

Look at Revelation 21, verse one, and I would say, you know, don't,

I don't wanna say take all this with a grain of salt, because we are reading the scripture, but I'll just say

I can't really be dogmatic on a lot of this. I'm doing the best

I can putting the pieces together. Revelation 21, verse one, John says, now I saw a new heaven, and a new earth for the first heaven, and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.

Then I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.

God himself will be with them and be their God. So the

Bible ends with an indication that heaven and earth become one.

So I would describe this as a return to Eden, okay, a return to Eden, so to speak, because the garden of Eden is considered paradise.

You remember in the garden, because here at the end, God is dwelling with man. Well, isn't that what happened in the beginning?

Remember God walked in the garden in the cool of the day? So God dwelt with Adam in Eden, in paradise.

But when Adam sinned, everything changed, or everything was altered.

Adam was then removed from the garden. He was not allowed back in. And over time,

I'm just gonna put it this way, that the path, remember God sent the angel with the sword of fire, the sword of light, to keep

Adam and Eve out of the garden? So I mean, that was here on earth, an angel guarding the path back in, but could you travel to the

Middle East today and maybe stumble across that path, maybe? No, obviously, somehow that was taken away or disappeared, however you describe that.

So it's no longer here. So if there is a connection between heaven and earth, by now, it's been completely severed.

So heaven, one theory is that it's totally apart from the creation, it's always existed somewhere else.

Another theory is that it has always, or it was originally intertwined with the earth.

That link was broken, but in the end, it gets restored. The heavenly city comes down to earth, paradise is restored, and heaven and earth are then forever joined together, and that's the way it was supposed to be originally.

So originally, Adam talked with God, Adam had fellowship with God. Do men have fellowship with God today?

No, everyone's born into this world dead in trespasses and sin. You have to be born again to have any fellowship with God, but even the fellowship that the most righteous

Christian on earth, the fellowship that person enjoys with God is still falling far short from what was intended originally but in the end, that gets restored.

So when Adam sinned, that fellowship with God was completely, well, at first it was broken, and then when

God shows up, you remember Adam, he ran and he hid, he was afraid, he realized he was naked.

So before, it says that Adam and Eve didn't know that they were naked and they were not ashamed, but then they realized it.

So something happened with the way they saw the world. And again, maybe this is speculation, but I think that originally,

Adam was aware of spiritual things. If an angel came in the garden, he would have seen it, but after the fall, after the curse,

Adam and all of his descendants, us, we have become spiritually blind to all the things around us, maybe even the heavenly realm.

It's a lot closer than most of us think, but we're completely oblivious to it, right? We're blind, we do not see it.

I base this on the story of Elisha. Remember in 2 Kings 6, God opened, there's

Elisha and his servant, and they thought they were outnumbered, and Elisha prayed, Lord, open his eyes.

And what did he see? All of a sudden, he saw that the hills were filled with chariots of fire.

They were surrounded by the heavenly army of angels. So the point is, it may be that heaven is not as distant as we think.

It might be just another realm, another dimension that really is all around us, we just don't see it.

It's not 50 million miles away in outer space. In a sense, it could be,

I don't wanna say it's here, because it's not here, but you understand what I'm saying? Okay, this could explain how

Jesus, after he was raised from the dead, after he was glorified, Jesus could appear and disappear at will.

Remember in Luke 24, the two men on the road to Emmaus, Jesus appearing in the upper room, like the doors are locked, it says that, and Jesus is like, here, and may peace be with you, right?

And then, next moment, he's gone. He didn't have to travel 80 million miles in that direction to get back to heaven.

He was just in and out, in and out. So that may be, and please, give me a little grace with this, okay?

But if I use the term interdimensional travel, I mean, that sounds like sci -fi or something.

It's like, well, that doesn't sound biblical, but I don't know, that's the only way I can really describe it, because he was here and then gone, and that seems to be maybe what's happening.

Either way, that is, I think that concept is more biblical than the song that I was taught in Sunday school.

I don't know how popular this song was. Countdown, who knows the song Countdown? Junior church, yeah.

Somewhere in outer space, God has prepared a place. Well, wait a second. Is heaven, is this place, is it really in outer space?

And on the front of the book, there is like a spaceship or a space shuttle. Can you really get on a space shuttle and fly somewhere in outer space?

And if you go far enough, you'll get to heaven. That's not the way it works. It is somewhere else.

I'm just, I'm gonna use the term another dimension. Actually, if you look up, some people call heaven the fourth dimension.

I'm not saying that that's the case, but it's just a way of describing it. It's not within the creation.

All right, any questions on that? And feel free to say, well, Pastor, I don't know about that.

I think it's more like this, you know, because we don't know these things for sure. We're talking about things.

God's probably looking down at us, and you, ha, ha, you know. You're trying to understand.

We can't really fully comprehend it, but yes. My question is, the

Bible says, absent from the body, present with the Lord. But then it also said the dead in Christ will rise first.

Right. So where do you go? Sure, yeah, so absent from the body, present with the

Lord. Yes, and that would be the thief on the cross, most assuredly

I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. So when a believer dies, where does their body go?

It goes in the ground. But we're not just a body.

We are a body and a soul, or a body, soul, and spirit. So the body goes into the ground.

The spirit goes to be with God. So absent from the, the spirit is absent from the body.

That's what death is. Death is described as a separation. If your soul or your spirit is separated from the body, you're dead.

So the body goes in the ground, your spirit goes to be with God. So those who are waiting, you know, to be the first resurrection, they're waiting to be with the

Lord. That's the body. So the body is what gets raised. Yes, yeah.

The body gets raised. That's in the future. Nobody is with the Lord with their body as of now, except for Elijah and Enoch and Jesus.

Well, Jesus is the Lord, but you get the idea. So what happens when you're cremated? Well, yeah,

I mean, it's been traditionally, cremation has not been a Christian practice because it just wasn't done back then.

But today, most pastors, theologians don't really see an issue with it. So it really wouldn't matter whether the body is cremated.

I don't like, to me, that's not for me, but it doesn't matter if the body is destroyed because there are people who died 1 ,500 years ago.

There's nothing left, right? God, he can handle that.

Yeah, I mean, God created everything out of nothing. The whole universe he created out of nothing.

He's not gonna have any problem raising your body from the dead, even if nothing's left or however that works. That's not a problem for God, yes.

I know it's interpreted that just with the dead rising first, they get their new bodies first. Yeah. Right.

I'm really hoping the graves don't really just burst open and zombie corpses come out.

Yeah, no, that's not the way it works. I don't wanna be his key, that's all I'm saying. Let's turn to 1

Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4,

I think that's, it's either that or 1 Corinthians 15. Let's see.

Yeah, this is verse 16. So 1 Thessalonians 4.

So it said, let's start in verse 13. Paul says, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep.

So those who have died, right? Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

So sleep is a euphemism for death for the believer. Verse 15, for this we say to you by the word of the

Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, we will by no means precede those who are asleep.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.

So when Jesus returns at the rapture of the church, those Christians who have died before then, they go up first, their body is resurrected, they meet the

Lord in the air, they go up first. And then, verse 17, we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the

Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord, therefore comfort one another with these words.

So they're already with the Lord in spirit, but their body is raised and they go up first and nobody on earth is gonna see this visibly.

This is a spiritual event, it's a spiritual body. But we who are alive and remain, let's say that happened this evening, right?

Hey, that's an exciting thought, isn't it? Okay, let's just say the rapture happened this evening.

Well, all the people, the former church members, loved ones that have believed in Jesus, they're taken up to heaven before us, but we're just gonna be here one second, next moment we're gone.

And we go up after them, but we all meet the Lord in the air. And of course, their body is raised from the dead, our body gets translated and we receive a new glorified body that 1

Corinthians 15 talks about. So that's our hope as well, that there will be a generation of Christians that never die.

It's like one minute you're doing whatever, you're washing the dishes here on earth and the next thing you know, well,

I'm in heaven. I mean, that's the way it's gonna, well, you're gonna meet the Lord in the air. So that's the way it's gonna work whenever it takes place.

Carolyn, did you have a hand up? Steve, you have a hand up. On Sunday night when

Rob Ripley was leading music, he went to the Lord right out of the pulpit. Yeah.

Yeah, and there's a lot of people, this is the way I would prefer to go, right? You go to sleep one night when you're old and you just go to sleep and you wake up in heaven.

I mean, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me, but we don't get to choose that, obviously. Any other questions?

Yes. So when Jesus, I can't find exactly where it is, but whenever he said like, they shall be least in heaven, you know, like people who do this shall be least in heaven.

Okay. Or last in heaven. Right. Is he saying that they will be in heaven, but like, to me it reads like they will be like favorites or they'll be on like.

Right. Who knows the passage? I think it's in, what is it? Matthew five or six or seven, somewhere.

I think he went over it during the Easter service. Yeah. So those who, is it those who break the commandments and teach others to break them as well, they will be least in the kingdom of heaven.

Yeah. If you're a disobedient believer and you're living the wrong way and you're leading other people into, you're not going to get any rewards.

You're not going to be, you know, getting any honors in heaven. You know, you'll be there, but you know, you're going to be saved as through fire.

You're going to be there. You're going to, whatever the illustrations we use, you're going to smell like smoke, like you just got in by the skin of your teeth or something, or there's going to be shame.

So obviously the way we live on this earth, as a believer, you still have an inheritance in heaven, but it's not going to be at the same level someone else will be at.

They'll have greater rewards. And you won't, if that's the way you live, but they will be there.

But you also won't be worried about yourself. Yeah. I mean, all the gifts, the way

I understand the gifts and the rewards in heaven, it's to serve God. So it'll be your capacity in serving

God. It's not one person gets a bigger mansion than you, because then you would be envious. And I don't think that's the way it works, but it'll be how you serve the

Lord. So that's my understanding. Yes. One thing I'm still caught up on is the passage in second

Corinthians, it says that it's not lawful for a man to utter. So is that like speculation about heaven that you're not supposed to?

Well, there's a second commandment too, that graven envy. Right. Or is it just like someone who has actually seen it, they can't speak about it?

Is that? Yeah, I don't think it refers to speculation. Of course I would say that, because I've been speculating.

But I don't see any evidence that that's what he's talking about. I think Paul received some revelations.

He was told something that it was just for him. Yeah, there's a lot that we do.

What we don't know is probably greater than what we do know. So, yes, Joyce. So the believers that have fallen asleep, when they're caught up and go to heaven,

I assume then they're reunited with their spirit, because their spirit's already there. Yep. Correct? Yes.

Yeah, and then those that are already alive, they just go as is.

As is, go up, but they're changed. Yeah. Right.

Well, let's go to 1 Corinthians 15. We'll just finish here. These are good questions, and I always wanna make time for questions.

So we read the one passage on the subject, 1 Thessalonians 4. So we might as well read the parallel passage in 1

Corinthians 15, because it is our belief that this event that we call the rapture could be, people that describe any moment or any generation could be the generation that experiences this.

Of course, there's those people we've talked about that set dates, and the current date is,

I think, 2029 or 2030, and I don't expect that, because Jesus said, no man knows the day or the hour.

And the danger is that we can start thinking, well, this guy said it was here, and he said it was here, and then we start to just get cynical, and why

I don't think we're ever gonna see it. Wrong. Well, we will one way or another, whether we die and it happens 500 years from now or five minutes from now, one way or another, if you're saved, you will see it.

But look at 1 Corinthians. This is talking about the resurrection that happens at the rapture.

1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 51, Paul says, behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, and we know that sleep is a, again, a euphemism for death.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. And who's the all?

Every human being who's ever lived? No. No. I don't wanna make a big thing about this, but I'm gonna make a big thing about it.

And people say, all means all, all means all. Who's heard that? A lot of us have probably said that.

Yes, all does mean all, but it's within the context. So he's talking about all believers here.

Okay. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, right?

That's what we read in 1 Thessalonians 4, right? The dead are raised, and then we are caught up to meet them in the air.

So we shall be what? Changed, or the term, the technical term, we say translated.

Verse 53, this is what happens at that moment for this corruptible, because our flesh is corruptible, right?

We can get illness, sickness, disease, everything. Our body will break down. This corruptible must put on incorruption.

This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades, or the grave, where is your victory?

Remember Jesus said, I will build my church in the gates of Hades, which can also be translated the grave, shall not prevail.

So believers in Christ, we conquer death. Oh, death, where is your sting?

Oh, Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, now that we have heard this, and now we have this hope, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the

Lord. So I'll just leave you with that hope that Christ's return, we don't know when it's gonna happen, but it is gonna happen, and if you're alive, when that takes place, you're gonna be living your life, doing whatever it is that you're doing, and then next second, you're with the

Lord in heaven. Amen. Amen, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Twinkling of an eye, which is a lot quicker than this.