The Dream Fulfilled
05/27/2007 - The Best Part of Heaven
Often when a friend or a family member returns from a trip or a vacation we like to ask them how it went? Did they have a good time? Did they have good weather? Were they able to relax? And sometimes we ask them, "What was the best part of the trip?"
And if they went to a place like Disney World they might mention a certain attraction that they enjoyed or hotel they stayed in. If they went to an exotic island they might mention the beach they liked the most or an excursion they took snorkeling or parasailing. If they went camping they might talk about a hike they took or a mountain they climbed or a book they read.
Last summer we went to Florida and one of the best parts of the trip for me was renting a speed boat and taking the whole family out fishing for three hours at gun point! No, not really. Actually, I think they had a good time. And while we were out in the boat a member of our family, whose name will remain anonymous, dropped their fishing rod into the water and it sank to the bottom like a rock.
Well you have to understand these were borrowed fishing rods and they looked pretty expensive to me so I wasn't about to lose one. So I dove in the water after it. The problem was that the water was dark and the current was flowing and the bottom was muddy which didn't give me a lot of hope that I could find it. Nevertheless, I held my breath and went in after that rod. I went down once and couldn't feel anything. I came up for air went down a second time and still couldn't feel anything except black goop between my fingers.
I came up again and said, "Pray!" and went down a third time. But this time I did feel something in the black goop that felt a lot like a fishing rod. And so I brought it to the surface and sure enough it was the rod. And when I held it up to the cheers of my stunned family they said, "Look, Dad, you've got a catfish on the end." And sure enough, not only had we gotten the rod back, but we caught a catfish in the process. Hey, if the fish aren't going to come to you, you gotta' get wet and go to them!
That was one of the best parts of our trip to Florida? But what if you took a trip to heaven? What would be the best part of that trip? And what about the kingdom of God when it finally comes to this earth? What will be the best part of that new world?
This morning we continue our series called The Dream Fulfilled: Glimpses of the Kingdom with a teaching I've called"The Best Part of Heaven."
A few years ago an author named Mitch Albom wrote a book that quickly became number one on the New York Times bestseller list. The book was called The Five People You Meet in Heaven. And it's about a man named Eddie who feels trapped in a meaningless life maintaining and fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. And on the day of his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident trying to save a little girl from being crushed by a falling cart.
And when he wakes up he discovers that he's in heaven. But heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden. In the book heaven is a place where your life on earth is explained by five people who were in it. They may be loved ones or distant strangers, but each one of them, in some way, has changed your life forever. And one by one, Eddie's five people help him understand the connections between the things that happened in his earthly life.
It's a fascinating concept. And I hope that heaven does help us connect the dots and put together what appear to be the random pieces of our lives. But the Scriptures tell us that the most important person we'll meet in heaven will not be a distant stranger or friend or family member, as great as that will be, the most important person we'll meet will be God himself. We will see God's face.
As we've seen in this trilogy called The Dream of God, it's always been God's dream to live among his people. God wants to be present with us. He wants us to see him. The greatest attraction in the Garden of Eden was not the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It wasn't all the animals or the glistening rivers or even the breathtaking beauty of the garden itself. The best part of the Garden of Eden was the presence of God. Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden in the cool of the day. And for a time everything was the way God intended it to be.
But then the "Adam bomb" explodes and sin enters the picture and the first man and the first woman are evicted from the garden. And God, because he is holy, can no longer live among his people. And as the story of Scripture unfolds we see that God does make attempts to dwell with his people in small, but real ways. He dwells among them in the holy of holies first in the tabernacle, the portable tent that God's people set up in the wilderness and then in the magnificent temple in Jerusalem built by King Solomon.
But the tabernacle was temporary and the temple gets destroyed. God doesn't get destroyed, but his localized presence leaves and centuries go by until he appears again in the person of Jesus Christ who, the Bible says, tabernacles among us. But then after thirty years or so Jesus leaves and goes back to heaven, that other dimension. And now we, believers in Jesus, are the way God reveals himself to the world. We are the body of Christ. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are citizens of God's kingdom who are to make him known to the world.
But one day God is going to reveal himself fully and completely. His dream will finally come true and he will live among his people once again. And the longing to see God's face goes all the way back to the words of Job, a book that many scholars believe to be the oldest book in the Bible.
In Job 19:25-27 we read, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. 26And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; 27I myself will see him with my own eyesI, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
When I read those words this week I was amazed at the insight of this man Job who was way ahead of his time. Job wrote those words over 3,500 years ago, even before Moses wrote the book of Genesis. Yet he understands the end of the story even before the story is written. He talks about his redeemer standing on this earth and how he will see him in a resurrected body of flesh. And that word "flesh" made me think of Jesus' words to his startled disciples when he appeared to them after his resurrection.
Listen to what he says in Luke 24:38-39, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.
Flesh and bones, Jesus said. His glorified, resurrected, supernatural body had flesh and bones. He was not a ghost come back from the grave. And our resurrected bodies will be just like his one day. We too will not be ghosts floating around in outer space. We'll have flesh and bones and we'll stand upon this earth in our glorified bodies, Job says, and we will see God with our own eyes.
Ancient theologians often spoke about the "beatific vision." That's a term you often run into when you study this idea of seeing God's face. The beatific vision comes from three Latin words that together mean "a happy-making sight." And the sight they were talking about was the sight of God.
This great dream of God climaxes in the book of Revelation where we read in Revelation 21:1-4, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 5He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"
God dwelling among his people, no longer behind a curtain in the holy of holies, but close enough to dry every tear from our eyes.
Revelation 22:3-4 adds, No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Seeing the face of God that's the beatific vision. Seeing the face of God that will be the best part of heaven. And when I thought about that this week I needed to do a gut check because when I think about heaven and God's kingdom that's not always the first thing that comes to my mind.
But when you read the Scriptures seeing God's face is shocking to anyone who understands the holiness and the transcendence of God. In ancient Israel, only the high priest could go into the holy of holies and that was only once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And when he did go in he had a rope tied around his ankle just in case he died while inside encountering God and had to be pulled out. The line was real short for volunteers who would go in after him because they all knew the story of a man named Uzzah that God struck dead for touching the Ark of the Covenant, the gold box that symbolized God's presence.
When Moses said to God, "Show me your glory." God said, "I'll show you my back, but you cannot see my face. For no one may see me and live." So Moses saw God's back, but he didn't see God's face.
In 1 Timothy 6:15-16 the apostle Paul writes, God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might for ever. Amen. To see God was unthinkable.
The apostle John is even stronger when he says in John 1:18, No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
Seeing God is a big deal. No one has seen his face. No one can see him and live. And yet that will be the best part of heaven, seeing the face of God.
I like what Randy Alcorn writes about this in his book called Heaven, "Not only will we see God's face and live, but we will likely wonder if we ever lived before we saw his face . Being with God is the heart and soul of heaven. Every other heavenly pleasure will derive from and be secondary to his presence. God's greatest gift to us is, and always will be, himself."
"All secondary joys are derivatives in nature. They cannot be separated from God. Flowers are beautiful for one reason - God is beautiful. Rainbows are stunning because God is stunning. Puppies are delightful because God is delightful. Sports are fun because God is fun. Study is rewarding because God is rewarding. Work is fulfilling because God is fulfilling."
"God doesn't want to be replaced or depreciated. He wants to be recognized as the source of all our joys, and he wants us to draw closer to him through partaking of his creation. My taking pleasure in a good meal or a good book is taking pleasure in God. It is not a substitute for God, nor is it a distraction from him. In the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, it's what I was made for. 'Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. '"
He then goes on to talk about worship in heaven. "Lovers don't bore each other. People who love God could never be bored in his presence . Meeting God will be far more exhilarating than a great meal, a poker game, hunting, gardening, mountain climbing, or watching the Super Bowl. Will we always be engaged in worship? Yes and no. If we have a narrow view of worship, the answer is no. But if we have a broad view of worship, the answer is yes. Will we always be on our faces at Christ's feet, worshiping him? No, because Scripture says we'll be doing many other things like living in dwelling places, eating and drinking, reigning with Christ, and working for him."
"The Scriptures depict people standing, walking, traveling in and out of the city, gathering for feasts all done as an act of worship We are created to worship God. There's no higher pleasure. At times we'll lose ourselves in praise, doing nothing but worshiping him. At other times we'll worship him when we build a cabinet, paint a picture, cook a meal, talk with an old friend, take a walk, throw a ball . Those are foretastes of heaven - not because we are doing nothing but worshiping, but because we are worshiping God as we do everything else."
"The most thrilling experiences on earth like white-water rafting, skydiving, bungee jumping, or extreme sports, will seem tame compared to the thrill of seeing God. It will change us!"
And that's exactly what the apostle John says in 1 John 3:1-3, How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3All who have this hope in them purify themselves, just as he is pure.
We all need to be changed before we can see God and we will be. Without holiness, the Bible says, no one can see the Lord. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God."
Over the years some people have really grasped the impact of seeing God and all that it means. Saint Teresa of Avila once said, "Wherever God is, there is heaven."
Martin Luther said, "I'd rather be in hell with Christ, than be in heaven without him."
More recently, Samuel Rutherford said, "O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without you, it would be hell. And if I could be in hell and have you still, it would be heaven to me, for you are all the heaven I want."
Alcorn writes, "Nothing is more often misdiagnosed than our homesickness for heaven. We think that what we want is sex, drugs, alcohol, a new job, a raise, a doctorate, a spouse, a plasma television, a new car, a cabin in the woods, a condo at the beach. But what we really want is the person we were made for, Jesus, and the place we were made for, heaven."
And what's the best part of heaven? Seeing God's face and all that will mean. That's God's dream for you. And that's God's dream for me. And it's all going to come true one day for those who know and love Jesus Christ.
We're going to close our gathering today by singing a benediction that says, "There's an ache within my soul, a longing deep as rivers roll. An ancient song, a song of praise. To hear your voice and see your face." But before we do, let's pray together.