October 6, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Every Christian will live eternally in heaven, but many are
too focused on the concerns of this world to get
excited about the next Are you one of them?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Today?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
On turning point, doctor David Jeremiah seeks to help you
prepare for your heavenly home by sharing details from scripture
that you need to know from the promise of Heaven.
Here's David to introduce his message. What's up with Heaven?
You know, Heaven is known to all of us. In fact,
as we look up into the skies, we see the heavens.
(00:36):
The Bible says there are three heavens. Paul said he
was caught up into the third heaven. But heaven is
a very interesting subject, and recently we saw a research
project that said Heaven is more in the minds of
people today than it's been for many years. So I
want to tell you some things about heaven in today's program,
tell you about its prominence in the Bible. I want
(00:58):
you to know more about the place where we're going
to spend eternity. This is kind of a part two
introduction message, but you'll hear some things about Heaven that
you haven't heard before, and hopefully it will start to
get you excited about Heaven. The title of this book
is The Promise of Heaven. The subtitle is thirty one
Ways for you to get excited about Heaven, and I
(01:19):
hope we can help you do that.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Don't forget you can get a copy of this book,
The Promise of Heaven, which is just being released from
Turning Point. All you have to do is send a
gift of any size during the month of October and
say please send me the book on Heaven and we'll
get it off to you right away. Let me tell
you also, you can get this book at Barnes and Noble.
You can get it at Target, you can get it
(01:41):
in Walmart, wherever books are sold. Hobby Lobby carries this book,
and we want you to get it, whether you get
it from us or get it from somewhere else. We
most of all want you to get the truth of
this book. It will tell you what to expect when
you get to heaven, and if you're not sure you're
going there, it'll help you find out how to get sure.
And we begin that process today with this message we've
(02:03):
called What's Up with Heaven. One day, Suzanne Edwards found
a deflated helium balloon in the backyard of her home
in Monroe, Georgia. Tied to it was a photo of
a smiling family and the handwritten note in childlike print.
(02:24):
As she read it, tears welled up in her eyes.
It said, Dad, I wish you were here so we
could have fun together. I wish you were merry Christmas.
I hope you were happy in heaven. If you are okay,
then tell me I love you Alejandro. Suzan later learned
the note was written by seven year old Alejandro Garcia Heros,
(02:46):
whose home was about twenty miles away. Three years earlier,
in Colombia, Alejandro's father, a law professor, had been murdered.
Alejandro and his mother moved to the It States, but
every Christmas, the boy would write a letter to his
dad and send it off in a helium balloon, hoping
(03:08):
it would get to Heaven. Using social media, Suzanne found
Alejandro's mom and asked her to pass along this message
to the boy. I want you to know that Heaven
is a wonderful place, more amazing than you and I
can ever imagine. It is a place where there is
no pain and no worries. And I am certain your
Daddy didn't want to leave you or cause you to
(03:30):
feel lonely or sad. He will always love you, and
I'm sure that you make him proud. Have a merry Christmas.
When Lalijandro received the message, he cried, and so did
millions of people around the world. When the story was
picked up by the media, Suzanne was right. Heaven is
(03:50):
more wonderful than we can imagine.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's not a dream or a mystery. It's real.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
We began this study on heaven and I believe it
could be one of the most important series we've ever done.
You see, my goal is to make sure you all
are going there. You know, someone told me the real
purpose of a Christian is to go to heaven and
take as many people with him as he can. And
I would feel very sad if for some reason you
(04:22):
didn't hear about heaven and how to go there and
missed it. So I'm going to do my best to
make sure that doesn't happen. It was Sunday morning, Sunday school,
and the five year old class was in session and
the teacher was quizzing her class. She said, if I
sold everything I owned and gave the money to the church,
would that get me into heaven? And know, the children
(04:44):
shouted in unison. If I cleaned my house every day,
mode the yard, planted flowers, made my home beautiful, would
that get me to heaven? No?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Again, they answered.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
If I was kind to animals and polite to friends,
if I loved my family, would that get me to heaven? Oh?
Said the crowd. Well, the teacher continued, how can I
get to heaven? And one little boy who was new
to Sunday school shouted out the answer, you have to
be dead. Well, he was right, and that means that
(05:18):
the offer of heavenness for everybody, because let's face it,
the death rate is still one hundred percent. Every second
two people die, and that adds up to about one
hundred and seventy thousand people stepping into eternity every single day,
either into heaven or into hell. You would think we'd
be talking about heaven all the time, but interestingly enough,
(05:40):
it has become neglected in many churches. Some people see
heaven as wishful thinking. Others have worried that too much
emphasis on the next world will detract from efforts to
address suffering and injustice in this world. When the church
forgets heaven, something happens. The church loses its way without
(06:04):
an eternal perspective. The church becomes indulgent and self centered,
and it's all about today and all about my needs.
And I didn't get my need met, and we become
spiritually lethargic. Present comfort takes central stage. Heaven becomes little
more than an afterthought. That's why it's important for us
(06:25):
periodically to visit this subject and never to let it
be very far away from us.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
So what's up with Heaven?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Let me begin by giving you some basic truths about
heaven that you may not know. The idea of heaven
is not just a doctrine tucked away in the pages
of our Bibles. It shows up everywhere in our culture,
in our stories, our songs, and our screens. Back in
two thousand and three, Mitch Album wrote a book called
(06:55):
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and he captured
the hearts worldwide. Do you know that that spent ninety
five weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list, telling
the story of Eddie, an amusement park worker who dies
saving a child and meets five people in heaven who
revealed the unseen impact of his life years later, Randy
(07:19):
Alcorn wrote a five hundred page theological book on heaven,
which sold over a million copies and is the go
to book on heaven.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
If you want to get one.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
And then there are movies like Heaven Is for Real,
Miracles from Heaven. They may not have broken the box
office records, but they reached wide audiences and many people
were interested in it. And of course we have all
of the stories of people who supposedly went to heaven
and came back, they died, went to heaven and came back.
I don't know what to make about all of those.
And somebody asked me in this series if I was
(07:52):
going to do that, and I said, no, I'm not
going to talk about people that went to heaven and
came back because I don't know if it's real or not.
But I know what the Bible says is real, so
I'm going to focus on that. You know, we have
a lot of music that's been written about heaven. Eric
Clapton wrote a song called Tears in Heaven. Carrie Underwood
(08:13):
wrote See You Again, reflecting our desire to be reunited
with people who die and hoping that if they're in heaven,
we're going to meet them someday. Even television shows like
The Good Place documentaries on near death experiences remind us
that the question of eternity is very much alive in
(08:35):
many hearts. We don't have to rely on lyrics or
screenwriters to understand what heaven is like, because God has
already spoken, and we're going to begin with some wonderful
truths about heaven from the scripture. Did you know that
in the Bible the word heaven is mentioned more than
six hundred times. Thirty three of the thirty nine Old
(08:58):
Testament books talk about heaven. Twenty one books in the
New Testament talk about heaven. In the Old Testament, the
word for heaven is Shimaiem, which is a word meaning
the heights. In the New Testament, the Greek word uranus
inspires the name of the planet Euranus, and the word
refers to something.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That is raised up or lofty.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So, as you can see, heaven is not a side
topic in the Bible. It's a major theme that runs
from Genesis to Revelation. And the Bible tells us Enoch
walked with God and was taken not to a grave,
but into God's presence. Abraham looked behind Canaan to a
city with foundations whose architect and.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Builder is God.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
David spoke of dwelling in the House of the Lord forever,
and Isaiah described a future with no sorrow or sighing.
Jesus spoke about heaven often. He told stories to help
people understand it, and Paul wrote about longing for it,
and John saw it and described it in detail in
the Book of Revelation. So heaven is a key theme
(10:08):
in the Bible. It doesn't just mention heaven here and there.
It keeps pointing us to heaven everywhere. It's where God is,
It's where His people will be, and where the story
is headed. The prominence of heaven. Here's one you may
have wondered about. I know a lot of people have
asked this question, the plurality of heaven. As you work
(10:31):
your way through the hundreds of mentions of the word
heaven in the Bible, you soon realize there's a difference
between the word and how it's used. In fact, the
Bible specifically speaks of three distinct heavens. The first heaven
is the atmospheric heaven, the sky with its clouds and
(10:53):
birds and life giving oxygen Genesis one twenty says, then
God said, let the water abound with an abundance of
living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth
across the face of the firmament to the heavens. Psalm
one hundred and four to twelve says the birds of
the heavens, referring to the birds flying through the open
(11:14):
sky and job. God asks who has the wisdom to
count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars
of the heavens? And Isaiah speaks of the rain and
snow that come down from the heaven. So in these passages,
the word heaven is the atmosphere, the place where rainfalls,
where clouds form, and birds fly. It's the thin layer
(11:38):
of gases, mostly nitrogen and oxygen, that makes life on
the Earth possible. Most of its vital resources are within
ten miles of the surface, and God designed it to
sustain life. This is what the Bible calls the first Heaven,
and then there's a second heaven. In Genesis chapter one,
(11:58):
God said, let there be lights in the firmament of
the heavens to divide the day from the night, and
then he describes the sun and the moon and the stars,
the second Heaven is the vast universe beyond our atmosphere,
its outer space, filled with billions of stars and planets
and constellations and meteors and galaxies. The book of Psalms
(12:22):
praises God for the lavish display of his glory. Psalm
eight says, when I consider your heavens, the work of
your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained.
What is Man that you are mindful of him? And
the Son of Man that you visit him. Jesus predicted
a coming day when the sun will be darkened and
(12:45):
the moon will not give its light. These are all
references to the second Heaven, the stellar skies. We have
the atmosphericn we have the stellar heaven. Here's the one
that causes people a lot of questions, and they read
this passage of scripture from tewod Corinthians, Chapter twelve. Paul writes,
(13:06):
I know a man in Christ who, fourteen 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.
And I know such a man. Whether in the body
or out of the body, I do not know. God
knows how he was caught up into paradise and heard
inexpressible words which it is not lawful for a man
(13:29):
to utter. He was caught up into the third Heaven.
And when we read that, when we've read it in
the past, we've always wondered, what in the world is
the third Heaven. I didn't know there was more than one.
Now you know, there's the atmospheric heaven, there's the stellar heaven,
and now there is the heaven where God lives. In
these verses, Paul's not referring to the atmospheric heaven. He's
(13:52):
referring to the highest Heaven, the very dwelling place of God.
Solomon spoke of this in First King's twenty seven. He said,
but will God indeed dwell on the earth, behold heaven
and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much
less this temple which I have built. Moses called this
(14:13):
heaven the highest Heaven. Other Bible writers describe it as
God's holy Temple. And this is what God was referring
to when his son Jesus said to the thief, today
you will be with me in Paradise. Hebrews calls this
place a better country. Jesus referred to it as the
(14:33):
Father's House. This is it, the heaven of heavens, the
highest heaven, Paradise, the Father's House. This is the place
where God dwells and where his throne radiates glory, where
angels fill the skies with praise, and where they're redeemed
of every age will live forever. This is our future address,
(14:56):
if we know Jesus, the highest heaven, where God lives,
the prominence of heaven, and the plurality of it. Let's
talk about this place called heaven. Key passage here is
John fourteen, where Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my
(15:17):
Father's house, there 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
to myself. That where I am there, you may be
also now in the Bible. As you read the Bible
through and especially during this series, as we focus on
(15:37):
these passages, we're going to find a number of names
for heaven, different things. The Bible speaks of it about.
It's pictured in many ways, and each picture suggests a
little different aspect of it. When we say that Heaven
is a country, we're talking about how vast it is.
Heaven's a big place, see it in the scripture, and
(16:01):
it's a city. We think of all the people that
live there. When we see it compared to a kingdom,
we think of how orderly and organized the government is.
When we hear of paradise, we imagine all the beauty
of Heaven. My favorite description of Heaven is the Father's House.
I love that. I like the Father's House. When Don
(16:24):
and I were students at Dallas Seminary, we longed to
be at home, but we were one thousand and fifty
miles from Cedarville, Ohio, where I lived. And believe it
or not, there were occasions when we'd get off work
on Friday, get in my Chevrolet convertible and drive one
thousand and fifty miles to be home for a few
(16:46):
hours because we had to be back at work on Monday.
And we look back on that now and think, that's
the craziest thing we ever did in our lives. Do
you ever do any crazy stuff like that? When you
were younger. I mean, people ask me do I do
red I don't even think about doing red eyes anymore.
I used to do them all the time. When you're younger,
you do stuff you would never do as you get older.
(17:08):
And I can't imagine driving one thousand and fifty miles
two ways twice in a weekend.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
But you know why. We did it to get to
the Father's house, to.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Get home where we grew up, where I grew up,
where my mom and dad were. It's tough when you're
that far away from home going to school, and we
wanted to be home. That's the way it will be
for heaven. Heaven will be the Father's house when we
get there, it's God's people. We're going to feel at home.
We're going to feel the joy and compassion, and it
(17:40):
will be wonderful. Some people, according to Charles Ball, talk
about Heaven as they would about an imaginary place. They
talk about it with tongue in cheek and annoying smile,
as if to say Heaven is a human invention, a
never never land, a realm of dreams, not to be
taken seriously. People say that heaven is a benevolent state
(18:03):
of mind. Have you heard people say that heaven is
what you think about on this earth. You make your
own heaven. They say, Heaven is not a place you go.
Heaven is what you make out of what you're doing
right now here on this earth. Well, all of that
is untrue if.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You believe the Bible.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
The Bible speaks of a special place, not a figment
of our imagination, not a feeling, not an emotion. Heaven
is not the beautiful isle of somewhere. Heaven is not
merely a thought form. It's not merely a projection of
the best in ourselves. It's not a vision of a
(18:41):
long for utopia. It's not a pleasing hope or an
invention of man. Our thoughts do not make heaven. Heaven
is a prepared place for a prepared people. Billy Graham wrote,
Heaven is a literal place. It is not an imaginary
world or fantasy land to which dwell. God created Heaven
(19:03):
with his vast array of authentic characteristics. Jesus did not
ascend to a lofty dream world. Following his resurrection, Jesus
returned to sit at the right hand of his father
in the place called Heaven. Jesus said, I go to
prepare a place for you. Heaven is a place. It
(19:25):
is not a feeling, It is not a thought pattern.
It is not how you deal with life on this earth.
Heaven is the place that God has created for his
people if they will trust His word about how to
get there.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
This is what I want you to know.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So we've talked about the prominence of heaven in the
Bible and in culture. We've talked about the plurality of heaven.
How many of them are there? There are three. We've
talked about the place called heaven. Now, let me just
speak with you for a moment about the preciousness of heaven.
Why is heaven so important to us? Why do we
(20:03):
all need to get ready to go to heaven? Why
is it that I say to you today? Then my
goal in this series is that nobody gets left out
of Heaven. I want you all to go to Heaven.
I don't want one of you not to go. You
may be the meanest person I ever met, but if
you know Jesus Christ, you need to go to heaven.
And that's the only way you're going to get there.
(20:23):
First of all, Heaven is precious because our Redeemer is there.
I have a feeling that when we get to heaven
and we see the golden streets, in the pearly gates,
every other visual marvel, they will all fade into insignificance
when compared with Jesus Christ. Imagine the moment that we
(20:45):
see Jesus right now. We don't see him with our eyes,
we don't have the privileges standing in his prisence. The
Bible says, though you do not see him yet, believing
you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Worry
if we rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory
(21:05):
having not seen him, Just imagine what it will be
like when we actually see him. He is in heaven,
in his human body, bearing the scars of our redemption
in his hands and in his feet, And when we
see him, will all be reminded that if we're there,
we're there because of him.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
He's the only reason any of us can get to Heaven.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
You can't get to Heaven without Jesus and what he
did on the cross. I remember hearing someone say one
time that if he could be in heaven and peek
through a keyhole and see Jesus for a single second,
every thousand.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Years, it'd be worth it.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Well, I don't know if that's true or not in
terms of its reality, but we're not going to have
that experience.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I don't know how it works.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
I can't explain how with all the myriads of people
who will be in heaven, each of us can have
a personal relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
But that's what the Bible says.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
We will know him, we will see him, we will
be like him. And the Bible says the fellowship of
Jesus in heaven is the most precious thing about that place.
It's not the pearly Gates, it's not the streets of Gold,
it's Jesus. When we get to heaven, heaven will be
heaven because that's where Jesus is. But secondly, not only
(22:23):
is our redeemer in heaven, our relationships are in heaven.
Hebrews Chapter twelve says there are several categories of people
who will be in heaven, the City of the Living God,
the Heavenly Jerusalem, and the Innumerable Company of Angels. The
General Assembly and Church of the First Born, and the
(22:44):
description of the Heavenly City was written to believers still
on earth, and the description tells us that when we
get to Heaven, people of all ages are going.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
To be there.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
We are going to live in an eternal community with
fellow Christians. About this, We'll speak with people from every
era of history, friends from the past, the future, and
the pages of Scripture. I mean, I have a lot
of questions for David and Joseph and Daniel. I want
to sit down with Paul and ask what was your
(23:16):
thorn in the flesh? Everybody's viated that for so long.
I hope to meet C. S. Lewis, Charles Haddon, Spurgeon,
Ad Betsier, other people who you've heard me quote from
in my sermons over the years, who I have read
and have been such a blessing to my life. And
of course, heaven is precious because it reunites us with
(23:37):
our loved ones, loved ones we've lost, parents, siblings, children
and friends. When we get to Heaven, we're going to
see all those people because we know for a fact
that they put their trust in Christ and they will
be there. Well, there's so much about Heaven that I
want you to know, so much I want to tell you,
and every day I'm filled with excitement to give you
(23:59):
this in information and share with you the promises of
the Bible. Have more about what's up with heaven tomorrow.
On Thursday, we're going to talk about the kind of
body you have to have to go to Heaven. You
can't go in your current body. Did you know that?
And then on Friday we began two days of discussion
about the City of Heaven, the Holy City, the Celestial City,
(24:20):
a beautiful place. Hey, We're going to take a little
journey right after Christmas this year. We do this almost
every year. We'll be sailing on holl In America's Conings
Damn beginning December twenty seventh.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
We'll be going to the Caribbean with.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Wonderful music, teaching from the Word of God, incredible beauty,
and just great fellowship with God's people. Already have a
great start for a great group, and you can join us.
Go to David Jeremiah dot org for all the information.
Be sure to join us tomorrow on this good station.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on doctor Jeremiah's series The Promise of Heaven,
please visit our website, where we also offer two free
ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points
magazine and our daily email devotional sign up today at
Davidjeremiah dot org slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dot org, slash Radio,
(25:16):
or call us at eight hundred nine four seven, nineteen
ninety three. Ask for your copy of David's encouraging new book,
The Promise of Heaven thirty one Reasons to get excited
about your eternal home. It's yours for a gift of
any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible
in the English Standard, New International, and New King James versions,
(25:36):
complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's decades of study.
Get all the details when you visit our website Davidjeremiah
dot org slash Radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join
us tomorrow as we continue the series The Promise of
Heaven on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
Every Christian will live eternally in heaven, but many are
too focused on the concerns of this world to get
excited about the next Are you one of them?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Today?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
On turning point, doctor David Jeremiah seeks to help you
prepare for your heavenly home by sharing details from scripture
that you need to know from the promise of Heaven.
Here's David to introduce his message. What's up with Heaven?
You know, Heaven is known to all of us. In fact,
as we look up into the skies, we see the heavens.
(00:36):
The Bible says there are three heavens. Paul said he
was caught up into the third heaven. But heaven is
a very interesting subject, and recently we saw a research
project that said Heaven is more in the minds of
people today than it's been for many years. So I
want to tell you some things about heaven in today's program,
tell you about its prominence in the Bible. I want
(00:58):
you to know more about the place where we're going
to spend eternity. This is kind of a part two
introduction message, but you'll hear some things about Heaven that
you haven't heard before, and hopefully it will start to
get you excited about Heaven. The title of this book
is The Promise of Heaven. The subtitle is thirty one
Ways for you to get excited about Heaven, and I
(01:19):
hope we can help you do that.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Don't forget you can get a copy of this book,
The Promise of Heaven, which is just being released from
Turning Point. All you have to do is send a
gift of any size during the month of October and
say please send me the book on Heaven and we'll
get it off to you right away. Let me tell
you also, you can get this book at Barnes and Noble.
You can get it at Target, you can get it
(01:41):
in Walmart, wherever books are sold. Hobby Lobby carries this book,
and we want you to get it, whether you get
it from us or get it from somewhere else. We
most of all want you to get the truth of
this book. It will tell you what to expect when
you get to heaven, and if you're not sure you're
going there, it'll help you find out how to get sure.
And we begin that process today with this message we've
(02:03):
called What's Up with Heaven. One day, Suzanne Edwards found
a deflated helium balloon in the backyard of her home
in Monroe, Georgia. Tied to it was a photo of
a smiling family and the handwritten note in childlike print.
(02:24):
As she read it, tears welled up in her eyes.
It said, Dad, I wish you were here so we
could have fun together. I wish you were merry Christmas.
I hope you were happy in heaven. If you are okay,
then tell me I love you Alejandro. Suzan later learned
the note was written by seven year old Alejandro Garcia Heros,
(02:46):
whose home was about twenty miles away. Three years earlier,
in Colombia, Alejandro's father, a law professor, had been murdered.
Alejandro and his mother moved to the It States, but
every Christmas, the boy would write a letter to his
dad and send it off in a helium balloon, hoping
(03:08):
it would get to Heaven. Using social media, Suzanne found
Alejandro's mom and asked her to pass along this message
to the boy. I want you to know that Heaven
is a wonderful place, more amazing than you and I
can ever imagine. It is a place where there is
no pain and no worries. And I am certain your
Daddy didn't want to leave you or cause you to
(03:30):
feel lonely or sad. He will always love you, and
I'm sure that you make him proud. Have a merry Christmas.
When Lalijandro received the message, he cried, and so did
millions of people around the world. When the story was
picked up by the media, Suzanne was right. Heaven is
(03:50):
more wonderful than we can imagine.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's not a dream or a mystery. It's real.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
We began this study on heaven and I believe it
could be one of the most important series we've ever done.
You see, my goal is to make sure you all
are going there. You know, someone told me the real
purpose of a Christian is to go to heaven and
take as many people with him as he can. And
I would feel very sad if for some reason you
(04:22):
didn't hear about heaven and how to go there and
missed it. So I'm going to do my best to
make sure that doesn't happen. It was Sunday morning, Sunday school,
and the five year old class was in session and
the teacher was quizzing her class. She said, if I
sold everything I owned and gave the money to the church,
would that get me into heaven? And know, the children
(04:44):
shouted in unison. If I cleaned my house every day,
mode the yard, planted flowers, made my home beautiful, would
that get me to heaven? No?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Again, they answered.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
If I was kind to animals and polite to friends,
if I loved my family, would that get me to heaven? Oh?
Said the crowd. Well, the teacher continued, how can I
get to heaven? And one little boy who was new
to Sunday school shouted out the answer, you have to
be dead. Well, he was right, and that means that
(05:18):
the offer of heavenness for everybody, because let's face it,
the death rate is still one hundred percent. Every second
two people die, and that adds up to about one
hundred and seventy thousand people stepping into eternity every single day,
either into heaven or into hell. You would think we'd
be talking about heaven all the time, but interestingly enough,
(05:40):
it has become neglected in many churches. Some people see
heaven as wishful thinking. Others have worried that too much
emphasis on the next world will detract from efforts to
address suffering and injustice in this world. When the church
forgets heaven, something happens. The church loses its way without
(06:04):
an eternal perspective. The church becomes indulgent and self centered,
and it's all about today and all about my needs.
And I didn't get my need met, and we become
spiritually lethargic. Present comfort takes central stage. Heaven becomes little
more than an afterthought. That's why it's important for us
(06:25):
periodically to visit this subject and never to let it
be very far away from us.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
So what's up with Heaven?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Let me begin by giving you some basic truths about
heaven that you may not know. The idea of heaven
is not just a doctrine tucked away in the pages
of our Bibles. It shows up everywhere in our culture,
in our stories, our songs, and our screens. Back in
two thousand and three, Mitch Album wrote a book called
(06:55):
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and he captured
the hearts worldwide. Do you know that that spent ninety
five weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list, telling
the story of Eddie, an amusement park worker who dies
saving a child and meets five people in heaven who
revealed the unseen impact of his life years later, Randy
(07:19):
Alcorn wrote a five hundred page theological book on heaven,
which sold over a million copies and is the go
to book on heaven.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
If you want to get one.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
And then there are movies like Heaven Is for Real,
Miracles from Heaven. They may not have broken the box
office records, but they reached wide audiences and many people
were interested in it. And of course we have all
of the stories of people who supposedly went to heaven
and came back, they died, went to heaven and came back.
I don't know what to make about all of those.
And somebody asked me in this series if I was
(07:52):
going to do that, and I said, no, I'm not
going to talk about people that went to heaven and
came back because I don't know if it's real or not.
But I know what the Bible says is real, so
I'm going to focus on that. You know, we have
a lot of music that's been written about heaven. Eric
Clapton wrote a song called Tears in Heaven. Carrie Underwood
(08:13):
wrote See You Again, reflecting our desire to be reunited
with people who die and hoping that if they're in heaven,
we're going to meet them someday. Even television shows like
The Good Place documentaries on near death experiences remind us
that the question of eternity is very much alive in
(08:35):
many hearts. We don't have to rely on lyrics or
screenwriters to understand what heaven is like, because God has
already spoken, and we're going to begin with some wonderful
truths about heaven from the scripture. Did you know that
in the Bible the word heaven is mentioned more than
six hundred times. Thirty three of the thirty nine Old
(08:58):
Testament books talk about heaven. Twenty one books in the
New Testament talk about heaven. In the Old Testament, the
word for heaven is Shimaiem, which is a word meaning
the heights. In the New Testament, the Greek word uranus
inspires the name of the planet Euranus, and the word
refers to something.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That is raised up or lofty.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So, as you can see, heaven is not a side
topic in the Bible. It's a major theme that runs
from Genesis to Revelation. And the Bible tells us Enoch
walked with God and was taken not to a grave,
but into God's presence. Abraham looked behind Canaan to a
city with foundations whose architect and.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Builder is God.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
David spoke of dwelling in the House of the Lord forever,
and Isaiah described a future with no sorrow or sighing.
Jesus spoke about heaven often. He told stories to help
people understand it, and Paul wrote about longing for it,
and John saw it and described it in detail in
the Book of Revelation. So heaven is a key theme
(10:08):
in the Bible. It doesn't just mention heaven here and there.
It keeps pointing us to heaven everywhere. It's where God is,
It's where His people will be, and where the story
is headed. The prominence of heaven. Here's one you may
have wondered about. I know a lot of people have
asked this question, the plurality of heaven. As you work
(10:31):
your way through the hundreds of mentions of the word
heaven in the Bible, you soon realize there's a difference
between the word and how it's used. In fact, the
Bible specifically speaks of three distinct heavens. The first heaven
is the atmospheric heaven, the sky with its clouds and
(10:53):
birds and life giving oxygen Genesis one twenty says, then
God said, let the water abound with an abundance of
living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth
across the face of the firmament to the heavens. Psalm
one hundred and four to twelve says the birds of
the heavens, referring to the birds flying through the open
(11:14):
sky and job. God asks who has the wisdom to
count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars
of the heavens? And Isaiah speaks of the rain and
snow that come down from the heaven. So in these passages,
the word heaven is the atmosphere, the place where rainfalls,
where clouds form, and birds fly. It's the thin layer
(11:38):
of gases, mostly nitrogen and oxygen, that makes life on
the Earth possible. Most of its vital resources are within
ten miles of the surface, and God designed it to
sustain life. This is what the Bible calls the first Heaven,
and then there's a second heaven. In Genesis chapter one,
(11:58):
God said, let there be lights in the firmament of
the heavens to divide the day from the night, and
then he describes the sun and the moon and the stars,
the second Heaven is the vast universe beyond our atmosphere,
its outer space, filled with billions of stars and planets
and constellations and meteors and galaxies. The book of Psalms
(12:22):
praises God for the lavish display of his glory. Psalm
eight says, when I consider your heavens, the work of
your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained.
What is Man that you are mindful of him? And
the Son of Man that you visit him. Jesus predicted
a coming day when the sun will be darkened and
(12:45):
the moon will not give its light. These are all
references to the second Heaven, the stellar skies. We have
the atmosphericn we have the stellar heaven. Here's the one
that causes people a lot of questions, and they read
this passage of scripture from tewod Corinthians, Chapter twelve. Paul writes,
(13:06):
I know a man in Christ who, fourteen 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.
And I know such a man. Whether in the body
or out of the body, I do not know. God
knows how he was caught up into paradise and heard
inexpressible words which it is not lawful for a man
(13:29):
to utter. He was caught up into the third Heaven.
And when we read that, when we've read it in
the past, we've always wondered, what in the world is
the third Heaven. I didn't know there was more than one.
Now you know, there's the atmospheric heaven, there's the stellar heaven,
and now there is the heaven where God lives. In
these verses, Paul's not referring to the atmospheric heaven. He's
(13:52):
referring to the highest Heaven, the very dwelling place of God.
Solomon spoke of this in First King's twenty seven. He said,
but will God indeed dwell on the earth, behold heaven
and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much
less this temple which I have built. Moses called this
(14:13):
heaven the highest Heaven. Other Bible writers describe it as
God's holy Temple. And this is what God was referring
to when his son Jesus said to the thief, today
you will be with me in Paradise. Hebrews calls this
place a better country. Jesus referred to it as the
(14:33):
Father's House. This is it, the heaven of heavens, the
highest heaven, Paradise, the Father's House. This is the place
where God dwells and where his throne radiates glory, where
angels fill the skies with praise, and where they're redeemed
of every age will live forever. This is our future address,
(14:56):
if we know Jesus, the highest heaven, where God lives,
the prominence of heaven, and the plurality of it. Let's
talk about this place called heaven. Key passage here is
John fourteen, where Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my
(15:17):
Father's house, there 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
to myself. That where I am there, you may be
also now in the Bible. As you read the Bible
through and especially during this series, as we focus on
(15:37):
these passages, we're going to find a number of names
for heaven, different things. The Bible speaks of it about.
It's pictured in many ways, and each picture suggests a
little different aspect of it. When we say that Heaven
is a country, we're talking about how vast it is.
Heaven's a big place, see it in the scripture, and
(16:01):
it's a city. We think of all the people that
live there. When we see it compared to a kingdom,
we think of how orderly and organized the government is.
When we hear of paradise, we imagine all the beauty
of Heaven. My favorite description of Heaven is the Father's House.
I love that. I like the Father's House. When Don
(16:24):
and I were students at Dallas Seminary, we longed to
be at home, but we were one thousand and fifty
miles from Cedarville, Ohio, where I lived. And believe it
or not, there were occasions when we'd get off work
on Friday, get in my Chevrolet convertible and drive one
thousand and fifty miles to be home for a few
(16:46):
hours because we had to be back at work on Monday.
And we look back on that now and think, that's
the craziest thing we ever did in our lives. Do
you ever do any crazy stuff like that? When you
were younger. I mean, people ask me do I do
red I don't even think about doing red eyes anymore.
I used to do them all the time. When you're younger,
you do stuff you would never do as you get older.
(17:08):
And I can't imagine driving one thousand and fifty miles
two ways twice in a weekend.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
But you know why. We did it to get to
the Father's house, to.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Get home where we grew up, where I grew up,
where my mom and dad were. It's tough when you're
that far away from home going to school, and we
wanted to be home. That's the way it will be
for heaven. Heaven will be the Father's house when we
get there, it's God's people. We're going to feel at home.
We're going to feel the joy and compassion, and it
(17:40):
will be wonderful. Some people, according to Charles Ball, talk
about Heaven as they would about an imaginary place. They
talk about it with tongue in cheek and annoying smile,
as if to say Heaven is a human invention, a
never never land, a realm of dreams, not to be
taken seriously. People say that heaven is a benevolent state
(18:03):
of mind. Have you heard people say that heaven is
what you think about on this earth. You make your
own heaven. They say, Heaven is not a place you go.
Heaven is what you make out of what you're doing
right now here on this earth. Well, all of that
is untrue if.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You believe the Bible.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
The Bible speaks of a special place, not a figment
of our imagination, not a feeling, not an emotion. Heaven
is not the beautiful isle of somewhere. Heaven is not
merely a thought form. It's not merely a projection of
the best in ourselves. It's not a vision of a
(18:41):
long for utopia. It's not a pleasing hope or an
invention of man. Our thoughts do not make heaven. Heaven
is a prepared place for a prepared people. Billy Graham wrote,
Heaven is a literal place. It is not an imaginary
world or fantasy land to which dwell. God created Heaven
(19:03):
with his vast array of authentic characteristics. Jesus did not
ascend to a lofty dream world. Following his resurrection, Jesus
returned to sit at the right hand of his father
in the place called Heaven. Jesus said, I go to
prepare a place for you. Heaven is a place. It
(19:25):
is not a feeling, It is not a thought pattern.
It is not how you deal with life on this earth.
Heaven is the place that God has created for his
people if they will trust His word about how to
get there.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
This is what I want you to know.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So we've talked about the prominence of heaven in the
Bible and in culture. We've talked about the plurality of heaven.
How many of them are there? There are three. We've
talked about the place called heaven. Now, let me just
speak with you for a moment about the preciousness of heaven.
Why is heaven so important to us? Why do we
(20:03):
all need to get ready to go to heaven? Why
is it that I say to you today? Then my
goal in this series is that nobody gets left out
of Heaven. I want you all to go to Heaven.
I don't want one of you not to go. You
may be the meanest person I ever met, but if
you know Jesus Christ, you need to go to heaven.
And that's the only way you're going to get there.
(20:23):
First of all, Heaven is precious because our Redeemer is there.
I have a feeling that when we get to heaven
and we see the golden streets, in the pearly gates,
every other visual marvel, they will all fade into insignificance
when compared with Jesus Christ. Imagine the moment that we
(20:45):
see Jesus right now. We don't see him with our eyes,
we don't have the privileges standing in his prisence. The
Bible says, though you do not see him yet, believing
you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Worry
if we rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory
(21:05):
having not seen him, Just imagine what it will be
like when we actually see him. He is in heaven,
in his human body, bearing the scars of our redemption
in his hands and in his feet, And when we
see him, will all be reminded that if we're there,
we're there because of him.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
He's the only reason any of us can get to Heaven.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
You can't get to Heaven without Jesus and what he
did on the cross. I remember hearing someone say one
time that if he could be in heaven and peek
through a keyhole and see Jesus for a single second,
every thousand.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Years, it'd be worth it.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Well, I don't know if that's true or not in
terms of its reality, but we're not going to have
that experience.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I don't know how it works.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
I can't explain how with all the myriads of people
who will be in heaven, each of us can have
a personal relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
But that's what the Bible says.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
We will know him, we will see him, we will
be like him. And the Bible says the fellowship of
Jesus in heaven is the most precious thing about that place.
It's not the pearly Gates, it's not the streets of Gold,
it's Jesus. When we get to heaven, heaven will be
heaven because that's where Jesus is. But secondly, not only
(22:23):
is our redeemer in heaven, our relationships are in heaven.
Hebrews Chapter twelve says there are several categories of people
who will be in heaven, the City of the Living God,
the Heavenly Jerusalem, and the Innumerable Company of Angels. The
General Assembly and Church of the First Born, and the
(22:44):
description of the Heavenly City was written to believers still
on earth, and the description tells us that when we
get to Heaven, people of all ages are going.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
To be there.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
We are going to live in an eternal community with
fellow Christians. About this, We'll speak with people from every
era of history, friends from the past, the future, and
the pages of Scripture. I mean, I have a lot
of questions for David and Joseph and Daniel. I want
to sit down with Paul and ask what was your
(23:16):
thorn in the flesh? Everybody's viated that for so long.
I hope to meet C. S. Lewis, Charles Haddon, Spurgeon,
Ad Betsier, other people who you've heard me quote from
in my sermons over the years, who I have read
and have been such a blessing to my life. And
of course, heaven is precious because it reunites us with
(23:37):
our loved ones, loved ones we've lost, parents, siblings, children
and friends. When we get to Heaven, we're going to
see all those people because we know for a fact
that they put their trust in Christ and they will
be there. Well, there's so much about Heaven that I
want you to know, so much I want to tell you,
and every day I'm filled with excitement to give you
(23:59):
this in information and share with you the promises of
the Bible. Have more about what's up with heaven tomorrow.
On Thursday, we're going to talk about the kind of
body you have to have to go to Heaven. You
can't go in your current body. Did you know that?
And then on Friday we began two days of discussion
about the City of Heaven, the Holy City, the Celestial City,
(24:20):
a beautiful place. Hey, We're going to take a little
journey right after Christmas this year. We do this almost
every year. We'll be sailing on holl In America's Conings
Damn beginning December twenty seventh.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
We'll be going to the Caribbean with.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Wonderful music, teaching from the Word of God, incredible beauty,
and just great fellowship with God's people. Already have a
great start for a great group, and you can join us.
Go to David Jeremiah dot org for all the information.
Be sure to join us tomorrow on this good station.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on doctor Jeremiah's series The Promise of Heaven,
please visit our website, where we also offer two free
ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points
magazine and our daily email devotional sign up today at
Davidjeremiah dot org slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dot org, slash Radio,
(25:16):
or call us at eight hundred nine four seven, nineteen
ninety three. Ask for your copy of David's encouraging new book,
The Promise of Heaven thirty one Reasons to get excited
about your eternal home. It's yours for a gift of
any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible
in the English Standard, New International, and New King James versions,
(25:36):
complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's decades of study.
Get all the details when you visit our website Davidjeremiah
dot org slash Radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join
us tomorrow as we continue the series The Promise of
Heaven on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
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