What Happens When You Die? Part 3 {Reflections}

Ever been told that heaven is just floating on clouds and playing harps for eternity? A young confirmation student once confessed to me that this common image was exactly why she didn't want to affirm her faith. "I just don't want to sit on a cloud and play the harp all day," she said with complete sincerity. Her honest admission reveals how deeply our cultural caricatures of the afterlife have distorted the rich, compelling vision Scripture actually offers.

In this third installment of our exploration into what happens after death, we move beyond the immediate aftermath where "the spirit returns to God who gave it" and the intermediate state of peaceful waiting. Now we confront the grand finale of God's redemptive plan: the creation of a new heavens and a new earth. This isn't about God scrapping creation and whisking us away to some distant cosmic realm. Rather, it describes God's commitment to restore, rebuild, and renew this very world – bringing heaven (God's dwelling place) and earth (our home) into perfect harmony.

From Isaiah's prophecies to the hopeful visions in Romans 8 and Revelation 21, Scripture consistently portrays a God who refuses to abandon creation but instead promises its complete renewal. Like Jesus' resurrection body – recognizably himself yet gloriously transformed – the renewed creation will be both familiar and perfected. The chaos, injustice, and brokenness that currently mar our world will give way to beauty, harmony, and wholeness. And remarkably, through Jesus, we're invited to begin living according to the values and patterns of this coming kingdom right now. We're called not merely to await this renewal passively but to participate actively in bringing glimpses of God's kingdom into our present reality.

Have you experienced moments where you caught a fleeting glimpse of what the world could be? Those moments of profound beauty, justice, reconciliation, or wholeness aren't just pleasant anomalies – they're previews of coming attractions. Share this episode with someone who needs hope beyond cultural caricatures, and join us in exploring how we might live today as citizens of God's renewed world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
What is up everybody?
Hey, welcome to our Reflectionspodcast, and, in case you
missed it, this is part three.
I think it's part three of ourthree part what happens when you
die.
By the way, mike Lauer is outtoday.
We have a special producer inthe house, olivia Goodrich.
What's up, olivia?
She is just as good at this asMike is.

(00:35):
So here we go.
So, okay, episode one we talkedabout what Happens when you Die
.
There's this beautiful passagein Ecclesiastes that says,
basically, the spirit goes backto God where it came from, the
spirit or the breath of the wind, and the body goes back into
the ground where it came from.
And then the second one wetalked about how, then,
according to the Christiantradition, there is this time of

(00:56):
waiting.
When you die, the spirit goesto be with God, the body into
the ground, and we await theresurrection.
So the resurrection doesn'thappen right away.
There's this waiting time, andso friends of ours have gone on
before us that have died.
Their spirit, their breath,their wind, their soul, whatever
you want to call it, theilluminating factor has gone
with God and their body into theground, and then we wait for

(01:17):
the resurrection, and this isoften described as a place of
resting.
This is why we say rest inpeace, or may they rest in peace
.
And it's a garden, a paradise.
So Jesus tells the thief on thecross today you'll be with me
in this time of resting.
And so we wait and we await theresurrection.
Part three I want to talk abouta new heavens and a new earth.
So a couple years ago I wasdoing confirmation and there was

(01:49):
this young girl who, at thevery end of this two and a half
half year journey, told herleaders hey, I don't want to be
confirmed.
Confirmation is this traditionwe have in the Lutheran church
and many other traditions aswell, where they kind of affirm
or confirm their faith.
And they're like yeah, this iswhat I'm doing, I want to keep
following Jesus, I want topublicly declare like this is
what I'm up to, and I want toaffirm.
You know that I've got thisfaith and it's growing and et
cetera.
So she's like I don't want todo that, I don't want to confirm
my faith.
And so her leaders told me I'mlike the I guess one of the, you
know, I'm like the main leader.

(02:09):
And I'm like, okay, let me talkto her.
And so we, her and I and herleaders we grabbed some time
after one of the sessions we'reup at camp doing to be confirmed
, and she says this in allsincerity and in all seriousness
she goes listen, I just don'twant to sit on a cloud and play

(02:30):
the harp all day.
I was like what?
So, yeah, like when we die, Iknow that's what happens we go
and sit on a cloud and play theharp all day.
I don't, that sounds terriblyboring.
And I was like, oh, that's whatyou think happens when we die.
And I said, listen, I don't.
And I realized she sort ofingested this idea of heaven or

(02:54):
whatever happens after life,that it's sitting on a cloud
playing a harp.
And if you go look at Hallmarkcards, that's the image we see
in pop culture of people whenthey die.
There's all these images ofangels or angelic beings or
people who've died before us andwe have this image of them
floating on a cloud and playinga harp or something like this,
or haunting people, somethinglike that.

(03:14):
And I go, listen, I don't wantto do that either.
That does sound boring.
What if there was somethingelse going on?
And I began to unpack this ideaof what happens when we die and
this idea of a new heavens anda new earth.
So here's what I want to sayAfter the resurrection, the plan
of God in the scripture, sortof the end all of everything, is

(03:36):
at the end of this age, whatthey call the age to come, god
promises to create a new heavensand a new earth.
This, by the way, is not thesame thing as, like God, blowing
it all up and all of usevacuating out of here, going
somewhere far off in the galaxy.
That's not it either.
Rather, the image is Godrestoring, rebuilding, renewing

(03:56):
this place and bringing heavenand earth together.
And heaven is often its best tothink about heaven as like
again, not a cloud, somewherewith a castle and lakes of
diamonds, but rather the spacewhere God dwells.
That's not that separate fromthis place.
Because God dwells here.
The Bible says in him we liveand move and have our being.
So God dwells here with us inthis time and place, but it's

(04:19):
somehow.
You know, we can't interactwith him fully face-to-face yet
at this moment, but heaven is aplace where God dwells and God
promises to restore a newheavens and a new earth.
Now, this idea comes fromseveral places in Scripture.
The first one is in Isaiah, andthere's a couple moments in
Isaiah where he references this.
But Isaiah the prophet saysthis Now, isaiah 65 is where I'm

(04:40):
pulling this.
But this is like post-exileThey've returned from the exile,
returned from Babylon, but theystill feel like, when they get
home, like things are a mess.
There's like things are inruins and they're like they've
lost and are losing hope.
God says through Isaiah to see,I will create a new heavens and
a new earth.
The former things will not beremembered, nor will they come

(05:04):
to mind.
So there's this idea alreadyback in the prophets that God
will recreate a new heavens anda new earth.
The Jews had this very, you know, like this very tethered way of
life with this place, thisearth, this you know, the dirt,
the grass, the trees, the rivershere, not somewhere else and so
for them, the idea that Godwould restore and renew this
place was very much like at thecenter of their hearts and their
hope, and so they didn't wantto escape and go live in a

(05:26):
universe far away.
They wanted God to renew thisplace, and so that was the hope
they were given in thispost-exile.
So then again you have inRomans or, yeah, romans, in
Romans 8, the Apostle Paulwrites this and you can hear
this idea of like the creationitself is waiting for God to
restore it, renew it.
And so in Romans 8, he says weknow that the whole of creation

(05:47):
has been groaning, as in thepains of childbirth, right up to
the present time.
And before this he writes thatthe creation has been subjected,
it's like it's in bondage,waiting to be liberated from its
bondage, and that one day itwill be.
But in the meantime we'rewaiting for God to renew it, as
though we're waiting in like achildbirth, you know, with these
childbirth pains.

(06:08):
And so there's this idea thatGod will restore and renew this
earth and the creation itselfwhich is groaning for God to fix
it.
Can you imagine the creationitself groaning like, waiting
for God to restore it?
And then, of course, revelation21,.
You have this beautiful idea.
Where it happens, john in thebook of Revelation is given this
image behind the curtain.
Revelation just means like anapocalypse.

(06:31):
An apocalypse means like acurtain being pulled back.
And John has this vision thatone day God will build a new
heavens and a new earth.
He'll restore, rebuild, renewall things and bring all things
under his headship, under hisrule and reign his authority.
This is from Ephesians as well,but okay, this is what he
writes.
He says then I saw behind thecurtain this is John a new

(06:51):
heaven and a new earth, for thefirst heaven and the first earth
had passed away and there wasno longer any sea S-E-A, like
the water which, by the way,this is a weird thing to say but
in the ancient world, the seaor the waters were like unknown,
mysterious, chaotic things, andthis is where, like the evil
and the demons or the monstersdwell.

(07:13):
This is why, you see, inancient maps they have like
these dragon-like monstersliving in the oceans, because in
the ancient mind they thoughtthe seas were like these chaotic
, untamed, you know, beaststhemselves.
And so the sea will be no moremeans that God will have finally
tamed the wild chaos of the sea.
And so, yeah, this is the ideathat God will restore all things

(07:34):
and renew all things and redeemall things.
And as he writes in Ephesians,paul writes that God will bring
all things under, he will sum upall things and bring unity to
all things, and when he doesthat, at the resurrection it
will be a new heavens and a newearth.
And so I guess.
Imagine, if you would not, usfloating on a cloud, playing a
harp all day, which I mean Idon't know.
That sounds terribly boring tome as well, but like something

(07:57):
like this, but like a glorifiedthis.
Do you know what I mean?
It's like when Jesus isresurrected, as I mentioned last
week.
It's his body, but it's aglorified resurrected body.
He can kind of go through walls, as we mentioned.
You know, they don't reallyrecognize him all the time, like
those guys are walking with himon the road to a maze.

(08:17):
They don't recognize that it'shim, and so he's like a
glorified body, but it's stillhim.
He still has the holes in hisfeet and his hands.
And so when God makes a newheavens and a new earth, I don't
know what it will look like,but I don't think it will look
all that dissimilar from thisplace.
But imagine this place totallyhealed and put back together the
way it was supposed to be,something like Eden.
That will be like, you know,just beautiful, as like there's
enough for everybody, there's aharmony, there's justice,

(08:39):
there's love, there's wholeness,you know, integration and just
the way things were supposed tobe.
And I imagine and we'll see Godsort of face to face isface is
what Scripture sort of seems tosay in this brand new way.
It'll be incredible and so allthe language around what life
after death will look like.
It'll be something like that,and probably even a thousand

(09:00):
times greater than what I candescribe, because what do I know
?
But here's the goal then.
If that's what things will belike, if that's the goal of all
of us, that one day God willrestore, renew all things, put
things back to rights and bringhis reign and rule on earth as
is in heaven this is the prayerthat Jesus taught us to pray
Then.
Like and if you can imaginewhat that might look like now,

(09:20):
like what might it look like tohave the kingdom of God, a new
heavens and earth, now in thisplace?
You know, I don't know.
Imagine how we might behave,things we might do, how we might
organize our days, our lives,our cities, even.
And then the goal is this likehey, how can we start living
like that even now?
Because in Jesus the kingdom ofGod is dawned.
It's dawned in Jesus, it'sbegun in Jesus.

(09:41):
Now it's not here fully, soRomans 8, it's groaning.
There's this tension, thisstress.
It's waiting for liberation, butthere are pockets of it, kind
of popping up all around us andyou see it, you have these
glimpses of beauty and justiceand love and and wholeness and
what I call shalom, and uh, butit's not fully right, but but
you get a taste of it and thenone day god will fully restore

(10:03):
and renew all things and newheavens and a new earth, and
then that will live and freedomand all this kinds of things.
But, but, but in Jesus theinvitation is to live that kind
of way now.
In John 10, he says I came togive you life, and life to the
full and here and now, not justafter you die, not just after
the resurrection.
So, as people of faith who aretrying to follow Jesus and live

(10:24):
in the ways of Jesus, we can beinvited into this way of living
here and now, and it's not easy,but it can be incredibly
beautiful and life-giving.
So today, may you know that Godis planning on summing up all
things, bringing unity to allthings and resurrecting all
things and creating a newheavens and a new earth.
And as we look forward to andanticipate that day and have

(10:46):
hope in that day, may we alsohear the invitation that God is
inviting us to live like it'strue here and now.
Amen, love you guys, peace.
Hey, if you enjoy this show,I'd love to have you share it
with some friends.
And don't forget, you arealways welcome to join us in
person at Central in Elk Riverat 830, which is our liturgical

(11:10):
gathering, or at 10 o'clock, ourmodern gathering, or you can
check us out online atclcelkriverorg.
Peace.