What Is Heaven?

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What Heaven Is

The Dwelling Place of God

  • He is omnipresent (everywhere all at once), so how can He ‘dwell’ anywhere?
Psalm 139:7-12 ESV
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? [8] If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! [9] If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, [10] even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. [11] If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," [12] even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Matthew 18:20 ESV
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
  • His Throne (angelic realm).
    • There are many scripture references pointing to Heaven as God’s Throne(room)
  • The Tabernacle was an earthly ‘picture’ of Heaven
Exodus 25:17-22 ESV
"You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. [18] And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. [19] Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. [20] The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. [21] And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. [22] There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

Exodus 40:34-35 ESV
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. [35] And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

Eternity – The Dwelling place of God and His Redeemed Creation

Revelation 21:1-3 ESV
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [2] And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
  • Heaven is where believers will spend an eternity with God.
    • Present Heaven vs. Future Heaven
    • Since God dwells outside of time & space – will we?

it is NOT this CURRENT world as it is.

alcorn

Characteristics of Heaven from Scripture

Mark 16:19-20 NASBS 
So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. [20] And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.] [And they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions. And after that, Jesus Himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.].
  • He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
John 14:1-4 ESV 
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. [2] In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. [4] And you know the way to where I am going."
  • many rooms, I go to prepare a place for you
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 ESV 
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. [16] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. [18] Therefore encourage one another with these words.
  • descend from heaven, caught up together with them in the clouds
Hebrews 9:24 ESV 
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
  • Christ has entered…into heaven, in the presence of God
Hebrews 11:13-16 ESV
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. [14] For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. [15] If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
  • seeking a homeland, a better country, he has prepared for them a city

Exodus 15:12-13; Luke 2:14; Hebrews 4:14, Revelation 3:11-13.

Conclusion: Heaven is a Place

  • In what ways is Heaven described as a place?
  • Is it described as being different from other place? How?

A place is by nature physical, just as human beings are by nature physical. (We are also spiritual.)

What we are suited for- what we’ve been specifically designed for is a place like the one God made for us: Earth.

-Alcorn, Heaven

Made For Jesus. Made For Heaven

We were made for a person and a place.
Jesus is that person and Heaven is that place.

Alcorn, Heaven

When Jesus told His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. … I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2), He deliberately chose common, physical terms (house, rooms, place) to describe where He was going and what He was preparing for us. He wanted to give His disciples (and us) something tangible to look forward to – an actual place where they (and we) would go to be with Him.

Physically resurrected people need a physical place to live, not an ethereal realm of disembodied spirits. Human beings are not suited for such a realm.

Alcorn

Scripture reveals an exciting yet strangely neglected truth – that God never gave up on His original plan for human beings to dwell on Earth. In fact, the climax of history will be the creation of new heavens and a New Earth (Revelation 21:1-4).