Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South
Australia. I'm just going to read.
I read this when we were praying this morning.
I'm going to read it for us again.
Now. I sort of reading this this
morning in my in my reading in Ezekiel 40, Ezekiel 40 verse 4
says, and the man said to me, son of man, look with your eyes
and hear with your ears and fix your mind on everything I show
you for you were brought here so that I might show them to you
declare to the House of Israel everything you see.
And I believe this is a word for us this morning.
I believe that God's brought us to this place to show us
something, that he would open our eyes and open our ears and
that we would get something from the Lord today, that he would
reveal something to us that we didn't, that we didn't have
before. And we were talking about
Thanksgiving in the as we were praying.
And I was talking about how when I give my son a lolly or
something like that, you can't, he can't hide the Thanksgiving
on his face. He's thankful.
Yeah. And like we come to God with,
you know, when we, hey, let's be thankful to God, We come to God
sometimes with Thanksgiving. Oh, thank you, God, you're so
wonderful. And like, there's not even a
smile on our face. Do you think that is true
Thanksgiving in the heart of of us?
When I say us, because I mean me too, when we come before the
Lord and say thank you so much, Lord, I'm, I'm so grateful
because you're so good. So something needs to change in
here. And it's exactly the same thing.
We're we're here worshipping the Lord and we're, we're saying
holy, holy, holy. And we're doing exactly the same
thing. Holy, holy, you're so holy God,
you're a holy God. He's a holy God.
And I think like when we're, when we're, we're talking about
heaven this morning, I think a lot of us are going to get a big
shock when we're standing before the Lord and crying out holy
because we're going to realize how holy he is.
And so maybe what we need for God to reveal to us in this
place is His Holiness is his worth that we would truly be
thankful and declare holiness to the Lord.
So Lord, we're, we're asking that you would do a work in us
this morning because we do want to see you clearly and we do
want to hear what you're saying. And we do want you to show us
what you've brought us here today to show us that we could
declare it to others. I pray for just a revelation of
who who you are in this place that we would catch something of
your magnificence, something of your greatness, Lord, something
of your power, something of the bigness of who God is in this
place today. Because you are a big God.
You are a wonderful God. You are a holy, holy, holy God.
And we will worship you, Lord, into eternity every single day,
every time the sun rises, Lord, we will be looking to you and
worshiping you because only you are worthy.
Lord, in Jesus name, thank you, Lord, in Jesus name, Jesus the
Son, in his name we stand today. We're here in this place today
because of Jesus, Amen. Thank you, Lord, thank you for
your son, Lord, thank you. Lord, thank you that we've come
from death to life and that we're alive in this place today.
Amen. Excellent.
So we're talking about heaven this morning and I hope that
when we talk about heaven, it serves hope in us because we
need hope. Our world is hopeless.
Our world is without hope. And we have the gospel, we have
Jesus, we have a revelation of who God is and who his Son is
and, and, and the Son that God sent that we could be redeemed.
And we have something that our world needs.
We have the hope and we're talking about eternity with our
Lord today. We're going to look at what the
scripture reveals about heaven. If we actually went and, and had
a really deep dive on what the what the scripture says about
heaven, we're going to be here longer than the 30 minutes or so
that I'm going to speak today. So this is like a drip in the
ocean, isn't it? But luckily for you and I and
for those that know him and for those that give our lives to
him, we're going to be able to experience the things that we're
speaking about this morning. And so we're going to be able to
look at each other and just go, this is the stuff that we were
talking about. This is it.
Today's the day. And so I hope that that fills us
with hope, knowing that today could be the day, right?
Jesus could come today. He's coming for his bride.
It could be today. I pray that it would be today
because I want to go and be where the Lord is me too.
Amen. Amen.
Together forever with him, reunited with the Father.
It's the hope of the gospel. So Paul writes about heaven.
When I say heaven, which one? Because Paul writes about 3,
right? So let's look at that for a
second. Two Corinthians 12 verse 2, Paul
says speaking about himself, he 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 into the 3rd heaven and I know such a man whether in the
body or out of the body, I do not know.
God knows who he was caught up into paradise and heard
inexpressible words which are not lawful for a man to utter.
So Paul writes of he goes into the 3rd heaven, that's 123,
that's three heavens. So the 1st heaven just so that
we can understand, I think what Paul is is writing here.
The first heaven we would see in Genesis 1 verse 20 is it says
this, it says let the birds fly above the earth across the face
of the firmament of the heavens. So this is the first heaven.
This is where the birds fly. This is like you look up and you
see a bird flying through the air.
This is the heavens up in the heavens there the 2nd heaven
Genesis one verse 16 says then God made 2 great lights, the
greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the
night. And he made the stars also, and
God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light to the
earth. So this is where the stars and
the moon and the sun is. This is the 2nd heaven.
Paul's writing about a heaven beyond that the 3rd heaven where
God dwells. Complete this sentence.
Miss with me our God who are in heaven, our Lord is even heaven.
He's in the 3rd heaven. Isaiah 66 verse one says heaven
is my throne and earth is my footstool.
How big is our God that he could say that I'm in heaven, it's my
throne and I've I've got my feet resting on the earth.
You know where when it says that you know the the Lord holds us
in the palm of his hands. It probably doesn't give justice
to how big our God is. This is like this picture, this
footstool in this hand is like a pitcher trying to help us
understand our God is way bigger than we could ever understand in
our in our in our minds. He is, he is like that, that
thing I am. It's just like I can't even
explain to you who I am, but I just am amazing.
We could catch some of that by the Spirit of God.
You know, when when God's relaying these truths, I hold
you in my hand when he's saying that heaven is my my throne and
earth is my footstool. He's not just saying it to
confuse us and just go, Oh, it's beyond you hate by the Spirit of
God, we could catch a revelation of the bigness of God.
He is huge, not in a in a size way, just in a God way.
He is he is. Lord help us.
Look, we can't explain it. I can't explain it to us.
Lord help us, we pray for a revelation in this place.
Lord, we pray that the Spirit of God would reveal something of
yourself to us in this place. Lord God the Son is in in
heaven. Jesus John 313 No one has
ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven.
That is the Son of man who is in heaven.
Hebrews 12/2 Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, he has sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God. Jesus is in heaven, all right.
So this is the dwelling place of God.
It's where Jesus is right now. Jesus is on the throne in heaven
with his Father. Where is heaven?
It's up. How do I know?
Because this is what we're told, right?
Acts 19 Now when He had spoken these things while they watched,
He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward the heaven as
He went up, behold, 2 men stood by them in white apparel, who
also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into
heaven? The same Jesus who was taken up
from you into heaven will come in like manner as you saw him go
into heaven up through the 1st heaven, past the 2nd heaven,
just out of reach of every telescope and spacecraft and
man's reach. It's up there.
Heaven is a, is a spiritual place, but Jesus was resurrected
physically. I, I think sometimes when we
think about heaven, we think it's like this mystical, magical
place and it's not real. Like it's, it's not as real as
what this is. Heaven is real.
Heaven is a real place for Jesus to be bodily resurrected and
seated on the throne of God. Do you know what that means?
It is a physical place. It has to be otherwise Jesus is
falling back through, down, back through the clouds and through
the 2nd back down to earth. Do you see what I'm saying?
It is, it is a real place. I say that just to, to correct
some, some thinking that it's just like this magical, you
know, wonderful spiritual place. Heaven is real, God is real, His
throne is real, The angels are real, the seraphim are real, the
the redeemed are real, God is real.
Heaven is a real place. This is the real reality.
We're living in a in a, in something that fits into the
greater reality. The greater reality is God and
his Heaven is the throne. It's where God dwells.
It's the greater reality. We need to shift our
understanding of how we see heaven.
It's not made-up, it's not pretend.
It's not something that you know.
Anyway, you get my point. We don't just hope that heaven
is true. You know, I was speaking to
someone during the week and talking about someone that had
passed away and, and you know, I said, Hey, this, this person's
with the Lord and he said, I hope so, right?
He's an unbeliever. I hope he is.
We don't just hope that this is true.
We are assured by faith that this is true.
We have faith that this is true. Hebrews 11/1 says now faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Faith comes from the Lord.
Faith isn't just wishful thinking.
Hoping that one day, oh geez, I hope I'll be with the Lord.
I hope heaven's real, I hope that will be.
We are assured by faith that we will be with Him one day, that
we will go to the place where the Lord is.
It's faith. I didn't just work that out by
reading the Bible and just going, well, I believe that the
Bible's true, so this must be true.
Now I've got hope. The Lord came and did something
in here that I can't deny, that I can't wrap my head around,
that I can't put a finger on. There's faith here that I know
that I know that I know that the Lord is who he says he is and
that when I leave this place I will be with the Lord.
That is a hope that you can't explain to someone that is non
believer. They don't get it.
They just think that you believe this thing and and the way that
you live sort of lines up with what you say to be true.
But we know when God comes in here and when we give our lives
to the Lord and when we when we lay down our lives to know him
and to serve him and to seek him, God does something in here.
And again, when you know that you know that you know the way
that you worship God is is 1 of extravagance.
The way that you tell him that you're thankful comes from a
heart position of faith. We tell him that he's worthy by
faith. We tell him that we're thankful
by faith. Is this making sense?
So what is heaven like? Can we know what heaven is like?
Let me just read 1 Corinthians 2 for us.
It says I has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the
heart of man the things which God has prepared for those that
love Him. Well, I guess that we can't
know. Then let's read on verse 10.
But God, but God, who has revealed them to us through His
Spirit. For the Spirit searches all
things, yes, the deep things of God.
For what man knows the things of, of man, except the spirit of
man, which is in him? Even so, no, no one knows the
things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the
Spirit who is from God. Listen to this, that we might
know the things which have been freely given to us by God.
By the Spirit of God, we take a hold of these things by faith.
We believe Him at His word. All right, so the word of God
has much to say about heaven, and we can take a hold of it by
faith. We can trust Him.
Let's keep digging through the Word.
See what it says. Psalm 16, verse 11 says in your
presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures
forevermore. Isn't that wonderful?
Try and wrap your head around what it means.
Fullness of joy. Have any of us ever experienced
fullness of joy? I've been pretty happy.
Sometimes I've been pretty joyful.
I don't know that we've experienced what fullness of joy
means. I think that we will.
I'm looking forward to it. Right.
Amen. What about pleasures
forevermore? That's a good thing, isn't it?
That's wonderful. Revelation 21 verses 4.
We just keep reading. I love this.
This is, this is one of my favourites.
Listen to what heaven's like, and God will wipe away every
tear from their eyes. And there shall be no more
death, no more sorrow, no more crying, there shall be no more
pain. For the former things have
passed away. Isn't that wonderful?
What sort of a state of mind are we going to be enjoying for all
eternity? Fullness of joy, pleasures
forevermore. No tears, no pain, no death.
Oh my gosh. You're like, wow, that sounds
like the best day ever, doesn't it?
It's almost too good to be true. If it wasn't true, I believe it.
I hope we believe it. Wonderful.
Thank you, Lord. It is written complete peace.
Like anxiety wouldn't even be a thing.
Like you wouldn't even be able to think about it.
Like it wouldn't even come into your mind.
You wouldn't have to keep putting it off.
You wouldn't have to keep overcoming by the Word of God.
You wouldn't have to keep overcoming and strengthening one
another with the Word. You wouldn't have to keep
seeking the Lord. Lord, strengthen me, help me.
Fullness of joy, always. We don't have to keep seeking
the Lord to strengthen us because we're strong, because
we're with Him. He's there.
Amen. My gosh, it's stirring me up
because I want to be there, but I want to be here too because
there's stuff to do. And you know what I'm saying?
Thank you, Lord. All right, let's talk about our
physical bodies for a moment. We'll have new physical bodies.
I know that's pretty cool. Just like Jesus, Luke 2439 says,
this is Jesus speaking at after his resurrection.
He says, behold my hands and my feet, that it is myself.
Handle me and see for this, for a spirit does not have flesh and
bones, as you see, I have. Verse 40 When he said this to
them, he showed them his hands and his feet, but while they
were still, but but while they still did not believe, for joy
he marvelled. And he said to them, Have you
any food here? So they gave him a piece of a
broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and he ate it in
their presence. Now I'm just going to, like
address the elephant in the room here.
This might be the greatest question that we have about
eternity. Are we going to eat food?
Some of us are sitting here thinking about lunch.
You know, like our tummies are going.
There's going to be food in heaven.
Jesus ate food in his resurrected body.
That fills me with hope, right? He didn't need to.
Well, maybe he did. I don't know.
I also, I know is that Jesus, when he was resurrected, made a
point of saying who's got some food, give me some food and he
ate it in front of them. We're going to eat with the
Lord. That's pretty cool, right?
Don't be distracted on that. Put that on the side burner for
now. He says I've got flesh and bone,
a physical body. You know, again, This is why
Jesus can be on, on the throne in heaven as a physical being,
because there's a physical reality that we're coming into.
You're going to need a physical body to experience this physical
reality. 1 Corinthians 1520 But now Christ has risen from the
dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen
asleep. For since by man came death, by
man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as Adam, as as in Adam, all die, Even so in Christ all shall
be made alive. So Jesus was the first to be
resurrected with his resurrected body.
He says that he's the first fruits, the 1st.
And so we're going to follow him.
We're going to be the fruit that comes after the first fruits.
Another description of our physical body, 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 42. So also is the is the
resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption.
Paul's writing about being sown as in going into the ground,
like a seed goes into the ground and it dies and life comes out
of it. OK.
So the body is sown in corruption and it is raised in
incorruption. It is sown in dishonor.
It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power. Glory and power and incorruption
is this physical body is who we are.
That's pretty amazing. Like as I get older, I feel like
my days of being strong and powerful are declining.
I feel like there was days when I was stronger than I am right
now. But this says that our physical
body is going to be powerful. That's pretty cool, right?
I don't think we're going to be tired the way that we are here.
I don't think that when we exert ourselves that we're going to
have to rest for three days. All of these things.
I feel like we're going to have powerful bodies and we're going
to be able to use them in a powerful way.
And it's not going to break. It's not going to get old.
It's incorruptible. Oh my gosh, it's glorious.
Our bodies are glorious. We'll be glorious like Jesus
body was glorified. Our bodies will be glorious,
wonderful. And then if we skip to verse 53,
it says for the corruptible must put on incorruption and the
mortal must put on immortality. So when the corruptible is put
on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the the saying that is written, death is
swallowed up in victory, immortal, never to die again.
Amen. I hope this is is this stirring
our faith. It's making us hopeful for the
future that we have. I I pray that it would be
stirring at our faith for those that don't know him that they
could have this hope that they could have this future that we
have that we by faith are taking hold of and believing for our
new body will never pass away. It's wonderful for all eternity.
I'm just going to read here. I'll probably bring start
bringing this to a close, but the maybe the greatest
description of what heaven will be like we find here in
Revelation 21. Start reading here.
It's quite a lot of verses. Let's go now.
I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
We just pause for a moment there a new heaven and a new earth.
This earth is corrupted. This earth is passing away.
But but the Lord's making a new heaven and a new earth.
All things new makes sense. New bodies, new heaven, new
earth, for the first have passed away also.
There was no more sea than I Joy.
John saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming 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, and God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes. There shall be no more death, no
sorrow, no crying. There shall be no more pain, for
the former things have passed away.
Then he who sat on the throne and said, Behold, I make all
things new. And he said to me, right, catch
this, for these words are faithful and true.
This is the truth. Verse 6 And he said to me, it is
done. I am the alpha and the Omega.
I am the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of
water of life freely to him who thirsts.
He who overcomes shall inherit all things.
He who overcomes shall we inherit all things.
And I will be his God, and he will be my Son. 1st 10 And he
carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and
he showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out
of heaven from God, having the glory of God.
Her light was like a precious stone, like a Jasper stone,
clear as crystal. Verse 21 The the 12 gates were
12 pole that were 12 pearls each individual gate of 1 Pearl.
And the streets of the city were pure gold, transparent gold.
But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the
Lamb are its temple. The city had no need for the sun
or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.
The land is its light, and the nations of those who are saved
shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring
glory and honor into it. Its gates shall be not be shut
all by day. There shall be no night there,
and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into
it, but there shall be no means enter anything that defiles or
causes an abomination or a liar, but only those written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. That's wonderful, isn't it?
What an amazing hope we have in the Lord.
How do we get there? We die or if Jesus comes first.
So, so we're either going to die like we're either going to go
into the ground to be raised up again or the Lord is going to
come and snatch us away. So death is a is a death is an
exciting thing for those in the Lord.
Death is the most scary thing ever to to human beings to have
to face other than those that are written in the Lamb's book
of life. Now death, where is your sting?
It's like death is like the greatest day of our lives
because we get to go to this place and to be with the Lord.
I'm just going to close here. You know this is Jesus's call to
those that don't know him. This is what he says.
He says Matthew 11/28. He says come to me all you who
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.
This is the Lord's call to those to come and receive Him.
You know Jesus Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of
our sins. That He would take away our
sins, that we could be forgiven, That we could rise again and be
with Him in in heaven for all eternity.
That we would be with the Lord. Jesus did that on the cross.
This is the gospel. This is the good news of the
gospel. Scripture says that in Romans
10/9. It says that if you confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
This is how you get a hold of the gospel.
You believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth.
And so I'd just like for us to stand.
If you believe, if you're in this place and you believe that
to be true, whether you've never believed that and you want to
believe that today, let's stand together.
And when we're going to declare this truth, we're going to
declare it with our mouths and we're going to believe it in our
hearts. Could you please stand with me?
Let's just pray together, Father.
With Thanksgiving, Lord, with Thanksgiving we come to you,
Father, in Thanksgiving for Jesus Christ, your Son who died
on the cross for us, that we could have forgiveness of our
sins. Lord, we repented from our sins.
We repent from our sins. We thank you for forgiveness.
And Lord, we, we declare out of a hard position that we know the
truth of the gospel. We know what it is you've done.
We know that you've set us free. You've saved us, We declare in
this place. You are our Lord, You are our
Saviour, Lord Jesus, and we will serve you till the day that we
go to the grave or to the day that your trumpet sounds.
We will be with you forever and we glorify the name of Jesus in
this place. You are a wonderful Lord.
Let's just tell him how holy he is.
Holy you are holy, Lord. You are holy, You are holy.
Lord. Lord Jesus, you are worthy of
all praise. We lift you high.
Lord, praise your mighty name. What a wonderful father you are,
that we should be called sons and daughters of the King in
Jesus mighty name. Amen.
He's a good God, isn't he, Amen. Let's make sure that when we
look at each other and have fellowship with one another, put
a smile on your face, strengthen one another, be joyful and and
let's enjoy life together until the King comes, Amen.
Bless you guys, have a wonderful day.
Thank you for joining us for today's message.
For more information about The Way Church, please visit
ourwebsite@thewaychurch.com dot AU.
Have a blessed day.