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Stephen Ministry

Today is the third in our five-part series on heaven. It is a daunting task. Given the magnitude of the topic and the amount of time set aside for it, it feels in some ways like touching the tip of the tip of the iceberg. But, it’s a start…and we have the rest of our lives on earth to contemplate the wonders of heaven! So, let’s get right to it this morning because there is a lot to cover.

Last week we suggested the teaching of Scripture is that there are two resurrections followers of Christ will experience—the first being at our deaths, which Randy Alcorn calls the judgment of faith, where our spirits immediately go to be with Christ while our bodies await the second resurrection which is described in 1 Thessalonians and elsewhere in Scripture. The second resurrection will be ushered in by the return of Jesus Christ to restore God’s creation and our bodies will be raised, reuniting with our spirits. Alcorn calls the second resurrection the judgment of works about which we’ll have more to say another day. So, two resurrections and if you weren’t here last Sunday you might want to pick up a copy of the sermon at the Welcome Center or order a CD of the worship service to learn more about that. And, again, I would invite you to attend the discussion time taking place each Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. in Charter Hall.

Two resurrections obviously raises the question about where those resurrected spirits in the first resurrection, then our resurrected bodies reunited with our spirits in the second resurrection, go. Does that mean there are two heavens? And the answer, guided by what Scripture reveals to us, is "yes." There is an "intermediate heaven" with the first resurrection and the "eternal heaven" that is ushered in with Christ’s return, depicted in the Scripture reading for today from Revelation 21:1-3. The new heaven and the new earth—God’s "dwelling place" that is "now among the people." We will have more to say next week about the "eternal heaven." But, for today, a closer look at the "intermediate heaven."

In describing the concept of two heavens, Randy Alcorn, in his book Heaven uses the following illustration—and please recognize at the beginning that all illustrations trying to describe God and heaven are inadequate. Helpful, but inadequate…or incomplete. Alcorn’s illustration is this—imagine taking a trip from Miami to Santa Barbara that requires going through Dallas. Miami is current home, Dallas is a temporary stop, and Santa Barbara is the final destination. Or, even more difficult to comprehend but more to the point we’re heading to about the nature of the eternal heaven—from Miami, through Dallas, and back to a restored, perfect Miami. I know, I know, it’s impossible to think of a restored and perfect Miami as the eternal heaven let alone Dallas as the intermediate heaven—but perhaps it helps to see the point: A believer’s eventual destination is the eternal heaven. However, there is an intermediate heaven along the way. (We used to live in Amarillo, Texas. Whenever you fly almost anywhere from Amarillo you have to fly through Dallas. Even flights to the west coast—to, say, Los Angeles—first fly east to Dallas and then head west to California. Consequently, people in Amarillo say, "It doesn’t matter if you’re going to heaven or hell, you still have to go through Dallas to get there!" I’m certain that’s not what Alcorn means but they’re dancing close to the illustration!) The intermediate heaven is the place where our spirits go to be with Christ immediately when we die, awaiting his return and the second resurrection to the eternal heaven.

What might we imagine about the intermediate heaven? What does Scripture lead us to reflect upon, what glimpses of this intermediate heaven do we get from Scripture? Let’s look at some of the typical questions that get raised about this topic and what we might conclude, or at least begin to ponder about this intermediate heaven.

First, will we have a conscious awareness of the presence of Christ? I believe the answer to that is "yes." Images from Scripture lead to such a conclusion. Paul writes in both 2 Corinthians and Philippians, two verses we mentioned last week, about "being with Christ" and it being better than remaining here "in the body" in this life. "We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord," (2 Corinthians 5:8) and "I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body," (Philippians 1:23-24). Also, scenes of heaven from the book of Revelation before Christ’s return show believers consciously aware of Christ’s presence with them. So, while we "sleep" in the metaphor used occasionally in the Bible for death, our spirits are awake and aware of being in the presence of Jesus Christ.

Is this intermediate heaven a physical place? In fact, we might also ask that of the eternal heaven. A physical place? Or just a spiritual place? A complicated question, but I believe the short answer, for both, is a physical place. One struggle in our perceiving heaven as a physical place is one of the oldest struggles in the history of Christianity. Alcorn calls it Christoplatonism, which basically is this—a belief that physical, material things are bad or even evil, and immaterial things are good. Christoplatonism because Plato is an early proponent of this philosophy. It is, as I mentioned, one of the oldest struggles in Christian history many of the early heresies in the church were rooted in the philosophy that material things were bad and immaterial things were good. In such a philosophy, for example, the humanity of Christ has to be denied. Christ only appeared to be human, Christ only appeared to die on the cross—anything connected to the physical had to be denied if one holds to a philosophy that material things are bad and only immaterial things are good. Alcorn argues (and I agree with him), we’ve bought into that philosophy to some extent when it comes to imagining heaven—material bad, immaterial good, therefore heaven must not be material. However, God created the heavens and the earth…and everything on the earth and God called it good. This will be an important point to remember when we talk about the eternal heaven, but it is also relevant to our conversation about the intermediate heaven. There’s no reason, certainly no reason based on Christoplatonism, to conclude that heaven must be a spiritual place and not a physical one. While God can dwell wherever God chooses to dwell, humans were created to dwell in a physical place. It’s reasonable to at least imagine that heaven is a physical place. Additionally, the images in Hebrews of Christ’s priestly role and the earthly location of the sanctuary in which the high priest performed his role imply physical substance in heaven because the earthly location of the sanctuary in which the high priest performed his role "is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven," (Hebrews 8:5). The heavenly sanctuary is not a copy and shadow of what is on earth. Rather, the earthly sanctuary is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. Material substance on earth, the copy and shadow of what is in heaven implies material substance in heaven. The problem, Alcorn suggests, is that we think of earth and reason our way up to heaven when we ought to start with heaven and reason our way down to earth. The original is in heaven. The copy and shadow is on earth.

Related to that is the question of if our spirits will be in some recognizable form in the intermediate heaven, perhaps a body of some form though not our bodies to be resurrected at the return of Christ. While that is one of those things we can’t say for certain, there are some Scriptural images that lead us to conclude it’s certainly possible and perhaps even likely that we have some recognizable form to our spirits in the intermediate heaven. For example, John in his revelation is taken "in the Spirit" into heaven (Revelation 4:2). While much of what follows is a description of what he sees there, a section of that experience includes John’s description of doing some clearly physical things—grasping and holding something, eating and tasting. Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: "Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land." So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’" I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour (Revelation 10:8-10). One challenge we mentioned in the first sermon in this series was determining when Scripture was telling an allegorical story or a literal one. Is John’s description of his "experience" in heaven literal or allegory? Allegory? All of it? Perhaps, but the possibility certainly exists that there are literal elements of John’s experience and description. Certainly the image given to us is one of physical qualities in heaven—grasping, holding, eating, tasting.

Another fascinating portion of Scripture concerning the intermediate heaven is Paul’s brief description in 2 Corinthians of a "man who was caught up into the third heaven." First of all, the "third heaven" is Paul’s time and place description of what we today would refer to as simply heaven. The terminology in Paul’s time and place used "first heaven" as a description of the sky and the earth’s atmosphere, the "second heaven" is outer space and the constellations. The "third heaven" was the place of God’s presence. Another common term for it in Paul’s time was "paradise." The passage is this, "I know a man in Christ" (most Bible scholars believe Paul is speaking about himself) who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows," (2 Corinthians 12:2). That Paul can’t say whether in the body or out of the body leaves open the possibility that it was in the body. At least he does not reject a bodily form experience as being out of the question—which he likely would do if the intermediate heaven was a spiritual experience only.

Then there is the fascinating parable Jesus tells in Luke, chapter 16, of the rich man and Lazarus. Time doesn’t allow me to read the entire parable, but an important part of the parable is this: The time came when the beggar died (who earlier has been identified by name, Lazarus) and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, "Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire" (Luke 16:22-24). There’s more to the parable which I encourage you to read. Is it completely allegorical? Perhaps. Interesting to note, however, that it is the only parable in which Jesus identifies someone by name, Lazarus. An interesting choice if totally allegorical because of the potential for confusion with Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary whom Jesus raises from the dead and who is not a beggar but a person of some means. And if the intermediate heaven is completely spiritual, why doesn’t Jesus describe it as completely spiritual? Is it possible Jesus tells this parable, in part, providing some insight for us into heaven as a physical place where identities are retained and even memories of life on earth are retained? We can’t say for certain but it is interesting to consider.

Finally, there is this question to ponder. In the intermediate heaven, will we be aware of not only our memories of life on earth, but also able to observe what is happening on earth? Scripture seems to indicate that we will. For example, the "saints" in heaven throughout Revelation (before the 2^nd coming of Christ) are aware of injustices on earth and call for Christ to respond. In the "lost" parables of Luke, chapter 15—the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son—Jesus says, "there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent," (Luke 15:7) and "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God (note: not by the angels, but in their presence) over one sinner who repents," (Luke 15:10). It appears the saints in heaven—the intermediate heaven—are aware of such events on earth as injustices against believers and the repentance of sinners. I believe that followers of Christ who had gone before us were rejoicing in heaven when you and I came to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

One final sticky point. If the saints in the intermediate heaven are aware of life on earth, including injustices against believers and other atrocities, isn’t there sorrow in heaven? How can that be "heaven?" Alcorn correctly points out that the image of heaven where "every tear is wiped away" and there is "no more death or mourning or crying or pain" comes after Christ’s return and the new heaven and new earth are established. In fact, it follows immediately after our Scripture reading for today. Revelation 21:4, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." It is in the eternal heaven that such a state exists. Upon Christ’s return there will be no more death, no mourning or crying or pain. Until then, those things remain…and it appears the saints in the intermediate heaven are aware of such things on earth. But, I believe that does not diminish the joy that we’ll experience in heaven. As Alcorn says, "Happiness in [the intermediate] Heaven is not based on ignorance but on perspective" (Heaven, p. 73). We’ll not be ignorant of events taking on earth. Consequently, there will be some sadness in the intermediate heaven. I think, for example, there is sadness in heaven today for the situation in Haiti. In this intermediate heaven, there is awareness of events on earth, an awareness of events like the earthquake in Haiti that causes sadness. But the perspective of heaven will bring great joy beyond anything we experience here. We will rejoice at being in the presence of Jesus Christ. We will rejoice at the victories taking place on earth—each time one sinner repents and turns to Christ. And our joy will include the perspective of looking forward to the triumphant return of Christ, the resurrection of our bodies and the creation of a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain.

Let me conclude with these words from Randy Alcorn. "Meanwhile, we on this dying Earth can relax and rejoice for our loved ones who are in the presence of Christ. As the apostle Paul tells us, though we naturally grieve at losing loved ones, we are not ‘to grieve like [others] who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Our parting is not the end of our relationships, only an interruption. We have not ‘lost’ them, because we know where they are. They are experiencing the joy of Christ’s presence in a place so wonderful that Christ called it Paradise. And one day, we’re told, in a magnificent reunion, they and we ‘will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words’ (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18)" (Heaven, p. 73).

Next week we’ll look at images of the eternal heaven. Right now, let’s take a moment for silent reflection on the images of an intermediate heaven.