The Most Vital Question of Our Day

Revelation 21

St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
October 22, 2023
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes

The world waits with fear and trepidation as Israel prepares for ground war. Our president is proposing a financial aid package in the billions of dollars to help Israel while we face over thirty trillion dollars in debt. Other countries in the middle east take note and ponder how they can get involved in the war. In our home front, we still don’t have a speaker of the house.

But none of these issues, as vital as they are, is as significant as the discussion we need to have this morning. We’re going to talk today about the most important question on earth. I need to ask it with you, and show you why it is so vital to your life today.

What is heaven like?

Let’s set out the context and parameters for our discussion. Our text talks about heaven. We’ve been watching Jesus reveal himself to us through the Revelation, not as a human prophet but as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Today he wants to show us his home.

First, his word says that heaven is a real place. John said, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1). He didn’t feel it, or dream of it, or hear about it. He saw it, and we only see things which are. Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14.2).

Heaven is a real place.

Second, heaven is a blessed place (v. 4). Because God is there, all that is perfect is there as well. There will be no death in heaven, thus no mourning or crying or pain. Our greatest enemy will trouble us no more. You’ll be glad you’re there.

Third, heaven is a place of great reward. Jesus told us to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20). The psalmist testified, “You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11). Our reward is forever, “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).

Is heaven real?

Now, let’s see if we believe everything we’ve learned thus far. Raise your hand if you believe in heaven. But I’m afraid there’s a “but.” In the back of your mind, is there ever a glimmer of doubt that maybe it’s not really true? That those you love who have died are really just dead? That this is all there is, and heaven is what we hope for but aren’t sure really exists?

Last Friday, my brother Jose sent me a text reminding me it was the third anniversary of my stepfather’s death. Precious family members have gone before us and we wish we could see them. I’m thinking of my aunt Marina, uncle Roberto, my grandparents, mentors and friends such as Robert Tate and Paul Powell. I yearn to see them. My spiritual side is sure they’re in heaven. My human side hopes so. I want there to be more than this. I want to see them again. I hope it’s true.

In recent weeks several people tell me that they do not believe in an afterlife. Most of us are sophisticated, scientific people. It’s hard for many of us to believe what we cannot understand or verify through our experience, science, or logic. It’s hard to believe what we cannot prove.

Freud said that God is a projection of our need for an ideal father. By extension, heaven is a projection of our need to live forever. We conjure up the concept to make ourselves feel better about our finite time on earth.

Marx called religion the “opiate of the people.” Unfortunately, he’s sometimes right. During the horrific days of slavery, a slave-owner was happy for his slaves to believe that they would be rewarded in heaven if they were obedient on earth.

It’s always comforting to remember that every culture known to history has a sense of something beyond this world.

It’s impossible to find a civilization which doesn’t believe in life beyond this life. Pascal said that there’s a “God-shaped emptiness” inside us all; Augustine observed that our hearts are restless until they rest in him.

But what if that’s because we all share the same need to believe that there’s something more, the same horror at the idea that this is all there is? When we stand at the grave of someone we love, our hearts break at the thought that we’ll never see them again. So we believe in heaven because we need to believe in heaven, the same way we believe in peace even though our world is always at war. What if that’s all it is–a belief?

We can say that even if heaven isn’t real, believing in it is a good thing. It gives us hope, something to look forward to, a way to be comforted. The people I know who don’t believe in heaven don’t mind if I do. “Whatever gets you through the day.” Believe what you need to believe. So let’s move on, hoping that heaven is real. If we’re right, we’ll rejoice forever. If we’re wrong, we’ll never know it. What have we got to lose?

Here’s the problem: if heaven isn’t real, Jesus was wrong. His word was wrong. Heaven isn’t a peripheral subject in Scripture. The NIV uses the word “heaven” 427 times. If it isn’t real, God’s word isn’t true. And everything I believe based on his word is in doubt this morning.

How do we know?

We can give ourselves permission to wrestle with the issue of Heaven and to go wherever it takes us. When we do, we land on two reasons to believe that heaven is real, two reasons to have absolute assurance that heaven is a real, blessed place of reward. And one reason why this fact matters so much today, why the question of heaven is the most important question on earth.

Why do we believe in heaven this morning? First, because Jesus believed in heaven, and we believe in him.

We know from the ancient historian Thallus the Samaritan that Jesus existed, from Tacitus that he was crucified by Pontius Pilate, from Josephus that his followers thought him raised from the dead, and from Pliny the Younger that they worshiped him as God.

We know that his followers would not steal the body and then die for a lie. They didn’t go to the wrong tomb, for the authorities were guarding the right tomb. Jesus didn’t swoon on the cross, then convince 500 people he had heavenly powers and ascend back into heaven. We know from first-century records that opponents of the resurrection had no answer to the claim that he was risen from the grave.

If he is resurrected, he is God. If he is God, his word is true. And his word says that “he who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26). He promised us, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3).

We cannot go to heaven, and cannot meet those who have. By definition it is a realm which transcends our earthly ability to verify its existence. But Jesus came from there, and returned there. We know that he walked our planet, breathed our air, faced our sin, died on our cross, rose from our grave. We believe in heaven because Jesus believed in heaven. And because we believe in him.

Be encouraged and believe the wonderful words of Life.

Sing them over again to me,
Wonderful words of life;
Let me more of their beauty see,
Wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty
Teach me faith and duty.

Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life;
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life.

Christ, the blessed one, gives to all
Wonderful words of life;
Sinner, list to the loving call,
Wonderful words of life;
All so freely given,
Wooing us to heaven.

Sweetly echo the gospel call,
Wonderful words of life;
Offer pardon and peace to all,
Wonderful words of life;
Jesus, only Savior,
Sanctify forever.