Where Is Heaven & Do Multiple Heavens Exist? | Heaven Series, Part 2

(Great Bay - New Hampshire) 

"Where is Heaven?"
This is a good place to continue our series here on the topic of Heaven.

Let me start off with some wisdom I received from a professor in graduate school.  Dr. Dillon once said to my class, "If Larry King were to ask you a question about Christianity in America, you should always start with the following phrase: 'Well Larry, it depends on what you mean by...' ."

Dr. Dillon was making the point that we need to define our terms when we are speaking because if we are beginning our conversation with a different definition of - in this case - Heaven, when we will may end up with significantly divergent views.

And so let's begin with the various terms about Heaven.  To do so I am going to offer a biblical but non-exhaustive (or non-exhausting) perspective.  I won't cover all the Hebrew and Greek words used for Heaven, but will focus more on the conceptions shared between the terms.

3 DEFINITIONS OF HEAVEN

1. Heaven as in 'heaven and earth.', the total of all creation.  This first definition we see in places like Genesis 1:1 (the Hebrew word shamayim) and Acts 17:24 (the Greek word ouranou) and it essentially refers to the entire universe - sometimes other than the earth, but the earth falls under this 'heaven'.  This term is used when we see something grand being described or the location of God's complete rule and reign, and as one would likely think, it is a broad notion.  It's less about a location found on a map or in a GPS and more about a universal region or umbrella under which human life occurs.  

2. Heaven as in the various locations of air, outer space, and the home of God.  The main reference that is helpful here is 2 Corinthians 12:2 where Paul writes about the third Heaven.  The idea is that the first heaven is the air, the second is outer space, and the third is the dwelling place of God.

3. Heaven as in the (current) home of God and His followers.  This third term will be our main focus in this and other posts, but it essentially refers to where God abides and where His people go after they die.  Some core references might be: the eternal Kingdom of 2 Peter 1:11, the better country of Hebrews 11, or the Kingdom of Heaven of Matthew 25:1.

     

(Newmarket, New Hampshire)

And so then - where is this place where God dwells and where His followers are...currently?

Let's start with the second half of the question and note that the current dwelling place of people like Moses and Elijah is not where they will be for all eternity.  Revelation 21 gives us a picture of what John the Apostle calls a 'new Heaven and a new earth."  Why new?  Because - according to John - in the future the old ones will have passed away in that Heaven and Earth are to be combined.  

Stop with me for a moment and ponder this truth.

In our first post we acknowledged that people sensed the brokenness of this world.
There was a longing for things to be made right, to be made whole.
And yet sometimes we see a picture of Earth being consumed and tossed out by God as it were.

Again, Revelation 21 speaks in very different terms about our planet.  When all is made right, Heaven and Earth are melded into one, and the dwelling place of God is with humanity (Revelation 21:3).  God will take the mess and make it as He intended.

We can dig into this idea more in the future, but the clear teaching of the Bible is that at the climax of God's redemptive work in our world, Heaven will not be 'out there', but instead will be right here as Heaven and Earth are wed together.  When Jesus returns, Heaven and Earth will become one. 

This means - logically - that if people like Moses and Elijah (as in Matthew 17:1-13) are not yet in the New Heaven (here on the future-restored earth), and yet we know they are among those who are very much alive after their physical death, then they must be somewhere?  So where are they?  And where are those faithful who die in Christ?

We will address that topic in our next post.
- tC    

What Motivates You To Do What You Do?

I'm here at home tonight.

My wife Jenny is out - she has a hair appointment.
That makes sense for her.  For me, not something I need...ever.

But as I sit here and fold laundry for the family, I am listening to a message from Dr. David Platt.  He is speaking on video from a conference in 2013 and his title is "Why The Great Commission Is Great" (click HERE to listen to the the actual message).

The Great Commission comes to us in Matthew 28:18-20 where we read this:

"And Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Platt is making the case for why we need to bring the Gospel message to the ends of the earth.
This got me thinking about a passage in 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul says these words:

"Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died."

   
Note the words Paul uses here.  In verse 11 he says we persuade others.
In verse 14 he notes that the love of Christ controls us.  Some translations use the word 'compels' - the love of Christ compels us.

And so let me ask you a question:
What is your motivation in life?  What controls you?   

Some will answer that motivations are complex, and that motivations are often mixed.
That's fair -life can be complicated.

But I want to give an image here of something Paul seems quite clear on.  His motivation - which leads him to work on persuading others - is the love of Christ.
The love of Christ leads him to try to persuade others.  Naturally the question arises: persuade them into what?  Persuade them to believe what?

The answer is to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We live in a confused world.
On one level, the message we constantly hear the chorus that we are not to ever - at any time, nor for any reason - try to change a person's perspective, opinion, or approach to life.  This is a cardinal sin in our day.  Interestingly though, the entire narrative we see in American politics and media is that one side is completely in the right and the other side is completely wrong.
One message is don't ever change people, the other message is you must change people.

Paul would agree with the latter - we must work to change the perspectives of people.

But Paul's motivation - rather than being identity politics (an identity that will always fail to fulfill)
is love.  Love motivated Paul to travel to distant lands and to suffer at the hands of the people with whom he wanted to share the Gospel (see a list of Paul's sufferings HERE).

And so I ask again:
What is your motivation in life?  What controls you? 

While we have examined just one image of Christ and the Gospel and the love of God as the motivating factor for Paul, this is the theme of the evangelistic and missional drive of the church.

The love of Christ controls us and sends us to share that message with others.

Has that love captivated you?  If it has, praise God for the clarity He has given you.
If that love has not yet controlled and compelled you, pray that your heart would be blown open to see the love Christ has shown for you, and in turn the loving message of the Gospel that He wants you to share with the world.

- tC

What Is A Disciple?

Photo by Stuart Miles - FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A few weeks back, we talked about the 'why' of Disciples Making Disciples.  Today, we are going to look into the question, "What is a disciple?"  This question is vital for a variety of reasons - here are a few.

1. If we don't know what a disciple is, it's probably very hard to become one ourselves.

2. If we don't know what a disciple is, it's probably very hard to go out and help others become disciples.

3. If Jesus didn't tell us what a disciple is or how to make them, then we are left in a pretty tough spot, and we were left there by our Lord.  This doesn't seem like something Jesus would do.

And He didn't...

A few years ago, I started to look more deeply into this idea of defining a disciple.
To start off, I looked at all the times the word 'disciple' appeared in the Bible.  Around 250 times the word 'disciple' is used.  The vast majority (over 95%) of these occurrences are found in the New Testament.

Interestingly, the word 'disciple' is the most common word used to describe followers of Jesus and not until the 11th chapter of the Book of Acts is the word 'Christian' used.  Another way to look at it is this: of the 250+ times the word disciple is used, it's not until around the 240th time that the word Christian is also used to describe a follower of Jesus.

So we see the word appear a great deal in the Bible.

Secondly, let's talk about the actual word.  In the Greek, the word 'disciple' means pupil, student, or follower (in Greek mathetes). To be fair, it seems that there were different ways that the Gospel writers used it - sometimes referring to people who came to listen and engage, other times to people who were deeply committed to following Jesus.  Jesus most often used the word 'disciple' to describe a person who was giving his all to following Jesus.  He would say things like this:

"Anyone who would come after Me and be My disciple must deny himself and take up his cross daily to follow Me." - Luke 9;23

"Then a scribe came to Jesus and said, 'Teacher, I will follow You where ever You go.'  And Jesus replied, 'Foxes have dens, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay His head.'  Another of the disciples said to Him, 'Lord permit me first to go and bury my father.'  But Jesus told him, 'Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.'" - Matthew 8:19-22

These are just a few examples of what Jesus called His disciples to.

As I continued to research the verses that talked about being a disciple of Jesus, I ended up summarizing it like this:

A disciple of Jesus is consistently following Him, committed to learning from Him, doing as He did, and being in character like Jesus.

Jesus gave His life completely for us, and so He asks us to do the same for Him.

To say it another way, Jesus wants us to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.     

1 John 2:6 says that "Whoever claims to be in Him must live as He lived."

Being a disciple is not a half-hearted commitment.
Being a disciple is being all-in.

- tC