What Will Heaven Be Like?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Revelation 21, John 14:2

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--what-will-heaven-be-like
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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i would say heaven is where god is heaven is the direct presence of god now what that looks like we don't know for sure and could be different but the bible talks about the third heaven there is the first sense of heaven which is the sky so we look up into heaven we're just on my earth's atmosphere actually or the sky a second definition of heaven could be outer space so we look at the stars of heaven obviously that's beyond earth's atmosphere that's outer space and then the third definition of heaven would be transcending this universe so i don't think of heaven that is where god dwells and jesus was a real human being with a glorified body i believe he as all humans he will have a glorified body throughout eternity well that body has to be in some place physical place where is that well we don't know i don't think it's on some distant planet i don't think it's in our universe i think it transcends our universe but i do believe he will come back in physical form to earth's atmosphere and land on planet earth so his body is somewhere and so that's where i would say is the third definition of heaven the presence of god which since um the incarnation does include a physical location somewhere so when we say we'll go to heaven i think that means where god is where the manifested god is manifested in the physical glorified eternal immortal body of jesus christ that's heaven now when you read the book of revelation it seems that this heaven and earth will be destroyed which means the physical heaven and earth and be recreated so somehow a new heaven and a new earth but the way it's described there seems to be maybe some resemblance or renovation of the physical universe and then it talks about the new jerusalem as a city coming down to rest upon earth or over the earth so i picture that jesus christ and the saints that's us in eternity we will be living in a city a physical place where jesus physically dwells called the new jerusalem which will be a city on or over the new earth so i do believe it's physical and jesus did say in john 14 i go to prepare a place for you so it's not just a state of mind it's not a place where disembodied spirits float around it's not people in white robes sitting on clouds playing harps it is going to be a real city a real place um where people will dwell now that's the simplest way to look at it but again if i look at the eternal state compare it to jesus in his glorified body when he appeared to disciples it seems that he could transport himself at will he could appear disappear at will he could walk through a locked door or a wall at will so he wasn't confined to physical limitations although he had a physical identity he could eat food with them but surely he was he didn't have to eat food to survive he didn't have to sleep but he could engage in whatever he wanted to engage with as a human without being limited by that so that's how i would see our existence in the future so i believe we will have a place to dwell but we won't be confined to a place so then now it becomes a matter of speculation because there's more that we don't know than we do know but if you just look at our physical universe it has trillions of stars and therefore trillions of planets it goes far beyond our comprehension billions of light years now throughout human history we've only been able to see even in a dark sky which sadly we don't have much anymore but throughout history people have been able to look up in the sky and see a few hundred or a few thousand stars at most there's no way they could have comprehended the immensity of our universe astronomers are even now trying to plumb the depths and there's more that we don't know than what we do know even now physically but that leads me to wonder if god created all this did he create this just for a few astronomers to be able to write papers about or is there some purpose that's far grander than what we could imagine you know what makes life meaningful for us today is our relationships in our including our relationship with god in our relationship one another and our achievements our accomplishments we were created to to accomplish to achieve to work work is not a result of sin before sin god created adam he put them in the garden told them to tend the garden to keep it so achievement accomplishment work is part of what it is to be human before there was sin so i have to think that in eternity it would sound boring just to sit around and i know it's going to be  glorious to worship god but even there does that mean we'll just be in an eternal choir practice that somehow although i love being in the presence of god somehow that doesn't capture my imagination fully because i think worship it goes far beyond just singing a song so i think our accomplishment uh now again i can only speculate but does god have other plans for other planets and other peoples or other identities you know could we uh be the aquila of angelic beings to other future plants who knows but i think it's going to be amazing i think this incredible physical universe and of course god's not limited to this physical universe i mean we could have billions of universes and billions of years and billions of plans and billions of new races created who knows i don't know or maybe god doesn't have a plan to do anymore but there will be the angels there will be us and so i do think that our future will be unimaginable achievement accomplishment discovery delight interaction communion fellowship with god with one another with the people of the ages with the angels it's mind-boggling maybe a little illustration will help when there's a description of the new jerusalem it says the streets are of gold transparent as glass well gold would be considered the most precious element in normal human experience in human history i mean you could talk about rare metals but for all practical purpose throughout history goal would be the most precious prized treasure for a lot of reasons it's inert so it's not affected by things it's beautiful it's rare and therefore costly and valuable it's malleable it can be worked into all kinds of fantastic ornaments it's can be stretched into extremely thin wire and so it it's it's got amazing versatility and ability so it's been treasured now gold transparent is glass well that's more pure than the earthly gold so by saying that you're almost getting into the realm of symbolic of saying the streets of the new jersey be gold but it's better goal than what you have now think about this when we talk about the streets if i tell you uh hey describe if you've been to new york city recently describe new york city or tell me what it's like to be in singapore you don't usually say well the streets are this and this and this you don't care about the streets that's the least that's just a means to get where you're going if you're living on the streets that's a low life if you're sleeping in the streets that's a little life streets are made of common ingredients so what are you going to find in the streets dirt gravel concrete asphalt you're going to find common things cheap things lowly things dirty things things you don't even consider to be valuable enough to mention okay that's what streets mean to us so when i say in heaven the streets are of gold better gold than you can imagine pure gold than you than is found in your physical universe well why do i care that's the least but then i see the symbolism well the least part of heaven is better than anything you have here so what's the good part of him i have no idea i can't even begin to understand i i don't have human vocabulary so to me the relevance of it in heavens the streets are gold is not wow i can drive on gold i think the profound significance is in heaven the least valuable least mentionable things you don't care about exceed the best you can imagine here so that means the good part of heaven the presence of god the fellowship of god's people the achievement and accomplishments god's plans are so far beyond comprehension we just can't describe it but you definitely want to be there and you definitely don't want to miss it so to me in heaven the streets are gold says heaven so far exceeds our comprehension it's so magnificent so amazing that it's something that we should certainly value and and aspire to and look forward to that whatever happens down here it'll be worth it to go to heaven and of course ultimately being directly in the presence of god with god's people and with the loved ones and with god's fulfilling his plan for the human race from the beginning of creation that's what will make heaven heaven