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4 months ago

TJC / Heaven and Hell

Session 2 - Heaven Before Heaven

The audio for this sermon series belongs to The Journey Church. I listened to this Heaven and Hell series several years ago and at the time, for the sake of offline listening, I downloaded the raw audio files that they made available from their web site for the entire series.

Recently, our small group has decided to listen to and go through this series again (it's fantastic), and when we found the series on their web site, we found that none of the audio for it was available. I still had the audio files that I had previously downloaded saved, and am hosting them here on my site for the sake of sharing with our group. Permission for this from The Journey Church is pending.

Updates1
  • Update4 months ago

    The following are AI summarized notes generated from the transcript of this sermon.

    Present Heaven: What does the Bible say?

    Series: Heaven & Hell — Week 2 Pastor Eric Reed · Journey Church (tjclebanon.com)

    Key text — Luke 23:39-43 The thief on the cross puts his faith in Jesus and Jesus responds: "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." The core promise: to be with Jesus.

    Recap from week 1

    • All will die — death is the beginning of forever

    • After death comes judgment (2 types)

    • Judgment of faith (at death): Did you keep God's law? Did you trust Christ?

    • Judgment of works (at Christ's return): covered in week 3

    Framework: the two phases of heaven

    • Present (intermediate) heaven — where believers go now when they die

    • New heavens & new earth — the eternal state when Jesus returns; most of the Bible's "heaven" descriptions refer to this

    • Today's focus is on present heaven only

    The most definitive thing the Bible teaches about present heaven

    We will be with Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:8 — "Absent from the body, present with the Lord."

    The response that truth is meant to produce

    • Comfort — death is less unknown when you know who you'll be with

    • Elation — deep joy in knowing the most important detail

    • Conviction — most of us treasure the gifts (relationships, comfort, pleasures) more than the Giver; the gap between saying it and living it is real

    "If you could have heaven with no sickness, all the friends you ever had, all the food you ever liked, all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed… could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ was not there?" — John Piper

    • Paul's testimony (Philippians 1:21-23): "to depart and be with Christ is far better" — said from prison, with deep affection for real friends; not Christian jargon

    • Psalm 16:11 — "In your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" — Christ is the source, every earthly joy is a river from the ocean

    Q1 — Where is present heaven?

    • Not galaxies away — Acts 1:9-11 (ascension) and Acts 7:54-56 (Stephen's stoning) both suggest heaven is near

    • Stephen looks up and sees the heavens open and Jesus standing there — not a distant vision, but an immediate revealed reality

    • Think of a stage with a curtain: heaven is right here, veiled from sight

    • Practical implication: prayer reaches him immediately; "I am with you always" is literal nearness

    Q2 — Is present heaven a physical place?

    • Yes — several lines of evidence support this

    • Jesus is there in a glorified physical body — hard to reconcile a material being in a non-material realm

    • Stephen sees Jesus standing (not floating) — standing requires something to stand on

    • Revelation describes temples, smoke, scrolls, elders with faces, robes, palm branches, musical instruments, horses

    • Hebrews 8:5 — the earthly tabernacle is "a copy and shadow" of the heavenly one, implying the original is more real, not less

    • The resistance to a physical heaven often stems from Gnosticism ("physical = bad, spiritual = good") — not from Scripture

    Q3 — Will we have bodies in present heaven?

    Note: resurrection bodies come at Christ's return — this is a different, temporary form

    • Martyrs in Revelation 6:9-10 cry out with a loud voice — requires mouth and vocal cords

    • They are given white robes — a disembodied soul has no use for clothing

    • John (Revelation) grasps, holds, eats, tastes things in heaven

    • Paul (2 Corinthians 12:1-5) was caught up to the "third heaven" and was uncertain whether he had a body or not — significant that he didn't rule it out

    • Enoch and Elijah never died — taken bodily into heaven; they are there now in bodies

    • Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8): Moses and Elijah appear in recognizable bodily form — the disciples identify them by sight

    Q4 — What is present heaven like?

    • Revelation 6:9-11

    • Identity is continuous — you will still be you, not absorbed into a collective

    • Fully conscious and rational

    • Aware of each other and aware of events on earth

    • Able to express themselves, ask questions, seek understanding

    • Able to speak directly to God; questions are answered

    • Concerned with justice — "How long, O Lord?" — not indifferent to what happens on earth

    • A sense of time passes ("how long?" implies time)

    • Happiness rooted in perspective, not ignorance — they know hard things and are still at peace

    • The Lazarus/rich man story (Luke 16:19-31) adds: thirst, pain, conscious memory, concern for living family — and a real separation between heaven and hell with no crossing

    Application

    • Until we treasure Jesus now, "forever with Jesus" won't feel like enough

    • The gap between saying "he's enough" and believing it is the diagnostic — let it lead to repentance, not guilt

    • Any picture of heaven as less than a sin-marred earth is a lie — he prepares better, not less

    • The thief on the cross: paradise was promised because paradise was purchased

    • Two questions:

      • Do you treasure the Giver over the gifts?
      • Have you put your faith in Christ?