LAST THINGS REVEALED
LAST THINGS PT 2: HEAVEN AND OUR HOMECOMING
DR. JIM DIXON
JANAURY 23, 2011
1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18
In the world of eschatology and the study of the last things, one of the most controversial subjects is the subject of the rapture. The word rapture comes from the Latin “rapturo.” This word rapturo is found in the Latin Vulgate Bible. For 1,000 years, virtually the only Bible used in the Christian world was the Latin Vulgate. Now, this word rapturo translates the Greek word in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, and that word is harpazo, which means “caught up.” Rapturo means caught up. “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead end Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall be caught up.” Harpazo. Rapture. “Shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we shall always be with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words.” That’s the rapture, the catching up of the church.
Now, it’s debated by theologians and really by Christians everywhere as to when the rapture will take place. Will it take place before the great and final time of tribulation? Will the rapture come before the tribulation, or will it come in the middle of the tribulation or will we be raptured at the end of the tribulation? Christians vary in their views, but on this we can all agree: the rapture is when Christ will take us home. The rapture is our homecoming. It’s when Christ catches us up and takes us to the place He has prepared for us.
So today, we look at this homecoming. We look at the promises of Christ with regard to our future. I want us to take a look this morning at what you’re going to experience, what you’re gonna see, when we’re raptured into heaven. What are we going to experience? First of all, we’re going to experience judgment. I know you’re thinking that’s a bummer. But understand, even though as Christians, the Bible says, we shall not come into condemnation andwe’ve already passed out a death into life, still there’s going to be a judgment. Even though we’re saved by grace, we’re going to have to give account of the works done in the body. So there’s going to come a judgment.
Now, there’s a joke that I heard many years ago that I kinda like. It’s about a student at a university and he’s taken a class in Ornithology. He studied for his final exam, and he knows everything about birds. He knows about their migration patterns, he knows about their gestation periods, he knows all about their physiology, and he’s ready for the final exam. He’s really excited, and so he goes into the classroom for his final exam, and he’s kind of surprised to see 12 bird cages in front of the class, each bird cage covered by a blanket. He goes to his desk and he sees the final exam on his desk, and it’s just numbered one through 12 with a blank after each number. And then the professor pulls a string and the blankets rise just a little bit so that you can see the bird feet in the 12 cages. And the professor said, here’s your final exam. I want you to identify the bird in each cage by looking at the feet. And this student is just outraged. He’s put in all this study, he knows all this stuff, and it’s useless. How in the world is he supposed to identify these birds by their feet? In anger, he takes his final exam, walks up to the front of the class, slams it on the professor’s desk, and begins to stomp out. And the professor says, wait a minute young man, you can’t do that. What’s your name? And he pulls up his pant legs and says, you tell me!
I think it’s true that in this world sometimes we just don’t see enough. We don’t see enough to make a judgment, right? I don’t see enough of your heart and your mind to make a judgment about you. You don’t see enough of my heart and my mind to make a judgment about me. But we don’t need to worry, because God knows. Before God, no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. That’s what the Bible tells us. Jesus Christ is able to judge. We can relax about the judgment because it’s in His hands. It’s not in my hands. It’s not in your hands.
Now, in the Bible there are two words for judgment. The first is the word “krina.” And this word is used to describe the judgment of the world. Jesus Christ will judge the world. Remember, in John chapter five, Jesus made an amazing statement. Jesus said, “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all might honor the Son in the same way that they honor the Father. Do not marvel at this. The day is coming when all who are in the grave will hear My voice and come forth, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting death.” It’s an amazing statement. Jesus Christ is the judge.
That’s why in Matthew 25 in the Olivet Discourse He says that when He comes again, He’ll sit on His glorious throne and He will gather before Him all the nations. And He will separate them one from the other as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. So He will judge the world.
Now, this word krina comes from a root word, which means “separation.” So at that judgment of the world, there will be a separation. First of all, every judge has to separate between what is true and what is false and has to make decisions based on triage and looking at what is most important. Every judge separates. But in the biblical sense, krina, there’s going to be an ultimate separation. So when Jesus judges, there will be a separation of heaven and hell, the two different final destinies. And of course, there’s a sense in which hell is quite literally a separation from God. We know this from 2 Thessalonians chapter one, where the Bible says hell is exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. Much of the suffering that’s described in the Bible with regard to hell is simply the separation from God. People who want to live for themselves, people who want to reign and rule over their own lives, will be given that eternal opportunity. It’s called hell, but God won’t be there. The Bible says, “In God’s presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
So some will be separated from God and from His joy. Now there’s another word for judgment in the Bible, and this is the word “bema.” This is used to describe the judgment of Christians. Now, this is different than the judgment of the world. So for instance, in Romans chapter 14, it says that all Christians must appear before the bema, which is called the judgment seat of God. In some of the earliest manuscripts, it’s called the judgment seat of Christ. In 2 Corinthians chapter five, it’s called clearly the judgment seat of Christ. We must appear before the bema, the judgment seat of Christ.
Now, I’ve heard some pastors preach and teach where they said that the word bema was used in the Greek world and in the Roman world only for rewards—that at the judgment seat, at the bema, rewards were given. They said the word bema only has to do with rewards. That’s not true. In fact, if you study the word bema, you’ll find that in both the Greek and Hellenized world (and indeed in the Roman world) this word was used to describe all judgments, whether it’s discipline, punishment, or reward.
I think when we’re raptured and we appear before the bema of Christ, I think two things will happen. One is purification. We’re going to experience purification. Now, this should not scare you. I mean, it is a little bit scary, but in a sense, you should long for this. I should long for this because I should hunger and thirst after righteousness and I should long to be purified.
Now, it says in 1 Corinthians chapter three that some Christians will suffer loss of rewards, though they themselves will be saved, but only as through fire. This is not the fire of hell. This is the fire of purification. You come to Luke chapter 12 and you have the parable of the faithful and the unfaithful servants. Jesus tells this little known parable (and you should go home today and read Luke 12, because this is powerful) and Jesus says that when He comes again, He will be the master returning and He will judge His servants and He will judge them for their faithfulness. Different rewards will be given, it says. There also some of His servants who will be disciplined. Some of them will receive light discipline. Some of them will receive heavy discipline.
Of course, this is the basis of the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory—Luke 12, 1 Corinthians three, and some other passages. Most Protestants believe that this purification will not be some kind of a long, drawn-out thing, but by the power of God and the majesty and mercy and grace of God it’ll be quick. But we will experience purification. I mean, there’s much in us that must be burned away. There’s much in us that is not right. We have fallen natures. In the midst of having received a new nature in Christ Jesus, we still have that fallen nature, that sin nature. There’s much that needs to be burned away. That’ll happen at the bema.
But it is also a time when we will receive heavenly rewards. You come to Matthew chapter five, and you see the word “misthos,” a Greek word meaning rewards. You see this in in Matthew chapter five and you see it twice in Matthew chapter 10. You come to Mark chapter nine and you see misthos again. You come to Luke chapter six and you see misthos again. 1 Corinthians chapter three has misthos. Revelation chapters 11 and 22 have misthos. As you go through the Bibl,e again and again, the Bible mentions heavenly rewards. And they will vary for each of us. They will vary.
Now, we’re saved by grace and by grace alone. But being there, God has chosen to give us varying rewards on the basis of faithfulness and works done in the flesh. So what are these rewards gonna be like when we get in heaven? I’ve heard many different explanations. I’ve heard some suggest that these rewards relate to our new bodies, that our new bodies given in Christ will vary in power and splendor like the bodies of angels, for in the angelic realm you have cherubim, seraphim, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, archangels, and angels. They vary in countenance and glory. The idea would be that our bodies, based on our varying rewards, will also vary. Personally, I don’t think so. I don’t see anything in the Bible that would indicate that when we get to heaven, our new bodies are gonna differ one from the other. I think they’re all going to be equally glorious. I see the new body described first of all in Philippians chapter three, where it says, “Our commonwealth is in heaven. And from it, we await a Savior who will change our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body by the power which enables Him to subject all things unto himself.”
But then in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 you see five Greek words that describe the new body. The first word is “aphtharsia,” and that means without “decay.” The new body will be without decay. These bodies are subject to decay. You may have noticed that some of us decay a little more than others. Just a few days ago, I was having some oatmeal for breakfast. And in the midst of chewing, suddenly I hit something really hard and it was kind of painful, and it was my own tooth that had fallen apart in my mouth. That’s called decay. Barb’s had some of the same problems, and she’s been told not to chew on ice or hard candy or unpopped popcorn kernels. My situation’s worse. I’ve been told not to breathe through my mouth. But you see, we’re all subject to decay. We’re getting older, but the new body will be aphtharsia. It’ll be without decay, without corruption.
Then we’re told that that new body, a second Greek word, is “epouranoi.” Epouranoi means “fit for the heavens.” These bodies are fit for earth. Those bodies will be fit for the heavens. How majestic. And we’re told that they’ll be “pneumatikos,” which means “spiritual.” And contextually, I think it means that the new body will be governed by the spirit. These bodies are governed by the flesh. Our resurrection bodies will have flesh, but they won’t be governed by the flesh. They’ll be under the control of the spirit. And the new body, we’re told, will be “doxa,” a Greek word which means glorious, worthy of praise. And then the new body, we’re told, will be “dunamis,” Greek word from which we get the word dynamite. And it means powerful.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, “These bodies are sown in weakness. We’re sown in weakness. Those bodies will be sown in power.” So we have this promise in Christ Jesus. And I don’t think our reward will vary with regard to the body, and we’re all gonna have wonderful new bodies.
Some have said, well, maybe the varying rewards have to do with the crowns. I don’t believe this either. I think the crowns are used metaphorically. There’s the crown of righteousness and the crown of life, for instance. I don’t think they refer to literal crowns. It’s not like we’re gonna be going around with a crown that says righteousness or going around with a crown that says life, or that we’re gonna stack crowns one on the other, and some have six crowns and some three crowns and varying rewards.
I don’t think that’s it at all. I don’t think that’s understanding the beauty of scripture and the metaphorical use of this. A crown of righteousness simply means we’ll be made righteous. Crown of life means we’ll be given the life of God, “zoe” life, everlasting life, eternal life. The word crown in the Bible for our heavenly crowns is not “diadema,” which is the royal crown. It’s “stefanos,” which is the victory crown given at the games. I think all of us are victors in Christ. We will receive those characteristics of the crowns.
Some have suggested, well, maybe the varying awards have to do with dominion. And I think this is true. I think our varying rewards do have to do with dominion. I think the Bible makes that evident. You know how in Genesis mankind was given dominion over the earth, dominion over the birds of the air, dominion over the fish of the sea, dominion over the beasts of the field, and dominion over the planet itself. As a matter of stewardship, we were given dominion under God. The Bible indicates that in the life to come, at the bema when we receive our rewards, we will be given dominion. I think our dominions will vary. The Bible says that we will reign and rule with Christ. The Bible says this in many, many passages. The promise is given that we will reign and rule with Christ. You look at the parable of the pounds, and you look at the master’s return, and he rewards his servants with different rewards. And they all have to do with dominion. They all have to do with authority, differing amounts of authority. You look at Luke chapter 12, which we mentioned earlier. It is the return of the master, again, to the faithful and unfaithful servants. Those that he rewards, they receive varying rewards.
If you look at Luke 12, varying rewards all having to do with authority and dominion. So I think we’ll be given dominion over the universe—over the whole of the creation, not just the earth. I don’t know what that’s gonna look like, but I think there’ll be varying rewards that relate to that. And this is a mysterious subject. We can trust God. We don’t know fully what the nature of the rewards are, but we know that they will be meaningful. Then we know that God is great.
Now, what I’d like to do at this point is take a look at some images of heaven. The first image is a dwelling place. Heaven is, the Bible tells us, a place of dwelling. In John chapter 14 Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would not have told you that. I go to prepare a place for you, and when I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also.” Now, this word room is the Greek word “mone,” and it’s the word etymologically from which we get the English word manor, or even the word mansion. And that’s why in the old King James version the verse is translated, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.”
But the Greek word mone doesn’t necessarily mean mansion. It can mean mansion, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that. It simply means dwelling place or abiding place. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places, many abiding places. I’m going to prepare one for you.” So what is heaven? It’s a dwelling place. It’s an abiding place, and there’s a place prepared for you. You can’t help but think of the new Jerusalem when you think of the dwelling place. So you think of Revelation chapter 21 and Revelation chapter 22, where it describes the new Jerusalem. In the apocalyptic language of the Book of Revelation, there is also symbolism there of the church, but it describes the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city.
You go to the Book of Hebrews and again and again it mentions the new Jerusalem. In chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, we’re told that the Old Testament saints, from Abraham to Moses, look forward to the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, whose builder and maker is God. We’re told that in the new Jerusalem will be three different groups. One, innumerable angels in festive gathering, because God is Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of the angelic hosts. Angels will be there in the new Jerusalem. Two, the church, the assembly of the firstborn registered in the heavens, the Ecclesia, will there in the new Jerusalem. And three, the spirits of just men made perfect. Go and read Hebrews chapter 12. So there’s going to be these groups all gathered in the new Jerusalem, and how exciting it’s going to be.
Then you look at Hebrews chapter 13, and it mentions the new Jerusalem again. You look at Galatians chapter four, and it describes the Jerusalem above and the Jerusalem below. The Jerusalem above is the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city. And we’re told it is the mother of us who are Christians. All of us who are followers of Christ look forward to the new Jerusalem, the mother of us all. We’re to think of it as family, this dwelling place.
You look at Revelation chapter three, the message of our Lord Jesus Christ to the church at Philadelphia. And Jesus said, “He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will give to him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which will come down out of heaven. Who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.”
So you go through the Bible and you have various references to the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem. And it is a dwelling place. Christ has gone to prepare a place for you, a place for me, and it’ll be wonderful. It’s a huge city. If you take literally the passage in Revelation 21 and 22, this city is 1,500 miles in every direction. That is huge. That’d be like Kansas City to la, but in every direction. There’s gonna be a room for you. Jesus has gone to prepare a place. This is heaven. Heaven is a dwelling place.
Secondly, it’s a place of beauty. Heaven is a place of incomprehensible beauty. I want you to understand this. Now, I have here in my hand a car. This is a 1965 Ford Mustang. It’s actually a 1964 and a half Ford Mustang. Barb and I got this model in Detroit at the Ford Museum. We bought this because it’s identical to the car that I had when I dated Barb. It’s identical to the car that Barb and I had when we were first married. Our car was just like this—a convertible Mustang, a fire-engine red four-on the-floor. It’s an amazing car. When you get to heaven, this is how we’re gonna get around. Just kidding, but it’s a great car.
Now, just a few months after Barb and I were married in 1971, Barb and I were driving around and were in the front seats of this convertible. My dad is in the back seat. I pull into a gas station to get gas. The gas station attendant (this was back when they had gas station attendants that came out to your car) came out and said, “Wow, I love your car.” I said, “Thank you.” My dad said, “How’d you like to buy it?” And I’m just stunned. And the guy said, “Sure.” And my dad said, “Well, make an offer.” He made an offer. And my dad said, “Sold!” My dad sold my car right out from underneath me. Now, in fairness, a couple of things: my dad had bought the car for me. It wasn’t my money, it was my dad’s money. But also, I’d borrowed the money from my dad for the wedding ring for Barb. And then I had borrowed the money from Dad for our honeymoon, and Dad was ready to get his money back.
Now, two years later, this car became a classic and it was four times more valuable than what we sold it for. But still, dad got his money back. Now, you gotta understand that one reason I owed Dad so much money is because what we did on our honeymoon was costly. We went to Yosemite National Park, but we didn’t do it in just a normal way. We did it in an awesome way. Now, Yosemite National Park is like a little bit a foretaste of the beauty of heaven. This place is pretty majestic. Barb and I will this year be married 40 years and we had our honeymoon there at Yosemite. And there’s pictures of us here at Yosemite 40 years ago. And you can see Barb, cute as ever. And then you can see me. Now look at that hair. I mean, look at that hair. Those were the days. See, this is early seventies. I’d get outta the shower and just go rub a towel over my head and head out. Those were the days when you could do that. You see a picture of the Ahwahnee Hotel. That’s where we stayed and that’s why I lost my car. That place is so expensive. You can, even today, go there and stay in the Ahwahnee. Those huge windows on the lower level are just this vast dining hall. It is so beautiful, but so expensive. If you go there today, it’s like a two year wait to get a room at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley. But it was worth it.
Barb and I went back to Yosemite, sometimes camping. But we tried to get back there each year because it’s so beautiful with the Merced River and with Mirror Lake and with Half Dome and El Capitan and with Bridalveil Falls and Vernal Falls and the majesty of it all.
Now, I want you to understand this. In the Bible, it describes heaven and it describes heaven with the word paradise. The Apostle Paul speaks of having been taken there, whether in the body or in the spirit he did not know, but he had been taken into the third heaven, which he calls paradise. This is the dwelling place of God. And this word paradise comes from the Persian word “paradisio.” This word means “park.” It’s been borrowed by the Greeks. It was borrowed by the Romans. It’s actually been borrowed and transliterated into the English language as paradise. But this word comes from a root word meaning park, like Yosemite National Park, you might say. But if you look at the etymology of the word, you’ll find that it refers to a forested park. It may have lakes, it may have rivers, it may have flowers, it may have gardens, but it’s a forested park. I think when you look at a place like Yosemite, it’s just a pale foretaste of the glory and beauty and the majesty that is heaven. Heaven is so beautiful. Heaven is so awesome. So it’s a dwelling place and it’s a place of incomprehensible beauty.
Now, it’s also a place of adventure and exploration. You might like the idea of a dwelling place. You might like the idea of a park. Maybe you’re not quite ready for adventure and exploration, but I am. I’m excited about that, and the Bible makes it very evident. Now, you can look at earth history and there’s been a lot of explorers and a lot of adventure. You can look at the 13th century and you have the Polo brothers—and Ralph Lauren was not one of the polo brothers—who journey to Asia to the far east to China. There’s Nicolo and there’s Maffeo and Marco Polo. Nicolo and Maffeo in the 13th century go and see the Kublai Khan and they tell them about Jesus. It’s a matter of history that the Kublai Khan said, “Go back and bring a thousand missionaries. We’ll baptize our people.” They went back and the church refused to send the missionaries. Who knows what China would be like today if we had been faithful in that hour. But of course, by the grace of God, there may be as many as a hundred million Christians in China anyway today. The 13th century was one of those times of adventure and exploration.
You look at the 15th and the 16th century, and this was the time of adventure and exploration for the Europeans, for Portugal and for Spain. You have Columbus and the De Gama and you have a Balboa and Coronado and Cortez and Magellan. You have all those adventuresome people who literally crossed oceans and discovered new lands and circumnavigated the globe, like the Magellan. It was just an amazing time of exploration.
You come to the 20th century and you have a new frontier as we launch a man into space. And you know, that began the excitement of thinking, wow, now we could go anywhere. Anything could happen. But of course, that’s not true. We’ve gone virtually nowhere. There’s a big debate today about Pluto. Is this really a planet? Is it a dwarf planet? We’ve found other bodies circling our sun that are of equal side. Are there eight planets in our solar system, or 9, 10, 11, or 12? There’s great debate. It doesn’t matter. You’re not gonna get to any of them in your lifetime.
You might be thinking, well, I’d love to take a trip to the nearest star. I’d like to go to the nearest star outside of our solar system. That seems like a reasonable request. The nearest star is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.22 light years away. Alpha Centauri is 4.23 light years away. You might think, well, maybe someday we’ll get there. I don’t know. If you could get in a spacecraft and travel at 25,000 miles per hour (that’s 40 times the speed of sound), how long would it take you to reach Proxima Centauri? It would take 113,000 years.
We don’t have anything that can take you at 25,000 miles an hour there, but if we did, it would still take you 113,000 years to reach it. It takes light, moving at 186,000 miles a second, moving at 5.88 trillion miles a year, 4.22 years just to reach that nearest star.
light moving at that same speed, 186,000 miles a second, takes 100,000 years just to cross through our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy. And our galaxy is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. You might be thinking, well, I’d like to take a little trip to the nearest galaxy. I’d like to go to the nearest galaxy that’s kind of like the Milky Way. I’d like to go to the nearest spiral galaxy. There are billions of spiral galaxies. I would love to go to one of them. So what’s the nearest one? Andromeda. How long would it take you to get there? Well, if you could move at the speed of light, it would take you 2.2 million years to reach the nearest spiral galaxy.
This universe is so vast and there are galaxies out there that are 12 to 14 billion light years away. It isn’t going to happen—not in this life, not in this age of the world. You might be thinking, well, you know, maybe we can bend space. Maybe we can find a wormhole. Maybe there’s something to this concept of the multiverse and we can go into parallel universes and come out somewhere else far away. Don’t count on it. These are hypothetical theories based on no evidence. But I tell you this: in heaven, after the rapture and in the life to come, there is adventure and there is exploration.
You look at Isaiah 65 and Isaiah 66 and Revelation 21, and you see mention of the new heavens and the new Earth. God says, “I will create a new heavens and a new earth, and you will rejoice and be glad in that which I create.” There’s a big discussion and debate amongst theologians. Is this a redo or a makeover of the current universe? It doesn’t matter. There will be a cosmos, it’ll be the work of God’s hands, and we will have access as the people of Christ. It’s going to be exciting and an adventure.
It’ll be a place of worship. Heaven is a place of worship too, and it’s worship like we’ve never experienced in this life. You read Revelation four and five and you see Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of the angelic hosts, surrounded by angels. And they’re giving Him glory and honor and praise and majesty and there will be spine-tingling worship. There are moments here, when we worship at Cherry Hills, like that. Today when the choir sang and when we sang our praise songs, I just felt chills and I feel the presence of God. It’s just so awesome. Heaven will be a place of worship. And of course, in a sense we worship all the time because everything we do is worship. Everywhere we go, everything we do, we do as under Him. It’s all worship.
I just wanted you to get a little glimpse, a little glimpse of some of the things that characterize heaven. We’re going to be raptured. We’re going to be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. There’s going to be judgment—krina, separation, for the world, but for the church, bema. And it will involve purification and it’ll involve rewards. We’re heaven bound. And it’s a dwelling place for us that Christ has prepared as a new Jerusalem. It’s a place of great beauty, a forested park with lakes, rivers, and flowers. It is an adventure, a time of exploration, a time of incomprehensible worship. It’s all the blessed hope, and it’s laid up for you. Let’s close with a word of prayer.