Our message series, ‘The Godly Path’ has entailed a number of topics over the past weeks, culminating in our final destination: the Heavenly Kingdom. What is it? Where is it? Where do we go from there?
2 Timothy 4:18a: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”
We will:
Heaven is first and foremost a place of worship as all of heaven is filled with the glory and presence of God, and we will worship him there in the beauty of his holiness. The very first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks: “What is the chief end of man?” And the answer is: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” We were designed to worship God. It’s what we were made to do. God is deserving of all worship, and only worshiping him makes us complete, fulfilled and satisfied.
In heaven, we’ll have fellowship like never before having the unlimited opportunity to fellowship with people from all ages of history. We will be able to know and fellowship with our Lord in a way that we cannot possibly now comprehend.
God is not only worthy of all your worship, He is also worthy to be served. And if we are to serve God in heaven, then that must mean that God has tasks prepared for us. Believers will have jobs in heaven, just as the angels have special jobs that they carry out in worship and adoration. Angels are “servants” who do God’s bidding (Hebrews 1:7). The angel who spoke to John called himself “a fellow servant with you” (Revelation 22:9). There are no unemployed angels in heaven, and there will be no unemployed saints. In our current world, we have this command: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23). The work that Christians perform in heaven will have the same goal: to be an act of worship glorifying the Lord. The difference will be that, in eternity, the work that God has prepared for us will be instantly rewarding, constantly refreshing, and perfectly suited for who we were created to be.
What else will we do in heaven? We will worship, we will fellowship, we will serve, we will work, we will rest, and we will rule. A key to remember is that God is returning to us to our original creative mandate: men and women were originally created to rule and reign over the old earth. In heaven we will rule and reign with Christ over the new heaven and new earth – both a physical mandate as well as a cultural mandate. Because of man’s fall into sin, that cultural mandate has never been carried out in the way God intended. Only on the new earth will it be perfectly and sinlessly fulfilled. Only then shall we be able to rule the earth properly.
We never seem to get it right here on earth: we either work too hard and don’t take enough time for rest, or we lounge around and get so much rest that we don’t feel fulfilled in our work. But we will find the perfect balance when we get to heaven.
And although we will work and work hard, we will permanently rest from the painful toil and labor we experience on this planet as a result of the curse on sin. In heaven our work will be meaningful and fulfilling, and our rest will be sweet.
We will not:
The Bible tells us heaven will be a place of joy and pleasures and delight. Heaven will be a place full of activity with plenty to do: houses, vineyards, kings, and wealthy nations – these words signal a world of cultural activity on the new earth…. So, the new earth will be an exciting, interesting place to be. We will be always growing, always learning more about ourselves, the world, and God.
We do a lot of hurting and being hurt here in this life. But there will be no more hurting or sickness or pain in heaven. You won’t hurt anyone else, and no one or no thing will hurt you either.
While we can eat and drink in Heaven, we won’t experience the negative effects of hunger and thirst – the physical and emotional pain of depravation.
We will not mourn or cry in a negative way, that is, crying from hurt or from pain. But not all tears are bad, we will still shed tears of joy or laughter or tears of emotion welling up from deep experiences of beauty in heaven and fellowship with God.
One of the great truths of Scripture is that we will be perfected in heaven. Here on earth when we trust Christ as Savior we are saved first from the penalty of sin. Then as we grow in Christ, we are saved from the power of sin. In heaven we will be saved from the presence of sin. We will not even want to pursue sin.