For the past few weeks, I haven’t been able to get Bryan Adams out of my head. Every time I sit down to plan ahead for my November sermons, all I can hear is “baby you’re all that I want, when you’re lying here in my arms… I’m finding it hard to believe, we’re in heaven.” And I suppose therein lies one of the greatest tragedies of the Biblical doctrine of heaven: it’s been terribly corrupted by the images and descriptions we get of it from the culture around us. From Plato to Dante, from What Dreams May Come to the Far Side, unbiblical notions of the afterlife have tainted the stunning future reality offered us in the Bible, until, like the cartoon above, it seems impossible for heaven to live up to the hype. And who can blame people for thinking that way? Consider the traditional pop culture depiction of heaven: a bunch of spiritual beings in white robes, sitting on clouds and playing harps all day. Or, worse yet: sitting through an eternity-long church service, singing the same hymns over and over and over and over and over (and over and over and over and… you get the picture).
It’s time to rescue the great Biblical doctrine of death and the life after from the eternal-life-sucking clutches of our culture. It is time to raise our hopes, quicken our hearts with anticipation, and encourage us to live every second in the light of our future residence, so that God might truly be glorified in us now and forevermore. Beginning on November 9th, I’ll be preaching a series I’m calling Death and the Life after that on what to expect on the other side and how that should influence our lives here on earth today. I’ll be addressing questions like “what will heaven be like?”, “what will we do in heaven?”, “how do we know if we’re going to heaven?”, “what does God mean by the new heavens and new earth?”, and “how should we live in light of that future reality?”
As I prepare, you can do me a favor by sharing any questions you might have or hope that I would address during this series. Is there anything you’ve wondered about the afterlife? Please post a comment if you have something to share or a question you’d like answered during this series.
Like many things of God, human words will never adequately describe the majesty of the real thing (sorry, Bryan Adams). So pray that I might find the words to give God and His heaven the glory they are due, and that He might be powerful in my weakness to take care of the rest. And as we look forward to this series, I would leave you with Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” Lord, all we ask of you is for just a glimpse of heaven, knowing that will be more than enough.
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