Wednesday, February 8

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Revelation 7:16-17

Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.

The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.

For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.

Revelation 21:4

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

Years ago I walked up to a youth baseball field where one of my boys was practicing. A couple other Dads were standing there shooting the breeze, talking about fishing. One was saying to the other, “every year we go to a lodge in Wisconsin and for 30 bucks we get a boat, a guide, fish all day, drink beer, come back and get a 16 oz. steak – all for 30 bucks!” Then he said, “It’s like heaven!”

I thought to myself, “Uh…. No!” And then I thought, “Well, in a way, yes!”

The Bible indicates that Heaven will be rest and restoration!

Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.

For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. (Revelation 7:16)

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

Heaven will be “rest”, but not the rest of a nap on Sunday afternoon! My boys tease me for the increasing frequency of my Sunday afternoon naps as I get older. We have a couch in our family room that they now refer to as the “tranquilizer couch” because whenever I lie down on it I fall asleep within a few minutes!

But as enjoyable as those naps may be, the rest of Heaven will not be a Sunday afternoon nap! Heaven will be rest as in Sabbath rest or rest in the presence of Christ himself. We will rest from the pain and suffering of this fallen world. I think about this whenever I do funerals for those who have suffered long and debilitating illnesses. In Heaven they will have rest!

We will rest from the hunger and thirst the plagues our earthly existence. So much of our earthly lives are concerned with caring for or worrying about our physical needs. In our own culture we tend to eat too much, and suffer for it. In most of the rest of the world, people don’t have enough food, and they suffer for it. But in heaven we will have rest from hunger and thirst!

And we will rest from the burden of our own sins and guilt because Christ will utterly remove all of that from us!

In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said,

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Heaven will be rest from our pain. Heaven will be rest from our sorrow. Heaven will be rest from our sin. Heaven will be rest for our souls.

Pastor Brian Coffey

Tuesday, February 7

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Revelation 21:1-23 (selected)

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband…"

"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and he showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God…"

"The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp."

In 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. When he returned to earth he earned points with the atheist communist regime by saying, “I looked around, but I didn’t see God out there.”

To which Ruth Graham (Billy Graham’s wife) reportedly responded, “If he’d stepped outside that spaceship without his space suit he would have seen God very quickly!”

Where is heaven? Is it in the sky? Is it somewhere in outer space?

We tend to think of Heaven as “up there somewhere” – and there are plenty of scripture texts to support this assumption.

Psalm 53 says, “God looks down from Heaven on the sons of men…”

In Acts 1 we read, “He was taken up before their very eyes…”

In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul states, “The Lord himself will come down from Heaven with a loud command…”

So it does sound like Heaven is “up there” somewhere.

But read again the words of Revelation 21:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband…

Notice that the Bible seems to refer to two Heavens; or at least to one heaven in two different ways!

First, God’s word seems to tell us that Heaven is “up there”; that heaven exists right now where God dwells in the fullness of his power and presence. Scholar and theologian Randy Alcorn, along with many others, refers to this as the “Present Heaven”.

This is where we, as believers in Christ, go when we die. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). This is why Jesus could promise the dying thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Then also notice that the Bible seems to say that this heaven that is “up there” will “come down”

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away … I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…

What does this mean?

Scripture uses a number of images –

The New Heaven

The New Earth

The Holy City

The New Jerusalem

- to refer to what God is going to do AFTER Jesus returns; after Christians receive their resurrection bodies; AFTER the final judgment.

This is what can be called the “eternal Heaven”, and is what we usually mean when we say the word “Heaven”.

While we cannot say with certainty where Heaven will be or how Heaven will come down, we can begin to imagine what the New Heaven and New Earth will be like. The Bible is telling us that Heaven is real; more real that the chair you are sitting in at this moment; more real that the relationship you have with the person who knows you best in this world.

The Bible is teaching us that Heaven is a place; a city with walls and gates and streets and buildings. Heaven is a country with rivers and mountains and trees and magnificent creatures.

The Bible is teaching us that Heaven is the resurrection, redemption and restoration of all things!

In Revelation 21:5 Jesus says, “I am making all things new.”

Randy Alcorn summarizes Biblical teaching on Heaven like this:

“What God made us to desire, and therefore what we do desire if we admit it, is exactly what he promises to those who follow Jesus Christ: a resurrected life in a resurrected body, with a resurrected Christ on a resurrected Earth.”

Doesn’t that sound good?!

Pastor Brian Coffey

Monday, February 6

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John 14:1-3

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

Somewhere between the ages of about 5 and 10, most children go through what might be called the “For real?” stage of development.

They become extremely interested in whether or not things they see on TV or video or in books are “for real” or “just pretend.”

They see a car chase scene in a TV show and ask, “Is that for real?”

We say, “No, that’s not real honey, that’s pretend.”

They see news coverage of a NASCAR crash and ask “Is that for real?”

We say, “Well, yes, that is real". "Some people really enjoy watching people drive cars as fast as they can around a track over and over again!”

They see 2 professional wrestlers named, “The Undertaker” and “The Rock” throwing each other all over the ring and ask, “Is that for real?”

We say, “Oh, yeah that’s real! Are you kidding?” (Actually, I am just kidding!)

So when Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms…” many people ask, “Is that for real? Or just pretend?”

The truth is that many people in our culture believe that heaven is not real, but only imaginary.

I was talking to a guy about spiritual things a few years ago and I asked him if he believed in God?

He said, “Yeah, sure, I guess.” Something about the way he said, “I guess,” told me he wasn’t particularly certain about his spiritual convictions. So I asked him another question.

I asked him if he believed in life after death?

He said, “What do you mean?”

I said, “I mean, what happens to you after you die?”

He said, “Oh, you mean like, heaven? I always thought that was something people made up to make themselves feel better when people die.”

Simply put, this man assumed that heaven was imaginary, make-believe.

In his essay entitled, “The Future of an Illusion”- Sigmund Freud referred to religion, heaven in particular, as a “psychological crutch” bordering on the neurotic.

Philosopher Karl Marx called it the “opiate of the masses.”

In other words, the Christian belief in the afterlife, and in heaven itself, is imaginary – created by weak people to cope with life.

But to take this view both contradicts the teaching of the Bible and makes Jesus out to be a liar!

Jesus said, in effect, “Trust me! – Heaven is real! In my father’s house are many rooms! If it were NOT SO I would have told you!”

If heaven is imaginary, why would Jesus say to the thief dying by his side:

“Today you will be with me in paradise!”

If heaven is only imaginary, this statement is both untrue and very, very cruel.

But there is another way to think about heaven. The Bible teaches that heaven is not only real, but is the world for which we were created!

When one of our boys was quite young, he had a fascination for whales. He loved whales. He loved books about whales; movies about whales – and he collected whales. Not real whales, but a couple dozen plastic whales of all types.

He had sperm whales, beluga whales, narwhals, humpbacks, but his favorite whale was the Killer Whale. He must have had 10 books on Killer Whales alone, and he even slept with a big stuffed killer whale in his bed at night.

So imagine his excitement when we finally got to visit Sea World and see a real live killer whale named Shamu! I still remember that he looked into the tank, saw the huge, glistening black and white creature and looked back at me and said in a hushed almost reverent tone: “It’s really BIG!”

Now what if, when I had suggested the trip to Sea World, my son had said to me, “No thanks Dad, I’d rather just stay here at home and play with my little plastic whales.”

But that’s kind of like how many of us think about heaven!

We like this world just fine, thank you – although we were created for a different world!

Human beings have always been aware of this truth at some level!

Consider (from Randy Alcorn’s book, “Heaven”):

Australian aborigines pictured Heaven as a distant island beyond the western horizon.

Ancient Puruvians and Polynesians believed that they went to the sun or moon after death.

Native Americans believed that in the afterlife their spirits would hunt the spirits of buffalo.

In the pyramids of Egypt, the embalmed bodies had maps placed beside them as guides to the future world.

Why is this so?

In Ecclesiastes 3:11, scripture explains this longing for another world:

“He has also set eternity in the hearts of men…”

We were created by God for a relationship with him. We were created to inhabit eternity with him. We are all therefore homesick until we find our home in him.

C.S. Lewis says it this way:

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

Heaven is real. And Heaven is the world for which we were all created. Ask God to anchor your hope in his great promise!


Pastor Brian Coffey

Friday, February 3

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Friday

To finish our week of reflection on the Biblical doctrine of the final judgment, I thought I would attempt to answer a very important question that someone asked me after a recent sermon.  The question is simply this, if the final judgment is a future reality for all people, then what happens to those who have died or will die prior to judgment day?  This is a good question.  What is the status of all of the people who have died whether righteous or wicked?  Are they already in heaven or hell?  Are they unconscious until the final resurrection and judgment?  Are they in purgatory trying to earn their way out?  Where are they?

First of all, let me say that the Bible does not give us a crystal clear picture of every detail about what happens when we die.  Those of us on this side of the grave can at best, as the Apostle Paul said, “see through a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13).  The best way to describe what the Bible teaches about where people are after death, but prior to the final judgment is what theologians call the "intermediate state".  Basically, the intermediate state means that we have a conscious, but disembodied existence until the final resurrection and judgment.  Those who die and are believers in Christ will be consciously with Christ as disembodied souls.  Those who die and are not believers will be consciously suffering apart from Christ as disembodied souls.  Both believers and unbelievers are waiting until the final resurrection and judgment for their eternal state.  Some have held that during this time we are unconscious or possibly even go out of existence.  However, I do not think that this is biblical.  The biblical evidence is that our soul continues on after death (after our bodies die) and that we remain conscious in the intermediate state while awaiting our final destiny of either resurrected existence in the new heavens and new earth or eternal torment apart from God.

The Apostle Paul speaks directly about this reality in his second letter to the Corinthians…

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.  – 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

Here Paul considers three possibilities and he gives his preference in a kind of descending order. First, he prefers that Christ would come and clothe his mortal body with immortality so that he would not have to die and be an incomplete, disembodied soul. But if God does not will that, Paul prefers to be absent from the body to living on here, because he loves Christ more than he loves anything else. To be absent from the body will mean to be at home with the Lord; a deeper intimacy and greater “at homeness” than anything we can know in this life.  Finally, if God wills that it is not time for the second coming or time for his death, then Paul will walk by faith in Christ and not by sight.

We should all examine ourselves in light of this amazing passage. Ask yourself these questions;  Do I share these biblical priorities and values in life? Do I long mainly for the second coming? And secondly, do I long to be at home with Christ even if it costs me the surrender of my body? Finally, am I committed to walk by faith until he comes or until he calls?

Jeff Frazier

Thursday, February 2

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Thursday

The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. 

– Revelation 20:13-15

One of the issues with the Biblical doctrine of Judgment, is the concept of punishment and Hell.  To put it bluntly, people don’t really want to hear about that sort of thing.  Charles Spurgeon tells about a church that was asked to accept as their minister a man who did not believe in hell. They said, “You have come to tell us that there is no hell. If your doctrine is true, we certainly do not need you. And if it’s not true, we don’t want you. So either way, we can do without you”

To speak about God’s terrifying future judgment is not pleasant, but it is necessary, since the Bible clearly teaches that it will happen.  Although some prominent evangelical leaders deny the doctrine of hell, we need to remember that Jesus spoke more about the terrors of hell than anyone else in the Bible. We cannot claim to follow Christ and at the same time reject the doctrine of eternal punishment.

It is a doctrine with great practical ramifications. Spurgeon also said, “Think lightly of hell, and you will think lightly of the cross. Think little of the suffering of lost souls, and you will soon think little of the Savior who delivers you from them.”  I know many people who fear that thinking too much about hell and suffering will only make them fearful and insecure.  This is a question worth considering; how can we be joyful and confident as followers of Christ on the day of judgment?

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.  – 1 John 4:15-17

Of all of the important matters in life, none is more vital than the one that John mentions in verse 17, having confidence in the day of judgment.  But we need to make sure that our confidence is based on biblical reasons, not on false hope. Polls show that at least 65 percent of Americans believe in hell, but only four percent think there’s a good chance that they will go there. Since we’re talking about eternity in the lake of fire, you need to be sure of where you stand! Since John tells us how to have confidence on that coming day, we all should pay close attention.

John is saying that when we see God’s love flowing through us to others in practical good deeds, it is one basis for confidence in the day of judgment.  The presence of God’s love in your life, not just in words, but in deeds, is evidence that His life is in you and that you are in Him.

This does not mean that you always love everyone perfectly, without any shortcomings. No one does that! Rather, it means that the direction of your life is growth in love, and not just humanly explainable love, but rather, God’s love, which may be defined as, “a self-sacrificing, caring commitment that shows itself in seeking the highest good of the one loved.”

Living a life of active love shows that we have the Spirit of Jesus. It shows we belong to the family of God. And that gives us confidence before God. You can’t live your life totally at odds with the character of Jesus and then expect to have any confidence when you stand before Him at the final judgment.

This implies that you are involved in close relationships with other believers, where you are committed to work through misunderstandings and hurt feelings. I often talk with people who are struggling in their Christian walk. I discover that they do not know any other believers well enough to meet regularly to help them work through their problems. To love one another, we must get to know one another and also be committed to work through difficulties in our relationships. When you see that kind of love increasing in your life, it gives you confidence in the day of judgment.


Jeff Frazier

Wednesday, February 1

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Wednesday

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.  

– Revelation 20:11-15

John writes that in his vision, he saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.  What is this great White Throne?  It is great in status, power and authority; white in purity and holiness; and a throne in kingly sovereignty.

Next John tells us that earth and heaven flee from this throne, but there was found no place for them.  There is absolutely no hiding from this throne. No one can escape the judgment that it represents.  Neither heaven, nor earth, nor anything in between can hide from this judgment.

Many Bible scholars believe that Christians will never appear before this great white throne.  If we do not, it will not be because we can hide from it - no one can. The idea is that we are spared from this awesome throne of judgment because our sins are already judged in Jesus at the cross.  We don't escape God's judgment; but it is satisfied in Jesus.  However, the Bible also indicates that Christians will have to stand before another throne - the Judgment Seat of Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”  Some Bible scholars see the Great White Throne and the Judgment Seat of Christ as essentially the same thing, but only experienced differently depending on whether or not you are a believer in Christ. 

Whatever the case, one thing is clear, we will all face a judgment!  We will all have to give an account of our lives to God.  Some of us will do that in humble worship of the God to whom we have already surrendered ourselves, and others will stand trembling with nothing but their works to defend them.  The first group will be ushered into the presence of God, not based on their works, but based on the fact that their name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Standing before God: This is not a trial, trying to determine what the facts are. The facts are in; here is the sentencing of someone already condemned.  Their standing posture means that they are now about to be sentenced.  There is no hidden evidence that will get them acquitted and there is no appeal process, because there is no higher court to appeal to.  Because this is not a trial, but a sentencing, there is nothing for these who stand before the throne to say. It is a terrible thing to have to stand before God and be judged solely on the merit of your works!

At the judgment seat of Christ, what we have done will be judged. Our motives for what we have done will be judged. Paul presents essentially the same idea in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, where he speaks of a coming assessment of each one's work before the Lord.  In that passage, he makes it clear that what we have done, and our motive for doing it, will be tested by fire, and the purifying fire of God will burn up everything that was not of Him. We won't be punished for what was not done rightly unto the Lord, it will simply be burned up, and it will be as if we never did those things. We will simply be rewarded for what remains. Sadly, some will get to heaven thinking they have done great things for God, and will find out at the judgment seat of Christ that they really did little or nothing for Him at all.  I don’t know about you, but when I stand before my Savior, I want to hear him say that my life has contributed to His Kingdom, I want to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  Don’t you?


Jeff Frazier

Tuesday, January 31

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Tuesday

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.  “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.  I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.  And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.     – John 5:21-30

Jesus said, “All who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth.” No exceptions!  What a staggering claim! Of all the billions who have ever lived, Jesus says that all will come out of the grave at the sound of His voice.  This includes everyone who lived before Christ and those who have lived since.  It includes all Asians, Europeans, Africans, Australians, Scandanavians, North and South Americans, everyone! None will be missing at this great roll call.  There is not a Muslim judgment day, or a Buddhist judgment day, there will be one judgment day for the whole world and Jesus will be the Judge!  You and I could go into cemeteries and shout at the top of our voices until they hauled us away to the mental hospital, and not one body would arise. But Jesus will one day speak and all the dead will be raised from the tombs!

Jesus also says that both the wicked and the righteous will be raised on judgment day.  Jesus describes these categories as, “those who did the good deeds,” and “those who committed the evil deeds.” Most of us would be more comfortable if Jesus had said, “Those who were pretty good” and “those who weren’t so good.” I could then compare myself with murderers, thieves, child molesters, and other wicked people and conclude, “I’m in the pretty good group, because I’ve never done those evil things!”  But Jesus didn’t say that. He divided everyone into two opposite groups: those who did the good deeds, and those who did evil deeds. There is no group for those who were pretty good, with an occasional slip up; or, those who were pretty bad, although once in a while, they did good things.

The only deeds that are truly good in God’s sight are those that come from Him. The Bible testifies concerning the human race apart from Jesus Christ, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one” (Rom. 3:10- 12). Even the good deeds of the believer are tainted by sin, because who can say, “I love God with all my heart, and I love my neighbor as much as I love myself”? So there has never been an entirely pure and perfect deed.

Therefore, in order for our works to be counted as good in God’s sight, we must come as sinners to the Light and allow Him to expose the evil in our hearts. We must trust in Jesus, who bore our sin on the cross, and be clothed with His perfect righteousness. We must trust His blood to cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God (Heb. 9:14).  The only good deeds in God’s sight are those done from a heart that has been cleansed through faith in Christ. Those who believe in Christ are quick to acknowledge that He is the source of any good deeds that they may do.  God gets all the glory for our salvation, including any good deeds, because He prepared them for us beforehand (Eph. 2:10).  There are only two sides; good and evil.   There is only one who is god - Jesus Christ.  The only way for us to be considered good is to be found In Him!

Jeff Frazier