HEAVEN & HELL - What is heaven like?

Week by week, essential by essential, our faith has been strengthening! While accepting Jesus as Lord was the first step to a strong faith, we’ve been able to dig deeper into what God’s followers believe and why. Just like our memory verse, Colossians 2:6-7a says, we’re going to continue building our lives on the Lord with a foundation of firmly rooted faith essentials.

Colossians 2:6-7a |  And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught…

So far, we’ve learned a lot about the Bible, the Trinity, and the specific roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:

Essential #1 - The Bible is Inspired (authored by God), Inerrant (free from errors), Infallible (will not fail/is trustworthy), and Authoritative (our ultimate guide).

Essential #2 - God is the perfect, loving Creator who is three-in-one: Father, Son, and Spirit. He is all powerful, all knowing, and all present.

Essential #3- Jesus is fully God and was fully man. Although tempted in every way, He chose not to sin and willingly laid down His own life to be the sacrifice for our sin. His example should be our benchmark for godly living.

Essential #4  - The Holy Spirit is God living in the follower of Christ. He helps the believer know and do right, convicts when we sin, and compels us to share the gospel with others. He comforts us, makes us more like Himself, and works through us when we use our Holy Spirit given gifts. 

One area that can make sharing our faith difficult is the concept of eternity. 

We are time-based beings. Our lives revolve around the clock; we literally start and stop our day by it. 

Understanding that God is an eternal being without a beginning or an end is hard enough. Wrapping your mind around your own spiritual eternity can be even more difficult. 

While Christ’s sacrifice for the sake of our salvation provides a day-to-day restoration of our relationship with God, it also has an eternal impact that is an essential part of our faith as believers. This understanding begins with with the foundational concepts we will explore in this week’s essential: 

Essential #5  - Heaven and Hell are literal places where the spirit of man spends eternity (forever). Heaven is God’s perfect and unimaginably beautiful home, but man’s sin prevents his entry. Instead, sinful man earns eternity in Hell  - a place filled with fire and torment where man is separated from God forever. God desires that everyone would join Him in Heaven one day, but the choice to join Him there is ultimately yours alone and determined by whether or not you put your faith in Jesus Christ.

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Revelation 21:3-7 | I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.

1. Who lives in Heaven? 
2. What is missing from Heaven? 
3. What do you think it will be like to live with God and to be in His presence?

Revelation 21:10-27 | So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone—like jasper as clear as crystal. The city wall was broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels. And the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates. There were three gates on each side—east, north, south, and west. The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, it's gates, and its wall. When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles. Then he measured the walls and found them to be 216 feet thick (according to the human standard used by the angel). The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve precious stones: the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass. I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

1. What are some things we know about what Heaven looks like? 
2. Who is not permitted into Heaven? 
3. Who is the Lamb and how do you get your name written in His book? 
4. How are sure are you that you will be in Heaven with God some day and why?