Heaven

Text: John 14:1-6; Revelation 21:1-5

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Name the biblical terms Scripture uses for the final dwelling place of the righteous.
2. Describe heaven as both a place (where God dwells) and a state (freedom from sin, pain, and death).
3. Understand that heaven is the destiny of the faithful — not earned by human merit but entered through Christ.
4. Distinguish the destination of the righteous from that of the wicked — the Bible presents both clearly.
5. Allow the reality of heaven to shape present choices and produce faithful living.

Thesis

Heaven is both the dwelling place of God and the final destination of the righteous in Christ — a place of perfect holiness, unbroken peace, and unending life, entered by those who have been faithful to the end.

Burden

"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places" (John 14:1-2). Jesus said that on the night He was betrayed, to people who were about to watch everything they thought they understood fall apart. He pointed them past the immediate darkness to an actual destination. Heaven is not a metaphor invented to help frightened people cope. It is a real destination — described, named, and promised — by the One who came from there and went back, and who has gone to prepare a place for those who belong to Him.

Introduction

The Bible presents two and only two destinies for human beings: one for the righteous and one for the wicked. The outline frames this sermon with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus — not as an afterthought but as the orientation. Two men, two deaths, two eternal states. One is Heaven. This sermon treats Heaven in four movements: its biblical names, its nature as the habitation of God, its character as a state of perfect existence, and its availability to all who will come.

I. Scriptural Names for Heaven

A. Scripture does not use a single term for the final dwelling place of the righteous. The variety of names illuminates different aspects of the same reality.

B. The New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2).

1. "I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband."
2. A city implies community, permanence, structure — not a vague spiritual fog but an ordered, inhabited place.
3. "New" distinguishes it from the old Jerusalem that was tied to the old covenant, the old creation. This is the consummation.

C. The City of God (Heb. 12:22).

1. "You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
2. Even now, in worship, the church approaches this city. The final state is the full arrival at what the church already has partial access to.

D. Paradise (2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7).

1. Paul was caught up to "Paradise" — the third heaven — and heard inexpressible things.
2. Rev. 2:7: "To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God."
3. The word is Persian in origin — a royal enclosed garden of the king, a place of the king's presence and provision. Heaven is the garden-home of the King of kings.

E. Our Father's House (John 14:1-6).

1. Jesus's own description: "In My Father's house are many dwelling places."
2. A house implies belonging — not a hotel for strangers but the home of a family.
3. "I go to prepare a place for you" — the preparation is active; the place is personal and specific.

II. The Habitation of God

A. Heaven is not primarily a nice place for people to enjoy — it is where God dwells in His glory.

1. This is the reason heaven is what it is: God's presence makes it heaven.
2. "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face" (Rev. 22:3-4).

B. Christ is there at God's right hand.

1. "He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3).
2. He is there now, interceding for us (Heb. 7:25), and will be there in the final state in the fullness of His glory.

C. The angels are there.

1. They are "ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14).
2. In the final state, the people of God join the "myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven" (Heb. 12:22-23).

D. The spirits of the righteous dead are there.

1. "The spirits of the righteous made perfect" (Heb. 12:23) — those who have died in Christ are in God's presence now.
2. "To be absent from the body" is "to be at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8).
3. Heaven is not empty waiting — it is inhabited, alive, and glorified.

III. Heaven as a State

A. Heaven is not only a location but a condition of existence — a state from which everything that mars the present world has been permanently removed.

B. No sin.

1. "Nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it" (Rev. 21:27).
2. Sin is what converted the earth into a region of woe — the curse on the ground, the pain in labor, the violence of Cain, the grief of exile. None of that enters the new creation.
3. The capacity for sin is not suppressed there; it is simply absent — the redeemed have been made complete in holiness.

C. No pain, no suffering.

1. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away" (Rev. 21:4).
2. Every category of human suffering — grief, disease, loss, loneliness, betrayal — belongs to "the first things." They pass with this age.

D. No death.

1. "He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death" (Rev. 2:11).
2. "Death will be no more" (Rev. 21:4) — not merely restrained but abolished. The last enemy destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26).

E. Perfect love.

1. "A state where love only rules" — the phrase is exact. The atmosphere of heaven is the unobstructed love of God and the unhindered love of those who belong to Him.
2. "God is love" (1 John 4:8); where God is fully present, love is fully expressed, without the distortions that sin introduces.

IV. All May Go There

A. Heaven is not the private destination of a predetermined elect — it is the announced destination of the faithful.

1. "Whosoever will" — the invitation is open and universal (Rev. 22:17).
2. "It is the destiny of the faithful" — not assigned apart from faith and obedience but entered through it.

B. Only the righteous will go and dwell there.

1. "Nothing unclean... shall ever come into it" (Rev. 21:27).
2. This is not exclusionary theology; it is the nature of the place. Heaven would cease to be heaven if sin entered it.
3. The urgency of the gospel flows directly from this: the call to repent, believe, and be baptized is a call to be made righteous in Christ so that you can enter the place where righteousness is at home.

C. The way in is Christ.

1. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6).
2. There is no entrance to the Father's house except through the Son who built it and died for those who would inhabit it.
3. The invitation is wide open. The door is narrow. Both are true.

Application

What you are building your life on determines where it ends. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy... but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matt. 6:19-20). The question is not whether heaven is real — the question is whether you are living as though it is. If heaven is real, then the accumulated anxieties of this life look different. The things you are sacrificing for that will not last look different. And the obedience that costs you something now looks like a small price for a place where tears are wiped and death has no more words.

Conclusion

Heaven is the dwelling place of God — named in Scripture as the New Jerusalem, the City of God, Paradise, and the Father's house. It is the habitation of God in His glory, of Christ at His right hand, of the angels, and of the righteous dead. It is a state of existence from which sin, pain, and death have been permanently removed, and in which love alone governs. It is the destination of the faithful, entered through Christ and no other. The invitation stands open. Come before the door closes.

Invitation

If you have never entered the way that leads to this destination — never obeyed the gospel, never been baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38) — today is the day. Christ has prepared a place. The Spirit and the bride say, "Come" (Rev. 22:17). Come while the door is open. If you are a Christian who has let the weight of this present life crowd out the hope of the one to come, come back to that hope today. Come as we sing.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 71. Doctrinal audit: core framework; heaven as both place and state; entry through Christ alone (John 14:6) stated without universalism or once-saved-always-saved framing; "whosoever will" and "only the righteous" held together — the invitation is open but conditional on faithfulness; no premillennial assumptions (the new creation in Rev. 21 is the consummation, not a millennial kingdom); invitation calls to full obedient response (Acts 2:38). Primary text supplied from context (John 14:1-6; Rev. 21:1-5) since Boles's outline did not state a primary text. OCR note: Boles's intro cited "Luke 16:1-13" which is the parable of the unjust steward — the intended reference is clearly Luke 16:19-31 (the rich man and Lazarus). Raw split extracted from source PDF page 71.

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