Well, this week, some of you may have seen an interesting article online or in a paper, went something like this. A Presbyterian minister died this past Sunday in Florida while he was delivering a sermon. The topic of his sermon, going to heaven. Reverend Jack Arnold told the congregation at Covenant Presbyterian Church that his favorite Bible verse was Philippians 121, for to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Then he said, when my work is done, I will go to be with Jesus, and that will be gain. And when I go to heaven, at that point, Arnold paused briefly, looked up, swayed slightly, and grabbed the podium before falling to the floor. He had suffered a massive heart attack. Well, one other point here, it says before collapsing, Arnold quoted the 18th century Bible scholar, John Wesley, who said, until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done, I go to be with Jesus. Well, it caught my attention not only because of the novelty of it, but also because I had just taught a Sunday school lesson on heaven, and had been for the past several weeks. So I'm feeling fine. I have a little bit of a cold. I'm not expecting an epidemic of this sort of thing. I mean, I desire to go be with Christ, but I think for, at least for the sake of my family at this point, I think the Lord has me here at least for another 30 minutes or so. So who knows CPR? Rob Carmen's out of town, but okay. But feeling good. Well let's finish up a little bit of what I was talking about last week. We had looked at a couple of visions of heaven given in scripture. Two of the main ones being in Ezekiel 1 and another one being in Revelation chapters 4 and 5. And really much of the space in Revelation is in heaven itself, even the first few chapters. John has a vision of Christ in heaven and Christ delivers messages to him for the churches. We saw in chapter 4 that John has a vision of heaven and a throne and the one who sits on it has his glory radiating from him. This is a picture of God the Father himself. He sees these strange-looking living creatures with a face like a lion, another one looked like a calf, a face like a man, the fourth have a face like a flying eagle. Each of these living creatures have six wings and they sing, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. We also saw these people, these 24 elders, we discussed a bit what that maybe represents, many people believe it's representatives of the redeemed church, although it's impossible to say for sure. Some say they're angels, but I tend to think that they are elders because they are clothed in white robes and have crowns of gold on their heads, which are features of the redeemed elsewhere in the Bible. And then we stopped at the end of chapter four, let's look a bit at verse five. I don't want to get into too much detail in chapter five. What I really want to do is focus on what is going on in heaven right now and how this amplifies that. Let's look at Revelation five and we'll just read this whole chapter and I'll make a few comments on it. And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, that is God, the father, a scroll, a scroll written inside and on the back sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals? And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals." Now this scroll here, is not really identified as to what it represents. Much in this passage is symbolic, of course. In the ancient times, of course, they didn't have books like we have today with pages you turn over, but they had often used scrolls, and they would write books on scrolls. The early parts of some of the Bible were written on scrolls, certainly. But they would also use scrolls for legal documents, for deeds, for contracts, and things like that. And they would seal these scrolls, like you've probably seen in movies or maybe even done yourself, with some wax or some other indicator that would protect this scroll from being opened. Or if it was opened, you would know that it had been violated in some way. And so these scrolls, in particular, probably in this case is referring to a deed or a contract. Now, what exactly this scroll or contract represents is a matter of some discussion. John MacArthur says that this scroll is the title deed to the universe, that only Christ is worthy to open And that's a symbol of possession. And we know that Christ, of course, is going to conquer this world, bring all things into subjection under Him. And while that is true, that may be extending this metaphor a bit too far. Matthew Henry calls this scroll the book of the divine counsels. And based on the subsequent chapters in Revelation, as the seals are open, you see these various councils or prophecies coming to pass, these steps in the revelation of history. In chapter 6, we see a seal open and a white horse comes and someone on it who has a bow and a crown was given to him, he went out conquering to conquer and so forth. A number of seals are opened and as each seal is opened, another event happens in the unfolding, the redemptive history. So I think the scroll just refers to those sealed elements of the future that God hasn't revealed to us yet, but in Christ he has. And so Christ is worthy to reveal these things to us. let's continue to read verse six, and I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth now we saw this phrase seven spirits of God last time in chapter four verse five and the seven spirits of God is not referring to seven distinct persons but I believe the Spirit himself in all his fullness. A seven is a number of completion or of perfection. And so this is the Spirit of God in his full ministry, his full person. We also looked at an interesting passage in Isaiah 11, where there are seven features or ministries of the Spirit mentioned there, and that may have been echoed in this passage. Verse seven, then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And this lamb, of course, is Jesus Christ. Although the name isn't used here. Now, when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, with thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, And all that are in them, I heard saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever. Then the four living creatures said, amen. And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped him who lives forever and ever." So we see again, one of the main features of heaven besides glory is praise, worship of God. We see at least three different songs sung here by those in heaven and those who are on earth and those who are under the earth. So the whole creation is worshiping Christ here, the slain lamb who has been raised from the dead. Any questions so far about these visions of heaven? Just sort of wrapping that up. We will look later in the coming weeks at what we find in the end of Revelation when we see the new heavens and the new earth. Much like after we die and go to be with Christ, our salvation isn't quite complete yet because we still have this resurrection of the body that we anxiously await for. In a similar way, heaven is not complete yet because there is going to be a time when the current heavens and earth will be done away with, the created universe, and God will make a new heavens and a new earth. this new heavens and new earth will, heaven itself, the presence of God, is not going to be a separate place anymore as it is now. It's going to be, in a sense, wedded to this physical earth, which will be renewed. It will be a heavens and earth without sin, and God will have his dwelling place with men forever. And so, this, again, this vision of heaven, I think, is in a way incomplete because there is still more that God is going to accomplish, and we'll look at that in the coming weeks in Revelation 21 and 22. For right now, I want to continue on and go back to the confession and look a little bit about the intermediate state again. We talked about that for some time. What happens after we die? We looked at various views, various false views in particular. One of the false views was the view that most souls in a state of grace, that is, souls that aren't damned outright on death and go to hell, would go to purgatory. And the word purgatory is from the word that we use for purging, for cleansing. And the purpose of purgatory is to further cleanse us from sins, to give us temporal punishment for our sins. Now, we looked at this in depth. This view has no scriptural support. We know that Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, so there is no condemnation or even punishment for us who are in Christ Jesus. When we die, as we'll see later, we go to be with Christ. There is no intermediate state where those who are in Christ will suffer any punishment at all for our sins. Another view is called soul sleep, that is, the soul is unconscious until the resurrection, and again, there is no scriptural support for that. There's the view called conditional immortality, where those who are in Christ will be given eternal souls, or their souls will be given an eternal aspect to them. Those who are not in Christ will cease to exist upon death or sometime later. And then there are some who sadly, more commonly today, I think, hold this view of second probation and a probation You might think of this time on earth as a probationary period to see if, at least from a human perspective, people will believe on Christ and be saved. There are some who think that there will be a second probation opportunity after death where people will say, okay, you had one chance, here's your second chance. Will you believe in Christ or not? And particularly for those who maybe never heard the name of Christ, maybe those who died in infancy, God will give a second chance. But again, there's no scriptural support for this view either. And the truth is, if somebody rejects Christ in this life, how are they going to receive Christ in the next life? You might think, because they will see Christ in his glory, that perhaps that will cause them to repent. But remember, salvation requires a change of heart, and that has to be done by the Spirit of God. It's not done because we make a decision for Christ, ultimately. If somebody doesn't have that spirit wrought work of salvation in their heart, though they see Christ in his glory, we see Christ on his throne, they will not believe. Remember there were thousands who saw Christ on this earth and while his glory was veiled in a way, he was the spotless lamb of God. They saw his ministry, they saw his works. And many did not believe. They did not believe because their heart was not regenerated. They were not able to believe. And so, they were condemned in their sins. So, while it may seem nice from a human's perspective to give a second chance, you know, we always like to give people a second chance to do something, there is no basis for this in Scripture. And even if there were, it would sort of be meaningless because they wouldn't be enabled to believe in Christ even after death without the Spirit doing the work. So those are several views of what happens to souls after death. I want to focus particularly now on what happens to the souls of the righteous who die as the The confession says, after death, the souls of the righteous are made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise where they are with Christ, and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. So the biblical view then is that those who die in Christ go immediately into heaven. Heaven, which is the dwelling place of God the Father and of Christ himself. Let's look at a few passages that support this. Luke 23 verse 43 at this point Jesus is hanging on the cross as you know there are two others crucified with him criminals who deserve to die there was one on the right one on the left and we know from another gospel that both of these criminals were hurling abuse at Christ you saved others why can't you save us and yet We know here from Luke that one of those criminals began, for whatever reason, to see Christ as who he truly was. Look at verse 39. Then one of the criminals who was hanged, blasphemed him, saying, If you are the Christ, that is, the Messiah, save yourself and us. Presumably these criminals were Jewish, and so they would have some knowledge of who the Christ, the Messiah, was supposed to be. And yet he said, Why don't you save us, if you are the Christ? But the other answering said, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." So we see his heart changed on this cross. Even as he sees the Messiah dying on a cross, he had the faith from God to see, first of all, Jesus as innocent, as unworthy of his death, and yet he had the faith to see Christ in his kingdom. Imagine seeing a dying king on a cross, and yet having the faith to believe that this man would come back in his kingdom. Then Jesus said, verse 43, assuredly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. So we have a promise from Jesus that this thief would be with him today, on this day. He didn't say, assuredly I say to you, someday after you hang around in purgatory for a while, I'll see ya. Or maybe your soul will be asleep for a while until the resurrection of the body. No, Jesus says today you will be with me in paradise. He assures him of his actual presence with Jesus that very day. This word paradise is from a An old Persian word meaning park or enclosure. We have some fancy parks like this today that are walled around, enclosed, beautiful places. And it's used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 and 3 in particular. And it's only used elsewhere in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 4, which I'll read really quickly. Remember, this is where Paul had a vision 2 Corinthians 12, Paul has a vision of heaven. He says, such a one, verse 2, was caught up into the third heaven. He's speaking of himself. Verse 4 says, he was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. So Paul here talks about paradise and heaven as being the same thing. And Revelation chapter 2, The word is also used, Revelation 2 verse 7. This is the letter to the church of Ephesus. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God, or garden of God. And we see later on this tree of life is in the new heavens and the new earth. So we see paradise is, in a sense, a return to the original Garden of Eden, and yet one that's even more exalted than that, because the original Garden was corruptible, and those who were in it were potentially sinners. But once all things are made new, at the end, there will be this new heavens and new earth where sin cannot touch. It cannot touch us, it cannot touch the Garden. that will be an even greater paradise for us. This garden will be infinitely greater, and it will be completely incorruptible. So there's Jesus' promise to the thief on the cross. Look with me, since you may be in 2 Corinthians already. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 1 to start with. Paul has just spoken in chapter four of the many ways that he's been afflicted as a servant of Christ. And yet he says in verse one of chapter five, for we know that if our earthly house, this tent, referring to his earthly body, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. I believe that's a reference to his, not the house of that is heaven itself, but rather that, since he's talking about bodies in this sort of figurative way as houses and buildings, he's talking here about his resurrection body. Verse six, we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So here, there's two places where you can be. You can be in the body, absent from the Lord. You can be absent from the body and present with the Lord. There is no middle ground there. Then we see also Paul's hope in Philippians chapter 1 verse 23. Paul again, in this context, is talking about his physical death, which will occur at some point. He doesn't know exactly when. Verse 21 says, for to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. If I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor, yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. So again, we have these two different states. Paul would be in the flesh, ministering or he is departed from the flesh and with Christ. He doesn't anticipate any sort of intermediate step for him. And you might think, well, maybe Paul, because he's a super apostle, would go straight to the presence of God. And maybe for us, peons, us lesser Christians, we need to be purged in some way. We need to sort of go to a holding tank. Well, Why would Paul communicate his hope to those who don't have quite the same hope? That would really be a way of dashing their own hopes. He doesn't put people like us in a separate category from himself. Paul always includes us as fellow workers, as fellow saints in Jesus Christ. Paul's hope can be our hope as well. Why don't I stop here? I want to talk further next time, Lord willing, about the phrase in the Confession that talks about the souls of the righteous being made perfect in holiness. We have something of a conundrum here. We know in our flesh, though we are redeemed, we are in Christ, we've been forgiven of our sins, we are new creatures in Christ, we still have this sin that hangs on to us. How is it that we, even after we die, are fit to enter the presence of God? What happens there? How is it possible that... You can almost have some sympathy for this idea of purgatory because you know that you are sinful. You know that you need cleansing. Even as Christians we need continual cleansing and there is this flesh that hangs on to us. And flesh is not just a physical thing. How is it that we are fit as Christians to enter the presence of God? How does that that sanctifying work of the Spirit sort of wrap up as we go to be in the presence of Christ. And we'll look at that a little bit next time. Any questions before we close? Yeah, Job is an interesting book to look at and it's You need to always, of course, when you're studying the Bible, interpret what is unclear on the basis of what is clear. For one thing, saints in the Old Testament didn't have a very clear idea, as far as we can tell, of what awaited them after death. We see that David says in one of the Psalms, I believe, that those who are dead cannot praise you. If I die, how am I going to praise you? That doesn't mean that nobody praises God after they die. But David's thinking of himself in sort of physical earthly terms, is that his voice will be silenced on this earth as a testimony maybe to God. In a similar way, those who are dead are insensible maybe to the things on this earth. They go to another place where they don't really participate in things in this world. And so I think from that perspective, I think it's where Job is coming from. Yeah, so he had some idea of a resurrection. Well, I think he said, when he says, in my flesh I shall see God, that was his hope of a resurrection. And we don't know how much he understood about it. He didn't have 1 Corinthians 15 to read about, or Christ, the firstborn from among the dead, to look at. But they had some idea of that. I guess he wasn't stating it. Possibly. I need to look at the passage to find out. Yeah. Sure. I do remember, though, in my studies, people bringing that up in a way of affirming the idea of soul sleep. But I think it's more clear to see in Paul's explicit teaching, sort of non-poetic discourses on the subject. It's a lot safer to go that way. Yeah, Tom. Yeah. If it's an inspired book, then he should add some clue as to what's going on. I took it the same way, that he's just talking about he's here on earth, and when he goes to the grave, his physical body can't minister to other people with praises and that sort of thing. It's the only book in the Bible that I know of where he says, yet in my flesh will I see God. And so I just hate to take anything away from Job on that. I'm kind of curious about, I'm just not sure if that's the direction you're going or not, but are you setting up like two scenes of heaven, the one heaven that we have in Revelation, which is the heaven that's currently there where the elders and the saints and all are gathered around the throne and they're praising God, and another heaven that's at the end of the world where we get a new earth and a new heaven and just a different existence whatsoever, or is this, A lot of features of it will. The praise and the glory will all be there. But when you look at Revelation 21-22, you see this new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. We see this place where God and his people will dwell forever. And it's, well, it's still heaven. It's sort of a merging, if you will, of what we see now is the physical dwelling place where we live and the place where God dwells. When they sort of come together in their perfection, the consummation of God's plan, really. Much like we have a physical body now, eventually we'll have a spiritual body. It'll be physical, and yet it'll be spiritual in a way, and it will be incorruptible. I'm not sure if that clarifies things for you. Right, so that's a new habit. Well, we have some of it in Revelation at the end. It's still, even though the scriptures talk about it, it's still something that we can't really comprehend. Ultimately, it's something that's still veiled to us. We'll have to take a wait-and-see approach to what heaven really looked like. Did you have a comment, Brian? Well, even the prophetic picture of the judgment that will certainly be there between the transition between the older and the newer indicates that all the nations will be shaken. There will be incredible upheaval physically, as God is purging and preparing the planet to be the new earth. To be, you might say, the consort of the new heavens in the eternal state. One other feature, Jonathan, the Seventh Day Adventists, who believe in soul sleep, play fast and loose with the comment there in Luke 23. I've always found this to be interesting when I've debated that. It would be a nonsense thing for Jesus to say. What else is He going to say? I say to you, Wally, tomorrow, It just doesn't make any logical sense. Yeah, because there are no commas in the original manuscript. But yeah, again, you try to take what the Bible clearly says and make it fit your preconceived notions. It's always dangerous. Any final comments? We're way over time. Okay, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the clear teaching of Scripture in so many ways. even for that which is unclear for that. It makes us study harder to come to understand what you will teach us. It also keeps us humble that we might not set ourselves up as masters of this Word that you've given to us, but to remember that there are many things that are as yet unrevealed to us. Help us to have that humility and that anticipation that you would continue to teach us from your Word, even things that we've read many times before, that you'd open them afresh to us. We thank you for the start of heaven, for the hope it gives to us, the comfort, for the anticipation of being in that place where Christ is, for that will be truly heaven for us. In Jesus' name, amen.