Alright, if you'd like to join me, we're going to begin today in the book of Psalms, Psalm 103. What we're going to do is continue our study as we began last week on the subject of heaven. We're going to dig in a little bit here together today and learn some of the things that God has revealed about heaven. We're going to try to clear up some common misunderstandings that the world has and even some within the Christian community have about heaven. We're not going to finish today, but we're going to continue what we started last time. What we did cover briefly last time is that we covered basically three main principles about heaven. that are revealed in God's Word, three foundational principles. First, that heaven is a created place. It's not simply a state of mind. It's an actual reality. It's a location. It's a place just like this is a place. Of course, it's a different kind of place than this place. We'll be talking about that more in detail as we go along, but it is a place. And the fact that it's created emphasizes that it didn't always exist, that there was a specific point at which God did create heaven. And that implies, just like all other created things, that heaven can change, because it is a created thing. It is also, we identified and established, it is a plurality, meaning that there is identified in scripture more than one heaven. There are actually identified for us three heavens. The first heaven we saw and identified as the atmosphere immediately surrounding this planet. The second heaven being of course the universe, the physical stars, the heavens that we know of as that which can be seen through telescopes, that which astronomers study and catalog. And then of course the third heaven that's identified in scripture is what we traditionally or commonly refer to as heaven, the spiritual location in which God himself dwells as his primary place where he reveals his presence. Is that one of ours? There we go. Praise God. And what we're going to do from this point forward, as I said, is dig into some of these details a little bit further. So, from there, Psalm 103, and we're going to be reading from verses 19 through 22. If heaven is a created place, then our next principle is that heaven was created for a purpose. Psalm 103, reading from verse 19. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, who serve Him, doing His will. Bless the Lord all you works of his in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. Now, this passage in Psalm 103 is certainly not the only place. in God's Word that declares this principle, but it's a good, tight declaration of this fundamental principle of heaven, and that is that heaven was created for a purpose. That, of course, leads us to ask an additional question. What was the purpose, the primary purpose, for which heaven was created? Heaven was created not first and foremost, not primarily, as a home for us. Christians sometimes have relegated heaven to be no more than our future home, where we will live with God for eternity. And there is an aspect in which we will experience heaven with God for all of eternity. But that's not the first and foremost, the priority or primary purpose for which God created heaven. Why did God create heaven? God created heaven as kind of a, we could say it this way, universal headquarters. We get this from the terminology here in this passage, which speaks of God establishing a throne in heaven. And of course, we all understand this. I don't think it's a mystery to anyone at this point. Throne is in its most practical function, a place to sit. But it's not just your average chair, like every one of you is sitting here this morning in a seat of a sort. A throne is a special kind of seat. It's a seat of authority. And here, the term that's specifically used in this passage in Psalm 103 here, is it? Did I say 103? Yes, 103, verses 19 through 22. It's a seat of sovereignty. which is just another term to describe the authority of God in its absolute nature in relationship to all authorities of mankind. That God's authority rules over all. His dominion extends over all of His creation. So the first and the primary purpose for which God created heaven is to establish for Himself a headquarters for the universe that He was going to rule over. And in the center of this headquarters, he establishes his throne. And of course, he sits upon his throne. And from that central location, he administrates his government over his universe, his dominion, his authority, his sovereignty over his universe. Now, at the beginning, I titled this teaching, Heaven Yesterday and Today, Because, as I mentioned briefly in the introduction, the fact that heaven is a created place emphasizes the possibility of change for heaven. And heaven, just like when we went through our teaching together on the subject of hell, we saw that hell has changed through history. Hell as God originally created it is not the same as it is today, and it's not the same as it will be on the final day. And in the same way, heaven itself has already undergone serious and dramatic changes from when God created it. But when God did create it, all that existed in heaven that we have sure and certain knowledge about is this headquarters aspect in which there is a throne established in the center of this location of heaven. And then from this throne, there's all kinds of, and we see this in various passages of Scripture, all kinds of bustling activity. flowing around the throne. The first and foremost activity is of course, and you've heard this passage read and you've read it yourself many times from the book of Revelation, in which there are these unusual four living creatures, these beings that are described as having multiple wings, and they're described as being covered with eyes. their entire body. They have a body, but it's covered with eyes. And they're flying around the throne of God, and day and night, declaring and proclaiming a very specific truth about who God is, and who God was, and who God will always be. And out beyond that perimeter, there's more activity, as there are other beings surrounding the throne. But in the beginning, as God originally created it, which beings were active around the throne of God, or even present at the throne of God, in God's headquarters. At the beginning, the only beings that were in heaven were, first and foremost, God Himself. And God Himself equals, of course, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And beyond God himself, he also created beings to share his presence in his headquarters. Beings that served his purpose in a very specific and functional way. Those beings, of course, being angels. And there are various categories that are identified in scripture, classification of angels, but all of them are identified as servants in God's sovereign purpose, His authority being worked out as He governs and administrates His kingdom. But in the beginning, this is all that's in heaven in terms of population of heaven. The population of heaven is exclusively, at the beginning of its creation, God and angels. No human beings, at this point, allowed in heaven. Why is that? Well, there's a problem with human beings at this point. And we're talking about here, if we were drawing a timeline, as usually helpful to do this kind of thing. If we're drawing a timeline, I'm putting right in the center of the timeline a cross here, which represents the coming of the Lord Jesus, as the line extends here to the right of the timeline on into the future. But from the beginning of creation until the cross, there are in heaven, only God and angels allowed in heaven. Not a single human being ever, ever, ever entered into heaven prior to the cross and the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus. Why do you suppose that would be? What's the problem with people at this point? We've got a major league problem with sin. There's an issue here. And the issue with sin, of course, is that God's heaven is a particularly holy place, because God is a particularly holy God. And just like when, and we do this in all cultures of our world, some are more concerned about this than others, but when you invite someone into your home, you know, you want them to come in, but you don't want them to bring in certain things with them. And in certain cultures, they do things like remove their shoes or their sandals before they're invited into the home. What's the purpose of taking the shoes and the sandals off? It's not to track in the dirt of the world out there with them into your home. And the idea here is, of course, heaven as God's home, not wanting the taint, the corruption of sin to be tracked into heaven with it. And so until the cross, there is no solution for the sin problem that will affect heaven itself to such a degree that human beings can now be welcomed into the presence of God. Let's take a look at this together. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Hebrews, chapter 9. What we're looking at specifically right now is the past of heaven. Heaven from the point of creation until the coming of the Lord Jesus. And we're also, by looking at these passages, we're going to look at two passages in Hebrews. We're going to see how it changed and why it changed at the cross, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus. Because heaven is, as I was saying a moment ago, a dramatically different place today than it was then. Different population entirely. So Hebrews chapter 9, let's start reading from verse 15. We're picking up in a a longer section that's somewhat complex and really bears its own explanation leading into verse 15. But for the sake of our time, I'm just going to pick up here as the writer of Hebrews is describing the principles of a change that has taken place in the way that God deals with human beings. And the primary way that God deals with human beings is described biblically as covenant. In the old, what we call the Old Testament, God interreacted and related with human beings through this vehicle of covenant, what we now call the old covenant. But now there is a new covenant that's been established by the coming of the Lord Jesus, by his death on the cross, and his resurrection. And so what we're picking up here is the book of Hebrews description of what has changed in this new covenant. Verse 15, for this reason, he, speaking of Christ, he is the mediator of a new covenant. So that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore, even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood, for when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you. And in the same way, and I want us to pay special attention starting in verse 21, in the same way he sprinkled, this is Moses, he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood." Now you remember in the Old Testament, the primary way, this is a top-down graph here, I hope you can all see this, the primary way that God related to human beings in terms of a meeting place where God met with man was at the beginning under Moses' direction, God had Moses establish a tabernacle. where God's people would come to worship God. But God referred to this place not just as a meeting place, He also called it His home, where He lived. And even in the symbolism of this tabernacle, there were clear references or implications of this being set up like a home. For instance, outside Well, here, kind of off of my board here, where I don't have room, the very first item of furniture as you came to approach the tabernacle was, of course, the altar for sacrifice, where blood sacrifice was offered, so that the worshipper would have the right to approach closer to the presence of God, now that their sins have been adequately dealt with. But then on one side of the entrance, and the entrance being right here at what I have as the bottom here, through this curtain, this outer curtain that was the... functional outer wall of the tabernacle, there was a laver that was established, which is a basin for water. And everyone that was ever going to enter this tabernacle had to first stop and be washed, be cleansed, so that they could enter in and not track dirt into God's house as they came in, so to speak. This is all symbolic of not tracking sin into this location. As they entered into this first open large room, which is kind of like what we would call our living room, It was actually a multi-purpose room in God's house because there was more than one thing that took place in his living room. But over on this side there was of course the lamp stand which had lamps established on it that shined light on this whole room. And then on this side there was what? Anybody remember? a table, and on that table the priests were given charge by the Lord to bake fresh every day and to place on the table the bread of presence, what was called literally the bread of presence or the bread of faith, in which God's presence was made known in this bread that was established, this living fresh bread from heaven. It was the dining room, where God would eat with his people, symbolically. And then here, just before this second curtain, there was a... That's a terrible square there. There was a small altar of incense. And anytime the high priest was called by the Lord to go into the Holy of Holies, which is this second smaller room, They were to offer incense, which represented, and still does in the book of Revelation in many mentions, the symbolism of prayer and intercession offered by the saints before the throne of God. But then as they come through this second, or as the high priest came through this second curtain, there's one last item of furniture in this room, which is a box. a special box, and the special box is, of course, called the, in the Old Testament, Ark of the Covenant. And it had built into it, on the sides, a representation These are not horns, if you can see my drawing. It's a representation of these special angelic beings that are in closest proximity in heaven to the throne of God. And what we see from this, this is all a symbolic representation of the throne of God, and he even identified that he would come and meet with the high priest, and he would come and meet with Moses, who was the special prophet of God, and God would actually sit on this seat in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But all of this representing his throne, and all of this in total representing his home, but what we're meant to see is that this points not just to something that God was doing with his people on earth while they were traveling through the wilderness, in that desert journey generations ago and then of course later this same basic pattern is followed as God instructs Solomon to build a stone structure on these same basic dimensions with these same basic items of furniture and functions for when the children of Israel are established in the promised land. It's something even much greater than that that God is communicating. Let's read from Hebrews 9.21 where I left off. This is speaking of what Moses did when the tabernacle was first established. In the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood." Now what this is saying, this is a little known event that took place when God first instructed Moses to build this tabernacle. And Moses didn't personally do all the work, but when the children of Israel, the ones that God had called, participated in the work being done, Moses came in, he was the final one to, in a sense, do the grand opening of the tabernacle. And the last thing that Moses did before the tabernacle was open for business, so to speak, is he went in with the sacrifice that had been made here on the altar, and he took some of the blood from that sacrifice, and he took hyssop, which was a plant that he could then dip into a basin of blood, And he went around and with that hyssop dipped in the blood, and as you can imagine the blood of the sacrificial animal dripping from the plant, this hyssop, he went around and did what with it? He sprinkled The tabernacle itself, the outer wall of the tabernacle. Then he entered into the tabernacle and he sprinkled the lampstand. He walked over to the table of showbread. He sprinkled the table of showbread. He walked over here and he sprinkled the altar of incense. He walked through the curtain and he sprinkled the Ark of the Covenant itself with the blood intentionally being sprinkled on, as we've talked about before, the lid of this box. which is called the mercy seat. And that blood being sprinkled pointing forward in history symbolically to the death of Christ on the cross, which stands between us and the holiness of God as represented by His law, which is contained within the box itself. All of this telling us that the tabernacle is not open for business, people can't come in, even the priesthood of God can't come in until it's been sprinkled with blood. So let's read on from verse 21. That's what Moses did in the Old Covenant, very practically. But in verse 22 let's read, And according to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Now, this verse 23 is one of the most amazing verses in the whole Bible. But it's one that, I don't know, how many of you have ever stopped and focused and meditated on, actually looked in detail at verse 23 of Hebrews chapter 9, and caught some of the implications of what's being described here. What he's saying is, what the Lord is saying to us, is that the Old Testament tabernacle, and later the temple, serves as a, using his terminology, a copy of something. We make copies all the time nowadays of all different kinds of things, but just using as a practical, easy example to understand, we make Xerox copies of documents and of paperwork. What are we doing when we're copying something? We're using some kind of machinery in order to take an original and to make a duplicate of a sort of that original, and we end up after we've copied it with not one document, but two documents that say the same thing, that communicate the same principles. And in the same way, God says that this tabernacle on earth, and later the temple under Solomon, is a copy of something. What's it a copy of? It's a copy of something in heaven. It's a copy of what is later called in the book of Revelation, the temple that is in heaven. There is, and has been throughout the old, and we're here still in the Old Testament, understand, we're not even up to the cross, we're just getting to the cross. But during this entire time period, we have two things, and this is, of course, after the original point of creation, I'm going to draw a line here on our timeline, that represents when this tabernacle was actually built and established. From the point that the tabernacle was actually built and established, we have now two tabernacles that exist in God's universe. One tabernacle on earth, one tabernacle in heaven. Later, when Solomon builds the stone structure, the more permanent structure, which emphasizes the symbolism that God's purpose in his people is being established in the earth, now we have two temples. one in heaven and one on earth. The focus of the people was always on the one on earth, because that's what they could see, that's what they could feel, that's what they could touch, that's what they could interact with. If they ever wondered about it, they could just pop their head out of the tent and make sure that they were still properly oriented to the tabernacle that Moses had originally established. Or later in history, they could take a trip to Jerusalem and see the awesome stone structure that represented the house of God on earth. And God treated those structures on earth as His home. He wasn't just playing games with His people. This is where He met His people. But these are not the original. These are the duplicates. These are always pointing His people to something greater. something more significant than the duplicate itself. If I give you a copy of a document, I don't want you to think that the copy is somehow more important than the original. The original is what it all flows from. And here it says that not only is there an original in heaven, but even this, in verse 23, therefore it was necessary for the copy of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. What that implies is that heaven has a temple of God that exists there, and that that temple itself needed to be cleansed in the same way that this temple needed to be cleansed on earth. This temple was adequately cleansed with the blood of animals because it was all pointing forward in history symbolically to this critical central event around which all of history turns and revolves. The cross of Jesus, the sacrifice that God gave for the sins of mankind by giving his perfect and sinless son for the sins of mankind. The fact that Jesus accomplished this work on the cross is not just earthly focused. That's what I'm wanting to communicate. It's also the cross's implications go downward to earth, but it goes upward to heaven at the same time. Because the blood of Christ that was shed on the cross was also applied to a heavenly temple, a heavenly tabernacle. Why? Let's read on verse 24. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands. And I think we all understand from the story of Jesus' life here on earth, that though the Bible declares truthfully that Jesus is the real High Priest, over the people of God. Jesus himself never once entered into the holy place or the holy of holies in the temple on earth. There was a temple in Jerusalem during the time that Jesus walked the earth as a human being and he never once entered either into the outer holy place or into the holy of holies. He was not allowed to do so. One reason being he wasn't born of the tribe of Levi and only Levitical priests were allowed to enter into the sanctuary because of God's appointment for that purpose. He was of an entirely different tribe, the tribe of Judah. His priesthood is greater than, not less than, the Levitical priesthood. And even though He never entered into the physical copy sanctuary here on earth, Jesus entered into the greater sanctuary when? After the cross, of course, He rose from the dead, and then 40 days later ascended back to heaven. And when He ascended back to heaven, He did something. Verse 24 again, For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now once At the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So while the copy was served by sacrifices, it was offered consistently, regularly, and even on the Day of Atonement, which was the greatest sacrifice in the year's sacrificial calendar, once a year, a sacrifice being made, a blood poured out by the sacrificial animals for the sins of the people to cover those sins. Nevertheless, those sacrifices had to be repeated over and over and over again. The implication of that, the writer of Hebrews says, is that there's something obviously lacking in those sacrifices. Those sacrifices served God's purpose to cover the sins of the people because they served a symbolic prophetic function of pointing toward the cross and teaching them about their need for blood sacrifice. But the fact that they had to be repeated every year should have taught the people's hearts and minds that something's yet lacking. Why, if the sacrifice is adequate, does it need to be done again and again and again? And so the implication being that when Christ does come and he does die on the cross, does shed his blood, that God's once and for all sacrifice has now been offered, never needing to be repeated for all of eternity. Now turn one chapter over to Hebrews 10, and we'll pick up with some additional information about what happened when Jesus ascended back to the right hand of God in terms of When Jesus ascended back to God's presence, back to the place of heaven, the location of God's throne, the headquarters of the universe, He didn't just go because He was done with His work here, and now I'm not going to hang out here anymore, I'm going to hang out there. He went for a purpose, and there were multiple or layered purposes of why Jesus ascended back to the right hand of God. We're going to pick up in Hebrews 10 with just one of those core purposes. reading from verse 19, Hebrews 10, 19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, and what this is saying, before we get any further, is now something has changed between the old covenant and the new covenant, and what's changed is Jesus has come, Jesus has died on the cross, and that changes our relationship to this structure known as the temple or the tabernacle. The relationship that's changed is that now we are free to come in to this holy place. Before, we didn't have access to this had you and I been born in this day and this age prior to the cross, unless we were specifically born of the tribe of Levi, and unless we were specifically called to serve as a priest from that tribe in the tabernacle and the temple and went through the whole exhaustive process. of being cleansed and prepared for our service as priests, we would never ever be able to enter into the house of God directly and personally. The closest we could get is the temple precincts, just kind of nearby, in God's vicinity, hanging out, you know, being close enough so that we could let God know that we want to be close to Him, but we couldn't actually ever enter into His house. But now, because of the blood of Christ, as it describes here in verse 19, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. But we're not talking about the copy, we're not entering into the copy of the holy place, because where is the copy of the holy place today? God's destroyed the copies. The copies don't exist any longer. There's no tabernacle that exists anywhere on the face of the earth. There's no temple that exists anywhere on the face of the earth. All that's left of the temple of God that stood at the time of Christ is part of the wall, which is known today in Jerusalem, in Israel, as the Wailing Wall. That's all that's left from the destruction in 70 A.D. by the Roman armies. And so what God is doing is He's showing us that once this transition between Old and New Covenant takes place, what He's after, He wants to destroy The copies, because they served their purpose to direct our attention forward in history to the cross, but once the cross occurs, the copy would now be misleading. because it would tend to focus our attention here on earth, where God was just showing us what He was building up to. But now that He's accomplished the fulfillment of His plan in the sending of His Son, the death of His Son, the copy now gets in the way. And so God removes the copies, both the tabernacle and the temple, and He directs our attention to the reality, the original. And he gives us access into that place. Now, personally, we're not there in our full being, because we're here on earth. But spiritually, and that's what's being described here, we have access as a priesthood that's been set apart by God, what Peter describes as a royal priesthood that all born-again believers participate in and are called into. We have access to enter into the presence of God, into God's home, to sit and eat with Him, to see the light of what He reveals by His lampstand, to offer the incense of our intercession and prayer before Him, and even to go beyond that into His very throne room presence beyond the veil. But let's read on from verse 19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence, to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil that is His flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, and this is that terminology that identifies that this structure is called by Him the house of God, And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, and let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Now this just identifies the access that we now have, but the last thing I want to emphasize from this passage is, in verse 20 again, this phrase, a what is called here a new and living way. Why is it a new way? It's a new way because Before the cross, it didn't exist. This way was not made available to the people of God until Jesus died on the cross. Before then, in history, as I've already emphasized, the only way into the house of God and the presence of God was through this copy, this tabernacle, or this temple in the Old Testament. And even then, only certain members of the people of God, specially born into a specific tribe, specially called from that tribe, especially prepared in that calling, could actually enter into this house of God. And everyone else, the best they could experience was something close to, something in relationship to, something in the vicinity of. Now, God has made a new and living way into the greater reality, the actual temple that exists in heaven. Now, What does this mean practically speaking? Turn with me, we read this passage in relationship to our study of hell, but I'd like to re-emphasize it now in our study of heaven. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We talked about, in our study of hell for several weeks, we talked about how there was in the Old Covenant, the Old Testament time period, from the point of creation up until the coming of Jesus on the cross. There was a reality in which hell existed in different categories or sections in the heart of the earth. You remember that? We talked about there are identified in scripture three sections of hell. Just like there are on the other side of the equation these three levels of heaven. The first, second and third heaven. And one of those categories of hell was not a place of suffering. one of those categories of hell was actually a pleasant place. Even though it fit in the broad technical category of hell or Hades, the unseen realm, nevertheless there was one location there that was considered to be a place of comfort and a place of blessing and that was identified using this cultural term, Abraham's bosom. which just emphasized the fellowship aspect of all of the righteous and godly people who were assigned that location, who at the point of their death went into the heart of the earth, but went into this place of comfort. But I identified that there was a second term, a more technical term in relationship to that location. Does anybody remember what that place was called? Paradise. And paradise is, of course, a term that we use in all kinds of expressions in our popular culture. Even, sadly, taking a term like paradise and applying it to things like ungodly television shows. Like, what's the name of that show, Paradise? I hope you're not watching it, but Paradise Hotel. where they put a bunch of young people together and try and encourage them to all have immoral relations with each other and compete for doing that kind of stuff. I mean to attach a name like Paradise to something like that is just about as bad as you can possibly get in terms of mangling the meaning of the term. But this place in the heart of the earth was called paradise. I talked about then how paradise existed in the heart of the earth, that if you were a godly person and you died and your life came to an end here on earth, you could expect to go, in the entire old covenant time period before the cross, you could expect to go into the heart of the earth. Your soul would leave your body and go into the heart of the earth and you would wait there. What you're waiting for is the coming of the Messiah, the coming of the Christ, the coming of God's Savior, and the one who would accomplish the great purpose of God. And that when that happened, something changed, and hell itself changed, and paradise was evacuated. All of the souls that were waiting in paradise were evacuated and taken. And I'm so busy here on the board that you probably can't make out, hide in your hair, what I'm trying to describe here anymore, but I hope you're following this. Paradise was taken at the point of the cross and resurrection and at the actual moment of the ascension of Christ and evacuated to heaven itself. Let's read 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Verses 1-4, we read this recently, this is Paul's testimony of an experience that he himself had, even though he's describing this as though he's talking about another man, it's his humble way of describing his own experience without bragging or boasting. Verse 1, boasting is necessary though it is not profitable, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak. Paul identifies paradise as being equal to, paradise is the third heaven. But it was not that case in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, paradise was in the heart of the earth. Now, it is in heaven itself, God's home. Let's identify together in the book of Ephesians the passage that describes to us this evacuation. Ephesians chapter 4 and we'll end with this today. As I said, we're not ending our study on heaven. We've got much more to cover. And there are a lot of details and questions to still answer about heaven, what it's like today. I'm focused primarily so far just on what it was like yesterday. But in this transition that takes place in the cross, there's now a change which lasts from the point of the ascension of Christ until the second coming of Christ, in which heaven will once again change, and change dramatically, change drastically, and change forever. And we'll talk about that in the weeks to come. But let's read from Ephesians chapter 4, and we're going to look at, if I can find it here, verse 7, we'll start. But to each one of us grace was given. according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, it being the scriptures that are being quoted here from the Old Testament, Psalm 68 in particular. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led captives, a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. Now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean? Except that he had also He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fill all things. What this identifies for us is that at the ascension of Christ, Jesus in between, somewhere between the cross and the ascension, he first descended into the lower parts of the earth, and we talked about that in more detail in our study through hell. He declared The fulfillment of what all of the souls in paradise had been waiting since the point of their death for, he declared that God's plan is now being accomplished through him. and that the work on the cross that they had been waiting for, the final and ultimate and real sacrifice for their sins, had been accomplished. And therefore, because of the blood that He shed on the cross, they were now free to join Him in where He was going. And so He took all of them, evacuated them from paradise, and they together ascended, as it says here, emphasizing this one phrase from Ephesians, where he says in verse 8, When he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives. Jesus didn't ascend by himself. he led a train of captives behind him. You've heard me use the imagery before that Paul talks about in two or three places in the New Testament of a conquering general returning to the city of Rome after his conquest, where he would lead behind him a train of all of the captives that he had conquered as a way to glorify and bring honor to his own name. And God honored and glorified Christ by having him not return to heaven by himself, but returning to heaven with the whole host of the Old Testament saints that were waiting in paradise in the heart of the earth and then actually because they are paradise. Paradise is not just a place but it's those that inhabit it. Paradise is equal to the population of paradise. Since the whole population of paradise has moved to heaven, paradise itself now is the equivalent of heaven. Now I say the equivalent in that paradise is greater than heaven because paradise is the home of saints that are waiting the final return of the Lord to planet earth. It's the home of those who are waiting the resurrection of their bodies. But heaven itself, as we started, is greater than just our home. It is God's headquarters where all things are being administrated. So we'll put a stop there today. We'll pick up next week, if I haven't totally confused you with my graphs here. We'll pick up next week, Lord willing, with What is going to happen now, not just in terms of the present, we'll talk about some of the questions we all have, like, you know, things that people normally are concerned about. Do we have bodies in heaven? If we were to die today and we go to heaven, do we have bodies in heaven? Do we recognize other people in heaven? What is life in heaven today like? We'll talk about all that stuff. But we'll also then move on into the future of what is going to happen at the second coming of Christ to change heaven itself forever. So let's direct our hearts to the Lord as we end our study this morning. Father God, you encourage us, instruct us, and command us as your people to set our minds on the things above and not on the things on this earth. In that process of us learning how to set our minds on heavenly things, you promised that we'll be changed, we'll be transformed, our perspectives will be altered. The way we think and the way we will live out our lives will be altered. I want to thank you, Lord, for the opportunity this morning to together just stop together and think about heavenly things, to consider the bigger picture of what's going on behind the scenes and above all things, and your plan and purpose as it's unfolding from your headquarters in heaven. And I pray, Father, that you would change us, that you would transform us, and you would make us a more heavenly people, even while we live out our lives here in this world. And we thank you for that grace and look to you for that grace, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. The copyrighted product of Tree of Life Christian Church of Canoga Park, California. You are welcome to pass this message along to others, as long as it is not sold, and it is passed along unaltered in its entirety, with source credit given to Tree of Life Christian Church.