Kerry Shook - Heaven Is Real
Steven Paul Jobs died on October 5th, 2011, at 56 years of age as one of the greatest inventors the world has ever seen, on par with the likes of Thomas Edison. Steve Jobs built the Apple Corporation and one of the world's most valuable companies. And more importantly, he changed the world by masterminding an array of innovative products that revolutionized computers and revolutionized telecommunication and revolutionized music and film. Jobs was also one of the most powerful communicators of our time. His public speeches unveiling new Apple products are legendary and his commencement addresses are quoted all over the world, but he may have uttered his most profound and riveting words at the very last moment of his life.
According to his sister, Mona Simpson, who was there with him when he died, Steve Jobs' last words were, "Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow". And then he died. What was he seeing as he spoke those words? Was he seeing the glory of perfect heaven? Was he seeing the horrors of hell? Was he just realizing the finality of his last moments on earth? We don't know why he said, "Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow". But I do know that in that one moment after that last heartbeat every one of us will have an oh-wow moment, that moment where everything comes into focus as we enter into eternity. We'll have this complete clarity of what really matters. We will clearly see that many of the things we thought were so important were meaningless.
We will realize that many of the things we worried about all the time weren't worth 1 second of our one and only life. We'll know that instantly most of those things that we thought were so valuable were completely worthless. We'll wake up to the fact that the only things that were important are the things that last for eternity. And by the way Walter Isaacson, who wrote Steve Jobs biography, said when he first met him Jobs said he didn't believe in God. But after he got cancer, Jobs told him that, "I'm up to about 50/50 in believing in God now". And then as he got sicker he said, "You know, it's over 50% now in believing in God".
But then he told Isaacson something really interesting. He said, "But I'm still afraid that there is an on/off switch and when I die it will just be turned off and that's it, and I hate that thought. That's why I never put on/off switches on any Apple products". While we're in this series, five things God wants all his kids to remember, one of the most important things God wants all his kids to know is there is no on/off switch. Yes, your heart will turn off one day, your breathing may be turned off, but you will never be turned off because you were made for eternity. You were created to live forever, and the good news is heaven is real. The greatest news of all is heaven is real.
So I want you to look with me at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We're going to do a little study of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And would you stand in honor of God's Word? "For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven. God-made, not handmade; and we'll never have to relocate our tents again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move, and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we're tired of it. We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies. The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less".
You can be seated. The Bible compares our earthly bodies to temporary tents. It says one day we'll fold up these tents we live in now because they're temporary and we'll get a permanent home in heaven with a heavenly body. See, your body is really your earth suit. You only need it here on earth. These earth suits that are perishable can't survive in heaven because they're not equipped for heaven. One day we'll trade in our earth suit for a perfect heavenly body with no more brokenness. I really do love how this passage says that God has put a little of heaven into our hearts because one of the pieces of evidence for life after death is this universal longing for heaven.
Anthropologists tell us... and by the way, an anthropologist is not someone who works at Anthropology. Just clearing that up for some of you young folks here. Anthropologists tell us that every culture since the dawn of humankind has had some concept of life after death. Where did that come from? Well, Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us where that came from. "He, God, has planted eternity in the human heart". So God has planted deep within the human heart this knowledge that there's got to be more to life than just the here and now. We can't see it, but we can all sense it. God has placed deep within every heart this sense that there's got to be more to life than just living 60, 70, 80 years and you die and that's it. It's over.
There's no purpose. There's no meaning. There's got to be more than that. Every culture on earth has had a concept of life after death. Well, where did they get that from? Where did this come from? C.S. Lewis put it this way: "If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world could ever satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world". You were made for another world. Hey, another big piece of evidence for the afterlife comes from modern physics. The new discoveries in modern physics have been mind-blowing, and they provide powerful evidence that point to the existence of God and life after death. Bertrand Russell was this famous atheist in the mid-20th century, and he said there can't be life after death because all our experience is bound up with space, time, and matter.
What he was saying is there can't be life after death because eternity presumes that there has to be alternate realms like heaven and hell, and we live in a physical universe and our whole experience is in this physical universe so there must be nothing outside of it. At the same time that Bertrand Russell was making these statements, Albert Einstein and other scientists were making these huge breakthroughs in modern physics that claim just the opposite. Einstein's theory of relativity states that our physical laws of time and space are blown away under certain circumstances, and quantum physics opens up the possibility of different dimensions and alternate universes.
As physicist Lisa Randall puts it, we're in a three-dimensional flatland. Our world is stuck in this three-dimensional universe, although extra dimensions exist. So modern physics now says what the Bible has said all along. There are multiple dimensions that we can't see right now, but they are just as real. Another piece of evidence is near-death experiences. Scientists have studied people who have had these near-death experiences where their heart had stopped for several minutes then they're brought back, and many of them describe a bright light and an out-of-body experience and skeptics have always said; well, that's because the brain produces these chemicals that bring about that sensation.
Those things didn't really happen. They just felt like they were happening to them. It's just our brain does these funny things and the brain produces these chemicals that made them feel like they were having an out-of-body experience, but the International Association of Near-Death Studies has now studied thousands of these near-death experiences and they say there's too many documented cases that prove there's no way it could just be some chemicals in the brain causing this. You see, the near-death experiences that we usually hear about are those where they see a bright light and feel a warm, loving feeling, but all the studies show that that's not the only experience.
Dr. Maurice Rawlings in his book "Beyond Death's Door" says half of the near-death experiences that we have studied involved frightening, hellish near-death encounters. In 2 Thessalonians 1:8 it says, "He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might". Folks, hell is a real place. Jesus Christ believed in hell. In fact, Christ talked about hell even more than he did heaven. Now notice the phrase in that last verse: "Shut out from the presence of the Lord". It's one of the saddest verses in all of Scripture.
See, God's presence provides all the goodness that we experience today on this earth. All of the compassion, all of the creativity, all of the adventure, all of the love, all of the kindness, all of the passion that we experience on this earth comes from God. Now, on this earth we also experience bad things and tragedies and pain. We experience evil, but God doesn't cause those things. Sometimes he allows them into our lives for reasons that many at times we won't understand till we get to heaven, but all the good things come from God's presence. You take out God's presence, then you take out all the love, all the adventure, all the excitement, all the passion, all the kindness, all the goodness. So hell is complete separation from God's presence.
So there's no compassion, no kindness, no patience, no love, no creativity, no adventure. It's all gone. But the real question is, how can a loving God send anyone to this awful place? I get asked that question every once in a while. How can a loving God send anyone to hell? In 2 Peter 3:9 it gives us the answer. "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance". God doesn't want anyone to go to hell. He wants everyone to come to know him and be with him in heaven forever. The Bible says hell wasn't made for people. Hell was made for the devil and his angels, the demons. Hell wasn't made for you. God doesn't want anyone to go there. God doesn't send anyone to hell. People choose to go there.
You see, the decisions you make on this earth are magnified in eternity. And so if you decide that you want God in your life, you want to be close to God and follow him, then in eternity you'll be in his presence forever. But if you decide you don't need Christ in your life, you don't want him in your life, you don't want God to be directing your life, in eternity you'll be separated from his presence forever. And so God doesn't send anyone to help people. You have to walk over the crucified body of our Lord and Savior to get there.
See, the Bible says when you die you'll either experience the greatest separation or the greatest celebration in eternity because heaven is where the party is going on. Let's look again at 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 6. It says, "Therefore, being always a good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we're absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight, but we're of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord". So if you're a believer, one moment after you die you'll be at home with the Lord.
I want to encourage you today. I want you to see first that heaven is a real place. Look what Jesus said in John 14:2. "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you". Jesus said heaven is a real place. He said, "If it weren't so, I'd shoot straight with you. I would tell you the truth because I always tell you the truth". If it's just down here on this life that, you know, we're to do some good things and we're to follow God down here but there's no heaven, Jesus said, "I'd tell you the truth". But it's real and it makes all the difference. Hey, and by the way, we're not going to be angels in heaven. God already has enough angels, so he's not creating any more angels.
A lot of people think when we get to heaven we'll wear these long white robes and have wings and we'll be angels. No. You'll be the real you, and heaven is a real place. But I want you to also see heaven is a place of total fulfillment. It's really important because I think a lot of Christ's followers don't really get this and they're not that excited about heaven because of it. Atheist Christopher Hitchens said, "I don't want to go to heaven. I don't want to spend eternity in a monstrous, regimented place where everyone is forced to stand around and sing hymns all day and all night". And I would say, "Me, neither. I don't want to do that, either". But that's not heaven. That's what a lot of Christians think, though, when they think of heaven.
That's why they're not that excited about heaven. It's like, "Yeah, I would rather go to heaven than the other place". But they're not that excited about it because when they think of heaven they think of a long, boring church service like maybe the church they grew up in or maybe they think of Pastor Kerry just going on and on and on. But no way. That's not what heaven will be like. Heaven is a place of total fulfillment. Every once in a while on this earth we get a little glimpse of heaven, but we can't comprehend it. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him".
So heaven is a more beautiful, more amazing, and more fulfilling place than we could ever imagine. Randy Alcorn says, "When you experience something beautiful and sublime here on this earth, it's just a preview of heaven. It's just a little glimpse of heaven". So I want us to do a little exercise this morning. I want you to think about the most beautiful place you've ever been. Maybe it was on a vacation. Maybe it was in the mountains. Maybe it was at the ocean. Think about the most beautiful place you've ever been. Just think about it right now. Now think about the most fulfilling moment of your entire life; that most fulfilling moment, that moment when you were the happiest.
Now think about the most amazing event you've ever been to. I immediately think of the sixth games of the World Series that Chris and I were at when the Astros won their second World Series title. And when that last out was made, man, we went crazy. I also think about my wedding day and the birth of my children, not all in that order. Okay? That's pretty quick for me, wasn't it, to put that one in there. But think about all these. Now I want you to think about the most wonderful meal you've ever had in your entire life.
Some of you getting really hungry thinking about that one. Think about all these things and bring all these things together, and heaven blows them all away. It's just a little glimpse of heaven, something sublime on this earth, something amazing on this earth that you experience magnified a billion times in heaven. And one of the reasons why heaven is so fulfilling is there's nothing in heaven to take away that fulfillment. Here on earth, even in our happiest moments there's always this feeling of it's not quite right because we know that happiness is going to be fleeting and there's pain and there's problems and we always feel this knowing in our souls that it's not quite right and we're never totally fulfilled here. That's because there are a lot of things in this life, on this earth that take away our fulfillment.
But the Bible says heaven is a place of no more; no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death, no more sickness, no more tears. It's a place of no more. God says, "No more. That's enough. Enough of the brokenness, enough of the injustice, enough of the sin, enough of the pain, enough of the grief, enough of the hurt, enough of the death. Enough is enough. It's over," God says in heaven. And I praise God that we'll have heaven one day. Otherwise, all this pain, all the brokenness on this earth, what's the meaning in it? But heaven changes everything. All that is wrong here will be made all right. Now look at what Jesus said in John 14:3. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am". Jesus said, "I'm preparing a place for you. I want you to be in heaven with me".
Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. So the real question is, are you prepared for heaven? God wants you to be with him in heaven, but we have a problem. Every one of us have a problem, and Romans 6:23 tells us what it is. There's good news and bad news in this passage. Says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". So it starts with the bad news. The wages of sin is death. Every one of us have sinned, the Bible says. We've all made mistakes. We all have regrets. We've all sinned, and the definition of sin in Scripture is just falling short of God's perfection. God is perfect and heaven is a perfect place for perfect people because we entered heaven with all of our sins and brokenness and mess it wouldn't be perfect anymore.
And so, what we've tried to do throughout the ages, humankind has always tried to work our way up to God and, I mean, you know, we want to do better and we think, "You know what? I'm trying to be a pretty good person here. So I'll probably get to heaven because my good kind of outweighs my bad. I'm not as bad as those guys, never killed anybody. I've tried to do good things". And so, we think that really through religion, religion is just following rules, rituals, and regulations hoping that God will say, "Okay, I accept you. You're doing good". But really God's perfect and heaven is a perfect place for perfect people and we can never measure up to God, and that's why God came to us.
You see, we try to measure up to God. There's something in us that knows it. God's planted eternity in our hearts, and I think that's why some religions have reincarnation because, man, it takes you a billion lives to start working your way up. And when you try to work your way up, you find that you just keep losing ground because God's perfect, never sinned, never had a wrong thought, never had a bad attitude. God always is perfect and heaven is a perfect place for perfect people, and we're not perfect. So that's our problem. But God, he loved us so much he came to this earth. He didn't wait for us to get to him because we could never do it, so he came down to us and he died this death on a cross where he shed his perfect, sinless blood.
And I don't understand it completely, but I know what he done on that cross washes away all my sins. And so, now when I go meet God and he says, "Kerry, why should I let you into my perfect heaven"? I'll say, "Well, I don't deserve it. I'm a sinner like everyone else, but I received the gift that your Son gave me of washing away my sins". I get to go to heaven on Christ's ticket. You see, the last part of that verse is so amazing. "But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". It's a gift. We can't earn it or deserve it.
Now, it sounds so simple that all we got to do to get to heaven is receive the gift of Jesus Christ and what he's done for us on the cross. Sounds so simple, it is simple, but it's a problem for us because our pride gets in the way. You see, to do that you just have to humble yourself and admit, "I can't save myself. I need Jesus to save me". And when I compare myself to everyone else, say, "I'm pretty good person. I'm better than that guy. I'm better than that girl and..." Then my pride gets in the way.
Did you know there'll be no bragging in heaven? Because if you could get to heaven based on your works, then we'd be like, "How'd you get to heaven"? "Well, I gave more to charity than anyone else". "How'd you get to heaven"? "Well, I memorized the whole Bible". "How did you get to heaven"? "Well, I did this, and I did that". If you could really work your way to heaven, then it would be a lot of bragging in heaven. "I got there because I deserved it". But there'll be no bragging in heaven. It'd be, "How'd you get to heaven"? "Well, I didn't deserve it. I'm a sinner like everyone else, but I got here because of Jesus. I got to go to heaven on Christ's ticket, didn't deserve it". Isn't that amazing? "How'd you get to heaven"? "I didn't deserve it, but I'm here because of Jesus. I didn't deserve it".
And so, it's that humbling of ourselves just to admit, "I can't save myself. I need a Savior". And that's why Jesus was sent as Savior. You know, let's look at John 3:16. Verse everyone knows, but let's look at the next two verses after as well. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they've not believed in the name of God's one and only Son".
And so, God loved us so much that he sent his Son because we could never work our way to him so we could be in perfect heaven with him. And it says here that God didn't come into the world to condemn the world. No. He came to save the world. He came to save us, but it says that we were already condemned because of our sins. That's why we couldn't make it to perfect heaven and perfect God and have that relationship with him restored. But he came to us and all we got to do is receive that free gift. What an amazing thing. But the word believe here, the word believe in the New Testament literally means to place your whole life upon.
Now, when we think of believe, we usually think of head knowledge. Like I believe George Washington was our first president, but I wasn't there to really experience it. "I believe this or I believe that". But the word believe here literally means to place your life upon. It means to take the little bit of faith you got, the imperfect little bit of faith and place it all on him and stake your eternal destiny in Jesus, say, "Okay, God, I can't save myself. Put it all on you. I place my whole life on you". You know, it's not just believing in your head. The Bible says the devil and his demons believe in Jesus, but they're not going to heaven. It's placing your faith, the little bit of faith you got all on Jesus, staking it all on him saying, "I give you my life".