Eternity is in Our Heart: Session 1 – Doorway to Heaven

Notes:

 Doorway to Heaven    See Session Slides Here

  • There is a God-given awareness of something more beyond this life. But what happens after death?
  • Who should we consult? The occult? Those who have had near-death experiences?
  • No! Everything God wants us to know about it He has informed us in His Word. Not to trust this as sufficient is to dishonor God. Even worse, it is akin to necromancy. ‘And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?’ (Isa.8:19).

 

What does God’s Word say about death? None of the words used for ‘death’ in the Bible speak of cessation of being, but of leaving one environment and passing into another. For example:

  • ‘Decease’e. release, exodus ‘who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem’ (Lk.9:31). ‘Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease’ (2 Pet.1:15), implying the spirit will be released from or vacate the body.
  • ‘Departure’ ‘I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better’ (Phil.1:23). The Greek word is analuo = to unloose and dissolve into separate parts as the unyoking of animals. ‘The time of my departure is at hand’ (2 Tim.4:6). The human spirit is like a ship at quayside waiting for the anchor to be raised.
  • ‘To be unclothed’ ‘For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens … For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life’ (2 Cor.5:1,4). The cemetery is a cloakroom where we hang our mortal clothes at death.

Death, then, is the separation of what God has joined together – body and soul. The word ‘death’ is used in different ways in the Scriptures. Each time the idea of separation is involved:

  1. Physical death – separation of spirit from body, ‘Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
    and the spirit will return to God who gave it’     (Ecc.12:7).
  2. Spiritual death – separation of spirit from the life of God, ‘And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins … even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ’ (Eph.2:1,5).
  3. Eternal death – separation of spirit from the presence of God forever, ‘And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life’ (Mt.25:46). If we remain in this state until we die we will receive the penalty of everlasting destruction. ‘These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power’ (2 Thes.1:9).

Earth is the closest the unbeliever will come to heaven and the closest the believer will come to hell.

Someone said: ‘I would pay any price not to go to hell.’ The price has already been paid. ‘… who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel’ (2 Tim.1:9&10).

‘You were made for a person and a place. Jesus is the person and heaven is the place.’ ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints’ (Psa.116:15). Death is an appointment in Jesus’ diary to take us to be with Him. When we come to die we think we are leaving the party. But we are going to the REAL party.

Death is not leaving home, it’s going home. We’re already seated with Christ in the heavenlies, so heaven is in our heart. It is our default setting. Eternal life has already begun.

‘“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor.15:55-57).