Heaven Is it worth the wait

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HeavenIs it worth the wait?
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Heaven Is it worth the wait?

• When I was a boy, the thought of Heaven used to
  frighten me more than the thought of Hell. I
  pictured Heaven as a place where time would be
  perpetual Sundays, with perpetual services from
  which there would be no escape. David Lloyd
  George

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The Far Side by Gary Larson
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• A heavenly city comes to earth

The new Jerusalem does not remain in a
heaven far off in space, but it comes down to
the renewed earth So heaven and earth, now
separated, will then be merged the new earth
will also be heaven, since God will dwell there
with his people. Anthony Hoekema
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• A heavenly city comes to earth
• A renewed earth

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Skagit Valley tulip farms
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• A heavenly city comes to earth
• A renewed earth

Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion He will
comfort all her waste places. And her wilderness
He will make like Eden, And her desert like the
garden of the Lord Joy and gladness will be
found in her, Thanksgiving and sound of a melody.
Isaiah 513
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• A heavenly city comes to earth
• A renewed earth

They will say, This desolate land has become
like the garden of Eden and the waste, desolate
and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.
Ezekiel 3635
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• Paradise A stop along the way

pairidaeza Persian for an enclosed garden, park,
or orchard
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• Paradise A stop along the way

The idea of a walled garden enclosing a
carefully cultivated area of exquisite plants and
animals, was the most powerful symbol of paradise
available to the human imagination of the
biblical writers, mingling the images of the
beauty of nature with the orderliness of human
construction. Alister McGrath
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• Paradise A stop along the way
• A greater paradise

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I
will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in
the Paradise of God. Revelation 27
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Sheol (Hebrew)
Hades (Greek)
Paradise Presence of the Lord
Abrahams side Paradise
Sheol
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• Paradise A stop along the way
• A greater paradise

Therefore, being always of good courage, and
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 of good courage, I say, and
prefer rather to be absent from the body and to
be at home with the Lord. 2 Cor. 56-8 Phil.
123
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• Paradise A stop along the way
• A greater paradise

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years
agowhether in the body I do not know, or out of
the body I do not know, God knowssuch a man was
caught up to the third heaven. And I know how
such a manwhether 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. (2 Corinthians
122-4)
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• Paradise A stop along the way
• A greater paradise

Behold, I tell you a mystery we will not all
sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet
for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be
raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

1 Cor. 1551-52 cf. 1 Thess. 413-18
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Is it worth the wait?

• Heaven on Earth
• Paradise A stop along the way
• A greater paradise
• Millennial Kingdom Davidic Paradise
• New heavens and new earth

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Progressive Unveiling of Heaven

• Sheol (OT)
• Paradise, waiting the 1st coming of Messiah
• Present Heaven, presence of the Lord
• Paradise, waiting and worshipping
• Post-rapture Heaven
• Waiting and worshipping in resurrection bodies
• Millennial Kingdom
• Fulfillment as we rule with Christ
• New Heavens and New Earth
• Heaven on a renewed earth, our true home

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Application

• Do you know your destination?
• Do you long for heaven?
• Study and meditate on your heavenly home

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Heaven resources

• Note these are listed in order according to
  ease of reading, beginning with the easiest and
  moving toward the most theological
• Heaven Better by Far, J. Oswald Sanders,
  Discovery House Publishers, Distributed by Thomas
  Nelson, 1993
• One Minute After You Die, Erwin W. Lutzer,
  Moody Publishers, 1997.
• Heaven, Randy C. Alcorn, Tyndale House
  Publishers, 2004.
• Death and the Afterlife, Robert A. Morey,
  Bethany House, 1984.

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