A After Life for the Righteous What Heaven

A. After Life for the Righteous: What? Heaven is not the end of the World 1. Life before Death: What? 2. Life after Death: What? 3. Life after Death: What?

B. After Life for the B. Unrighteous: What? Grave Matters! 4. Life before Death: What? 5. Life after Death: What?

C. Kingdom Matters C. Bringing Heaven to Earth 6. “We believe in Life before Death”

After Life for the Righteous: What? 1. Life before Death: What? “Kingdom of Heaven”

After Life for the Righteous: What? 2. Life after Death: What? “Paradise”

i. Paradise Pre-resurrection Old Testament Thinking

Sheol (Heb) Sheol (66 x) is translated KJV - “hell” (31), “the grave” (31) or “the pit” (3). ASV & ESV transliterate as “Sheol. ” NIV usually translates Sheol as “grave, ” though at least once “the realm of death” (Deut 32: 22).

“Nowhere in the OT is the abode of the dead regarded as a place of punishment or torment. ” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible “Sheol is uniformly depicted in the OT as the eternal, amoral abode of both righteous and unrighteous alike. ” Baker’s Dictionary of Theology

Job 19: 25– 26 (NIV 84) 25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, 26 yet in my flesh I will see God;

John 11: 21– 24 (NIV) 21 “Lord, ” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. ” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again. ” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. ”

Isaiah 66: 22– 24 (NIV) 22 “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me, ” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. 23 From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me, ” says the LORD

24 “And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind. ”

New Testament Thinking

Luke 14: 13– 14 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. ”

John 5: 24– 29 24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

Luke 16: 19– 31 19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. ’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us. ’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment. ’ 29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them. ’

30 “ ‘No, father Abraham, ’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. ’ 31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. ’ ”

“Heaven’s joy overflows as they see the wicked suffering their just desert … The just misery of hell serves its divine purpose of contributing to the happiness of the saints. ” Indeed, said Gerstner, true Christians should already be enjoying the thought of people in everlasting torment, as a sign that they are truly regenerate persons themselves. ”

“Even now while the evangelical is singing the praises of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he knows that multitudes are suffering the torments of the damned … The true Christian, aware of this, is happily, exuberantly, gladly praising the Judge of the Last Day, Jesus Christ, who has sentenced to such merited damnation millions of souls. ” (Gerster Repent or Perish cited in Fudge 2011, 168)

Luke 18: 9– 14 (NIV) 9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner. ’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. ”

1. Reward-based piety is toxic 2. Justice & Mercy 3. Fear-based Gospel

ii. ‘Heaven’ Post- Resurrection

Before Christ’s resurrection All people who had died, their soul went to Sheol (Hades) and their body decayed. Although named ‘hell’ by the KJV, it was really just the grave or place of the dead. There is no Biblical evidence that the righteous was separated from the unrighteous, although they could have been.

There was also an expectation that the unrighteous would be resurrected as well, but to face judgment on the last day and be destroyed. Eternal life was a gift of God given by Jesus to those who believed.

Jesus’ Death & Resurrection Revelation 1: 18 (NIV 84) 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Death of the Righteous since Jesus’ Resurrection

1 Thessalonians 4: 14 (NKJV) 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5: 6– 8 (NKJV) 6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4: 13– 14 (NKJV) 13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

To begin with, then, the early Christian future hope centred firmly on resurrection. The first Christians did not simply believe in ‘life after death’; they virtually never speak simply of ‘going to heaven when they died’ (as I have often said, alluding to the title of a good popular book on this subject, heaven is important but it’s not the end of the world);

and when they do speak of heaven as a post-mortem destination they seem to regard this ‘heavenly’ life as a temporary stage on the way to the eventual resurrection of the body.

‘Paradise’ is, rather, the blissful garden where God’s people rest prior to the resurrection. When Jesus declares that there are many dwelling -places in his father’s house, the word for ‘dwelling-place’ is monē, which denotes a temporary lodging.

When Paul says that his desire is ‘to depart and be with Christ, which is far better’, he is indeed thinking of a blissful life with his Lord immediately after death, but this is only the prelude to the resurrection itself.

… the early Christians hold firmly to a two-step belief about the future: first, death and whatever lies immediately beyond; second, a new bodily existence in a newly remade world. (Wright, Surprised By Hope 2007, 4849)

Next week: Life after Death: What?