“The Last Four Things”

A Sermon Series

“Heaven”

Miscellaneous Verses, Isaiah 65:17-25

Introduction

“How you understand the end of time (a person’s eschatology), then has everything to do with the way he lives life now – whether one trusts Jesus for a future kingdom, or whether one grasps at the passing securities of this present age. Our understanding of the future informs our Christian hope, our personal ethics, our social action, and our corporate witness.”[1]

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

Defining Heaven

We will live with God in a New Heaven and a New Earth. “after the final judgement believers will enter into the full enjoyment of life in the presence of God forever.”[2]

What is Heaven? “During this present age, the place where God dwells is frequently called “heaven” in Scripture. The Lord says, “Heaven is my throne (Isa. 66:1), and Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven.” (Matt. 6:9). Jesus now “has gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God” (1 Peter 3:22). Heaven is the place where God most fully makes known his presence to bless.”[3]

It is a real place, Jesus ascended into heaven, and He has promised to prepare a place for believers there, and will come again and take them to their prepared place in heaven. Acts 1:11 describes Jesus’ ascension into heaven “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Acts 7:55-56 is a description of Stephen’s death, “But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing pat the right hand of God.”

“Heaven is defined in Scripture as the dwelling place of God, a place inhabited by the angelic armies, the redeemed of all the ages, and the ascended Jesus as he awaits the consummation of his kingdom.”[4]

“What Will Eternal Life Be Like For the Believer?” Isaiah 65:17-25

Things that we have no real capacity to understand (like heaven) can be expressed only through things we know and experience. Isaiah will use images of age, marriage, children, time and sinners which will not exist in eternity but help us understand big concepts and truths that will be present there. One commentator said, “It is hard to know what a flower will look like by only looking at the seed.”[5]

Reversed Is the Corruption of Memory (v. 17)

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

The first half of this passage/chapter is talking about the fate of those who do not follow God, but at verse 17 Isaiah the prophet tells us the fate of those who do. God after judgement, creates (v.17) “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth”

Our introduction to God is Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And then at the end of what we know of as time, God is going to create new heavens and a new earth. So in the beginning, and at the end God is a God who creates.

This new creation of heaven and earth is so wonderful that, “the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.” No one when they see the new will ever want the old again. When something “come(s) into mind,” they are “taking it to heart,” the thought “ascends within us” – and with that thought we are “inwardly occupied.”[6] The old heaven and earth (the previous creation) will not occupy anyone’s thoughts, they won’t be sitting around thinking about “the old days.”

“the former things shall not be remembered,” – sin is a corruption of something originally created by God as good. God created love as good, Satan corrupts it and is becomes lust. Self-care is corrupted to vanity. Leadership is corrupted to authoritarianism. Art becomes pornography, poetry becomes vulgar, truth becomes twisted lies. Because of Satan bringing death and disease into this world, our bodies ability to remember becomes corrupted with age.

Today, we can’t remember that we want to remember. Disease robs us of the memories with our loved ones, memories of even who we are. In heaven memory is reversed, we forget what we want to forget and remember the blessings and goodness of God.

There is a similar passage in Jeremiah where it discusses the returned Israelites from exile, because Jerusalem will be the throne of the Lord. Jeremiah 3:16, “. . . in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.” The ark, for the Israelite people, represented God’s presence with them – now God is with His people, so there is no need for a place holder.

The ark was taken into battle before the people, again it represented God’s power and presence. In heaven, God will be present with His people. There will come a day when the old ways will not be remembered or be missed because of the wonder and perfection of where the Christian finds themselves in the new created order.

Restored are the Feelings of Blessedness (vv. 18-19)

18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.

(v. 18) “But be glad and rejoice forever,” – There will be no tears or heartache in heaven.[7] Instead, there will be gladness and rejoicing forever. Heaven will be a place of eternal joy by the inhabitants.

God Himself will be rejoicing and will find gladness in His people – He has created this new heaven to be a place of gladness and joy. It is God’s plan to make a place where His people are glad in Him, and He is glad in them.

Redeemed is the Time (v. 20)

20 No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

Time is measured differently in heaven. When an infant passes after a few days we would think the child was not able to be what he or she was supposed to be. It didn’t have time to grow into be what he or she was supposed to be. Also, “an old man who does not fill out his days,” The old man has many years, decades to become what he was supposed to become yet has not, “he has not achieved the full measure of the human life,” – he has wasted his life. One feels robbed of time, one has wasted their time.

In heaven there is no death, but Isaiah gives us an earthly explanation of what time is like in heaven, “the young man shall die a hundred years old,” Here and now to live to be a hundred is an old man, but in heaven to be a hundred is considered young – to die young.

In hell time is measured a similar way, “and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.” God’s curse upon the sinner who is experiencing the punishment of God is just getting started, is in his youth at 100 years old.

Requited in Labor (vv. 21-23)

21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them.

What a man puts his hands to do, he will enjoy what he has worked for. He doesn’t have to worry about something he has built being stolen, corrupted, or destroyed by someone else. The trees live for centuries, so will the man be able to enjoy that which he has built with his own hands. In Is. 61:3 God’s people are described as “oaks of righteousness,” that will display God’s splendor. You will have a job where that work will “display the splendor of God,” and no one is going to come in and inhabit, takeover, or rob this man of the fruit of his labor.

(v. 21) Isaiah uses the example of “They shall build houses and inhabit them;” This a settling and a permanency. Israel wandered in the wilderness for many years, but there will come a day when a nomadic people become a settled people. In this life you may never have had a sense of home, or even what you think of as home doesn’t exist anymore. In heaven you will have a secure place that you call home.

Jesus said, John 14:2-3 “I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” We will live with God in a place he has prepared, but we will play apart in building.

Isaiah uses the example of “planting a vineyards,” It takes years (even generations) to plant the vines and cultivate them into something that produces a profit. Weather and insects can take them out, so they have to be carefully taken care of. And after generations of developing and caring for the vineyard when it time to harvest someone comes in and steals all the grapes or a competitor poisons the vines.

No failed ventures, collapsed economies, or disappointed hopes. In heaven you will not strive, and build, and invest all you have, only to have it all collapse and crumble – it will remain and accomplish what it was intended to be. “There is no work that is vain and pointless.”[8] Another earthly picture Jeremiah gives is children. Parents invest their lives and fortunes into their children, only to have them experience calamity (disease, accident, famine, etc.) and be carried away.

Job, who had his children taken from him says is 21:8 and is talking about why do the wicked seem to advance, “Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? 8 Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.” But not so in eternity – the wicked will not be established.

Instead, Jeremiah in talking about people of faith, “for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them.” The children of God will be established.[9] They will build and plant, and it will stand for many years. In heaven God’s people will have a sense of satisfaction that comes from completely building something and the fruit that follows that labor. Adam’s curse in Genesis 3 where his work will include thorns and thistles, and the sweat of his brown is no more. The joy of labor is restored.

Reconnected in Communication (v. 24)

24 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.

In this verse we see the willing heart of a loving God who desires to answer the prayers of His people. Before they can even get it out, He knows the desire of their heart and is already answering it. In heaven, our relationship with God is so close, that before we even call he answers. There is harmony between God’s people’s prayer and God’s will.

Matthew 7:7-11 Jesus is talking about prayer, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Compare our prayer lives now – we have to ask but we are not confident that we are asking for the right things. We are to seek, but are we looking in the right direction? We are to knock but are we even knocking on the right door – our hearts are not in alignment with God most of the time. But in eternity God’s will and our heart’s desire are the same thing – so that when the prayer starts to come our of our mouths, God is already in the process of answering it.

God doesn’t change – from this passage we see that he desires to answer our prayers (as a loving Father to His child), So the reason for God not answering our prayers, when we ask, is us. If He reuses then we are asking with the wrong motive, or we don’t understand His purposes and plans, so need to ask “Lord, teach us how to pray.” How can we get a quick response to our prayers? A quick answer comes when our hearts align with God’s heart.

Relaxed In Safety (v. 25)

25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.”[10]

The wolf is partnered with the lamb (predator and prey), and the lion is partnered with the ox (predator and prey), but the serpent is alone. It is a common image of heaven, where the lion lays down with the lamb. There is no longer prey, or predators – peace and harmony will prevail upon the earth.

There is no violence or destruction in heaven, “in all my holy mountain.” No one is going to hurt you. The nature of the wolf and the lion is changed – but the serpent’s curse from Genesis 3 remains. The wolf and the lamb are grazing, the lion and the ox are eating straw, but the serpent remains the same eating dust. The ultimate apex predator, Satan, has had His fangs removed, can hurt no one, do no damage – his food is dust which was his ultimate punishment in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:14 “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.”

At the Great White Throne Judgement Satan is thrown into the lake of fire, hell. The snake’s in the new earth, their remaining to “eat the dust”, to slide across the ground will be a reminder that the enemy is defeated – he can do nothing to hurt the world any more.[11]

To summarize the life in heaven is remembering what is new and forgetting the old creation, feelings of complete blessedness and joy, a complete fulfillment in purpose, enjoyment of labor, a perfect relationship with God including communication, and a sense of community and fulfillment – and in that we share this joy and gladness with God who is also glad we are there.

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[1] Daniel Akin, A Theology For The Church (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman & Holman Publishing, 2007), 917.

[2] Wayne Grudem, Making Sense of the Future, One of Seven Parts From Grudem’s Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing, 1994) 98.

[3] Grudem, 99.

[4] Akin, 901.

[5] F. C. Jennings, Studies on Isaiah (Neptune, New Jersey; Loizeaux Brothers, 1966) 752.

[6] C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament In Ten Volumes, Volume VII, Isaiah (Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983) 488.

[7] Revelation 21:4

[8] Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40-66, A Commentary (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Westminster Press, 1969) 409.

[9] See also Matthew 22:30.

[10] See also Isaiah 11:6 ff.

[11] Just as the rainbow reminds people of faith that God will never flood the earth again, so too the snake reminds them of their safety from the Enemy.