Bible Text: John 6:38 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. John 6:38

“Has this world been so kind to you,” asked C.S. Lewis, “that you should live with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.”* Life as you know it now is as bad as it ever gets, provided you are God’s child. Why? Because the problem and the troubles that you have now will someday dissipate in heaven’s glory. “Just a minute,” you may be saying, adding, “What is heaven’s glory?”

Let’s back up for a minute. Some 3500 years ago, Moses spoke of a life of 70 to 80 years in duration. In spite of what is done by science and technology, antibiotics and miracle cures, our life expectancy hasn’t changed much. In some places, life expectancy is much shorter than the three-score and ten, or 70 years, as the King James translators put it.

“You’re not going to get out of this alive,” someone said. It’s true, but then what? The Bible uses a term that most people know little about—heaven. Jesus spoke of it as a tapos—a Greek word referring to a literal place, not a figurative or make- believe one. As far back as written history goes (and undoubtedly preceded by oral history) people believed in a life after death—a place of beauty and peace for the righteous and a place of darkness for the evil or wicked.

Believe it or not, the Bible speaks of this place more than 400 times. Strange, isn’t it, however, that we know so little about it and think of it so seldom? No wonder C. S. Lewis observed that it is when Christians cease to think much of heaven they become so ineffective here. Jesus said candidly that He had come from heaven and He was returning there when His work was done on earth (John 6:38, John 14:1-6).

So what is heaven like? To what can we compare it on earth? Ever hear anyone say, “Boy, that place is like heaven on earth!” I’m not sure, but neither am I left in the dark when it comes to the question. When I go somewhere I have never been, as I often do, I always want to know, “What’s it like? What is the weather, the customs of the people there, the geography?” I also want to know just what to expect—a warm reception, a formal one, a big hug and embrace or a handshake? Or what?”

How do I find out? I can go to the bookstore, find a comfortable corner and read the travel books. Or I can go online and find out a lot of information quickly. Or, I can talk to someone who has been there who can tell me exactly what to expect. He’s an eye-witness. He knows first-hand.

Only one person comes with that qualification. His name: Jesus Christ. For 33 years He walked among us here on Planet Earth. He spoke of heaven in a matter-of-fact sort of way. His vantage point was that of an insider who knew what was there and what it was like. He also told His follows what to expect and how to get there.

One of the most comprehensive treatments of heaven came when Thomas (remember, he’s called “Doubting Thomas?”) said, in effect, “Look we don’t know where you are going and neither do we know how to get there!” (John 14:5).

So Paul says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). To the Corinthians he wrote, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). And that’s the way it is.

Resource reading: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

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* C.S. Lewis, Living Quotations, as quoted by George Sweeting, Who Said That? (Moody Press, Moody Press, Chicago, 1995), 229.