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What is Heaven Like?

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Duration 3 Weeks

When you get beyond the flowery, metaphorical language of streets paved with gold, harp music and a buffet with no calories, what is heaven really like? While no one has made that journey and returned to describe it, we can point to passages in scripture where the metaphors and images point to a reality that we as believers call our sure and certain hope.

Week 1 • All Saints Sunday: Reunion

At funerals we often hear of the deceased in heaven having a reunion of sorts, “Mom and dad are together again.” “Joe is playing golf with his buddies again.” “Marge is getting thing all organized in heaven.” On this All Saints Sunday, were does it assure us in the Bible that we will see our parted loved ones again?

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; John 11:17-27

Week 2 • Restoration

Right now, the Bible says that all of creation groans under the darkness of sin. But there will come a day in which we will return full circle to the Edenic life that God had created for us. And in that state, that which is broken will one day be restored—and we shall see the face of God.

Genesis 3:6-8 (NIV); John 3:17-21 (NIV); Revelation 21:1-5a (Up until “everything new.”), 22:3-5 (NIV)

Week 3 • Revelation

We see through a glass dimly, Paul says, but one day face to face. We once walked with God in the Garden but now only encounter him in that still small voice. We long to see the face of God, but in our current state we cannot bear it. What is heaven like? All will one day be revealed.

Revelation 21:12-21; John 21:1-12 (NRSV)