We are living at the end of times!
We are living in a world that very soon will finish. Even if you are not a believer you will have to agree with me. The world is going towards its end.
Did you know there is a clock who shows how close we are to the end of times? Scientists created it in 1947. They studied what is happening, wars, famine, plagues, violence and they adjust the clock. Of course they don’t know about the right day that the world will cease to exist, but they can be close, because we know what Jesus told about the end of times.
The iconic Doomsday Clock symbolising the gravest perils facing humankind is now closer to midnight than at any point since its creation in 1947. To underscore the need for action, the time on the Doomsday Clock is now being expressed in seconds, rather than minutes: This year, The clock was moved from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight. Even the unbelievers know that the world is going to the end.
But, in the midst of this storm the world is facing, today we’re gonna talk about the hope of every Christian!
We’re living in chaos, and we have one hope: One day, when this world ends, we have the expectation of heaven! We want to go to heaven! We want to live in heaven and see Jesus face to face!
The message today is: Heaven is for real!
Heaven is for real and it was prepared for you. Are you ready to go there?
I want to tell you: You were made to go to heaven! You don’t belong to this world. If you feel that you do not fit in with the things of this world, it is a sign that you do not belong to this world!
The bible says:
“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.”
1 Peter 2:11
Hebrews says:
“For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” Hebrews 13:14
Paul in Philippians 3 says:
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
Philippians 3:20-21
Cs Lewis said:
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
You were made for another world! You were made to go to heaven!
And What is heaven? Who is there? Who can go there? What will you do there?
Today we will find out more about it in the bible.
John 14, Jesus said:
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:1-3
Jesus has prepared a home for us.
He told us to: Don’t let your heart be troubled! Don’t fear! Believe! Our Father’s house has many rooms.
Heaven is compared to our Father’s house.
What do you feel in your Father’s house? There, you are safe, you can rest, you feel joy to be with those you love, your family!
Think about a Sunday dinner! When everybody is with their family and they have a nice time together. In heaven it will be better! Jesus has prepared a home for us. It will be our home, our Father’s house!
Jesus has a plan to prosper you and bless you here on earth, but more than that, He died on the cross to forgive you and give to you assistance to go to heaven when you die.
If you have expectations about Heaven, your life should be different here on earth, things on earth lose value before eternity!
Look: If you have hope about heaven, What means you can be rich here, but when you die you won’t be able to take your money there.
Jesus said: ““Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
My brother and sister, store up treasures in heaven for yourself, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also!
When you face death, everything becomes clear to you. You can think about heaven or hell! Life can be ruined here because of things that you never ever imagined…
I want to share my story with you.
Last week I celebrated my second birthday. 8 years ago, I had an accident and Jesus delivered me from death. So, every year I celebrate it.
I was on my motorcycle going home and suddenly a car drove over to my side of the road, It hit me and sent me flying over 10 meters away. I spun in the air 3 times and I fell on the ground almost under another car. When I landed, I couldn’t feel my legs anymore… And the girl from that car that I landed next to got off, She started to pray in tongues for me. When she prayed my legs returned to normal and she said: The Holy Spirit told me to brake my car before hitting you and God said to me: Look at the deliverance that I will give to my servant! At that moment when I faced death, I thought: What will I present to Jesus if I die today? How’s my basket? Do I have enough fruit? Do I have works that demonstrated my love for Jesus and for souls? I reflected on that for years. All I could see was My life flashing before my eyes. We have to store up treasures in heaven.
My brother, you have to choose: Heaven or hell!
It’s right for me to warn you today about what Jesus taught and what the Bible teaches from cover to cover!.
Suppose you were drowning and I had the gospel lifeboat? I’m not going to let you drown If I can help you!
I’m telling you to choose to go to heaven.
And what does the bible say about heaven?
We’re gonna read some verses of the bible but I invite you to read the full chapter of revelation 21. There we can see what heaven is gonna be like.
Heaven is for real. In Heaven there are high walls. The wall is made of many precious stones and the city is made of pure gold, as pure glass!
The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. John in Revelation 21 says that He did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”
One day I had a dream. I was in heaven, and someone was showing me around. I felt a big joy and peace in my spirit when I walked on the streets there. Of course it was a dream, but when I woke up I was so glad to know that one day I will go there! Because heaven is for real and I don’t belong in this world! Hallelujah!
Heaven, the New Jerusalem, is a big city of gold, with walls covered in precious stone, and streets full of gold. Could you imagine that? Dubai is nothing compared to heaven!
More than that, there is no temple there, because Jesus is the temple! There are no churches there! Jesus is the temple!
It’s interesting to read that, because today we are Jesus’ temple! The Holy Spirit lives in us, and I ask you: How is your temple? Is God happy with your life? With the house you prepared for him? Because He prepared a perfect house for you in heaven.
In heaven we will live in Jesus! Psalms 16 says we are full of joy in God’s presence! Wow! In heaven we’re gonna have joy everyday! The happiness doesn’t stop there, because we will live in Jesus!
Read with me in Revelation 21:1-7
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Let’s study this chapter.
Vs 1: Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
First lessons of what is heaven?
1- Everything is new in heaven!
John is telling us that everything is new! New heaven, new earth, new body, new desires! We will have a new body, a new name, but we will be the same people there. The bible shows it when Jesus was on the mountain praying, and he was transfigured before the disciples. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as the light and suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared there. Peter recognises them as prophets. Of course they had a new body there, but they were the same people. In heaven we will have discernment about everything, we will know about every person there! Everything is gonna be new but you will be able to recognise people there but I’m a different way.
There will be no more marriage, relatives, husbands, wives, children… Everyone in heaven will be like one family. everyone will be brothers and sisters and together we will praise our only Father! The Lord almighty!
There, we will be able to worship God with perfect tools, perfect voices, perfect instruments… We will be able to prepare wonderful meetings to exalt Jesus’ name! Everything is gonna be new! You haven’t experienced it yet, everything is gonna be awesome! There are wonderful things there!
A new heaven and a new earth will be surprising, it will make us amazed, in constant joy! Everything is new in heaven!
Second lesson
2- In heaven there is no Separation!
Why did John say that “There was no longer sea?” Why did he tell us that? Should I be worried about that? There was no sea? Why did he say that?
Do you know why?
When John wrote the book of Revelation, he was in Patmos’ Island.
And you know what an Island is?!
The island is a portion of land among the sea. The sea separated John of his brothers and his family.
In heaven there is no separation, no sea to separate you from your Beloved Jesus!!!
Here on earth we are separated from those who we love. Death does it, when someone we love dies; disease does it, when people need to be in hospital far from their families, distance does it, when you love someone but distance doesn’t allow you to be together… War does it, when soldiers need to fight and leave their family behind…. but In heaven my brother and sister, THERE IS NO SEPARATION!
There will be no Separation! No Quarantine! You won’t be away from your family, your friends, your God! There is no sea to separate you from who you love, Jesus Christ! Your church! No more sea to be between you and the body of Christ! Today we have lockdown, quarantine…but one day in heaven we will be together as one body praising Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!
So, in heaven there is no separation!
3- Heaven is like a Party
Vs 2: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
The church is being prepared for Jesus.
Everything is happening to prepare us for this glorious party!!!!
I know you have been to a wedding before. And you know that everybody looks at the bride and talks about her dress and her beauty! John showed us here that Jesus is preparing us as a bride to her wedding! And there will be a party forever!
Jesus spoke about the King’s party. He was speaking about heaven in Matthew 22. It speaks about The parable of the wedding banquet.
God prepared everything for free for his guests, food, music, a place, joy but His guests didn’t want to go, so He sent his servants to go to the streets and call everybody in need, everybody who wanted to go to that party!
You are invited to come to God’s banquet! You are invited to participate in this wonderful wedding between Jesus and His church!
Heaven will be a party forever, a banquet going on forever with the best person of the universe: Jesus Christ! Could you imagine living in a party that never ends? This is heaven! This party is waiting for us. Hallelujah!
4- Heaven is full of God’s presence!
Vs 3: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
Heaven is full of God’s presence! It makes Heaven a special place. A place where we will feel God all time! When you are in Church and you feel joy, feel the Holy Spirit working in you, when you listen to a word like that and you become confident, you get filled with hope, when you feel safe, when you rest because you know you are not alone… Heaven will be that in all time. God will be beside you, among us every time.
5- There will be no more Pain
Vs 4: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.””
In heaven, there is no pain.. In this world, we deal with pain everyday. Sometimes it’s physical pain, disease, illness.
or we deal with spiritual pain, sometimes we become cold in God’s presence, we have to face it on earth. We have bad feelings, emotional disease, but I have great news for you. In heaven there is no more Pain! There is no more depression, no more deception… the pain hurts us here..we need doctors, psychologists, counsellors, medicine, but in heaven we won’t need anaesthesia, pain killers, no! There is no more Pain.
6- There will be no more cry ….
We cry a lot in this world ….. we cry for food when we are children, cry for our family, we cry for those who died here, we cry for our nation, cry for our church… but in heaven there is no more crying! No problems to deal with!
God will wipe every tear from our eyes! We will be comforted.
7- There is no more death!
Death will die and it won’t be resurrected! Death won’t enter in new Jerusalem! In heaven there is no mourning, no Graves..
The voice of death will be silenced there!
8- A Ticket has been booked for you to enter heaven.
“He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.” Revelation 3:20-21
If you want to go to heaven, someone paid the ticket to you. If you are thirsty, come, Jesus said. He has water without cost, water of life.
You don’t need to give anything… Jesus prepared everything. There’s an offer… those who are thirsty… come! You have to come… It’s done! Jesus paid the price for you to go to heaven!!
God wants to see everybody saved.
in 1 Timothy 2:3 says: This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
God judged Christ in that cross for you!
Jesus delivered you from hell and after resurrection He went to heaven to prepare a place for you!
He did it for you because he loves you!
To go to heaven you have to repent, to confess Jesus, to believe that he died for you and rose again on the third day!
You have to commit yourself to Christ here on earth to be a good temple to God’s presence and later you will be able to live in God’s temple, in heaven!
You have to follow Jesus and serve him… Do you want to do that?
Remember what I said! “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.
You were made for another world! You were made to go to heaven!
You have a choice to do: Go to heaven with Christ or go to hell without Him!
Jesus is coming, very soon! And we will see our Redeemer coming!
The bible says:
“And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Rev 5:9
You were bought with Jesus’ blood. He loves you and his desire is to see you in heaven!
Please, have expectations about heaven, put your hope in Jesus and live here as a citizen of heaven!
To finish this message, I want to read 3 verses with you.
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Rev 3:20-22
Jesus is knocking in your heart’s door. Only you have a key to open and allow Jesus to enter and be with you, save your life.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved and you’re gonna be able to go to heaven and live a big party in God’s presence forever! Eternity is waiting for you. For where will you go?
Heaven is for real my brother! Heaven exists.
Choose to follow Jesus here on earth and receive the ticket he bought for you, to go spend eternity beside Him! Choose to go to heaven!