"In the Sweet By and By"

Look Up: Revelation 6:9-11

         Sermon preached by Dr. Wayne W. Poplin, Senior Pastor, Carmel Baptist Church
(Copyright 2006)

INTRODUCTION:  “In the Sweet By and By” is an old hymn that talks about the people of God, who have died, arriving on the beautiful shore of heaven.  They are arriving there as we speak.  During the time that we are in this worship service many Christians around the world will die and go to what we call heaven.  My mom and dad and sister are already there. Unless Jesus returns before I die, I will join them.  You have loved ones there.  Where are they and what is it like for them there [whatever our accommodations—whether it is a hotel room, apartment, house, etc.—we are always anxious to see what it looks like]?  What can we know about them and where they are and what do they know about us?   
            Today I want to look at what we will call the intermediate heaven.  We will refer to it as the intermediate heaven, because it is not the final heaven [I think the intermediate heaven is what we usually have in mind when we talk about or think about “heaven”].  The final or eternal heaven is different from the intermediate heaven and is moved. Hell will be moved as well.   
            …death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them….Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire [Rev. 20:13-14].  
            With regard to heaven moving, let’s look at it this way.  How would you define “heaven?”  Heaven is the place where God most fully makes known His presence [Gruden, Systematic Theology, p. 1159].  God is omnipresent. He is everywhere.  But heaven is where His presence is most fully known.              Our Father in heaven [Matt. 6:9].  
It is the place where we will be with the Lord.   
            I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far [Phil. 1:23 ]. 
            And so we will be with the Lord forever [1 Thess. 5:17 ]  
So when you think about where heaven is, you need to think about where Christ is.  Right now He is in the third heaven at the right hand of God the Father.
            But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand  of God [Acts 7:55].  
But after Jesus comes in victory, culminating in redemption’s final plan, the scripture says this:

            I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God….And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them [Rev. 21:2-3].   
            The eternal heaven will be here—the New Heaven and the New Earth will be joined under the headship of Christ [Eph. 1:9-10] and Christ will be with us here [God did not take Adam and Eve up to Him but came down to them]. The resurrected body is destined for a resurrected heaven and earth.  Heaven changes location because the place where God most fully makes known His presence changes. But until Jesus’ return, “heaven” is the third heaven, paradise, where Jesus is, where angels are, where Christians are between life here on earth and their resurrection to life on a New Earth.   
            So what is it like? It is a real place normally invisible to those of us on earth—unless God makes it visible to us like He did Stephen [Acts 7:55 -56].  Being real but invisible are not mutually exclusive.  Scientists from Yale, Princeton, Stanford and many other schools, say there are 10 unobservable dimensions [Alcorn, p. 48]. Heaven is a real place in which Jesus lives in His resurrected body with angels, authorities in submission to Him and believers who have died. 
            …Who has gone into heaven is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him [1 Pet. 3:22]. 
            “Men of Galilee ,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, Who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven” [Acts 1:11 ].   
            In the Eternal Heaven—the New Heaven and New Earth—we will be in our resurrected bodies in a redeemed universe.  But what is it like in the Intermediate Heaven? 

1. It is a real place.  We often think of earth as the real place and heaven as something else.  Actually, it is the reverse.  Heaven is the real thing and what we have here is the copy or shadow of the real.  

They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.  This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” [Heb. 8:5]. 
For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; He entered heaven itself….[Heb. 9:24 ].

2. We will have bodies.  God has outfitted us with a body for living here. God will outfit us with resurrected bodies to live on the New Earth. Why would He not outfit us to live in the Intermediate heaven?  Jesus is there in His body.  Enoch and Elijah went there in a body [Gen. 5:24, and Heb. 11:5; 2 Kings 2:11-12].  When Moses and Elijah appeared to Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration they appeared in bodies [Lk. 9:28 -36].  In a heavenly scene in Revelation 6:9-11, the saints were given robes to wear—they wear robes on their bodies. In Revelation 7:9, the redeemed are in robes and holding palm branches in their hands and they praise the Lord. We have bodies in the intermediate heaven.  What will the body be like?  I don’t know for sure.  Is it temporary [different from present and resurrected body]?  Calvin says that it is the body we will have for the New Earth but has not yet experienced its full change as will happen at the end of the age.  The point is this. A naked soul is an unnatural thought in scripture. It is a Platonic idea.  Man is a union of spirit and body.  Sin and death cause a temporary separation of that union from our present bodies. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”  [Lk. 23:46 ].  In the meantime our spirits go to be with the Lord and is joined with a body for the intermediate heaven. We will be home with the Lord.  We will be away from sin and the curse.  There will be no fear of being driven out [as with Adam and Eve].  It isParadise.  Jesus referred to heaven as Paradise when He made His promise to the thief on the cross and Paul used Paradise interchangeably with heaven in 2 Cor.12:2-3]. “ Paradise” referred to gardens of royalty that were well-kept for their enjoyment.  The image is one of great beauty.  As Paul said [and he was caught up to the intermediate heaven—“it is better by far.”
3. It is neither a place of disinterest nor ignorance concerning things happening on earth.  In the scene in Revelation 6, there is prayer or intercession for those on earth.  They remembered what had happened to them on earth—there is continuity of memory.  We want forget the grace and provisions of God. They are aware of what it happening on earth. I don’t believe that knowledge to be in a trivial sense—like who won the NBA—but the unfolding work and plan of redemption.  They long for the consummation of redemption. They rejoice in the redemption of individuals.  

In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of angels of God over one sinner who repents [Lk. 15:10]. 
      When Moses and Elijah appeared on the mountain they were fully aware of the drama of redemption [not reading a prepared script]. 

                  Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus.  They spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem [Lk. 9:30 -31]. 
      Alcorn raises an excellent question related to this awareness in heaven.  Can it be “heaven” if those in heaven are aware of bad things on earth?  He reminds us that God knows exactly what is happening on earth, yet it does not diminish heaven for Him.  The angels know what is happening on earth and it does not diminish their joy in the presence of God.  Abraham and Lazarus saw the rich man’s situation in Hell but Paradise was still Paradise for them [Lk. 16:23 -26].  Jesus knows of the persecution of His people, identifies with that persecution [see Acts 9:4-5], but it is still heaven for Him.  But the promise of no tears [Rev. 21:4] is with the eternal heaven, not the intermediate heaven.  Happiness is heaven is not based on ignorance but perspective [Alcorn, pp. 72-73].  There is joy in God’s presence, worshipping and praising, rich fellowship, a sinless environment, the thrill of seeing God work on earth and a knowledge that full victory is coming.  It is glorious and blessed—“far better.”  

So, we know from Scripture that when we die, there is no annihilation.  We are conscious, knowing, worshipping beings in the presence of God.  Likewise, there is no soul sleep—some unconscious existence until Jesus comes.  We know there is no separation from Christ.  We are “with Him.”  There is no purgatory, where those who have died can be helped by or terms in purgatory shortened by acts of the living. 

There is a judgment immediately at our physical death—it is not the final judgment nor is it about our works. That judgment is about our faith—not what we have done for Christ but what Christ has done for us [Alcorn, p. 47].  This determines if we go to the intermediate hell or the intermediate heaven. If our sins have not been forgiven by the atoning work of Christ, then, because of that sin, we will be separated from God then and forever.  The location of the final hell and heaven may change, but our options will not.

Where will you spend eternity?