
Craig Smith • Home • November 5, 2023
The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. (Psalm 14:2)
Heaven is our ultimate
– “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
Heaven is our ultimate
– “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. 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)
The present Heaven is called “
” – “Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise.’” (Luke 23:43)
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:8)
• A home filled with
– “…the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and worship Him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.’” (Rev. 4:10-11)
• A home filled with
– “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” (1 Thes. 4:16-18)
• A home filled with
– “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears…Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:9-10, 12-13)
Pain and suffering are just
of
– “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18)
Like any homecoming, ours will begin with a great
and
…
On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine – the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces… (Isaiah 25:6-8a)