Thanks for reading the YESTERDAY section of my Substack, where I share Sunday’s sermon notes on Monday, which I adapted slightly for better reading. Your comments are coveted.
We are well on our way into a series called Dirt and Stone for Flesh and Bone: A Study on Heaven. The first misconception-shattering revelation we discovered is that Jesus was given a flesh-and-bone resurrection body.
39 “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. Luke 24:39–40 (LSB)
Since he is the first fruits of the coming resurrection of all saints (according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15), this means we, too, will be given physical bodies. Flesh and bone are meant to dwell in a place of dirt and stone, not fluffy clouds. That truth leads us on a journey through the Bible that challenges our traditional ideas of what our final resting place will be like.
Last week, we came to terms with our term. We saw how heaven is God’s home. It’s a dimension, a realm we cannot see. That’s the place we think people go for all eternity when they die. But we looked at the end of Revelation, where John describes what happens when Jesus returns to set up his kingdom. Sure enough, John saw a new heaven and earth, a place of dirt and stone where God merges the heavenly dimension with the newly redeemed physical realm, literally living among us. That’s the final, eternal reality of all believers. That’s the heaven we really mean if we understand it to be the place where we ultimately end up. Aren’t you glad it’s not all clouds and harps?
If you factor these things out, you realize no one is really in heaven or hell yet (again, as we have traditionally understood them). How can I say that?
Has Jesus returned yet? Has the resurrection of believers and unbelievers happened yet? Have the judgments happened yet? Has anyone been thrown into the lake of fire yet? Have the first heaven and the first earth passed away? Have the new heavens and the new earth come to pass? Has the New Jerusalem come down from heaven? Has God set up his dwelling place with man? Have all the tears been wiped away yet? Have all the former things passed away yet? No. Then how can anyone be in hell (the lake of fire) or heaven (as described in Revelation 21)? They technically can’t be. So where are they?
Last week, we saw how we must make room for a more nuanced and, I believe, more biblical view of heaven. That requires distinguishing between the present heaven (intermediate state) and future heaven. The present heaven is where all believers go when they die prior to Christ’s return. The new heavens and earth are the final work of God described in Revelation, where all believers dwell forever after Christ returns.
The Bible supports this idea, at least to some degree, if you know where to look. But let me be clear about something before we proceed. There is no debate as to whether Jesus was resurrected in a physical body; he himself took care of that when he said he was flesh and bone. And it’s hard to debate that we, too, will be given physical bodies like his. Yet there is much discussion on the idea of a present heaven, especially concerning the details we will cover this morning and next week. I could be wrong about this. You will have to search the Scriptures and decide what you think. Let’s all agree, however, that this isn’t a test of fellowship.
Now, back to our task of digging deeper into the idea of a present heaven. A well-known story Jesus told in Luke 16, known as the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, may give us insight. Here’s another disclaimer. There’s much discussion among scholars as to whether it’s true or fictitious. It differs from Jesus’ other parables in that a character is named. Some say that’s a hint it’s based on actual events. Others say it’s a riff on older Jewish legends and even possibly an ancient Egyptian myth. When we consider that God in the flesh tells it, I don’t think it’s wrong to consider it helpful, on some plane, in understanding the afterlife. Within it, I’m convinced, hides a clue about how things work this side of Jesus’ return.
Look with me at Luke 16:19, where Jesus begins,
19 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20 “But a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21 and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. Luke 16:19–21 (LSB)
This implies that the best the beggar could expect from the rich man was table scraps scraped from his plates. All that extravagance, and yet not a thought was given to the desperately needy man sitting at his gate. The poor man’s plight would have made the listeners’ stomachs turn. One commentator writes,
So we meet Lazarus. He is very poor and probably crippled, since he lies down at the gate. If he is not crippled, he is very sick. He is looking for food. Even crumbs will do. His hope of sustenance is alms, the offerings of those who have something. His skin is a snack to lick for the wild dogs that roam the streets. These dogs were considered unclean, because it was likely that they had previously licked animal corpses. The image is purposefully gruesome: they lick his sores and render him unclean… Lazarus wears his poverty’s pain on his ulcerated skin—a graphic contrast to the rich man’s soft clothes. If the panhandlers of our cities’ streets look bad, Lazarus would serve as a worthy ancestor. Later rabbis would have seen Lazarus’s life as no life at all, since they had a saying that three situations resulted in no life: depending on food from another, being ruled by one’s wife and having a body covered with sores… According to this saying, Lazarus is doubly deprived.1
Let’s keep going.
22 “Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 “And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. Luke 16:22–23 (LSB)
What a reversal of fortunes! We will come back to this later, but for now, note that if this is an accurate account of what happens when we die, God’s children can expect angelic escorts on the other side.
24 And [the rich man] called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ” Luke 16:24-31 (LSB)
Surely, this story teaches how this life affects the next life. But on another level, it warns us that “There is a sphere of rejoicing to pursue and a place of torment to flee.” DA Carson explains,
There are lots of entailments, all right, for being a Christian now (the Bible addresses many of these things), but at the end of the day, the Bible still insists Christianity is, as it were, not just for this world. There is a place of blessing to pursue and a place of torment to flee. This life is not the end of everything.
If you are… are a philosophical materialist.… That is, if you are someone who thinks all there is in this life is matter and energy and space and time (that’s it), and when you die, you die like a dog, that there’s no further self-consciousness, there’s no further awareness, there’s no further existence, and you’re done, then I have to tell you Christianity does not offer you any hope until you abandon that view. It just doesn’t.
I could give you many reasons for why the Bible keeps insisting there is life after death, but that is the presupposition you just have to come to grips with if you’re going to come to grips with anything Jesus says. That is, there is a place of blessing to enjoy beyond life as we know it and a place of torment to flee. Biblical Christianity is focused not only on this life but on teaching us how we may flee that place of torment and how we may gain that place of bliss. That’s Christianity 101.2
But is there more to be gleaned from this? As I mentioned, since the Son of God tells it, it is very likely that on yet another level, it gives us hints as to what happens when we die. The story of Lazarus and the rich man confirms that upon death, the unjust immediately go to a place of torment, and the just go to a place of blessedness. At first, that appears to support the idea that at their last breath, people either go to heaven (in the traditional view: the dwelling place of God) or hell (the Lake of Fire). But how does this parable square with what we learned bout the new heavens and earth and the lake of fire described at the end of Revelation if that’s what it’s pointing to? It doesn’t fit. Being able to look down and see the suffering in torment? Those in torment communicating with those in bliss? How could there be no tears, no suffering, no pain, in the new heaven and earth if we can observe people tormented for all eternity?
Look at verse 26 again.
26 ‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you are not able, and none may cross over from there to us.’ Luke 16:26 (LSB)
It’s almost as if Jesus talks about the afterlife as a place with two chambers (one for the righteous dead and another for the unrighteous) connected by an unpassable chasm. Could Jesus be describing the present heaven, as in a temporary holding place for the dead until the Last Day? I think it’s possible, and the key is found in verses 22-23.
22 “Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 “And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. Luke 16:22–23 (LSB)
Note how the opposing experiences are described: Abraham’s bosom and Hades. Those terms just might have something to do with the present heaven. And we will look at that next time.
Bock, D. L. (1994). Luke (Lk 16:19). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Carson, D. A. (2016). Lazarus and the Rich Man. In D. A. Carson Sermon Library (Lk 16:19–31). Bellingham, WA: Faithlife.
This sheds a little light on Revelation 6:9-11 also.