Cambridge Church of Seventh-day Adventists, Medford MA

The Best Is Yet to Come

Some folks have the idea Heaven is something like a bunch of cumulus clouds painted with rainbows where spirits play hide-and-seek with ghosts. It’s a spook world. Pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by, where you float around on wispy clouds playing unearthly music on immaterial harps forever! (If I believed Heaven was like that I wouldn’t want to go there. I wouldn’t be interested! Would you? That would be miserable.)

Some religions say there are three heavens – or even seven. Others say Heaven is not really a literal place at all; just a state of mind.

Millions believe: “Eventually, everybody will end up in Heaven!” Others argue, very few will make it.

Why so many different opinions when God’s Word is filled with stupendous details about Heaven – this colossal space station up there in the sky under construction right now! And the reason God wants us to know what Heaven’s like, is so we’ll want to be there! Heaven is not a secret God is keeping from us.

In many large buildings, there are thousands of different keys that fit each lock on each door. (In Caracas, Venezuela you have at least eight keys to get inside your apartment building.) But usually the superintendent of the building has one key that fits ALL the doors, called the master key.

God has one master key that unlocks the mysteries about Heaven, fits all the doors. And that master key is the Bible. We don't have to be confused by human theories or opinions. God’s Word is a reliable “master source” of information about the future.

<2 Peter 1:21>

It may surprise you, but God has revealed in His Word:

1. Where Heaven will be
2. What Heaven will be like
3. Where its capital will be
4. What people will do there
5. What people will be like there
6. Where the saved will live
7. What the capital city will look like

For the next few minutes, let’s have a bit of fun together; stretch our imaginations, take God’s master key – the Bible – and discover the truth about THE BEST THAT’S JUST AHEAD!

Two years ago I went sailing the Greek Isles in the Mediterranean Sea. We stopped at the incredibly beautiful Isle of Patmos, where the last living disciple John wrote the book of Revelation. John was a prisoner in exile on this God-forsaken rock six miles long and three miles wide, located in the blue Aegean Sea. But there God gave him a vision before he died: a glorious preview of the future. And he wrote about what he saw in the book of Revelation:

<Revelation 21:1, 2>

I still get all choked up at a wedding, don’t you? Nothing’s more beautiful and radiant than a gorgeous bride on her wedding day!

This heavenly city is like a bride, John tells us. And by the way, Heaven isn’t something that only John saw and knew about. All God’s prophets throughout the ages have known about it. Because Heaven is crucial to God’s final plan of restoration. His surprise wedding present for His bride, the church. Listen:

<Acts 3:20, 21>
“And that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”

What is God going to restore? God is going to restore everything Adam and Eve lost!

I’m a stereo nut. I like to listen to good music. Stretch out and listen to great symphony orchestra cranked way up. But there’s nothing more disruptive than to have the doorbell ring. Or the power go off. And suddenly the music stops. Right in the best part! It’s annoying.

Well, God’s original music score for this earth was like a great symphony. He had the score all written at creation. He was the conductor. Everything was in position and ready! And the music began to play. Gorgeous music in Genesis 1 and 2! But in Genesis 3 the music suddenly stopped. Somebody interrupted and botched it all up. And for 6,000 years now God’s been waiting to get started again with His “unfinished symphony.” Heaven is God’s strategic plan of restoration. To restore all six of the precious treasured gifts He’d given mankind in the first place.

1. LIFE. Eternal Life, without end.
2. A RIGHTEOUS NATURE – pure and holy character.
3. A PERFECT BEAUTIFUL HOME – the garden of Eden.
4. DOMINION. “Over every living thing that moved upon the earth.” I believe Adam and Eve could communicate with the animals like they do at Disneyland or Sea World. Call them by name; do tricks.
5. PERFECT FAMILY HAPPINESS.
6. FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNION WITH GOD. No barriers. Open fellowship.

God’s original Paradise was His forever symphony. His original score. And in Genesis 1, God was so proud to show it off to the universe!

The Creator Himself had designed and decorated Adam and Eve’s home. Gave them perfect health, love, happiness, joy. Everything was peace and harmony. Total freedom. If they chose to obey God’s simple instructions.

“Don’t eat of the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden, or you’ll interrupt the orchestra and the music.” But that’s exactly what they chose to do – to eat of the tree rather than listening to God. And Heaven’s harmony became the “unfinished symphony.”

The most tragic day in the universe. For the first time in Adam and Eve’s lives, they felt guilt, shame and fear. By their disobedience, they lost everything: their garden home, their dominion of Earth, access to the Tree of Life. They lost their happiness, their love, fellowship with the Creator. Our perfect world became cursed with sin, sickness, sorrow, and suffering. They were no longer “masters” – couldn’t go down and call the fish by name any more. Adam and Eve became slaves. They chose to throw away all their freedoms and liberties. Paul said,

<Romans 6:16>

They sold out to the Devil. Chose to separate themselves from God and life and happiness and freedom.

But a loving God understood. He couldn’t bear to be parted from them forever. He’d planned too much. Invested too much. Risked too much. And He loved them so much He couldn’t leave His erring children without hope. What could you do?

As angels sadly ushered them out the gate of the Garden of Eden for one last final time, God promised Adam and Eve something: that one day His own Son, the Seed of the Woman, would come to die for them so they could be restored to the family of God and have eternal life again. Right there in Genesis 3:15 God spoke to the serpent and said:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

What a glorious promise! Yes! Jesus Messiah would come! But unfortunately, as generations passed and homo sapiens multiplied on earth, sin also exponentially exploded. The human race almost forgot God. People became corrupt, vile. Immoral. Depraved.

<Genesis 6:5>

So abominably evil, it became necessary for God to destroy this wicked world by a flood in order to preserve any life on the earth! Only eight people survived! Did we learn our lesson? No.

After the flood, it wasn’t many generations before people became corrupt again. But this time in order to preserve a holy people on earth, a remnant, a special church of God’s “called out” ones.

God called Abraham and his family out of the idolatrous and corrupt Ur of the Chaldees. Near Baghdad. Our Marines moving up from Kuwait to Baghdad passed right through Ur! The Lord said, “Abraham…

<Genesis 12:1, 2>

Do you think this was easy? Abraham was a wealthy business tycoon playing the market and trading on Wall Street. His friends derided him and said, “Abraham, you’re leaving Babylon?” (Yep.) “Where on earth are you going?” (Dunno. God will lead me.) “What will you do when you get there?” (Raise up a great nation). “What? You have no children and you’re 75!” “Who will protect you?” (Him!)

What a lesson for God’s faithful people today. We’ve got to trust God, even when we don’t understand! Hang on in faith, Abraham, even if you have to leave your friends. Not knowing where you’re going, or what the future holds. You may not know what the future holds, but you know Who holds the future!

<Hebrews 11:9, 10>

Here’s what’s important: God promised to give to Abraham and his children all that Adam and Eve lost. That’s why Bible prophets in all ages looked forward to our day and the restoration of all things.

Hebrews 11 says Abraham, Enoch, Noah, Abel, Isaac, Rahab, David, and Samuel – they all believed in God’s promise to restore what Adam and Eve lost. But for them, there’s just one problem:

<Hebrews 11:13, 16>