1 John 1:1-3 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life — and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us —  what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 
	We have spent much time dealing with the physical resurrection of these bodies as per God’s good pleasure and power. He will do that which He will do and it will be perfect in every respect and detail. We will be in the arena of … indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. What does this mean with regard to heaven? There are several aspects, several considerations that should be presented before us as we mull over in our heart’s deliberation such a glorious and overwhelming reality. 
	The Bible is filled with such tremendous revelations of the glory to come, but it does not give us the specific answers to many of our basic questions. Rather, we are advised to trust Christ, live our lives unto Him, in order that we can go to heaven and discover the answers for ourselves. Quote, The Bible is written to enable us to do just that. It is not meant to satisfy our curiosity but to call us to faith. Much about heaven that we might like to know is not revealed in Scripture, but this is not because the human writers were incompetent, trying to describe heaven and failing. It is rather because their purpose was evangelistic and pastoral. Scripture reveals to us all about heaven that we need to know at present. We are told, above all, that it is a place of happiness. End quote. 
Happiness is something that we all try to find in our lives. We all want to be happy, to enjoy the fullness of the lives that we have been given. So many of us try to find happiness in things or in areas that will never bring true contentment or joy. We search for anything that will alleviate the boredom and the monotony and the ennui of our seemingly, meaningless daily drudgery. But heaven, the fullness of heaven, is our complete promise of all the eternal happiness that we could ever hope to find.
	As David tells us, there is but one way to true happiness. Ps 16:8-11, I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. 
As Christians, we accept this and we look forward to it, but there are still aspects that intrigue our curiosities. What will the environment of heaven be like, what will be our interaction with others in heaven, and how will our time be spent? Those are elements with which we will occupy our remaining studies of heaven, beginning with this morning.
	Quote, We have already seen that heaven can seem intangible and elusive. It is hard for us to imagine what life there will be like and this uncertainty may mean that we do not long for it as we should. We know that we will be with Christ and will see God in His glory. So why are we not more excited at the prospect? Why can we not say with all honesty with Paul that we ‘desire to depart’ (Phil. 1:23)? Why are we willing, more often that not, for our entry into heaven to be postponed indefinitely? Part of the problem is certainly our spiritual insensitivity, but are there other reasons why heaven seems to hover just beyond the horizon of our understanding and desire? End quote. 
	Maybe part of the problem for our minds and hearts is that the Bible seems to talk about heaven in a negative manner. What I mean by this is that we are told what heaven is not. The scriptures refer to heaven as the absence of sin and fear and death and tears.  Rev 21:4, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." Verse 27, and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it... And Rev 22:5, And there shall no longer be any night… 
As the Apostle Peter describes it in 1 Peter 1:4, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you… We are told what heaven will not be, how all the disadvantages and weaknesses and difficulties will be no more. Rather than focusing on that which is incomprehensible to us, we are given the picture of what will no longer be part of our lives in heaven, things about which we are fully cognizant on this earth. 
	This is a most appropriate approach to describe something that is beyond our finite abilities to understand. The Lord takes us through those areas of pain and anguish that we know and tells us that they will be no more. Heaven will be gloriously empty of these negative aspects of our lives on this earth, and that is something into which we can sink our hearts and minds. Quote, It expresses wonder and awe, transcendent amazement and delight. It alerts us to the truth that heaven is thrilling and glorious beyond our comprehension, far beyond the utmost grasp of our powers of speech. But we can all too easily misunderstand the language, miss the glory, and become unwarrantably frustrated by the lack of positive detail. End quote. 
	There is another aspect of the Biblical language which might cause us some difficulty. It is what the scholars call the ‘enameled’ or ‘jeweled’ imagery of the Word of God. Revelation is filled with this imagery: the sea of glass, gates of pearl, streets of gold. Rev 4:6, and before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. Rev 15:2, And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. Rev 21:21, And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 
	These descriptions are not intended to be taken literally. These are poetic, vivid metaphors describing, to some measure, that which is beyond human language and understanding. They are the best means available to show how precious and pure and full the realm of heaven will be to us. Yet there are very many Christians who take this very literally. They are left with an impression of a heaven that will be cold, hard and unnatural. We would rather walk on a gentle country path through a flowering meadow, than upon a street of hard, manufactured, lifeless gold. This lack of proper understanding and interpretation of the scripture can very well put off Christians from a real desire to go to heaven.
	Probably the most concentrated reason for our lack of desire to go to heaven is not comprehending the realm of heaven. We fail to recognize that heaven will be perfectly suited to our physical bodies. We have this sense of apprehension about how we will live in heaven. We disconnect our minds from the fact that heaven will be the ideal arena for our bodies to inhabit to the glory of God.
Rather than lose our selves in the reality that God has heaven perfectly ordered for us, we try to imagine what changes will have to take place for this physical body to inhabit what we envision as an immaterial realm. There is a lack of understanding of the fullness of what God has always intended, which takes us back to the very beginning of our consideration of heaven. Heaven is the arena of God’s glory. Heaven and earth were created to display the glory of God.
	Quote, At Christ’s second coming this earth, which God created for our habitation and His glory, will be restored and renewed. All traces of sin will be removed from the planet, heaven and earth will come together in a wonderful unity, and ‘the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea’ (Hab. 2:14). Commenting on the words ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them’ (Rev. 21:3), A. A. Hoekema states: ‘Since where God dwells, there heaven is, we conclude that in the life to come heaven and earth will no longer be separated as they are now, but will be merged. Believers will therefore continue to be in heaven as they continue to live on the new earth.’ End quote. 
	Romans Chapter 8, when read in this light, takes us to the full heart of what God has accomplished in Jesus Christ in terms of His glory being brought back to earth. Consider verse 11 in this light. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. There is a need for our mortal bodies to be raised again, imperishable if we are to inhabit the new earth which will be made flawlessly for us to live on forever. 
This is immensely eye-opening in regard to the depths of what God is going to have in the tremendous victory of Jesus Christ. It goes so far beyond our scope of knowledge to consider just what God has accomplished in our individual lives through the death and resurrection of His Son for you and for me. Then, consider how He has brought life to all those throughout history who have placed their hope and trust in His Messiah, His Promised One. All the lives that are redeemed in Jesus Christ. But beyond the salvation and restoration of man, this Chosen One, God’s Only Begotten Son will redeem to perfection this earth, which was so subjected to corruption by the fall of Adam. What is true of each of us, in Adam’s sin and in Christ’s atonement, is also so true of this earth that was created for God’s glory, Alone.
	Rom 8:19-23, For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 
	Quote, Something marvelous is going to happen to this earth of ours. Christ speaks of ‘the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory’ (Matt. 19:28) and the word ‘regeneration’ here could almost be translated ‘the second genesis’. Peter terms it the ‘restoration of all things’ (Acts 3:21). Everything will be renewed. The earth on which we now live will be gloriously transformed. ‘Heaven on earth – that is where we shall spend our eternity. God’s plan of redemption is not complete until there is an earth for man to live in and on, in the body.’ End quote. 
Think about how God’s plan of redemption is always fulfilled. He does not scrap us, because we were fallen in the sin of Adam, born under the curse of sin. He rescues us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Then, day by day, week after week, year after year, He works in us, through His Word, by the guidance and indwelling of His Holy Spirit to change us, to bring us into conformity with His Son. Rom 8:28-30, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What He does in our lives, to His glory, He will do with this earth.
As Robert Dabney writes, Quote, This conclusion gives us a noble view of the immutability of God’s purpose of grace, and the glory of His victory over sin and Satan…Messiah will come and re-establish His throne in the midst of His scarred and ravaged realm; He will cleanse away every stain of sin and death, and make this earth bloom forever with more than its pristine splendor. End quote. 
	This reality should work in us an ever increasing appreciation and awe at the completeness of the work of Jesus Christ. It should cause us to fall on our knees in the proclamation of the glory of God that will be manifested in the new heavens and the new earth of which we will fully partake. There should be an amazement and wonder welling up in our hearts and the desire to see with our eyes all that God will do by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ’s life. It goes so far beyond us and it will fill all of creation forever and forever. Amen. 
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life — and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us —  what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Amen

This morning’s benediction is 1 Cor 1:4-8. I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.