Imagine Heaven!

'Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.' - Mitch Albom

John 11

Have you ever asked yourself...

What happens when we die?

What happens next?

While death is a certainty for everyone, not all of us hold a hopeful expectation for what lies beyond this life. Still, many studies on near-death experiences have now been done, convincing many skeptics that people truly pass from death into a new state of existence.

Over thirty-five-years, John Burke surveyed the vast literature on near-death experiences - when people clinically died, were resuscitated, and claimed to have gotten a peek into the afterlife. His conclusion was clear, 'although no two experiences are alike, and some outlying details should be skeptically questioned, there are amazingly common elements described by young and old, across cultures, in different languages - and they are true to the Bible.'

Imagine Heaven!

'I was fast approaching a magnificent city, golden and gleaming among a myriad of resplendent colours. I was overwhelmed by its beauty. It was breathtaking. The entire city was bathed in light...The light I saw was the purest I had ever seen. And the music was the most majestic, enchanting, and glorious I had ever heard.'

'The colours and lights in heaven were simply sublime... They were the deepest, richest, most gloriously lush colours I had ever seen, and some I had never seen before. The multiple colours would change and shift and move constantly, twirling and twisting and floating...in a way that fixated and enthralled me.'     

'An astonishing love. A love beyond my wildest imagining. This love knew every unlovable thing about me - and accepted me and loved me just the same.'

'Experiencing Heaven is the most real thing that's ever happened to me. I did not want to come back. If you've been there, you don't want to be here. But when I did come back here, I intensified my efforts exponentially to help people understand the free gift of Heaven offered through Christ.'

The Bible affirms the reality that our soul is immortal and cannot be destroyed by the death of the body.

The moment we die will be the moment we pass from death to life, a different kind of life...

Time is within eternity, not outside of it. The created universe is within the kingdom of God, not outside it... When we pass through what we call death, we do not lose the world. Indeed, we see it for the first time as it really is. - Dallas Willard, former USC Professor of Philosophy

There is more to life than the here and now!

Are we prepared for life after death?

The small village of Bethany, not far from Jerusalem, was a favourite place of rest and refuge for Jesus and the home of His friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus. It was there that Jesus performed a remarkable miracle and gave us insight into life after death.

'There were some of the friends and followers of Jesus for whom He had a special kindness above others.' - M. Henry

'Jesus loved Matha and her sister and Lazarus.' John 11:5

But Lazarus was sick, and this illness was concerning enough for Mary and Martha to send word to Jesus.

The sisters did not demand anything; they completely trusted Jesus with their need and awaited His intervention.

'The message they sent was very short, not petitioning, much less prescribing or pressing, but barely relating the case with the tender insinuation of a powerful plea, 'Lord, the one you love is sick.' - M. Henry

Jesus had a close relationship with this family, and at the time of their affliction, He was probably not far from Bethany - certainly less than a day's journey away.

Surely, Jesus would intervene, either by performing a long-distance miracle as He had done before or by coming to heal his friend.

But Jesus' response did not meet their expectation.

Jesus looked at their pressing need through His divine eyes and saw a greater purpose in their affliction.

Their trial, though momentarily causing pain and suffering, would not result in death but had a greater purpose - to glorify God and to display Jesus' own power and glory.

'When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two more days.' John 11:6

A delay that meant that Lazarus did die.

A delay that brought grief and sorrow upon the two sisters and all who loved them.

A delay that no doubt raised questions in their minds as to why Jesus did not intervene like He had done before for so many others...

The painful reality of death struck this family deeply, and their grief was overwhelming.

When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already been dead for four days.

According to Jewish tradition, 'Grief reaches its height on the third day. For three days the spirit hovers about the tomb, if perchance it may return to the body. But when it sees the fashion of the countenance changed, it retires and abandons the body.' - Dods

Everyone's hope for a possible resurrection had faded.

Many had come to comfort Mary and Martha in the loss of their brother.

And ultimately, so did Jesus.

'When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him...

'Lord', Martha said to Jesus, 'if You had been here my brother would not have died.

But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask

Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'

Martha answered, 'I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.'

John 11:20-24

Martha did not hide her disappointment.

Jesus did not meet her need in the way that she had hoped for.

But she still displayed unwavering faith in Jesus.

Faith that Jesus could have healed her brother.

Faith that there would be a resurrection of the dead.

Faith that she would see her brother again.

But her faith needed a greater vision of who was the One standing in front of her.

'Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life.

The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die;

and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.

Do you believe this?

'Yes, Lord,' she replied, 'I believe that you are the Messiah,

the Son of God, who is to come into the world.'

John 11:25-27

Martha believed that at His prayer God would give Jesus anything, but He would have her know that by His word He could work anything. Martha believed in a resurrection at the last day; Christ told her that He had that power lodged in His own hand, that the dead were to hear His voice, therefore He could undoubtedly raise one man that had been dead but for four days. Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. Resurrection is a return to life; Christ is the author of that return, and of that life to which it is a return. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, and Christ is both; the author and principle of both, and the ground of our hope of both. - M. Henry

'When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him,

she fell at his feet and said,

'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'

John 11:32

Despite her grief and unanswered questions, Mary ran to Jesus for comfort.

Her love for Jesus did not change.

'She fell at His feet, as one submitting to His will in what was done and referring herself to His good-will in what was now to be done. Mary's casting herself at Christ's feet was in token of the profound respect and veneration she had for Him' - M. Henry

'When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.' John 11:33

The only thing that moved Jesus to tears was the reality of death.

Although he knew he would raise Lazarus from the dead, still Jesus wept.

Because He felt the pain of death - not merely the physical pain Lazarus likely suffered in his final days, but the grief that Lazarus' sisters and the other mourners were experiencing at the loss of their brother and friend. It broke Jesus' heart to see death in action, a reality He and the Father never wanted for humanity. That's one of the reasons the Son came: To put an end to death once and for all and to deliver true life to those who are willing to receive it. - J. Greco

But while Mary's and the other Jews' weeping was described as 'loud wailing', Jesus' expression of grief was a quiet weeping. Jesus did not cry loudly, but He was deeply grieved.

'Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.

It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

'Take away the stone,' He said.

'But, Lord,' said Martha, the sister of the dead man,

'by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.'

Then Jesus said,

' Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?'

So they took away the stone.

Then Jesus looked up and said,

'Father, I thank you that you have heard Me.

I knew that you always hear Me,

but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here,

that they may believe that You sent Me.'

When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice,

'Lazarus come out!'

The dead man came out,

his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen,

and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, 'Take off the grave cloths and let him go.'

John 38:44

There is an appointed day for all of us to die.

But death was never meant to be a part of our existence.

We were not created to die.

We were created in God's image and were made to live eternally.

Death entered our world as a consequence of sin.

But there is a coming day when death will reign no more.

'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.' 1 Corinthians 15:26

Jesus' absolute power over death and His divine nature were powerfully demonstrated not only when He raised Lazarus from the dead but ultimately when He rose from the dead.

And the same power will also raise all who believe in Jesus. Romans 8:11

Though we may die, one day we shall forever live in His glorious presence.

'And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And His eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in His right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from His mouth. And His face was like the sun in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But He laid His right hand on me and said, 'Don't be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died but look - I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave. Revelation 1:13-18

The Case for Heaven: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for Life After Death eBook : Strobel, Lee: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store