What Happens When You Die?
(Heaven Series: Part 3)
2 Peter 2:4-10; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
 
I.    Introduction
We are exploring together the topic of heaven through an extended sermon series.  This morning, we are going to explore the very sobering topic of Heaven and Hell, the only two options of where we go when we die.

II.    The Sobering Reality of Eternal Judgment and Destiny
Our first Bible passage we are going to explore is 2 Peter 2:4-10.   
This passage is full of mystery, rather frightening images, and extremely sobering truth.  The first truth I want to confront you with is the inescapable reality that every one of us will have to face eternal judgment for how we lived our life on earth.  

This same in-your-face truth is also expressed in the last verse of our other main Bible passage for this sermon that we’ll explore next.
•    2 Corinthians 5:10:  “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him or her for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

To the question of “What happens after you die,” the Bible gives us a clear answer:
•    Heb 9:27 leaves us no room to debate or wonder: “All humans are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…!”

The Bible does not answer all our questions.  Even on very important matters of life and faith, God, in all His infuriating mystery, simply does not choose to make many things as crystal clear as we would like.  But of the few truths that God does make absolutely undeniably clear is this grave reality that every one of us, Christians and non-Christians alike, we have our eternal destiny determined by our choices here on earth.

Now, we will explore in detail what God’s eternal judgment will be like in a future sermon in this series.  For right now, let me make very clear three key points:
•    There are only two destinations that await humans after we leave this mortal life on earth, eternal life in the kingdom of God, which we usually call “Heaven,” or eternal life shut out of God’s kingdom, which we usually call “Hell.”
•    The basis of God’s judgment as to which of these two options will be your destination is not based on how good or bad you acted in this life, but solely on whether or not your sins are forgiven by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
•    The very next verse in the passage from Hebrews we just read on everyone dying and then facing judgment gives us this promise of grace: 
Heb 9:28 “So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him!”  
•    However, the basis of just how severe your eternal punishment will be. or how rich your eternal reward will be, is based on the works of your current life (that will be the topic of our future sermon on God’s Judgment)


III.    The Already-But-Not-Yet Heaven and Hades

In last week’s sermon, I presented the big picture of what God is up to with all human history in restoring a fallen world, and a rebellious human race, back into a state of innocence to live forever in a perfect world called the Kingdom of God.  We also discovered how this process of God making all things new, this process of redemption and restoration, is experienced by humans in a series of stages.

We are now in the stage of the “already-but-not-yet” kingdom of God.  In this stage suffering and joy still exists side-by-side with God using every trial in the life of a Christ-follower ultimately for our good.  In this current stage, when a person dies, they immediately go to either the present heaven or the present Hades.  But even these two destinations are in an “already-but-not-yet state.  

The present heaven that those saved by grace go to will eventually become the New Earth.  And the current place of darkness that those not covered by grace go to, which the Bible calls “Hades,” will eventually become what the Bible calls “Hell,” or the “Lake of Fire.”  The unsaved right now do not go to “Hell” but to Hades.

So all creation right now is in an already-but-not-yet state of existence.  God is in the process of making all things new.  This “all things” includes everything and everyone on Earth, Heaven, and even Hades.  So let’s explore more detail about what this present hell and present heaven is like.


IV.    Present Hades and the Eternal Lake of Fire

The Bible uses six terms when speaking about the afterlife of those who die without their sins forgiven by Christ:
• Sheol, Hades, Tartaroo:  These all refer to the place where those not saved by grace go to right now in a temporary holding place until final judgment.
• Hell, Gehenna, and the Lake of Fire:  These all refer to the place of eternal punishment.  

In our Bible passage from 2 Peter that we read earlier, Peter is referring to the current place of holding where those not saved by grace go to called Sheol, Hades, Tartaroo.  Peter uses this last term.  Most translations do not make this clear.  You have to look at the little footnotes.

In this pages we discover some frightening details about the present state of Hades:
• The current hell includes both fallen angels and unrepentant humans
“For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned….”
• That it is a place of inescapable darkness  
“….committed them to chains of deepest darkness….”
• That our Lord rescues those who are His from going there
“….the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial….”
• That it is a temporary place of holding the wicked until the final judgment seat of Christ
“….and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment….”

Now in Rev 20:11-15 we discover this about the present Hades:
Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. 13 And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; 15 and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

So we see that the present place of the unsaved dead, Hades, eventually becomes the permanent place of the unsaved, the place the Bible calls “Hell, Gehenna, or the Lake of Fire.”  This is the place that Christ spoke of more than any other person in the Bible.  This is the place described with graphic images that while not meant to be taken literally, are meant to convey in the strongest terms possible that this is a place of unending misery.

Breaking Some Myths about Hell
• Christ describes Hell as a place of eternal misery shut out of the bliss of God’s kingdom.  Hell will not be an eternal party with other sinners!
• God did not predestine anyone to eternal Hell based solely on Sovereign choice.  In truth too complex and too paradoxical for our current human brains and hearts to understand, the Bible presents salvation and damnation as a combination of both predestination and human free will.  
• All those in Hell will be there because God will make sure that each person will have the opportunity to know enough of the gospel to be saved, and yet they will reject this offer knowing full well the eternal consequences.  How God’s grace works this out, I do not know.  I only know that the Bible makes it clear that damnation comes only by rejecting the clearly presented gospel.
• No place is ever outside the Sovereignty of God therefore, Christ is the Lord over Hell not Satan.  Satan will not get the reward of being ruler over any place or anyone.
• No place or person can ever exist outside of God’s love, not even those who choose Hell.  God’s love and God’s justice always compliment one another.  For those who accept God’s free offer of grace, God’s love is experienced as heaven.  For those who reject grace, God’s love is experienced as hell.


V.    Present Heaven
Our Bible passage from 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 gives us some clues as to how the immediate afterlife is experienced for those who die with their sins forgiven by Jesus Christ.

Here is what we can gather from this passage:
• That the human soul/spirit is designed to always live in some form of a body
• That there is an earthy body and a heavenly body specifically designed to house the human soul/spirit
• That this heavenly body is so superior to our present earthy body that we should live with a deep groaning ache in our heart to be clothed with this new, eternal body
• That the Holy Spirit now living in us even in our current earthy body gives us a taste of the supernatural life we will someday experience in full forever
• That life in this current body keeps us separated from full intimacy with Christ which is why we long the trade in this body for the new resurrected body
• That when we die, we immediately shed this body and go into the present Heaven and into God’s presence
• That this truth should foster within us a desire to always please the Lord so that when we suddenly find ourselves standing before Him we won’t be ashamed

Now it’s this last point I want to expand on.  The apostle Paul makes it clear that when a believer in Christ dies, he or she goes immediately into God’s presence.  Paul expresses this same truth in Phil 1:21-25: 
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.  Yet what shall I choose?  I do not know!  I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”

Now here is where the “already-but-not-yet” nature of the present Heaven comes in to play. The apostle Paul makes it clear that what we long for with a deep ache is not just to be in God’s presence, but also to be clothed with our new Resurrection, glorified bodies.  Yet, the Bible makes it clear that we do not get our Resurrection bodies until the Second Coming of Christ.  You can study 1 Corinthians 15 to discover that truth.  

Here’s a portion of those passages: 1 Cor 15:50-54:
“I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”

• We don’t get our Resurrection bodies until Christ Second Coming
• So long as a human being is without a body, he or she is in a state is incompleteness.  
• We are created to be body, soul, and spirit so that we can interact with the world in a physical manner, but most importantly, so that we can be temples of the Holy Spirit, which is our eternal destiny.
• So even you die and go to Heaven, you will still be in an intermediate state of existence.

Whether we get some type of temporary body to house our spirit/souls in heaven until the final Resurrection it is not clear.  What is clear is that even when we are dies and go to Heaven, although we are in the very presence of God, we are not yet in a state of perfection.  We are free from sin, but we are not free from longing and hope because the world is still in a state of rebellion.

We discover this same state of incompleteness and already-but-not-yetness” in Rev 6:9-11: 
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”  Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.”

What’s shocking and amazing about this passage, is that we get another glimpse into the current state of Heaven.  The saints in Heaven are still praying for justice and for the Church, still groaning for the end of this current age, and still longing to be clothed with their Resurrection bodies.

• All the promises of God wiping away the last tear from our eyes, and there being no more pain or sorrow, are referring to the eternal kingdom of God, the New Earth and the New Heaven that will be created when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.
• The current Heaven where Christ dwells now, and where those who die in Christ go to, is both a place of perfect peace and joy.  Yet, it is also a place of intense prayer, warfare plotting, longing and preparation for the day of Christ’s return to earth.  
• How can the present Heaven be anything but a place still in tension when down here on earth there is so much suffering and injustice?


Our Weeping and Partying God  

Our triune God is both weeping and rejoicing every second.  If God is weeping and rejoicing, then surely so should be the saints both triumphant and militant, those in Heaven and those still on Earth.  

These are not tears of despair, because we know the ultimate victory is assured!  The tears of the saints in Heaven and on Earth are tears of longing and delayed hope, of the ongoing suffering and injustice on planet Earth, over the creation still in bondage in decay, over the lost still not embraced by the gospel, over the saints still under the trial of sin or persecution, of grieving with those who grieve, and of the weeping of intercessory prayer!

God is weeping over every tear you cry and every sorrow you feel.  God is weeping over every human soul that looks Him in the eye and says, “No thanks, I don’t won’t your heaven!”  God is weeping over all His wandering and wounded children who have not yet heard the gospel and so not yet given the opportunity to embrace their adoption and density.  God is weeping over His Church, His people who are more concerned about petty battles over doctrine, or worship styles, or nursing grudges, then reclaiming the captive and restoring the wounded.

God is also partying with the angels over every sinner that repents and becomes another one of His adopted children!  God is dancing over every tragedy He turns to triumph, and all the mourning He turns to dancing!  So here’s the big “So What?” of this sermon.  Are you right now bringing tears or laughter to Heaven?  Are you living in such a way that causes the Father, Son, and Spirit to weep…or to dance?