HEAVEN ON EARTH

We have all heard stories of what heaven may be like; it has been recorded in song, published in books and magazines.  You yourself may have a vision of what you would like it to be:  Peter at the pearly gates, opening the gate for someone to enter; and you pass by some angels on clouds or in a mansion, or a corner cabin.  They are all sitting around the throne of God on his right side, with harps in hand singing, "Holy, Holy, Holy.”  Some may have even had an after death experience of seeing a light, going to heaven and then coming back,  we want to see our loved ones, the men and women of the Old and New Testament, and most of all we want to see the One who died for all.   As Jesus hung on the cross, his promise to the thief next to him was that he would be with him in paradise.  With this statement, we envision ourselves in a Garden of Eden type place, strolling around in robes and crowns.  Could this really be what heaven is like?  Where did Jesus actually go when he died on the cross?   We do not see the heavens or the Kingdom of God, so we dream of what heaven will be.  Is mortal man able to go to the heavens and see what the kingdom of heaven consists of, or is heaven like we imagined in our dreams?

To answer any of these questions we will have to consider John 3:13, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven”.  This passage is not as popular as verse 16 of the same chapter, which most believers are able to quote:,  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.  John wrote this epistle well after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus; James the brother of John and other disciples were already martyred at this time.  This shows Jesus was the only man to have gone to heaven before or after his death.  This same John who was exiled to the isle of Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, said that he was "in the spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:9-10).  In chapter four when he saw the throne of God and the heavenly host says that he was in the spirit, chapters seventeen and twenty one he was carried away in the spirit, to see the woman on the beast and the great city descending out of heaven.  All the things the angel showed John were symbolic of the things God has and will have on earth and in heaven.  John was clearer about his experience than Paul was in 2Cor. 12:1-5, that he could not tell if John was in the body or spirit, but we see John said, "I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day”.  So what are we to believe? Is heaven some mythical place dreamed up by man to give him peace of mind, or is it real?

Jesus told Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3).  So the Kingdom of God can be seen; but there is something we have to have before we can see it, the new spiritual birth. This means that becoming born again does not automatically make you a part of the kingdom; it only makes you able to see it.   We also must believe that the Bible is God’s word, for "faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word” (Rom. 10:17).  If we are to see and understand what the heavens are and what the kingdom will be like, then it must found in the Bible.  The first written words that God gave man were to Moses on Mount Sinai. Before Moses, He spoke to men by voice, by His angel, or they were moved on by His spirit.  On the mount, God brought a picture that revealed to Moses His law, how to worship, and the place where they were to worship. He called it a pattern saying, "do all things according to the pattern… shown on the mount” (Ex 25:9, 40; Nu 8:4).  Paul said that the law was the pattern of things in the heavens, which things were an example and shadow of heavenly things (Heb. 8:5; 9:23).  "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect” (Heb. 10:1).   The things that God revealed to Moses were like a dress pattern one might buy at the store.  The individual pattern papers do not look like a dress at all; there are dotted lines on the papers, and you can only tell what shape the dress is by the shape you see in the picture on the package; even after it is cut out, it is not the final product or a dress. The tabernacle, the furnishings inside and out, down to the curtains that made up the tent that was to house the very presence of God all represent those things that God has in heaven, and good things to come.  These were only the dotted lines to a pattern of what God would reveal to man of the real, the things in heaven, and the heavenly things themselves (Heb. 9:23)

Even the Temple which Solomon built was after a pattern God showed to David his father, when he wanted to build God a house (1Ch. 28:1-21). Solomon built and furnished it with the same accuracy that God showed Moses, with detailed instruction of every piece of equipment down to the last pin or stitch.  The tabernacle and the temple were not the real, just shadows, or layout of what was to come.  Jesus said, "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John” (Mt. 11:13), he knew that when John the Baptist came, those things spoken and done in the Old Testament began to be fulfilled.  Jesus and John both preached the same message, repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.  With the written prophesies now in motion, the heavenly kingdom of God could be set up on earth as it is in heaven.  With our sins forgiven, we become spiritual beings that can be used of God to build His kingdom on earth.  We can see Jesus laying the foundations, as Solomon did, in the fourth year the foundation of the temple were finished; (1Kings 6:37-38) The fourth year of his ministry Jesus chose twelve men and then another seventy men also, and establish the foundation upon which the church could be built, which Paul called "the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Eph. 2:20).  When Jesus went back to heaven, he gave Peter the greater task of building upon that foundation. Think of all the times Jesus took his disciples up on a mountain. I can hear him say, "see thou make all according to the pattern I showed thee on the mount.”

Peter was the one who believed on Jesus and did greater works than those that Jesus did.  What else could it mean by greater works? (Jn. 14:12)  Who could do greater works than those which Jesus did?  There is no greater work than when Jesus offered himself and died on the cross.   He was speaking of the magnitude of labor involved in putting together the material that both He and John the Baptist prepared by their ministry, as David did for Solomon to build the House of God. Jesus set up the altar of stone which had no man’s tool on it, the twelve (Ex.20:25).  These twelve had not sat at the feet of Gamaliel or any other man’s feet to learn the law; they were common men, the average Joe, from different occupations.  These disciples were prepared by John and called by Jesus, who taught them his commandments in (Mt. 5, 6, 7).  The priests and leaders who questioned Peter and John after the miracle at the Beautiful gate of the temple, marveled knowing they were unlearned and ignorant men, and noticed that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 3:1-11; 4:13)  Now that the foundations were set, it was time to build, and on the Day of Pentecost they began to build the house on the apostles and prophets doctrine.

Traditionally Jesus’ ministry was about three and a half years, which would be the right timing of laying the foundation of the new temple in the fourth year.  According to the prophecy, the temple took eleven years to build, if we subtract the four years of building the foundation, we have seven years left to build the temple (1Ki. 6:38-39).  The greater work that Peter did, in constructing the Lord’s house, took seven years for him to accomplish, twice the time that Jesus had worked.  Once the people had been gathered, Peter’s massive work was to bring them to a state of acceptance on the altar that Jesus set up.  In Acts 5, we are told of an incident that shows the church had reached a form of perfection or acceptance: Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, both lying to the Holy Ghost set an unclean offering on the altar of the Lord, at the apostle’s feet.  They both agreed to this unholy offering, and both were carried out dead; this could and would not have happened if the house had not been perfected.    We are told that great fear came upon the church and those that heard of it.  And the rest would not join themselves to them, but magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, both men and women.  Some even thought that if they brought their sick near enough to Peter, his shadow could heal them.  Paul confirms the twelve as being the altar, "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle” (Heb. 13:10).  We can see that the church had been established and set in order; it just needed the finishing touches.

The house was finished.  Now there was one more prophecy to be fulfilled to complete the house.  A question arose; some of the Greeks had notice that the widows among them were not properly being taken care of.  They came to the twelve who sounded a little insensitive here; they talked about not leaving the word of God to go about providing for the poor widows. Peter and the twelve were about to put the last nail in the house.  They said to choose out seven men full of wisdom and full of the Holy Ghost, to set over this business, "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars” (Pr 9:1).  When the apostles’ laid hands on them, the word of God was increased, meaning they became the word of God made flesh. (Acts 6:1-7)  Whenever prophecy is fulfilled the word of God increases, and becomes alive.  Before Jesus and John came along, the Bible was the word of God written in a book, but now it walks, talks, and is alive.  Every prophecy that is fulfilled makes the word increase and true, the men that prophesied had faith that words would become substance.   "NOW we can see the faith is the substance of the things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).  The seven were not just some men chosen to make sure that the finances were taken care of, or caretakers. Look at Steven’s sermon, and Philip’s revival.  They were men of power, and full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, they became the fulfillment of the Candlestick in the tabernacle, which had seven lamps of fire that the priests kept lit, the apostles being the priests who did not leave the word of God; ordained the seven into those offices.  They gave them the word, and they carried it to and fro throughout the land (Zec. 4:10).

These men, by the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus, were made to sit in heavenly places.  The manner of prayer that Jesus taught was coming to pass, "Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10).  Paul called it a heavenly gift and they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. (Heb. 6:4)  When all this is set up we have heaven on earth now, it is an order, priesthood, offices that makes up the true tabernacle and temple made up of disciples that have followed the commandments of our Lord.  The law was the shadow or mirror of what was to be.  These men took the pattern Moses saw of things in the heavens, and were purified becoming heavenly things themselves (Heb. 9:23).  Paul is shows us three things here, there is God’s kingdom in heaven (things in the heavens), the tabernacle and temple (the Patterns), and where we can sit if we become acceptable in Christ (the heavenly things themselves).  Paul also tells us that they had come to that spiritual city, "the heavenly Jerusalem, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:22-23).  The men in the Old Testament prophesies are now fulfilled, the spirits of just men made perfect.  It is required that we fulfill what they wrote and did or they would be made liars, "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Heb. 11:40).  "That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past” (Ec. 3:15).  All the Old Testament has to be fulfilled, Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Mt. 5:18).

I know that we all would love to go to heaven and see what God has there.  However if He has the same pattern here on earth, and Jesus is sitting on the throne of David in the heavenly places, then it is heaven on earth.  The fall of Lucifer left heaven lacking in its members; a third of heaven had gone with the deception of Lucifer.  Things in heaven were maimed, and a healing needs to take place. God’s right eye and hand offended Him, and He removed them (Mt. 5:30).  So that the heavenly body would not perish, God came up with a plan to restore the heavens and show how great this sin was.  He made man to replace that which was lost in heaven, and gave man free choice to choose between good and evil here on earth.  Moses was given the law the schoolmaster, to lead us to Christ, who with his sacrifice on Calvary would give us the means to attain unto those places in heaven (Gal. 3:24). When the dead in Christ rise, and we which are alive and remain are joined together, we will make up on earth the complete image of what is now lacking in heaven.  Jesus will rule on this earth for a thousand years in a kingdom just like what God had in heaven before the fall, and He will take His Sabbath day.  God has given all judgment to the son, and He will reign on the throne of David in the tabernacle of David meting out His true justice (Isa. 16:5).  His throne will consist of those who have followed Him, they are the epitome of a disciple, and he will grant them to sit on thrones ruling and reigning in His kingdom (Mt. 19:28-30; 2Tim. 2:12).  Jesus will return to those that look for Him and are that mountain, without sin unto salvation; the Bride prepared to meet the Bridegroom (Heb. 9:28; Rev. 19:7).  We can have our little piece of heaven on earth now, if we get ourselves into a condition to be vessels of honour in His house.  Jesus will reign a thousand year here on earth, for he must reign till he has put all enemies under His feet.  Then Jesus will subject himself to the one that put all things under Him, even God the father, that He might be all in all (1Cor. 15:24-28).  When all this is finished, then God will have a new heaven and a new earth forever, because we have made our choice here on earth.  I pray you will all choose to serve the soon coming risen Savior, for great is your reward when you are made to sit in heavenly places.

May the Lord bless you with understanding is my prayer.