Life, Death and Life After Death
Our Home In Heaven
II Corinthians 5:1

Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:1-3

Heavenly Things :

• Isaiah 57:1-2 ; 15
  
• Psalm 39:4-6
  
• Colossians 3:2
  
  • “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”

What Is Heaven?

• Jesus brought clarity about the definition of eternal life and provided a means to obtain it.
  
• John 17:3
  
  • “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

Life, Death and Life After Death
Universal Longing
Ecclesiastes 3:11

There are two main versions of life after death held by all religions and all cultures:

• The Eastern view
  
  • the soul reuniting after death with some transcendent and ultimate reality
    
• The Western view
  
  • bodily resurrection

The Abrahamic Religions
Judaism – Christianity – Islam

• All three have and official and an unofficial teaching.
  
• Officially: bodily resurrection
  
• Unofficially: the immortality of the soul

God of the Living
Isaiah 57:15
Mark 12:18-27

Heaven and Earth
Genesis 1:27-28
Genesis 2:7
"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."

What Is Real!

• Psalm 39:4-6
  
• Colossians 2:17
  
• Hebrews 8:3-6

But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:16

Life, Death, and Life After Death
Set Your Mind On The Things Above
Colossians 3:2

Heaven

So heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.

• I Corinthians 2:9-10a
  
• Deuteronomy 29:29
  
• I Corinthians 4:1-2
  
• Isaiah 55:8-9

Origination & Destination

Eternal Life

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:3

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End", says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
. . . "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last"
Revelation 1:8,11

The “Known Universe”

Heavenly Things:

• Hebrews 11:16
  
• Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
  
• <Gk> zhtew = zeteô
  
  • In the present tense = suggesting an ongoing process
    
  • This is a command that assumes a resistance to obeying it.
    
  • A single-minded determined investigation

God's grace is immeasurable;
His mercy inexhaustible;
His peace inexpressible.

Breaking Bread & Building Bridges
John 13:34-35

Created for Community

• Reconciled relationships are life’s expression
  
• Community is a reflection of the moral nature of God “Elohim” (plural)
  
• We were created for community
  
• But, we look everywhere else, “looking for love in all the wrong places”
  
• We were created for His pleasure and our purpose in life is to bear His image!

It is not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that make us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that makes us Christians.
-- Author unknown

Go through, Go through the gates!
Prepare the way for the people;
Build up, Build up the highway!
Take out the stones,
Lift up a banner for the peoples!
Isaiah 62:10

Communion ~ The Purpose of the Lord's Supper

• Remembering the Lord's death until He comes
  
  • I Corinthians 11:24-25
    
• Receiving a special blessing from the Lord
  
  • I Corinthians 10:16-21
    
• Renewing our covenant relationship with God