Jesus promised His anxiety-filled disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2–3). Heaven is a place… a real place… a place that Jesus is preparing for those who faithfully trust in His narrow (Matthew 7:13-14) and unique Way (John 14:6).
Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise”
(Luke 23:43). The rightly-convicted felon recognized his own wretchedness and the Lord’s righteousness (Luke 23:41), so the Sinless Savior promised to meet him in a place called paradise, a.k.a. Heaven.
God created Heaven (Genesis 1:1), just as He created everything, “visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:15-16). God is in Heaven (Deuteronomy 4:39; Matthew 6:9) where He sits upon His throne (Isaiah 6:1; Revelation 22:1). “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord—his throne is in heaven” (Psalm 11:4).
Jesus came from Heaven (John 3:13; 6:38), and from the Mount of Ascension, He was “carried up into Heaven” (Luke 24:51; see also Acts 1:9-11), where He is enthroned at His Father’s side. Stephen testified, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:56).
Heaven isn’t a mythical land, a pie in the sky, in the sweet by-and-by. It’s real. It’s a prepared place, a promised place, a real place.
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
Comments