Today’s podcast version include parts of the service including my sermon titled, “Is Heaven Real?” This sermon is part of a series based on Adam Hamiltopn’s book, Wrestling With Doubt, Finding Faith.
In life’s most vulnerable moments—when sitting beside someone dying, grieving a loved one, or confronting our own mortality—the question of heaven’s reality moves from abstract theology to urgent necessity. This isn’t casual curiosity but emerges from the deepest places of human need and longing.Scripture provides our foundation for understanding heaven’s reality. Jesus offers concrete promises in John 14 about preparing a place for us and returning to bring us where he is. Paul reinforces this hope in Romans 8, declaring that nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus.
Revelation 21 paints the most vivid picture of heaven as new creation, where God dwells with humanity and every tear is wiped away. We know heaven is real through multiple sources: biblical testimony from Jesus, Paul, and John; centuries of church tradition affirming life everlasting; personal experiences of God’s peace and transformative love; and reason that helps us understand heaven as the full presence of God’s love.Heaven isn’t only a future destination but a present reality we can participate in now. Every act of compassion, forgiveness, and faith brings a foretaste of God’s kingdom to earth. When we serve those in need, comfort the grieving, or show love to the marginalized, we’re experiencing heaven’s reality here and now. The saints who have gone before us remain alive in God’s presence, part of the great communion of saints. This reality should transform how we live today, challenging us to bring comfort to the grieving, hope to the despairing, and love to the forgotten.
Scriptures Referenced:
Revelation 21:1-7
John 14:1-3
Romans 8:38-39
Psalm 23:5
