Heaven: a Communal Porch & a Sanctuary

Introduction

As I’ve struggled with missing loved ones in my life who have died, whether recently or several years ago, one of the most helpful and comforting things I’ve enjoyed doing is imagining where they are now - in Heaven. When I first started doing this, I realized very quickly that I didn’t know much about Heaven. Of course, since we’re not there yet and scripture only uses metaphors to allude to it, it is hard to know much about it. However, so many pastors have intensely studied the passages there are about Heaven, like the Gospels, passages in Isaiah that point to Heaven in the light of who we now know Jesus is, and the book of Revelation. So many of their Scripture-derived insights give me hope and help me know what to believe about Heaven. Today, I’d like to share two of my favorites with you.

Christians who write about Heaven all frame one statement a little differently, but almost everyone agrees that Heaven will be both an amazing get-together with thousands of people and where we will fully experience time with God by literally socializing with Him to an even closer degree than the disciples did. With the eternity we have, we will use it to socialize with all the people we knew here on Earth and miss, historical Christians we never met, great biblical figures, and all the people who will come to Heaven after us. With the eternity we have, we will also be constantly in the presence of God, worshipping Him in every moment and have no distractions to prevent us from acknowledging Him as the center of our lives.

In his book, The Case for Heaven, Lee Strobel interviews a New Testament scholar named Scot McNight who phrases this double view of Heaven this way:

“Heaven will be a place of both worship and fellowship. It will be a glorious union of delight in God and delight in one another. We have a king and we will be citizens of his kingdom, who are in a flourishing society together.” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Heaven (Zondervan Books, 2021, Grand Rapids, MI), p. 111 - emphasis original)

Heaven as a Large Veranda 

Scot McKnight and Lee Strobel discuss this social part of Heaven in an interview portion Mr. Strobel features in The Case for Heaven:

‘Heaven will be a global village. … It’s a place designed for those who want to be in relationship with God and in fellowship with others. After all, what happened after Jesus rose from the dead? He immediately renewed fellowship with his disciples. In the eternal heaven, God will be on his throne, but at the same time the new creation will be filled with loving relationships among his people. 

‘McKnight paused to remind me [Lee, the author who was interviewing him for the book] that the Bible doesn’t give us a high-resolution picture of heaven. Rather, it uses metaphors and images to stoke [imagine using a stick moving the logs to keep a bonfire going] our imaginations by suggesting what eternal life with God will be like. One such picture is that Jesus is preparing rooms for us in heavenly homes [John 14:2-3].

‘When I use my imagination, … I picture our homes as having a veranda for fellowship and a garden for retreat.’ (Lee Strobel, The Case for Heaven, p. 111-112)

Mr. McKnight goes on to define a veranda as a porch structure in New Zealand in the front of a house where neighbors used to come over spontaneously to socialize. Like porches in the American South or some of our grandparents’ living rooms, a veranda was a casual, cozy place to sit and talk with any family member or friend who happened to come along. Sometimes there would be silent moments of contentment, where everyone would be lost in thought, enjoying a pleasant view and/or summer heat. Other times there would be one person talking at a time and everyone else would be listening. Other times the atmosphere would be loud, with multiple conversations going at once. 

Many of us think of social gatherings as strenuous, burdensome, and awkward, but in Heaven they cannot be. Everyone will respect each other and be content in the presence of God, so there will be no conflict between people there.

Imagining any cozy times you’ve had with friends or family in your life so far will help you understand McKnight’s claim that ‘I believe heaven will strike the perfect balance of privacy and devoted love of God, as well as fellowship and devoted love of family and others. And there will be parties - oh there will be parties! … The Bible uses metaphors of banquets and feasts - in fact, the first image of the kingdom of God in the final vision of Revelation is a wedding celebration of love and friendship and community. Heaven will be a fellowship of different - everyone reconciled and forgiven, all relationships characterized by trust and joy, and everyone with a story to tell - one that all of us will want to hear.’ (Lee Strobel, The Case for Heaven, p. 112-113)

As I’ve had social struggles over my lifetime, I’ve often longed for an authentic community where people would want to get to know me, where I could get to know them, and we would just all respect and love each other the way God loves us. I wanted to be in a community with no cliques, where no one got left out, where no one got bullied, and where people didn’t fight. I believe that there are some wonderful Christian communities, family relationships, and friendships that exist here on Earth and I thank God each day for the blessing of experiencing some of those, but ultimately I am so excited for the perfect community I’ve dreamed of in Heaven.

Another one of my favorite quotes from a book about Heaven is in Revealing the Mysteries of Heaven when the author, Dr. and Pastor, David Jeremiah says that ‘God has placed within your heart a hunger for eternity, a hunger Heaven, and a yearning for eternal life.’ (p. 7)

The longings for suffering to end are signs that we are longing ultimately for Heaven. The song ‘One Day’ by Cocheren and Company reflects on some of these longings and the beautiful fact that we can place our hope in Heaven:

‘One day there'll be no more waiting left for our souls

One day there'll be no more children longing for home

One day when the kingdom comes right here where we stand

We will see the promised land, mmm

One day there'll be no more lives taken too soon

One day there'll be no more need for a hospital room

One day every tear that falls will be wiped by His hand

We will see the promised land, mmm

Hallelujah, there will be healing

From this heartbreak we've been feeling

We'll sing in the darkest night 

'Cause we know that the light will come

And there will be healing, hallelujah

One day there'll be no more anger left in our eyes

One day the color of our skin won't cause a divide

One day we'll be family standing hand in hand

And we will see the promised land

We will see the promised land …

One day every knee will bow, every tongue will confess

One day when our tired and weary bones find their rest

One day when the power of evil is brought to an end

We will see the promised land

We will see the promised land’

In Revelation 21:4, God reveals this promise to us through the words: ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’. or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

When you’re going through hard social situations and you feel like it’s not supposed to be like this, I hope that you will be able to find some hope in the fact that not only is God working in your situation to bring peace and resolution (which could be your role in it too), but that you are right. Conflict is not how humanity was supposed to interact and it is not how humans will interact in Heaven. For now, perfect friendship with God may be the only one you experience, but your loved ones and someday you will experience perfect friendship with everyone who is in Heaven.

Heaven as a Sanctuary

In his book, Revealing the Mysteries of Heaven, Dr. David Jeremiah examines the place of worship in Heaven and finds a lot of passages about it. 

Any transformative experience you’ve ever had in prayer, in worship, reading the Bible, or just with God in general is only the beginning of how much your loved one and someday you will experience God’s presence. The Bible tells us over and over again that the most beautiful aspect of Heaven is that we will meet God in His fullness for the first time. 

We will see His full glory and it will not overwhelm our limited senses like God knew it would to Moses when Moses asked to see His full glory in Exodus 33:19. 

Pastor and Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, explains in his broadcast ‘Pray Great Prayers, Part 1’ that ‘Of course, God says, Moses, you don’t know what you’re asking. If you saw all of Me, you would be toast, because you have no idea of the unapproachable light, and the absolute holiness, and the unlimited power of the God that created all that there is. But, Moses, what I will do is, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will place My hand over you, and I will pass by, and I will let you see the manifestation of My presence. … Then God speaks as He passes by, and talks about the very characteristics of who He is: full of goodness and mercy, slow to anger, filled with loving-kindness.’ (Chip Ingram, ‘Good to Great in God’s Eyes: Pray Great Prayers, Part 1’, Living on the Edge via PraiseLive Radio 95:3, Minneappolis, MN, KNOF, January 2, 2024)

While this ‘toast’ concept is true while we are on Earth, when we get to Heaven scripture promises that we will see the face of God in a way we never have before. 

Mr. McKnight describes it like this, ‘Yes, the Bible says people cannot gaze on God and survive his glorious brilliance, … But while God’s full presence is unendurable for humans here and now, in eternity all of his followers will get face time with him. The apostle John specifically confirms that all those in heaven ‘will see his face.’ [Revelation 22:4] When we’re there, we won’t merely be able to survive his glorious presence, but we will revel in it forever.’ (Lee Strobel, The Case for Heaven, p. 115 - emphasis original)

Dr. David Jeremiah explains that our relationship with God will have to change in Heaven because ‘in most of our worship services today, we have three integral parts: (1) we praise God; (2) we pray to God; and (3) we preach His Word … Yet as I read Revelation 4 and 5, I’m struck with the fact that the worship we see in these chapters is different. … I do not think we will have prayer in heaven, at least not as we practice it on earth. There will be no need to pray as we do now. We will live in the presence of Almighty God, and we will commune with and have an ongoing relationship with Him, much more intimately than we do now. 

‘There will be no need to pray in terms of supplication, no need to pray for others, no need to confess our sins, no need to ask for healing, no reason to bring our needs to God. Every need will be fulfilled instantly. Our conversations with God will be immediate and intimate and in person, so we will not need to go into our closets, shut the door, and pray to our Father in secret, as Jesus taught us to do on Earth in Matthew 6:6. 

‘Nor will there be a need for preaching. The Bible says “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Perhaps we will still enjoy poring over God’s Word, for Psalm 119:89 says “Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven.” But we will not have to exhort anyone to trust it or obey it, for we will be living in a state of perfect spirituality; and we will certainly not have to make evangelistic appeals, for everyone [in Heaven] will be saved and forever safe.

‘That leaves only one great element dominating heavenly worship - praise! … According to the Bible, we will spend our time throughout the endless ages in praise and worship. Yet … heaven will not be a boring, never-ending church service. … But it will be a deeply-satisfying, high-energy, exuberant, and endless opportunity to know our God and to be filled with rapturous joy in His presence.’ (David Jeremiah, Revealing the Mysteries of Heaven (Inprov LLC, 2020, Southlake, TX), p. 170-171, 173)

The next time you are in church, singing praise to God, think about the fact that Heaven is a beautiful sanctuary. If worship fills you with joy, more is coming your way. If worship doesn’t give you joy yet, that is okay too. As God works in your life and gives you more reasons to thank Him and find hope in His promises, I pray that He will help you grow in your love of expressing thankfulness through worship even in the times when you don’t feel thankful, not because He needs it or because you have a duty to, but because you find so much joy in everything He does for you that you come to Him voluntarily.

Conclusion

It’s so beautiful to know and believe that your loved ones and mine are already experiencing God’s full presence and already connecting with so many of the loved ones they missed in their own lives. 

These two metaphors I’ve shared with you are only a few of the beautiful insights we can gather from scripture about what Heaven will be like. As you explore the topic deeper, I hope and pray that God leads you to be filled with faith that Heaven is a true promise you can hold onto. If you hold onto believing in what Jesus did for you on the cross and resurrection, you will see your loved ones again. May God give you the confidence to believe in this hope even as you miss them.