6th June 2021 - Somewhere over the Rainbow

APC 6th June 2021            Somewhere over the Rainbow – (Part 1)
Part 1
Welcome, Introduction and Call to Worship            Michael
Good morning everyone and welcome to our Sunday morning worship.  It’s fantastic to be able to join together in church to worship God and we hope that those of you who are listening online will soon be able to join us again as normal.  Last week we thought about the difficult truth that mysteriously, even suffering has a part to play in shaping us into the image of Christ.  Today we are going to begin a 3 week series called “Somewhere over the rainbow” as we unravel some of the mystery of the Christian hope of heaven.  But to begin, as always, we are going to talk to God.  So let’s pray…
 
Opening Prayer + Lord’s Prayer
Loving God, we thank you for the world you have given us and all within it that speaks of you.  You have blessed us in so much, and we are glad.
We thank you for all that is beautiful; all that causes us to catch our breath in wonder and points to your hand in creation.  You have blessed us in so much, and we are glad.
We thank you for the gift of love given and received, speaking top us of your own great love for us.  You have blessed us in so much, and we are glad.
We thank you for family life, reminding us of the great family of your people to which we belong.  You have blessed us in so much, and we are glad.
We thank you for our food, our clothes, our homes; all the comforts we enjoy, and the innumerable ways you provide for us.  You have blessed us in so much, and we are glad.
We thank you for this new morning, for the warmth of the sun and the richness of life, giving as foretaste of your gift of eternal life.  You have blessed us in so much, and we are glad.
Loving God, open our eyes to your presence around us, to your love that surrounds us each day, and to your hand that is always at work.  You have blessed us in so much, and we are glad.
Speak to us through both the ordinary and the special things of life, that through them we may know you more fully and serve you more truly.  You have blessed us in so much, and we are glad.
Receive then our praise and thanksgiving, for we offer them to you in the name of Christ.
Join with me now as we say the words of the Lord’s Prayer together…
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever, AMEN.
 
 
 
 
Introduce the Opening Song
 
It seems so long since we were privileged to take the RTE service on Palm Sunday.  One of the songs our choir sang that day is a beautiful modern hymn reminding us that our God is Sovereign over all the earth.  So sit back and reminisce as our RTE choir sings the song, “King of Kings, Majesty.”
 
(End Part 1)
 
Opening Song              ‘King of Kings’     RTE Choir
 
Part 2
Announcements
A big congratulations to all those of you who have finished your exams and we want to say a very special congratulations to two more of our young adults who have both completed their degree courses this year and are awaiting results.  Adam Woods has completed his degree in Economics and Derek Crammond has completed his degree in Microbiology. Well done to both of these two young men.  And we wish them every success in their future.  Now we come to the part of the service that’s especially for our younger members, so if your kids aren’t beside you why not call them I to watch a very interesting video on the question “What is heaven and what will it be like?”
(End Part 2)
 
Kid’s Talk Video           PursueGOD Kids “What is heaven?”
 
LINK           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp1vgtPMdpI
 
Part 3
 
Boys and girls, I found that video really helpful and I hope you did too.
You don’t need to worry about going to heaven.  Most people don’t go there until they are very, very old.  But you can also be happy to know that even old people who die and love Jesus will go to be in heaven and that will be good because heaven will be a great place to be.  If you love Jesus, then some day when you are really, really old, you can go to heaven too.
 
If you’ve got any other questions you’d like to know about God then just let me know and we will try to discuss them some other Sunday mornings.  Don’t forget to ask your mum or dad to download the colouring sheet from our Facebook Page to help you remember today’s lesson.  I hope you have a great week as you enjoy your summer and I hope to see you again soon.  But bye for now.
         
Kid’s Colouring      https://coloringhome.com/heaven-coloring-pages
 
Introduction to the Bible Readings
The bible doesn’t tell us everything about heaven but it gives us enough information for us to know that it’s going to be great.  So sit back as Sandra and Lisa read a few scripture passages all of which reveal to us some details about heaven.
(End Part 3)
 
 
 
VIDEO Lesson 1           John 14 v 1-6 and Philippians 1 v 21-24        Sandra
 
John
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
 
Philippians
 “21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”
 
VIDEO Lesson 2            1 Corinthians 15 v 50-58 and Revelation 21 v 1-7 Lisa
1 Corinthians 15
“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 
 
Revelation 21
21 “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
 
Part 4
Reflection    “Where is heaven and what will it be like?”
I want to begin by introducing you to one of my favourite musicians of all time…There have never been any billboards advertising her, no tabloid controversies over foul lyrics or exposed body parts, and no flashy videos. Instead, there are stories of drivers pulling over to weep after hearing her sing and of businesswomen rushing to fix their mascara before greeting the boss, having heard her voice.  She died in 1996 of cancer aged 33, without a record contract, never having got further in life than temporary jobs and rented flats a bus ride from the house where she grew up.  Her name of course is, Eva Cassidy.  One of her most famous songs is her breath-taking rendition of the tune from the Wizard of Oz, “Somewhere over the rainbow”.  It’s a song that has inspired me to speak to you over the next few Sundays on a topic which has the potential to inspire us for living and that can bring us huge reassurance when we have to say goodbye to those we love.  It is the Christian hope of heaven.  It is tragic that Eva Cassidy’s life ended when it did, robbing her family of the shy and beautiful daughter and sister that they had grown to love so deeply.  It makes me angry that this horrible disease stole her from this world before she had the chance to grace a world stage.  I thank God that we still have some of her music and every time I listen to her singing this song, I wonder about what’s ahead and whether someday I’ll get to meet her in person and listen to her live.  It’s a question that all of us wonder about our loved ones who have died.  Where have they gone to?  Will we see them again?  Is there anywhere over the rainbow or when we die is that it?
 
When we bring these questions to the pages of Holy Scripture we only get a partial answer.  But even those glimpses of what’s ahead, are sufficient to encourage us in our darkest days and to set us free from the fear of death.  A couple of years ago I set out to do a serious study on heaven.  So over several weeks, I immersed myself in Christianity Today’s most recommended Book on the Subject at that time.  It was a book simply entitled ‘Heaven’ and it is written by a man called Randy Alcorn.  Many of the thoughts I want to share with you over the next few weeks have been inspired by this book.
 
The book itself is over 500 pages long so what I want to share with you over the next 3 weeks will only scratch the surface of this amazing subject.  It is my hope that what I share will inspire you to delve deeply into this subject for yourself.  If you are interested in that then please do speak to myself or Philip and we can recommend some excellent resources for you.
 
Today I want to set the scene for what we hope to cover during the next 3 Sundays.  We are all aware that one day we are going to die and our bodies will either be buried in the ground or as is becoming more popular, we will be cremated.  The question is what happens next?  It’s not something we normally think of for many different reasons.  We may have been influenced by other voices who tell us that once you die you die, so we concentrate on squeezing the most out of life in the here and now because that’s all there is!  We may have been the victims of insensitive preaching, so that we have become so afraid of meeting God that we simply bury our heads in the sand about the reality of our mortality.  We may simply think that because we are so young or so fit and healthy, it’s not something we need bother thinking about until closer to the time.  We may just love life and the people around us so much that we just don’t want to have to contemplate the reality that someday we will have to say ‘goodbye’ and let go. 
 
Having studied the subject in detail now, I can tell you that I wish I had made more time to think about heaven and life after death much earlier in my life.  That’s because what I have discovered about what the bible says about heaven has filled me with such surprise and such excitement that I genuinely believe I will never look at life the same again.
 
The first thing that has surprised me is that there will be more than one heaven.  There will be the present heaven and there will be a future heaven on earth at the second coming of Christ when everyone will be resurrected.  Over the next two weeks I want to unpack more of what these places will be like, what we will do in these places and what we and our relationships will be like in these places.  But for today it is probably sufficient to show you from scripture that in some senses there will be two heavens and that the afterlife will be a two stage process.
 
It is clear from scripture that when we die and our bodies go into the ground that our soul or spirit will go to be with Christ in heaven.  So we read Paul in his first letter to the church in Philippi saying that while he is certain that if he dies he will go straight to be with Jesus, it is better for now that he remains on earth for a while so that he can spend more time encouraging them and others in their relationship with Jesus.  He writes,
 
“21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”
 
It’s clear then from this statement of Paul along with Jesus’ statement to the thief on the cross when he said, “today you will be with me in paradise” that when we die, while our bodies or ashes go into the ground, our soul or spirit will go to be with Christ in heaven.  This heaven is called the present heaven.  In essence it is an intermediate state.  Where exactly it is we can’t be certain.  It may be in a parallel universe, it may be in our universe, we just don’t know.  But what we can be certain of is that it is a real physical place that exists and even though we cannot see it, it may actually be very near.  It’s only when a blind person’s sight is restored that they can see the beauty of the world we have been describing to them for so many years.  So too we are blind to the realities of heaven, we only hear the stories of what it will be like from the lips of the biblical writers.  But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t real and one day God will open up the door that allows us to enter its realm and we will see and experience it for ourselves.
 
Scripture also teaches us that this present heaven will only be a temporary residence.  In essence it will be an intermediate place where we can be with Christ until he decides to return to earth to set up the New Heaven and the New earth.  It can be of great comfort to know that our loved ones who have died in faith, are alive and safe with God in the present heaven.  This is the message Jesus reassures his disciples with after dropping the bombshell that He will be leaving them and going back to God the Father in heaven.  Listen to how John records these words of Jesus in his gospel,
 
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
New Testament Scholar NT Wright says that the Greek word Jesus uses here for ‘house’ is the word ‘More’ which describes a dwelling that is not permanent.  He describes it as a ‘Wayside Inn’ - somewhere we stop off on a journey.  This again points to the reality that the present heaven is a place that our soul or spirits will go to after death.  It will be a place of safety and security and peace.  A place where God will be and all who love Him.  It is real and physical even though we cannot see it.  We will consider in more detail next week what we will be like and what we will do there.  But for now, all I want you to see is that there is a present heaven somewhere and that it will only be a temporary residence for our soul or spirit when we die.
The second thing that I want you to see today is that scripture teaches us that at some point in the future Christ will come from the present heaven to earth.  He will remove everything that is currently bad about this universe and will restore it to its former glory – the perfect world that God created at the very beginning of times that we read about in the opening chapters of Genesis.  This restoration or ‘redemption’ of the cosmos will be so comprehensive that the universe will effectively become like new.  The present heaven will be merged with this redeemed universe to create the New Heavens and the New Earth.  At the same time, all people will be resurrected which basically means that they will be clothed with a new resurrection body which will be both similar but different to their original earthly body just as Jesus’ own resurrection body was both physical and recognisable and yet in amazing ways different so that he was able to appear and disappear etc. Paul writes about how each of us will receive our resurrection bodies when Christ returns in the 15th Chapter of his letter to the Corinthians.  Listen to how he puts it…,
 
“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 
 
Our future resurrection bodies will be physical, yet in so many ways they will be superior or even supernatural, in that they will be perfect and no longer subject to sickness or death or decay.  This recreated earth merged with the present heaven will be the place that we will live forever with each other and with God.  Again we will explain more about what this New heaven and New earth and what our relationships will be like in it, next week.  For now, all I want you to see is that it will be real.  It will in many ways be exactly like the earth we currently know and we will be able to enjoy everything that we currently love about life and so much more besides, but in ways where our enjoyment of work, leisure and pursuits are intensified and where we will not be subject to any of the limitations and suffering of this current world such as tiredness or illness.  In effect, this New heaven and New earth will be like a second heaven – although it is really in essence just a merger of the present heaven with the restored universe or cosmos.  Listen to how the apostle John describes it in the vision God gave him while in prison on the isle of Patmos – John writes in Revelation Chapter 21,
 
21 “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
 
Conclusion
 
You know one of the lessons of this past year and half is the reminder that we are all so fragile.  At so many turns we have been reminded that someday we are all going to die.  Like Eva Cassidy none of us know when that will be.  That’s a horrible thought.  There is nothing good or godly about death.  But we can’t escape it, so it’s important that we consider it and are prepared for it when it comes.  The great news of the gospel is that if we believe that Jesus is who He said He was, the Son of God, if we trust that he died to take the punishment for our sins, the wrong things we think and do, if we accept that He has risen from the dead and is alive in heaven, and if we are willing to follow Him in life, then we will not have to be afraid of dying.  For in that instant our spirit or soul will be transported to the present heaven to live in joy and peace until the day when Christ returns.  On that day, we will be transformed and miraculously clothed with a new and perfect resurrection body like that of Jesus Himself.  This earth will also be miraculously reconstructed and merged indissolubly with the present heaven and all that it contains.  We will live forever on this New heaven and Earth.  An existence which will effectively be like living in a perfect world enjoying all the things that we currently enjoy that are right and good and bring us so much satisfaction.  There we will be forever in God’s presence and not in any way affected by anything that is negative.  That will be life as we know it ought to be and that God intends it to be.  It will be amazing, exciting, satisfying, fun and it will last forever.
 
I love this life.  To think that heaven will be so much like what we currently enjoy and not some disembodied state of floating on clouds playing harps gives me great hope and fills me with anticipation.
 
It’s a hope that is certain and a hope that can enable us to enjoy life to the fullest and to face every storm, even death itself knowing that the final chapter will have a happy ending!
I hope this has whet your appetite.  So let me encourage you to come along next week to find out more about exactly what life will be like in the present heaven after death and in the new heaven and earth at some point in the future.
 
Introduction to Song of Response
We are going to respond now to what we’ve been thinking about by listening to one of the most beautiful songs ever written about our heavenly Hope.  Here are Kristyn and Keith Getty singing live, “There is a higher throne.”
 
Song of Response        There is a higher throne        (Youtube)
LINK           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hfUQBgfptM
Part 5
What an amazing hope we have in Christ.  Let’s pray…
 
Prayers for others        Michael
Loving God, as we think today of the hope of heaven, we pause to think also of those who have lost people they love. 
We thank you that you have promised your special blessing to those who mourn, your comfort to those overwhelmed by grief, your joy to those enduring sorrow.
So now e ray for those facing sadness, those weighed down by despair, those who have lost loved ones and who are striving to come to terms with the emptiness and heartbreak they feel.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for those among our family and friends who are facing such times, all those in this church and in our world.  Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Loving God, grant to those who grieve your special blessing.  May they know that your hand is upon them, your arms encircling them and your heart reaching out to them.  Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
May all who mourn discover the comfort you have promised, and find strength to face tomorrow, until that time comes when light shall dawn again, and hope be born anew.  Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Take a few moments now to bring your own prayers for yourself and others to God…
  
Closing Words
It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today.  Thank you for logging on.  I hope you found today helpful.
 
The Dublin and Munster Education Fund are now accepting applications from our church members seeking funding for secondary and post-secondary education expenses. Completed applications must be submitted online by 31 August 2021. 
If you are interested you may request an application by sending an email to [email protected]
If you would like to book a place at church next Sunday please do text Aleida before Friday evening of this week. 
 
If you would like to help with readings, prayers or music and have somehow escaped my attention please don’t be afraid to say to me.
 
There will be no midweek online service during the month of June.  Instead I hope to use the time I would normally spend in preparation and recording making pastoral calls now that restrictions are a little more relaxed and now that lots of people including myself have been vaccinated.
 
But to close, let me share with a benediction after which I invite you to say the grace together…
 
Benediction       
 
May the hope of the current heaven, the wonder of the new heaven and earth, the excitement of receiving a new resurrection body and living forever in the new heaven and earth enable us to do everything to say thank you to God for His indescribable gift.
May the grace of the lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forever more, Amen.
 
EXIT            Alison to play some music while people are exiting.