A Glimpse of Heaven: The Return of Jesus | Jentezen Franklin

Thank you for joining us on Kingdom Connection today. I'm so excited to share today's message with you because it's a message of hope. It's a message that's going to greatly encourage you and remind you that heaven is real. I just have felt a need to preach on heaven and share how God is preparing a place for you and me. The Bible says in the book of Revelation 21 that there's coming a day when there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more tears, and God shall wipe every tear from our eyes. No matter what you're facing, this message will remind you something far better is ahead of you. Let's go right into the service at Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia. By the way, if you're ever in our neighborhood, you better stop by and say hello. I'd love to see you. You can watch it on TV. You can watch it online, but there's nothing like being in a service at Free Chapel, and this is one of the great ones. You're going to enjoy this, a glimpse of heaven. Together, we're inspiring people to live for Jesus. If you're looking for more in life, to live with purpose and peace, to make a difference for your family and those in need around the world, Jesus is the answer, and our mission is to simply point you to Him. You're watching Kingdom Connection with Judson Franklin.

If you have your Bibles, I would like for you to open them with me for just a few moments to the book of Revelation, chapter 21. Now, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. There was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a voice from heaven say, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself, God Himself will be with them and be their God. And I want you to hear this, read this, like you've never heard it before. Like this is news to you, because this is God's promise to every person who will accept His Son, Jesus Christ. Life is hard, life is at times overwhelming, but listen to this great promise, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be... Now, pretend you've never heard this. You're going somewhere that God has prepared, and there shall be no more death, no more sorrow, nor crying. You're not doing it. You don't believe that.

There'll never be another thing to shed a tear. There'll never be a tear of sorrow. You'll never need your tear ducts again. There shall be no more pain. None. No pain. Thank You, Jesus. I'm reading it like I've never read it before. For the former things have passed away. And He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, For these words are true, and they are faithful. He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. I will be his God, and he shall be my child. Clap your hands and rejoice. The Bible leaves us in breathless wonder of what awaits us in a place that is called heaven. In the Bible, we're told that Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 took a trip. By God, he was taken. And he said, Whether I went in the spirit

or I went in the body, I cannot tell you. which is an amazing little insight there, that people can go to heaven in their spirit, of course, when they die, goes to heaven, but people also can be taken by God of physical body to heaven and have an insight like he got. And he said, I went to heaven. I saw it. I saw things. And then he made this statement. I saw things that are not lawful to even utter. I saw, and I was forbidden by the angel. You are not to tell this and you're not to write this. God has some sacred secrets that he's holding back in the place called heaven. And he said, I want to surprise them. I don't want them to have a clue. I'll let you see some of the things that I'll show you, but I want you to know that some of the things up here, it's not lawful. But Paul said, all I can tell you is, my eyes have not seen, my ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for them who love him. You see, there are more facts about heaven than we realize. Heaven is a real place. Heaven is not a condition. It's not a mindset. It's not a state of mind.

Paul said, I was caught up in the paradise, which is the third heaven. You see, the third heaven is in reference to where heaven is. Heaven is northward. It says in Isaiah 14, Lucifer was in heaven, in the throne room of heaven, which sits in the sides of the north of heaven. Throughout the scriptures, the Bible tells us that the position, the north star is the highest star, and it is the fixed position. It's interesting that God dwells in the north, in the heavens. And the third heaven is a description of where Jesus in his physical body resides, even as I speak. You see, the north is found over and over in scriptures. The Bible said, for example, in Leviticus chapter one, in verse 11, when they were commanded to offer the sacrifice, even under the old covenant, they were to kill the sacrifice northward toward the Lord. Psalm 75 says, promotion does not come from the east, from the south, or from the west. But notice it doesn't say not from the north, but it comes from God. There are three heavens.

The first heaven is where the birds fly. It's what we see when we walk out on a beautiful day like we're seeing here, and you look up into the sky and you can see all the blue sky as far as your eye can see. That's the first heaven. The second heaven is the stars of heaven. It's where the moon is and the stars and the galaxies. But there is a third heaven, and that third heaven is the abode of God. Jesus is there on a throne bodily. The Bible teaches this bodily. He rose from the dead bodily, and He said, my body is there with scars and wounds as proof of the covenant that bought you at Calvary. And He is there. And the first heaven we see by day. It's everything you can see in the sky as far as you can see it. The second heaven we see by night. The third heaven you only see by faith. That is the place where God has promised to take us. The saved go to heaven immediately upon death. Immediately to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The Bible teaches in many of the parables and stories that Jesus told the rich man and the beggar, angels are a sign. I don't think we really understand

the power of the spirit world. And the role that angels over and over and over are talked about, especially in a person's death. That angel is assigned to take the spirit of that person who dies and take them and escort them into heaven. Immediately a person will go into heaven. Stephen. when he was dying, being stoned, the first martyr, looked up and saw heaven, and Jesus was standing because he went immediately to heaven. Philippians 1 and verse 23, Paul said, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. Which is, notice these words, far better. He said, I went up there and I came back. And he said, I've been back and to live is Christ, but I'm gonna tell you what I learned, to die is gain. And that doesn't mean that we don't live life full, we don't dream, we don't live like, we ought to be dreaming of living 85. When I'm 85, I'm gonna take my teeth out of a jar, out of a glass and put them in and get up here and preach if the Lord gives me a healthy body, amen. But I tell you, whatever is awaiting us, the Bible said, it is far better. And some of you say, well, I just don't wanna leave this world, I love this world, I'm having so much fun. But if you know God created you and he created this earth,

and Paul said, it's far better. You have no idea, there's nothing like what awaits the believer. There is nothing that compares down here in any way, shape, form or fashion. Everything will be better, far better. Hallelujah, we see through a glass darkly, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, but there we shall see face to face and there we will be known even as we are known. What he's doing is Paul is saying, you will know one another in heaven. You will know your family in heaven. You will have full knowledge. You will know everything. I will know you in heaven. I don't know a lot of you down here, but I'll know your name, I'll know your address, I'll know your social security, I'll have full knowledge. And I'm gonna hug your neck. I wanna hug every one of your necks in that place called heaven and say, we made it, we made it, we're home at last, praise the Lord. Y'all don't believe that, but I believe this book. I believe it, I believe it, I believe it. I believe one of these days, either by the rapture or by death, I'm going up yonder, hallelujah, to see my Lord. I'll see him face to face. And David starts it when his baby dies.

He has a child, a young child that dies. And before the child died and it was sick and he fasted and he prayed and he fasted and he prayed. And yet God took the child. And when the child died, he cleaned himself up and he put on clothes and he went to the temple. And he said these words, I can't bring my son back to me. Grieving parent, I can't bring my baby back to me. But listen to his words. This is the anointed word of God. I will go to him. Now he wouldn't have said that, God wouldn't have let him record that in the Holy Bible if it's not true. He's got a revelation. I can't bring him back to this world of tears and sorrow, but I will go to him. I'll see him again in heaven. We go to our loved ones in heaven. First Thessalonians said, the trumpet will sound, the shout will go forth, the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And comfort one another with these words. Listen to this. When God's people died over and over and over, the scripture said they went to be with their fathers. Listen to this verse in Numbers chapter 27 in verse 12. Moses is about to die. And he said, go to the mountain, Moses,

and there you will die and be gathered. What a beautiful little part there. And you shall be gathered to your people. Who's his people? His family. You'll be gathered unto your people. Abraham, Genesis 25 and verse 8. Then Abraham gave up the ghost, yielded up his spirit and died at a good old age. Tell somebody I want to die at a good old age. An old man full of years and was gathered to his people. You know, that's my people. My family, Sharice, Aaron, Connor, Courtney, that's my people. My granddad, my mom, that's my people. My brothers, my sisters, that's my people. Listen to what the Bible promises Abraham. Go on home, Abraham. You've lived a good life, full of years. It's time to go home and be gathered unto your people because your people are on the other side. You got loved ones on the other side. What a happy, happy meeting just inside the Eastern Gate. Somebody clap your hands and rejoice that we have a hope beyond this world. Woo. And then in Genesis 35 and verse 29, Isaac, Abraham dies and goes to heaven and Isaac now is dying.

And it said, and he gave up the ghost and died and was carried or gathered unto his people being old and full of days. And Esau and Jacob, his boys, buried him. What a way to go home. And the scripture said, and was gathered with his people. Anybody got anybody over there on the other side? They are there. They are real. It is real life beyond. This life is real. And one day, if you live for Jesus, you can be gathered again with your people on streets of gold. Genesis 49 and verse 33, now Jacob dies. And I love the way he dies. The Bible said he, on the last day of his life, knew he was dying, leaned on his staff. He had old staff. Back in the Bible days, the staff, they didn't have computers and stuff. They kept their family history. They put marks on their staff and they would carry it. That's why, I don't have time to preach this. That's why David said, thy rod and my staff. He didn't just run out, read the text. He didn't run out against Goliath with a slingshot only. He took his staff with him because on it was, I slew a bear. Every victory that he had ever won, he carved it.

He carved it. And so when you take that staff, you take your testimony, you take God's faithfulness, you take the uptime, anything significant, they would carve on that staff. And now he's leaning on his staff. It'll do when I'm dying. What I've got, he's been faithful through everything I've gone through, through every step of my journey. And when I'm dying, I'm gonna be leaning on my staff, saying the same Jesus, well, it's time to go home. And I'm not afraid, hallelujah. I'm not fearing death. I'm not afraid. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Thou art with me, my rod and my staff, they comfort me. The same God who took care of me down here is gonna take far better care up there. No more tears. Everybody take a praise break. Act like you've never heard of heaven before and you just got, you just won the lottery. You're going, you're going. Streets of gold, gates of pearl, walls of jasper. And the Bible said he leaned and laid his hands on every one of his children and blessed them with a blessing and said he drew his feet up into bed. Breathed his last breath and was gathered to his people. Well, who was his people? Well, it just told you in the verses I just read you.

His father was Isaac and his grandfather was Abraham. And they went and got with their people and all of them got together and they said, hey, we heard old Jacob's coming today. Let's all gather outside. Let's start praising, let's cheer. See, when they're leaving here, oh, he's leaving, he's leaving, he's leaving. But when they're going home, they start shouting at the gates. He's coming, he's coming, here he is, here he is. He's coming, he's coming, here he is, here he is. The heart of a loving God with desire for you has provided a place. The mind of God conceived it and the hand of God created it. Jesus said, in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you will be also. Don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't let the trials and tribulations cause you to lose heart. It's going to be worth it all. I'm going to reward my people. I'm going to give them eternal life, but not just eternal life, life more abundantly. Far better. Everybody say far better.