The Book of Hebrews Describes Heavenly Reality
When the Bible talks about heavenly things, not everything is a metaphor. What is a metaphor? A metaphor is a thingregarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract.
In Hebrews for instance the author reminds us that the Temple, sacrifices, and ceremonial worship, “serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain (Hebrews 8:5).’” Hebrews tells us that they are a “copy AND a shadow,” not JUST a shadow. The Temple is chock full of metaphors, but not everything is a metaphor.
Shadows and Types
So if the Temple and ceremonies are prophetic shadows, what is a shadow? People generally associate a shadow with metaphoric truth. A shadow prefigures some aspects of the New Covenant in the Old. Water from a rock, bread, and quail from heaven, crossing the Red Sea and the Jordan River, and the Passover Feast are all shadows of Christ’s supplying life and sustenance to his people. Paul tells us, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).”
A “type,” on the other hand, is generally a person who prefigures some aspect of the Gospel work of Christ. The Old Covenant Temple was a shadow and Moses a type. However, the Old Covenant Temple was also a copy of the heavenly True Temple. It is a tinker toy model of the real thing.
Heaven Is A Real Place
People have a hard time with Heaven taking up space. When we live there after the return of Christ and the Consummation of all things, will we be disembodied spirits? No, sir or ma’am, we will not. We will be in bodies like Christ’s glorious body. Our bodies will take up space in Heaven. If the embodied glorified Christ is in Heaven now, doesn’t it have to be a place that takes up space? His body certainly takes up space.
John says after the resurrection, “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe (John 20:27).’” In His body, He ascended and in His body He will return. “And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven(Acts 1:10-11).”
Heaven Is Where Jesus Made Atonement
“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12).” Have you ever wondered why we confess in the Apostle’s Creed “He descended into the grave?” Rather than He descended into Hell?” Because He did not descend into Hell but into the grave only in His body. However, in the Spirit, He presented Himself in the True Temple “not by with hands.” In the True Temple, the Father awarded Him our Redemption.
Heaven Can Receive Heavenly Bodies & Just Spirits Are Manifest
Heaven is different than Earth in that it can receive both heavenly and glorified bodies that take up space. However, Heaven also can receive the spirits of just men who are not yet re-joined to their bodies. Again, from Hebrews, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24).”
Angels have heavenly bodies suitable for Heaven. They take up space there. The spirits of just men made perfect await the Second Coming and their reunion with their bodies, but they are manifest in Heaven. John sees them too in various visions in His Apocalypse.
When You Draw Near, Are You Drawing Near To Metaphor of Reality?
When you read in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Do you think that you draw near to something real or your imagination? Are you drawing near with confidence to the Throne of Grace? Or is that all just an idea, a metaphor to you? When Jesus tore the veil away in His flesh, his death, was he removing a metaphor? Or is it both metaphor and reality?
Worship and prayer have fallen on hard times because God has become an idea and heaven a metaphor instead of a Perfect Divine Unchangeable Being and a Place filled with angelic beings and heavenly structures. We don’t believe He sees us or that heaven is a populated space. A materialist mind merged with Christian orthodoxy is nothing short of a horror. It produces accurate theology without a hint of the fear of God or a desire for anything more than the here and now. Let us never take that millstone to our necks. Never forget that:
“Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseenare eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
Thanks For Stopping By
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Sermon
This week Pastor Jeremy will be in 1 Corinthians 15 “What If There Was No Resurrection”
March Memory & Meditation
Memory & Meditation Verses for this week are Psalm 22:11-13.
Read our latest Blog Series, Forsaken For Us All Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 based on Psalm 22:1-15 our Memory & Meditation Verses until we Celebrate the Resurrection.
You can also read our most recently completed blog Series, Christ, His Church, & Marriage Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 based on Ephesians 5:22-33.
March Catechism Questions
Westminster Shorter Catechism: Questions 11-15
Remember that you can present Questions 1–6, our WSC Catechism Questions from last month, to any member of the Consistory during lunch starting this week.
Lord’s Day Meal
Yes!
Psalms & Hymns of Worship
Psalm 59:16-17 Tune: Ellacomb Hymn- Rock of Ages
Psalm 58:1-7 Tune: Bangor & Hymn – Stricken, Smitten, & Afflicted
Yes Midweek Worship
Pizza arrives at Senior Center beginning @ 6:15 pm. First, we will begin the Opus Dei promptly @ 7 pm, then we will have our Catechism Lesson & Close with Intercessory Prayer. We will webcast to the Zoom Prayer Room. The Catechism Lesson will come from Question 14 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
Join Us for Worship
Finally, come and worship with us on the Lord’s Day. We also meet on three Wednesday evenings a month for Catechism Lesson & Prayer. Another Visit our Homepage or What We Believe for more information. Find us on Google Maps or watch our sermons on Youtube.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!
Pastor Jeremy
“The Creation is quite like a spacious and splendid house, provided and filled with the most exquisite, and at the same time, the most abundant furnishings. Everything in it tells of God.” – John Calvin
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