117 Sermon Illustrations on Eternity

As we are swept into the wake of changing times and procedures, time demands us to adapt or be left behind. Many of the philosophies of this world echo the teachings of television and radio: “The cutting edge of technology and fashion are the most important things in life.” The message we often hear is that, if we do not keep up, we are less valuable. Our culture has reversed the words of the Scripture: the things that are seen are eternal and the things that are not seen do not exist.

This pondering leads me to those things that time cannot change, those things that remain constant. Songwriter Rich Mullins put it like this:

Well, you can talk about fashion

You can talk about the weather

It's all just stuff and it all goes up in flames

Just in case somebody comes askin'

Why don't you do 'em one better

If you got to talk why don't you tell 'em

'Bout the things that remain the same (1)

It's a strong point. If you and I are going to build our lives upon something and if we are going to fill our minds and mouths with ideas, we would be well advised to make sure they are permanent things. What we think and talk about, watch, read, and study tells a lot about what we value. If we delight more in pondering new and improved technologies and fashions than the thoughts of God, our priorities and well-being are both on their heads.

The apostle Paul tells us, “The things which are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18b). It is the eternal things in this world that cannot be burned, bruised, or outdated. ATM machines will one day be no more. Airplanes will be historical artifacts. Computers will be buried in archeology. Yet marching above time is our champion Jesus Christ, whose voice thunders that he makes all things new! One day the wrinkles with be smoothed by resurrection. And all the things in life that pointed us toward spiritual and emotional maturity will bring our gratitude, for they pointed us toward the things that cannot perish, neither can the gods or kingdoms of this world take them away.

In the midst of New Year's resolutions, bring to mind the changes that Christ calls us into — beyond fashion, gadgets, and status — the changes that have benefits, not only in this life, but in the one that is to come. Technology and procedures may change, but Christ will never sideline us with embarrassment. He promises to be with us always, even, in the words of MacBeth, “to the last syllable of recorded time.”

________

1. Rich Mullins, The World As Best As I Remember It, Vol. 2, “To Tell Them,” 1993.

________

Copyright © 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

Perhaps you have heard of the man, Arthur Malcolm Stace, who became affectionately known as Mr. Eternity and lived in Australia a few years ago. Early in life he was an alcoholic derelict who, before reaching middle age, was converted through a rescue mission and later himself became a street-corner evangelist.

Shortly after his conversion, he heard a sermon entitled “Echoes of Eternity.” He was so captivated by the importance of the word “eternity” that he began using his free time to spread the one-word message across Sidney. “Eternity went ringing through my brain. Even though I could scarcely write my own name, I felt the divine urge to write this word.”

So, fifty times a day for over thirty years, he wrote “eternity” on the sidewalks of Sidney, usually in the early morning, with white chalk and with faultless script. When he passed away, the Sidney morning newspaper carried a story of this unusual man who had chalked “eternity” on the city streets over half a million times in that metropolis of significant population. The thought of eternity does impress upon us the seriousness with which we must regard our soul.

________

"Echoes of Eternity,” Dennis Kastens, CSS Publishing Co.; Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2004, http://www.actsweb.org

*

A good friend of mine is in love with a man who lives on a different continent. I am happy to say that he returns her feelings and will soon move to this country to marry her. In the mean time, they must live with an ocean between them, waking while the other sleeps, longing for the day when they will be together.

The feelings that come with being in love are some of the strongest emotions a human can feel. Separation from the one that is loved only heightens and exacerbates these feelings. For some reason, when a person falls in love, every other desire becomes secondary (at least on an emotional level) to being in the presence of the one you love. Those things that one would ordinarily enjoy, whether it is a vacation, a holiday, or a beautiful view, lose their desirability unless they can be shared with the loved one. Someone who is in love would rather live in the worst conditions with the one that they love than live apart in luxury and comfort.

Watching my friend have to wait to be with the man that she loves has helped me better understand why the Christian should long for eternity. Many express bafflement that the Christian idea of heaven could be anything but boring. They conjure up images of singing and playing harps for ever and ever and ever. These images ignore many aspects of the full biblical teaching on eternity, namely that there will be both a new heaven and a new earth. We will more likely be “spending our time” (a meaningless expression when time is no more) in gardens, palaces, and under waterfalls than on clouds.

But when the Scriptures speak of the desirability of eternity, they do not emphasize the fact that we will be able to eat whatever we want or that we will be able to buy whatever we want. They tell us that eternity will be good because we will be in the presence of God.

Take the promise from the book of Revelation that one day a voice from the throne will announce, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3). When Jesus talked about heaven, he said, “I am going there to prepare a place for you. 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” (John 14:2-3). You see, the “prize” is not a heavenly mansion or a crown, but getting to be with the one who loves us.

Whenever heaven begins to sound mundane, or we start to dwell on things that will not be there, we are forgetting what it means to be in love. If being in love with a mortal could make every other pleasure pale in comparison, imagine what it will be like to be in love with one who is immortal and unfathomably glorious. We will want or need nothing more than to be in his presence.

Until that day when Christ takes us to be where he is, our situation is very similar to that of my friend. We are waiting for our bridegroom. Those times that we ache with inexplicable longing come, I believe, from being separated from the one who holds the key to our hearts. When our souls throb with loneliness, we must remember the words of our bridegroom who said, “Behold, I am coming soon!”

________

Copyright © 2006 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

God’s nature and heart are in eternity! Isaiah 57:15 states: “For thus saith the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy....” Then the prophet continues to describe the nature and activity of God, especially as it relates to each of us.

God works from eternity, to and towards eternity. Time is only where and when He is now working, but always in the context of eternity. God, therefore, always works with urgency, for He fully knows the reality and certainty of eternity -– endless existence -– with Him or without Him.

We too often live without a sense of eternity and without a sense of urgency or seriousness. We are often too careless or casual in the decisions we make, the relationships we establish, the priorities we live by, and the overall way in which we live. But we are always “one breath away” from eternity. Are we truly ready? Is there a trembling in our living or an urgency in our living?

Our lives were eternally chosen by God (Ephesians 1:4), and His purposes in and through our lives have been eternally purposed, “[T]o the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord ...” (Ephesians 3:10-11).

With this in mind, how then should we be living personally, with our family, in our churches, in our workplaces, and in our world? Certainly, with eternity in mind! Jesus reminded us that if we are going to make an investment in our lives we are to do it with eternity in mind: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth ... for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21).

The more one reads through the ways of God revealed in the Old Testament, and in the teaching and life of Jesus in the Gospels, and in the entire Bible, the more one is struck by the awareness of eternity. Indeed, we as Christians should ponder some very serious questions. How am I receiving what God is saying? Do I merely have “correct doctrine,” but my life and lifestyle are not being affected at all? These are serious questions to answer if we are to live with a sense of eternal accountability before God, as Paul expressed it in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10: “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

These are serious times, and our lives must be lived before God and the world with an obvious awareness of “eternity!”

The things which are seen; are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. — 2 Corinthians 4:18.

Chalmers is said to have remarked that his worst mistakes had been mathematical. He forgot two dimensions: time, so short; and eternity, so long. We, in our day, need a truer sense of values. Do we estimate the worth of things in the light of eternity? It will be no satisfaction bye and bye to be able to say, “I dressed well, I ate well, I earned a lot of money, I lived graciously, I was well thought of, I had many friends!” These all belong to the passing moment. Someone has said and it is a wise observation “The only things worth spending life for are the things of more value than life itself.” Think it over! — F. W. Schwartz.

What is it that preoccupies my thoughts from day to day?

Is it the trifling, frothy things that soon must pass away?

O help me, Lord, to look beyond the transcient scenes of earth,

And give my ‘life, with all its powers, to things of ENDLESS WORTH!

I once heard a pastor make a startling confession: “Whenever I think about heaven, it makes me depressed. I’d rather just cease to exist when I die.”

I tried not to show my shock as I asked him, “Why?”

“I can’t stand the thought of that endless tedium. To float around in the clouds with nothing to do but strum a harp -- it’s all so terribly boring.”

Where did this Bible-believing, seminary-educated pastor get such a view of heaven? Certainly not from Scripture, where Paul said to depart and be with Christ was “far better” than staying on earth (Phil. 1:23). And yet, though my friend was more honest about it than most, I’ve found that many Christians share the same misconceptions about heaven

More than 30 years ago, I began studying what Scripture tells us about eternity and have written about heaven and the importance of an eternal perspective ever since. The Bible tells us much more about heaven than is often assumed. In a day when speculation and subjectivism about heaven run rampant, I’ve found it both exciting and refreshing to carefully examine what Scripture says.

Let’s examine the biblical answers to five common questions people often have about heaven:

1. Will we have bodies? Will we eat, drink, travel, and play? In other words, will we live truly human lives?

Many people imagine that we will remain disembodied spirits in the afterlife and that heaven won’t be a tangible, earthly place.

Given the consistent physical descriptions of the present heaven and those who dwell there, it seems possible -- though this is certainly debatable -- that between our earthly life and our bodily resurrection, God may grant us some physical form that will allow us to function as human beings while in that unnatural state “between bodies,” awaiting our resurrection. Just as the intermediate state is a bridge between life on the old earth and the new earth, perhaps intermediate bodies, or at least a physical form of some sort, serve as bridges between our present bodies and our resurrected bodies.

Revelation 21:1 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” This eternal heaven, the new earth, is our true home, the place where we will live forever with our Lord and one another.

In my book “Heaven,” I develop biblically why I believe that on the new earth there will be natural wonders, animals, trees, rivers, cities, houses, and architecture. We will laugh, eat and drink, tell stories, make crafts, build, garden, care for animals, play, enjoy sports and physically demanding activities, and tend and manage and rule the earth.

We will collaborate, research, invent, read books and write them, create and perform dramas, compose music and perform it, all to God’s glory. Why? Because we will still be physical beings created in God’s image, which means we are creative and intelligent. And, we will be restored to a new earth without sin and death -- to fulfill God’s original plan of stewarding the material universe to His eternal glory.

2. Will we still be ourselves with our memories of this life?

After Jesus rose from the dead, He said to His disciples, “‘Look at My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself! Touch Me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ Having said this, He showed them His hands and feet” (Luke 24:39-40). The resurrected Jesus did not become someone else; He remained who He was before His resurrection. And His old body was the same body made new. Our bodies will be the old ones made new, just as the new earth will be the old earth made new.

You will be you in heaven. Who else would you be? If Bob, a man on earth, is no longer Bob when he gets to heaven, then, in fact, Bob did not go to heaven. If we weren’t ourselves in the afterlife, then we couldn’t be held accountable for what we did in this life. Judgment day would be meaningless. Scripture is clear that our own personal history and identity will endure from one earth to the next.

If you trust in Jesus, you’ll be you in heaven -- without your bad parts -- forever.

3. Won’t heaven be boring?

Sadly, even among Christians, it’s a prevalent myth that heaven will be boring. Sometimes we can’t envision anything beyond strumming a harp and polishing streets of gold. Satan’s most basic strategy, the same one he employed with Adam and Eve, is to make us believe that sin brings fulfillment. However, in reality, sin robs us of fulfillment. Sin’s emptiness inevitably leads to boredom.

Psalm 16:11 says, “You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.” Everything good, enjoyable, refreshing, fascinating, and interesting is derived from God. God promises that we’ll laugh, rejoice, and experience endless pleasures in heaven. To be in His presence will be the very opposite of boredom.

4. Will we know our loved ones and have ongoing relationships with them?

Scripture gives no indication of a memory wipe causing us not to recognize family and friends. Paul anticipated being with the Thessalonians in heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), and it never occurred to him he wouldn’t know them. In fact, if we wouldn’t know our loved ones, the encouragement of an afterlife reunion would be no encouragement at all.

Relationships among God’s people will resume in ways even better than what we’ve known here. Once the curse is lifted and death is forever reversed, we may live out many of the “could have beens” taken from us on the old earth.

5. Will there be animals -- and is it possible the pets we’ve loved will be there?

In Isaiah 65:17, 25, the Lord says, “I will create a new heaven and a new earth.... The wolf and the lamb will feed together.... They will not do what is evil or destroy on My entire holy mountain.” Scripture says a great deal about animals, portraying them as earth’s second most important inhabitants. God entrusted animals to us, and our relationships with animals are a significant part of our lives. Scripture’s descriptions of animals peacefully inhabiting the earth may have application to a millennial kingdom on the old earth, but their primary reference appears to be to God’s eternal kingdom, where mankind and animals will together enjoy a redeemed earth.

Many people also want to know whether their pets might live again. Romans 8:20-23 sees animals as part of a suffering creation eagerly awaiting deliverance through humanity’s resurrection. Some interpret this text to imply that some animals that lived and died on the old earth may be made whole on the new earth. We can’t speak with certainty; but wouldn’t it be just like God to take animals entrusted to our care in the old world and allow us to enjoy with them the wonders of the new world?

So, will you join ranks with those who, as Peter describes, “wait for the new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will dwell” (2 Peter 3:13)? Jesus’ death and resurrection made the way for us to be restored to the Father in our eternal home. If you know Jesus, I look forward to meeting you there and worshiping our King together in that incredible and indestructible world He has planned for us!

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #27797]

Oh, the unbelievable horror of putting off Christ! The eternal sadness of waiting one day too long!

It’s akin to the terror of those who delayed boarding the ark in the days of Noah or those who failed to escape Sodom and Gomorrah when they had the opportunity. Think of the scoffing thief who died Christ-less within inches of Christ Himself who was -- at that very moment -- dying for him on the adjacent cross. Think of the multitudes at the Great White Throne Judgment who will frantically insist their names “must surely” be written somewhere in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

But they waited too long.

The Bible warns that every human being is subject to sudden death. No one has the promise of another day or hour. We never know when we’ll be swept into eternity by a car wreck, heart attack, an act of violence, a natural disaster or freak accident.

Thousands of people will die today, and many can’t see it coming. They woke up this morning, showered, dressed, grabbed a cup of coffee and dashed out the door never dreaming they were leaving their doorstep for the final time.

The Bible teaches that our days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle (Job 7:6), like flowers that quickly fade (Job 14:2) and like a mist that appears for a little time then vanishes (James 4:14).

Jesus told the story (Luke 16:19-31) of a rich man who lived in affluence while a beggar named Lazarus lived nearby in squalor. The beggar was ready for eternity. When he died he was carried away to be with Abraham and the saints of all the ages. But when the rich man died, he found himself in Hades. Jesus said, “Being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and ... cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue’” (Luke 16:24).

But it wasn’t possible, and there he still is today without a whisper of hope. One of the worst things about hell is that one’s memory doesn’t die. The inhabitants of hell will remember all the opportunities they spurned. They’ll remember church services they attended, tracts they did not read, invitations they shrugged off, and Bibles they disregarded.

Are you ready to meet Christ? Or are you in danger of waiting a day too long?

A prominent judge was raised in a Christian home by godly parents but he never personally professed personal faith in Christ. He married a woman who was a radiant believer. At the time of their marriage, he gave her the promise that someday he would get saved. She frequently reminded her husband of his promise, only to be put off with the words, “Sometime I will get saved, not now.”

This continued for some time until the wife contracted a serious illness and died shortly afterward. Her final pleadings were for his salvation but he continued to put off a decision.

One night the judge had a vivid dream -- his whole life came before him as a panorama, scene after scene. He saw himself as an infant in the arms of a godly mother. He saw himself as a child listening to his mother’s prayers. He saw himself as a young man, drifting into dark company and bad habits as his mother knelt earnestly in her home, interceding for him. Then he saw his wife and heard her voice pleading with him to be saved. In his dream, he could hear himself saying, “Sometime, not now .... Sometime, not now ....” Then came a vivid scene of his own death. The judge awoke in terror.

What about you? Have you yielded your life to Christ or is your attitude the same as the procrastinating judge: “Someday I’ll get saved. Not now.”

The Bible uses the word now to express the urgency of salvation.

The Book of Isaiah says, “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ....’” (Isaiah 1:18).

If you’d like to trust Christ as your Savior, let me suggest a simple prayer you can sincerely offer to the Lord right now: Dear God, I confess my sins. I don’t want to delay another moment. I invite Jesus into my heart to be my Savior. Today I confess Him as my Lord. I claim His promise of eternal life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Let today be your day of salvation!

I have long suspected that many Christians dread not just death but heaven. We won’t admit that, of course. Our hymnody, of whatever era, is filled with songs about the joy of the afterlife, and “what a day of rejoicing that will be.” We’re glad we’re not going to hell or to oblivion. But most of our songs and sermon mentions are about that first few moments in heaven: when we see Jesus, when we’re reunited with our loved ones, and so on. It’s like the happy ending of the story. And that’s the problem.

The Gospel tells us that Satan keeps unbelievers bound by fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15). Believers, too often, dread death also, though not as much from fear as from boredom. We see the story of our lives as encompassing this span of 70 or 80 or 100 years. The life to come is our “great reward” in “the afterlife.”

But just think about that word “afterlife.” It assumes eternity is an endless postlude to where the action really happens. It’s “after.” Our “reward” happens after we’ve lived our lives. Here’s why this language matters.

Imagine a couple referring to their marriage as their “after-love.” They explain to you that years ago they met, fell in love, and married. The years since are their “after-love” years, since they follow their falling in love with each other. You would, no doubt, ask whether they still loved each other and, if so, why they would relegate their lives together now as “after” anything, and why they seem to put their “love” in the past tense. You would think they were downgrading marriage and missing out on joy by talking like that.

And you’d be right.

Too many Christians see the hope of resurrection life as a capstone on their lives now. We implicitly assume that our focus in the new creation is a backward focus on our lives as they are now.

We talk about all the questions we’ll ask about why this or that happened. We never think about whether we’ll be too busy to care about that, just like we’re too busy in the prime of our careers to ask our kindergarten teacher why she had snack time after recess rather than before. We talk about our reunion with loved ones, but even they often implicitly have a past focus.

A high school reunion can be fun. You catch up with old friends, and remember good and bad times. But the focus is usually on “remember when” and “whatever happened to” conversations. That’s great for an hour or four, but 4 trillion years of that would be awful. That’s not what Jesus promised us. He promised us life.

If we miss this, then we become just like those with no hope. We talk about our “bucket lists” of what we have to do before we’re gone since “you only live once.” We worry about our future and we nurse grudges because we fear our lives can be ruined by circumstances instead of by sin. We essentially move into the same old “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you shall die” except that we cap it with “and then you’ll stand around with your loved ones singing songs and staring at a light for a quadrillion years and then some.”

God forbid.

Your eternity is no more about looking back to this span of time than your life now is about reflecting on kindergarten. The moment you burst through the mud above your grave, you will begin an exciting new mission -- one you couldn’t comprehend if someone told you. And those things that seem so important now -- whether you’re attractive or wealthy or famous or cancer-free -- will be utterly irrelevant in the face of an exhilarating new purpose, one that you were prepared for in this era but one that is far more than a mere sequel to your best life now.

Let’s talk about eternity. But it’s no mere “afterlife.” Instead let’s start thinking of this little puff of time, the next 80 or so years, as what it is: the pre-life.