When you think of heaven what do you think of? Do your thoughts run along the lines of golden streets, no pain, no tears, seeing dearly missed loved ones, a brand new perfectly working glorified body, no more sin, and heavenly delights unimagined? Well, without a doubt, heaven does encompass all those thoughts as realities but, not as the ultimate and all-encompassing Reality and Joy. And, if all that heaven consisted of was these realities without its ultimate Reality and Joy, namely Jesus, heaven would not be heaven and I would not want to go there!
Heaven is Jesus plain and simple. It is not so much the place as it is the Person and being able to be with this all-glorious Person, gazing upon His glory, and enjoying His glory for all of eternity. Again, I say, if Jesus is not in heaven I will not want to go there for without Jesus it is hell.
An interesting story occurs in Luke 9 that illustrates and explains my point. After asking His disciples who they believed He was in verse 20 and hearing Peter’s confession that He was the Christ of God, Jesus goes on to explain to His disciples that He was going to die, be raised up on the third day (v.22), and then return to earth in His glory (v. 26). Following this mention of His glorious coming, Jesus, within the same context emphatically states that among those listening to Him were some who would not die before seeing the kingdom of God.
Thus, it seems to me that Jesus is equating the kingdom of God with the seeing of Jesus in all of His glory. I think this is reinforced in the next few verses describing for us Christ’s transfiguration. Note that in verse 28, Luke ties in what he is about to describe with what Jesus has just said. He does this by bringing to our attention the fact that the transfiguration occurs some eight days after Jesus had said what He said about coming in all of His glory. Then Luke describes what happened in the second part of verse 28 all the way through verse 35.
First, he mentions that Jesus took along with Him, Peter, James, and John to the mountain to pray. These three, I am supposing, are “the some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God” in verse 27. And what was it that they were to see? What exactly would they get a chance to see that Jesus calls the kingdom of God in verse 27?
Note the description Luke provides in verse 29. While Christ was praying, the appearance of His face changed. The text says that His face “became different”. By comparing Luke’s description with Matthew’s of the same event, we find out that His face began to shine like the sun. In other words, Jesus begins to unveil His glory and as He peels back the flesh, so to speak, the three men ultimately see what none of us will be able to see until heaven, Jesus in His glory with His face shining so brilliantly and gloriously that the only comparison that can be made is that it was like looking directly into the intensity of the sun.
Next, Luke tell us that Jesus’ clothing then became “white and gleaming” (Luke 9:29) whereas, Matthew describes them as becoming as “white as light” (Mt. 17:2). In other words, the glory of Christ’s divine nature radiated throughout His face and body so that even His clothing became brilliantly and exceedingly white (Mark 9:3) and Luke adds, “gleaming”. The Greek word translated gleaming means emitting light as lightening emits light in the sky when it flashes. Thus, Jesus revealed in His glory shines forth in light which is so brilliant, so intense, so magnificent, so powerful, and so pure that it is as Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:16, unapproachable for the unglorified human eye.
It was this glory that the three apostles would see when they woke up. Yes, that’s right. Up until now, they are asleep according to verse 32. But when they woke up what they saw was Christ’s glory. What a picture this is for us who believe and who will one day lay down this body with all its hurts, ills, cares, and troubles only to wake up in the presence of the glorious Savior so as to see His glory. But before we go there, let’s see what else occurred at the transfiguration which, give us even more of a hint as to what heaven is all about.
Go back to verse 30. Notice that as Jesus is revealed in all of His glory two men were talking with Him, Moses and Elijah. Furthermore, in the next verse we see that they also appeared in glory or splendor and they were talking with Jesus about His coming death. Now think about this for a minute. Don’t pass it by too quickly because here you have a beautiful description of what heaven is all about. In a nutshell, heaven is real men, who having been given glorified bodies are able to talk face-to-face and thus fellowship with the all-glorious Son of God as they gaze upon Him in His brilliant, dazzlingly, infinitely intense, and unapproachable glory and find that rather than dying they will do it all over again every day for the rest of eternity. Wow! That is a glorious heaven indeed.
But there’s more. Notice what they were talking about. Verse 31 says they were talking about His departure which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. That is, they were talking about His up and coming death on the cross as the substitute for all who would believe in Him. What does talking about the cross have to do with us once we are in heaven? Everything! You see, we too, will have the glorious opportunity to be with Jesus in His glorious presence, gazing upon His unspeakable splendor, talking about what He accomplished for us in and at the cross.
Then and only until then will we be able to see the fullness, the beauty, and yes even the shame and ugliness of the cross on our behalf. Then, we will be able, to finally, with all the saints, comprehend the love Christ had and has for us. Then we will find our soul’s capacity for joy not only hugely enlarged but over flowingly full. Then we will see that the essence of the kingdom of God is Jesus and experiencing Jesus in all His glory forever. And then we will finally see that the Ultimate Reality and Joy of Heaven is Jesus!
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