- Theology and Identity
- Season 2
- Episode 5
- Airdate: 4 April 2025
- Please note this is a script, and not a transcript. There may be slight differences between this text and the actual broadcast.
- All Bible quotations taken from the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016)
Audio Links:
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What is heaven? Insights from the gospel of Matthew.
Introduction
The final book in CS Lewis’ the Chronicles of Narnia is called the Last Battle, and it actually has a pretty shocking ending. Three of the Pevensie children, Edmund, Lucy and Peter are hit by a train, they die and are immediately transferred into a new world.
They’re not in Narnia, and yet this world seems familiar, As they begin to look around, everything is similar to life in their previous world, yet somehow its all enhanced. The mountains on the horizon look similar, but they are now more colourful and imposing. The fruit they eat tastes something like that they had eaten before, but now its much better. The freshest grapefruit they had tasted now seemed dull in comparison to the grapefruit they were eating now. “the juiciest orange in comparison now seemed dry, and the sweetest wild strawberry by comparison now seemed sour.”[i] The children were coming to understand that everything they had seen and experienced before was only a shadow or a copy of this paradise where they now walked. In the previous world, their senses had been awoken, and yet never truly satisfied. All of the things that they were now seeing, tasting, touching and smelling were, for the first time ever, satisfying.
They were in heaven.
Some time after arriving in paradise, Aslan appears, and he gives them the opportunity to witness the end of that other world they used to know - Narnia. First, he stands at a giant doorway where all living creatures in Narnia must come to meet him. As they approach, those who know him and love him are allowed to pass through the door and enter heaven. Those who approach, but who don’t known him, turn away into the darkness. Then, the children watch as Narnia itself slips backwards through time. . Once the humans and animals are gone, the land is left to the Dragons and Giant Lizards. These creatures then die and turn to dust, leaving nothing but rock. With a roar, the seas then rise up and cover the dry land with water. The sun and the moon die, the face of the deep freezes, and Narnia returns to the nothingness from whence it had been created. Aslan gives the command, the Door closes, and Narnia is no more.
The creatures of Narnia who made it through the doorway are now joined with the Pevenise children in paradise.
Now I will admit that I love the Chronicles of Narnia and I love CS Lewis. There is so much in these stories that illuminates, through allegory, the Christian worldview and the biblical message. But I’m afraid to say that this picture heaven and the ending of Narnia is actually not a very accurate illustration of how the Bible describes things. The world’s ending that the children watch through the Doorway is very similar to what we would find in the writings of the ancient Greek philosophers, but it is not so similar to what the Bible actually teaches.
The Bible does not say that this world is an imperfect replication of the heavenly reality, nor does the Bible teach that that this world will be destroyed as the souls of the righteous are transferred to a different realm of paradise.
This idea of the physical world coming to a cataclysmic end actually slipped into the Western worldview from Stoic philosophy. .[ii] The notion that that this world is a copy or a shadow of the heavenly reality is a theme developed throughout the works of Plato. Many philosophers of the ancient Greek world thought of heaven as an intensification of all that is good in our earthly lives. They saw it as a place where we taste the same foods, see the same landscapes, sleep in the same types of beds—but where everything is better. Plato viewed heaven as a “purer earth,” a place where our senses experience all things in an untainted form.
In this episode, we’ll be looking at what the Gospel author Matthew had to say about heaven. I will note that I am not going to do a comprehensive bible study on eternal reward and the afterlife. My strategy is to just to focus on one biblical author.
Right now, I’m in the middle of a series on the Lord’s Prayer. Over the past several episodes we’ve been looking at several encoded words and images in the first section of the prayer: Our father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done.
And now we’ve arrived at the phrase ‘on earth as it is in heaven’
So the obvious question we now ask is, What did Mattew really mean when he talked about heaven?
Well it turns out that the idea of heaven is a major theme in Matthews gospel.
In his outstanding work entitled Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew Jonathan Pennington notes that of all the NT writers, no one talks more about heaven than Matthew. Forms of the Greek word for heaven (huranos) appear in Matthew’s Gospel eighty-two times, making up over thirty percent of its appearances in the NT.
Part of the reason that this word appears so frequently is that Mathew tended to insert heaven language into his account whenever he could. Whereas Mark reported Jesus preaching, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15), Matthew’s rendition says “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt.4:17)
Luke reports Jesus saying that the poor are blessed because theirs is the “kingdom of God”(Luke 6:20), whereas Matthew says that theirs is the “kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:3)
Mark recounts Jesus saying that his brothers and sisters are those who do “the will of God” (Mark 3:35) whereas in Matthew his brothers and sisters are those who do “the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 12:50) These types of alterations occur twenty-four times in Matthew, clearly indicating a deliberate effort to shift the attention toward heaven.
I think it would be fair to say that Matthew was obsessed with the idea of heaven.
So now we go back to the question: what exactly does heaven mean in the theology of Matthew?
Let me first say what it does not mean.
You may be surprised to hear that even as Matthew mentions heaven 83 times in his gospel, none of these instances explicitly refer to heaven as a place separate from the earth to which believers go after death.[iii]
Our common concept is that when we die, we leave the world behind and are transported to our eternal home in heaven. Think of the popular American folk hymn: One bright morning when this life is over, I’ll fly away, to my home on God’s celestial shore, I’ll fly away.
Its like what happened to Narnia. The world is completely obliterated and we pass into a different realm that bears some similarities to earth, but has no real relationship to the earth.
The ‘I’ll fly away ‘ concept of heaven is what we find in the Chronicles of Narnia. Its what we find in the writings of Plato. But its not what we find in the texts of the New Testament.
So as we look today at what Matthew wrote about heaven, its going to rub up against some very common cultural concepts of what heaven means.
Matthew does not describe heaven as a kingdom of eternal joy to which the faithful are transported after they die. Rather, heaven is the kingdom of eternal joy that will come to earth.
Let’s look a some passages that illuminates this a bit more.
In Mt 19, Jesus and his disciples are having a conversation about heaven.
28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Lets begin by looking at a key word in vs 28.
The son of man will sit on his glorious throne in the new world.
The Greek word that the ESV translates as ‘new world’ is palingenisia.
But we find that different english translations render different ideas around the meaning of this term.
NRS, NIV: - at the renewal of all things
KJV, ASV; in the regeneration
Living bible: when the world is made new
And this is one of those instances where the living bible actually comes the closest.
Palingenesia translated literally is genesis again, or ‘the beginning again’
The key idea is that after the resurrection of the dead and the final judgement, we don’t all leave this world to go somewhere else. We stay on this earth and God starts over again.
The palingenesia – the genesis again - begins at the moment when heaven fully comes to earth. The palingenesia is the perfect union between heaven and earth. The earth has become heaven and heaven heaven the earth. The shall become one. Theres no separation between them.
Now I appreciate that this might sound a bit strange. But let me illustrate this with a question about biblical thought.
When Adam and Eve lived in paradise, before the fall – did they imagine that someday they would be transported out of the garden of Eden and go to a place called heaven?
The answer, in Biblical thought is, of course not. What we find in Genesis is that, in their originally created form, Adam and Eve were never going to die. The garden of eden was created as a paradise that was never meant to be abandoned.
What the book of Genesis seems to be saying is that at the beginning of creation – there was no separation between a tainted, corrupt place called earth and a perfect beautiful place called heaven. The earth was perfect. Humanity lived in perfect relationship with God, perfect relationship with one another, and perfect relationship with the earth.
There was nothing to improve upon. There was nowhere else that they wanted to or needed to go.
So this illuminates Matthew’s understanding of ‘genesis again’.
The theology of Matthew works from the assumption that Heaven and earth were never meant to be separated. It was the fall of humanity that caused this unnatural division between the two. And in Mattew’s gospel, this is clearly not how things are supposed to be.
Pennington describes Matthew’s perspective on the relationship between heaven and earth in this way
For Matthew, the current tension or contrast between heaven and earth is not part of God’s creative and redemptive plans.. . . when emphasizing the contrast between heaven and earth it would be a mistake to understand this as a permanent and divinely designed state. The contrast between heaven and earth is a result of the sinfulness of the world and is thus unnatural. The eschatological goal . . . is that this unnatural tension will be resolved into the unity of God’s reign over heaven and earth. As the entire Gospel seeks to show, it is in Jesus Christ that the eschatological reuniting of heaven and earth has begun and it will be consummated at his coming.[1]
Lets reflect on this.
In the Gospel of Matthew heaven, in its current state, is temporary. And by the same measure, earth in its current state, is also temporary. Heaven is currently separated from the earth, but this is not how its supposed to be. Earth is currently separated from heaven, but this is not how its supposed to be. Matthew’s primary concern about heaven is: how will it be reunited with the earth?
Now for those of you listen to contemporary Christian worship, the idea that heaven comes to earth may be very familiar. I did a bit of research, and I will say a very small bit of research because I just asked Chat GPT, and I found 7 contemporary worship songs that talk about this idea of heaven coming to earth.
- "Here As in Heaven" – Elevation Worship
- "Heaven on Earth" – David & Nicole Binion
- "Let Heaven Come" – Bethel Music (feat. Matt Maher)
- "Kingdom Come" – Elevation Worship
- "Heaven Invade" – Kari Jobe
- "Our Father" – Bethel Music
- "On Earth as It Is in Heaven" – Red Rocks Worship
And I’m sure that there are many more.
It would seem that most of these songs that I’ve cited are drawing their idea of heaven coming to earth from the Lord’s Prayer – ‘on earth as it is in heaven’. And they are certainly not wrong about this. But if we look beyond the LP into Matthew’s gospel as a whole, we find that this is a theme that he develops more thoroughly throughout his text.
So I’m going to point out 3 elements from Matthew’s gospel on the reuniting of heaven and earth
- The reuniting of heaven and earth is not a uniquely eschatological event. Its not just something that happens at the end of the age. It is a process that has already begun.
- The reuniting of heaven and earth becomes a reality in the lives of Jesus’ followers when they do the will of our Father.
- The reuniting of heaven and earth is driven by prayer.
Let’s look at these points one by one.
- The reuniting of heaven and earth is not a uniquely eschatological event. it’s not just about what happens in the future. It’s a process that has already begun.
Theres a really important phrase that appears at key junctures in Matthew’s gospel: the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Or alternatively - the kingdom of heaven is getting really close’.
In 3:1 – John proclaimed this as he started his ministry.
In Mt 4:17 Jesus aid this as he started his ministry
And then in chapter 10, when Jesus first sent out his disciples he instructed them saying, ‘And proclaim as you go ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
So what exactly did they mean by ‘the kingdom of heaven is getting really close’?
This could be interpreted a couple of different ways.
On one hand, maybe Jesus was telling people that the world was about to end, judgement was close at hand, and that they better prepare for the global catastrophe which was about to take place. I find this particular interpretation problematic for different reasons, and in the bigger picture of Jesus’s teaching, I don’t think this is what he was saying.
But there is another way to interpret ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’. I think Jesus was saying that with his own coming into the world, the process of reuniting heaven and earth had been initiated. His arrival into the world set the gears in motion. In him heaven and earth were now set on a path toward union. The actual moment of heaven and earth coming together may still be far away in the future, but the joys of heaven can be experienced now.
That’s why he said to his disciples in 10:7 ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.’
The idea is that the healing and the freedom and the life of heaven can be experienced now.
That’s why Jesus said in 12:28 ‘if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.’
And that’s why Jesus so often spoke of the rewards of heaven as something that can be experienced now. We see this particularly in ch 13
- the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that starts small and grows into something beautiful,
- or the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that permeates your life
- Its like a treasure found in a field, a pearl of great price
- The person who finds the kingdom of heaven discovers that its treasures are new and old.
To summarise – in the teaching of Jesus the kingdom of heaven is not just a just a future hope, it’s a present reality. Matthew’s message is that with the coming of Jesus, the process of brining heaven and earth together has started, and those who follow the teachings of Jesus can experience the fruits of heaven now.
The 2nd point is that The reunion of heaven and earth becomes a reality in our lives when people do the will of the Father
When Matthew talks about heaven, his emphasis is not so much on what it will be like, but rather on how you live your life now. Its about making heaven a reality in your life now by means of making right choices.
Notice how the following verses combine the ideas of living a righteous life and taking possession of heaven.
- In Mt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” To get to heaven, you have to do the will of the father in heaven, because in heaven the will of the father is perfectly done.
- “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 3:2; 4:17) In other words: Amend your ways, because a new standard of measure is being set in place and you need to get on board.
- (Matt. 5:10) “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to you.” That is: Be assured that when you do the right thing and are persecuted for it, God is on your side.
- “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” That is: Children give us an example of the right way of doing things, so let me honor them.
So the second point I will emphasize from Mt is that heaven is something people can experience now by doing the will of the Father. Repent, turn away from sin, don’t just say Lord, Lord, -do his will, endure persecution, be humble as a child. When the followers of Jesus live like this, the union of heaven and earth becomes real in their lives at the present time.
And finally, the third point that can be drawn from Matthew’s teaching on heaven is that it comes through prayer.
I have noted previously that in Matthew’s version of the LP, on earth as it is in heaven does not refer only to the idea of ‘thy will be done’,
There are three petitions in the first section of the LP
Let your name be honoured as holy
Let your kingdom come
Let your will be done
For each of these points, the followers of Jesus pray: on earth as it is heaven.
The name of the Father should be honoured on earth, but in most of the world this isn’t happening.
The name of the Father is perfectly honoured in heaven.
So Christians are to pray: Just as your name is honoured in heaven, so let your name be honoured on earth.
The kingdom of God should be firmly established here on earth, but in most of the world this isn’t happening.
The kingdom of God is perfectly established in heaven. And that’s why Matthew tends to use the term ‘kingdom of God’ interchangeably with ‘kingdom of heaven’.
So Christians are to pray: Just as your kingdom is firmly established in heaven, so let your kingdom be established on earth.
And finally,
The will of the Father is should be done by people on earth, but this isn’t happening in most of the world.
The will of the Father is being perfectly carried out in heaven.
So Christians are to pray: Just as will is done in heaven, so let your be done here on earth.
The idea across the first three petitions of the LP is that when Christians pray, they are bringing heaven down to earth. The honouring of God’s name, the presence of God’s kingdom, and the doing of God’s will on earth will all be on the increase as the followers of Jesus pray.
So let me summarise what we’ve covered here.
The key idea in Matthew is that heaven is coming to earth. The two will become one.
Whereas this is not an uncommon idea in many Christian circles, and its based on Matthews version of the LP, I don’t often see evidence of a broader understanding around Matthew’s theology. So digging a bit deeper into Mt, we have emphasised three points around Matthews theology of heaven and earth:
- The reunion of heaven and earth is not a uniquely eschatological event. Its not just something that happens at the end of the age. It is a process that has already begun.
- The reunion of heaven and earth becomes a reality in our lives when we do the will of our Father.
- The reunion of heaven and earth occurs through prayer.
What we can take away from all of this is that Matthew is less concerned with describing what heaven is like, and more concerned with showing his readers how they can be a part in bringing heaven down to earth.
If we were to ask Matthew the direct question – what is heaven? I almost wonder if his response would leave us a bit dissatisfied
It seems like Matthew wants to leave us with the impression that heaven isn’t quite complete. Heaven has been cataclysmically torn away from the earth, and this isn’t how its supposed to me.
Heaven is yearning to be reunited with the earth, just as the earth groaning in the pangs of childbirth awaits its union with heaven.
It would seem that Matthew wants his readers to live in this tension. To feel it, to be caught up in it, and most importantly - to do something about it.
Don’t we all wish that the Bible was written a bit more like the chronicles of Narnia? That we would have a clear picture of what that other world looks like?
But that’s not really how the Bible is written is it. Its not a children’s fantasy novel. Matthew as an author, is more concerned about how your living your life today. And so if I could summarise the pastoral message he crafted for his readers, I think it would be something like this.
- Cherish and enjoy those elements of the heavenly kingdom that are already yours. You may be poor, you may be persecuted, you may be misunderstood. But never forget that you have found a treasure that is beyond any human measure of worth.
- Commit yourself to following the commands of Jesus. Repent, Turn from sin and unrighteousness, do God’s will, humble yourself like a child, for through your actions, the presence of heaven is being increased here on the earth
- Thirdly, pray, pray and pray again.
- And one final point. For Matthew, the important thing about heaven wasn’t what it is like. But rather, who is there. For Matthew, God isn’t just the father. He is the father who is in heaven. This might come as a surprise, but in the rest of the NT, the expressions ‘heavenly father’ or ‘father in heaven’ appear only once. Matthew, on the other hand, tags the Father as being in heaven 20 times.
Mathew wanted his readers to know that the most important thing about heaven is that its where the Father is. The followers of Jesus may not have clear picture of where heaven is, or what its like, but they can absolute certainty around who is there. It is the dwelling place of their Father.
And on that note,
[1] Pennington (2007), 155.
[i]C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (New york: HarperCollins, 1956), 172.
[ii] For an overview of the notion of the “end of the world” in Greek, Jewish, and Christian thought, see Pieter van der Horst, Hellenism - Judaism - Christianity: Essays on thier Interaction (Leuven: Peeters, 1998), 272-292. He notes that Greek Stoic philosophers upheld the idea of a periodic “global conflagration” (ekpurosis) wherein everything in the universe would be consumed by fire and returned to its primordial state. The OT employs the imagery of judgment by fire, but this is not to be confused with the end of the world. 2 Peter 3:10-13 is often used as a passage to support the idea of this present physical world coming to an end, but what we actually find here is the use of Stoic imagery to communicate an OT idea. In this passage “the earth and the works that are done on it” are exposed by the fire of God, but not obliterated.
It is a later time in the development of Christian thought that we find a full embracing of the Stoic destruction of the world. We see for example in the writings of the 3rd century theologian Minucius Felix: “Further, in respect of the burning up of the world, it is a vulgar error not to believe either that fire will fall upon it in an unforeseen way, or that the world will be destroyed by it. For who of wise men doubts, who is ignorant, that all things which have had a beginning perish, all things which are made come to an end? The heaven also, with all things which are contained in heaven, will cease even as it began. The nourishment of the seas by the sweet waters of the springs shall pass away into the power of fire. The Stoics have a constant belief that, the moisture being dried up, all this world will take fire; and the Epicureans have the very same opinion concerning the conflagration of the elements and the destruction of the world. Plato speaks, saying that parts of the world are now inundated, and are now burnt up by alternate changes.” [Minucius Felix, "The Octavius" in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4, eds. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A.Cleveland Coxe, trans. Felix Wallis. (Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 18850, 194]. (Henceforth ANF 4.) Note how Minucius makes it clear that many Christians of his day were in agreement with the Greek philosophers on this subject.
Many church Fathers were concerned about the infiltration of this doctrine into the church. Irenaeus argued that God will renew what he has created, not destroy it (“Against Heresies” V 36,1). And Origen (“Against Celsus” IV 11-13) argued that the fire of destruction is only a metaphor for the purging of evil from the world.
[iii] Of the eighty three appearances of heaven in Matthew, there are only three instances where something close to this idea may be deduced. In Matt. 5:12 Jesus says that the persecuted rejoice for “for your reward is great in heaven.” Note, however, that the reward is stated as being in the present tense. In Matthew’s framework, this denotes simply the idea the reward comes from the Father. The phrase “kingdom of heaven” sometimes has a futuristic orientation, as in Matt. 8: 11: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (see also Matt. 5:19-20; 19:23). But in these cases, Matthew is referring to the heavenly kingdom which will be established on earth, and not a spiritual paradise.