A Trip to Paradise and Back
II Cor. 12:1-5
What if you could go to heaven for a day? (How would you live afterwards?)
Tonight’s lesson is about someone who did.
II Cor. 12:1-5
a. Remarkable passage. Only person we have record of who went to paradise and back and spoke about it.
b. Jesus, Lazarus and others said nothing.
These verses are part of the evidence Paul sites for his apostleship.
c. While he uses the third person it is clear that he is referring to himself.
d. Though his enemies might boast of their attainments, he received greater things – he went to heaven for a while.
e. This took place, 14 years before, when at the beginning of his ministry, hence a great strength to him through the trials that followed because after glory came the pain (see vs. 7).
This evening, we want to point out some of the great truths implied by his remarks.
Heaven is a real place (2).
A. How do I know? Here was a man who’s been there. (Not a never never land, but as real as Lenoir, NC).
B. The Jews spoke of three heavens (Immediate atmosphere; The region of the stars; Paradise, where God is and the eternal home of the righteous – Rev. 2:7).
C. "Caught up"
1. Not just a dream or a vision, something more going on here.
2. Acts 8:39 – same word; The Spirit "caught away" Phillip and transported him to another place.
3. It was an actual experience. Same words in I Thess. 4:17.
D. Jesus is preparing a real place.
1. Jn. 14:1-3
2. Heaven is real and is a city we all can go if we prepare.
3. Think of –
"Stepping on a shore and finding it heaven;
Of taking a hand, and finding it God’s hand;
Of breathing a new air, and finding it celestial air;
Of feeling invigorated, and finding it to be immortality;
Of passing from the storm and tempest to an unbroken calm;
Of waking up, and finding we are home!"
Paul also implies the dual nature of man (3).
E. Though only God knew how, he considered it possible that he was caught up either in the body or apart from the body.
F. He had already spoken of this:
1. II Cor. 4:16
2. II Cor. 5:1
3. We have both a body and a soul.
a. A body that hurts and wears out, then dies and decays.
b. A soul that lives forever.
G. Dorcas (Acts 9:39) – She was gone but the body was still there.
1. Corpses and graves are meaningful only to the memory.
2. I have stood over the bodies of loved ones but they were not there.
3. We grieve over the casket because of the thoughts of life and love it provokes, but we don’t love the corpse, we love the person not the house they lived in.
H. Mt. 10:28
Paul said, "I cannot tell," suggesting that you don’t have to know everything about heaven to know about it for sure (3).
I. Some think of this passage and heaven and think only of the questions they can’t answer and there are many:
1. "Why couldn’t Paul tell what he heard?"
2. "Where is heaven?"
3. "What will we look like?’
4. "If we will know one another in heaven won’t we grieve over those who are lost?"
J. Of course, many questions can’t now be answered, but this does not mean we can’t be sure that heaven is real.
1. I Jn. 3:2
2. Many things in our daily experience cannot be fully explained, but we accept them nonetheless.
a. Electricity
b. Gravity
c. A child can’t explain how a black cow eats green grass and gives white milk, but "milk still does a body good."
Paradise is for those "in Christ" (2).
K. "In Christ"
1. Eph. 1:3
2. Eph. 1:7
3. Eph. 1:11
4. Clearly heaven is promised to those whose faith and obedience places them in Him (Eph. 2:13).
L. Rom. 6:3
M. Gal. 3:27
1. Just two places to be; in Christ or out of Christ.
2. Just two places to be; in the church or out.
3. God recognizes no other categories.
4. Question is not whether you want to be baptized, but whether you want to go to heaven.
Here was a man who was permitted to visit paradise and return to tell us.
a. Whatever he saw and heard it was of sufficient glory to cause him to spend the rest of his days in labor, suffering and then die a martyr’s death to get to go back.
b. If we live in Christ, we will someday join him there, with Peter, John and the redeemed of all the ages.
II Tim. 4:6-7