Heaven is Home
What do you think is the longest layover someone has ever had at an airport? Not technically a layover, the longest stay is by an Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, affectionately known as Sir Alfred by airport staff at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, for 18 years, starting in the 80s.[1] He lived on a red bench, surrounded by his belongings. He would read, write in his diary, and survived on food bought by travelers and staff of the airport. This is what inspired the movie “The Terminal” by Tom Hanks.
Something psychological caused him to do that. It had to have been. He was first stranded because he lost his refugee and id papers. But years later he was granted legal residency papers, and he still didn’t want to leave. Why do you think that is? He made his home there. That red bench. That terminal.
We look at him and think, how could he feel at home there? How could he not want to leave? Yet, we do the same thing here. You know what your layover is? Whatever your age is. And we shouldn’t make this place our home, because we’re just passing through.
We shouldn’t feel at home here.
Hebrews 11 is one of the most encouraging passages in all of scripture for me. It is the Hall of Faith. It is a collection of the Old Testament saints who lived by faith, suffered hardship, but pursued the Lord for His glory. I want to live like them! That’s why we have Hebrews 11—it’s a model for us, to live out their faith.
Well, they all have a similarity. Look at verses 13 and 16 to see it.
Hebrews 11:13, 16 – 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth… 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Do you notice the similarity? One, they all have faith even though things don’t always work out the way they think they should. Second, they realize they’re not at home here. They’re looking forward to their true home. I find great hope in the end of Hebrews 11. It actually is one of the most hope-filled passages of scripture for me, although it is full of suffering and seems like nobody receives what was promised. I find hope because I see that God actually is working something greater, and those people die in faith, looking forward in hope—and that hope is what caused them to live extraordinary lives.
Some people will say that thinking about heaven will cause you to be ineffective on earth. That you can be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good. I have literally heard someone say that about some of my arguments. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, argues the opposite in one of my favorite quotes of his about hope and looking forward to heaven:
“Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters. Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main, direct objects you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something wrong with you. You are only likely to get health provided you want other things more—food, games, work, fun, open air. In the same way, we shall never save civilization as long as civilization is our main object. We must learn to want something else even more.
Most of us find it very difficult to want “Heaven” at all—except in so far as “Heaven” means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.”[2]
We shouldn’t feel at home here on earth. You know why? Because we aren’t at home here on earth.
Heaven, not earth, is our home.
Philippians 3:20 tells us that, “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” If you are in Christ, it doesn’t matter what country you belong to, your home isn’t where your mailbox is or where you lay your head at night—it’s where your Savior is. And because of that—because you belong to your Savior and His far country—verses like 2 Corinthians 5:20 hold true: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
C.S. Lewis says it well again in Mere Christianity, the point of that passage:
“The Christian says, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”[3]
Now, what do we mean by that other county? What do we mean by heaven? It’s a pretty loaded word.
There is a present heaven and a future new earth.
We use the word “heaven” to mean a lot. Really, we use it to mean where God is. We wrap everything up in it—both the present heaven and the new earth that will be eternal.[4] When I say “heaven, not earth, is our home,” the heaven I’m talking about is both the present heaven and the future new earth. It’s where God is. It’s where our Savior is. It’s where we go when we die or when Christ returns in glory and makes all things new.
Here's how it works, which we don’t think about often: if you die right now, you will go to the present (intermediate) heaven.[5] That is a very real, spiritual reality. You can see evidence of this in scripture such as Luke 16 with Lazarus and the rich man,[6] and Jesus telling the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”[7] Some different belief systems within a form of Christianity don’t believe in a present heaven,[8] but that’s not consistent with the Bible.
What a comforting thought it is that when you take your last breath on earth, you open your eyes in heaven. There’s hope there! There’s hope for living and for dying!
On the other hand, when we think about the eternal heaven, that present heaven isn’t it. Revelation 21 and 22 paints a picture for us of the new heavens and the new earth.[9] That is what is going to last forever. And it is a real, physical place. It’s not some clouds, floating in the sky singing Kumbaya. It is vibrantly living in complete perfection.[10] And all the effects of the Fall have been eradicated. The former things have passed away. All things have been made new.
That is our forever home. And I want you to think about that—forever. We’re going to think about it in more depth next week, but what is the opposite of forever? Temporary.
You don’t store possessions in a hotel room.
C. S. Lewis, in The Problem if Pain, wrote, “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”[11] We are just passing through here. You know that, right? 1 Peter 2:11 calls us “sojourners and exiles.” We are just passing through. The word translated “sojourner” there can mean stranger, foreigner, or alien.[12]
Think about that. We’re tourists. We’re visiting. We’re staying in a hotel room. We’ve packed a suitcase that we’re living out of. And we’re in a land that we’re not used to. Everything looks a little different. Nothing’s quite right or as it should be. Everybody’s a little weird. (That’s because of sin, by the way.) So, you know what? There’s no use fitting in. Tourists stand out, don’t they? You don’t go to another country and try to look like them and sound like them. You are different! If you are in Christ, you are a foreigner in this world.
But, we’re not just strangers and foreigners. We’re also exiles. We’re having to stay here a little longer than we’d like. We don’t get to go home. And you know what? That’s a bummer. I would rather be at my house and in my bed than sleeping in some hotel room in some weird land, wouldn’t you? That’s what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 1:21-25:
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.
Think of it this way: if you were traveling for work, and you spent all your paycheck on interior decorating for your hotel room, wives, how do you think that would make your husband feel? I don’t think he would be the happiest with your financial decisions. Husbands, if you spent all your paycheck on a new tv and mattress and recliner for the hotel room, how do you think your wife would react? After a stern (to put it mildly) lecture, she might put you in a psych ward.
We know this sounds silly, but this is exactly what we do. We are just passing through, but we live for here and now and store everything up here instead of storing it in heaven—instead of sending it ahead. Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21,
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
But rest assured also in this:
Jesus is preparing a place for us.
Jesus says something hope-filled regarding heaven in what is known as his farewell discourse (John 14-17). It’s when He’s in the upper room with His disciples celebrating the Passover, and He’s about to be betrayed and handed over, crucified, and gloriously resurrected. He gives the farewell discourse, in part, to prepare His disciples for what they are about to face. So, it’s purposefully hope-filled.
Think about what they were about to face. They gave up everything to follow Jesus. And Jesus had nothing. He didn’t have a place to lay His head.[13] They gave three years of their lives and gave up their careers. And He’s leaving them. And here’s what He says:
John 14:1-6 – 1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
In Israel, fathers often built rooms onto their houses for their sons and their families. [14] What Jesus is saying is He is preparing a place for us to be near Him—to be with Him—to dwell with Him.
Jesus makes the way through the cross and the empty tomb. He rises victoriously from the dead. He ascends into heaven. And He promises to return. But in the meantime He’s preparing a place for us.
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/23/terminal-man-lived-in-paris-airport-18-years-ill-never-forget-weeks-with-him
[2] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, Harper edition, 2001), pp. 134–135.
[3] Lewis, Mere Christianity, 136–37.
[4]https://www.epm.org/resources/2015/Apr/22/present-heaven-future-heaven
[5]https://www.gotquestions.org/intermediate-heaven.html; https://tabletalkmagazine.com/daily-study/2025/12/the-intermediate-state-heaven
[8]https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2020/04/the-intermediate-state
[9]https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/new-heaven-new-earth
[10]https://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Feb/17/what-will-we-do-heaven
[11] C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: HarperOne, 2001), 116.
[12]https://biblehub.com/greek/3941.htm
[14] https://www.gty.org/articles/P24/the-solution-to-a-troubled-heart
