Dr. David jeremiah
von muneeb aslamIs Heaven Real or Illusion? – by Dr. David Jeremiah
My friend, I want to ask you a question that just might change your life.
Do you believe that heaven is real? Or… have you ever wondered if it’s just a beautiful illusion—something we talk about to soften the blow of death, to give ourselves hope when things get hard?
I understand those questions. I really do. Because we live in a world that often feels more like hell than heaven. Disease. Divorce. Depression. War. Grief. Broken dreams. We see all this pain—and we wonder: Is there really something better waiting for us? Or are we just clinging to fantasy?
And if we’re honest, even Christians sometimes wrestle with doubt. We go to church, we read our Bibles, but then life hits us hard—and suddenly heaven feels distant. Abstract. Maybe even a little too good to be true.
But here’s what I want you to hear today, and I mean this with all my heart:
Heaven is not a myth. It’s not a metaphor. And it’s certainly not a made-up story to comfort the weak. Heaven is a real place—prepared by a real Savior—for real people.
Jesus Himself said in John 14, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Not a concept. Not a dream. A place.
That means heaven has dimension. It has beauty. It has purpose. It has joy, peace, worship, and reunion beyond anything our minds can imagine. And it’s not “up in the clouds.” It’s part of God’s eternal plan to redeem and restore everything that’s been broken.
But the enemy of your soul—Satan—wants you to doubt that. He wants you to think that this world is all there is. He wants you to live for now and forget forever. Because if you stop believing in heaven, you stop living with hope.
So today, I want to speak directly to your heart—not just your mind.
If you’ve lost someone you love, if you’ve ever stared into the darkness of grief and felt the ache of eternity... this message is for you.
If you've wondered whether your life really matters, whether your pain has a purpose... this message is for you.
And if you’ve doubted, questioned, or walked away from the idea of heaven because of something someone said or something life did to you... this message is especially for you.
We’re going to open the Word of God together. We’re going to listen not to the culture, not to skeptics, but to the Creator. Because only He can answer this question with eternal truth.
So stay with me. Open your heart. Heaven is more real than you’ve ever dared to imagine—and by the time we’re done today, I believe you’ll feel that truth deep in your soul.
Let’s begin.
Keynote 1: Jesus described heaven as a real place, not a metaphor.
Let me take you back to the upper room… the night before Jesus went to the cross. He had just told His disciples that He was going away. Their hearts were broken. Their minds confused. Fear hung heavy in the air. And in that moment of sorrow, Jesus looked at them and spoke words that have comforted hearts for over two thousand years.
He said, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
Now listen to me—Jesus wasn’t trying to be poetic. He wasn’t offering a metaphor or painting a comforting picture to ease their minds. He was telling them the truth. A literal truth. A real promise.
Heaven is not some spiritual concept floating in the clouds. It’s not an imaginary paradise we dream up to make death feel less terrifying. No, heaven is a real, physical place, created by God, where the followers of Christ will live with Him forever.
Jesus called it His Father’s house. He described rooms—many rooms—prepared for each of us. That’s not vague language. That’s intentional. That’s personal. He wanted His disciples—and He wants you—to know that heaven is as real as the earth you’re standing on right now. Even more so.
You see, if Jesus was lying about heaven, then He wasn’t just a good teacher or a kind prophet—He was a deceiver. But we know that Jesus is the Truth, and He never spoke a word He didn’t mean. When He said He was preparing a place, He was revealing the very heart of God—that He desires to be with us forever.
And I want you to hear something today: Jesus didn’t say, “I hope to make a place,” or “I’ll try to create a spiritual experience for you.” He said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” That means your name is on it. Your story, your soul, your eternal destination—it matters to Him.
You’re not just a number in heaven’s records. You’re a child of God with a home being built by the Savior who died to bring you there.
The world around us will try to tell you that heaven is a fantasy. That we’re weak for believing in something we can’t see. But friend, I’d rather trust the words of the One who conquered death than the voices of a broken world still lost in darkness.
When Jesus speaks of heaven, He speaks with authority. With love. With clarity. He gives us a reason to lift our eyes from the pain of this world and look forward to something beyond imagination.
And if you’ve ever felt like you don’t belong here—like this world just doesn’t satisfy—there’s a reason for that. You were made for another place. A prepared place. A real place.
Heaven.
Keynote 2: Heaven is promised to believers, not earned by good works.
If you were to walk up to someone on the street today and ask them, “How do you get to heaven?”—most would probably say, “Well, you just have to be a good person.”
Maybe you’ve heard that too. Maybe you’ve even thought it yourself. But I want to tell you something today—something that may surprise you, something that may even challenge what you’ve believed your whole life: You don’t earn heaven by being good.
That’s right. Heaven is not some divine reward for those who check off a list of moral achievements. It is a gift—offered freely by the grace of God to those who believe in Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
You see, if we could work our way into heaven—if we could climb some ladder of righteousness—we’d all be bragging about it. We’d look around and say, “Well, I did more than him. I volunteered more. I sinned less.” But heaven isn’t for the proud. It’s for the humbled. It’s for the person who falls at the foot of the cross and says, “Lord, I can’t do this without You.”
The good news—the Gospel—isn’t that we try harder and earn God’s love. It’s that Jesus lived the perfect life we couldn’t live, died the death we deserved, and rose again to open the gates of heaven for anyone who believes.
That’s the promise. Not to the perfect. Not to the religious. But to the believing.
When the thief on the cross turned to Jesus and said, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom,” Jesus didn’t say, “Well, you haven’t earned it. You haven’t done enough.” He said, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise.”
Why? Because he believed.
Friend, you don’t have to strive and strain to get to heaven. You just need to surrender. You need to place your trust in the One who has already done the work on your behalf.
Religion says, “Do more.” Jesus says, “It is finished.”
Heaven is not a prize for the perfect. It’s a promise for the forgiven. And that promise is available to you today—not someday when you’re better, not when you’ve cleaned yourself up—but right now.
All you have to do is believe.
Keynote 3: Scripture gives vivid, physical descriptions of heaven.
Let’s open our Bibles to the very last pages—to the book of Revelation—and let our imaginations be captured by something not made up in the minds of men, but revealed by the Spirit of God.
The Bible doesn’t leave heaven to mystery. In fact, it goes out of its way to describe heaven in physical, breathtaking, and tangible ways.
In Revelation 21, John says he saw a new heaven and a new earth—not a ghostly realm, but a real, recreated world where God Himself will dwell with us. And what did he see?
He saw a city. A city with walls and gates. Gates made of single pearls. Streets paved with gold so pure, they were translucent like glass. He saw foundations made of every kind of precious stone—jasper, sapphire, emerald. The measurements of the city are given in detail—1,500 miles wide, long, and high. That’s not symbolic poetry. That’s architecture.
Heaven has structure. Beauty. Order. Light.
And speaking of light—John tells us that in this place, there will be no sun or moon—because the glory of God will be its light and the Lamb will be its lamp.
Can you imagine that? No need for electricity, no fear of night, no darkness in any corner—because the presence of God will illuminate everything.
And there’s more. A river of life flows from the throne of God, and on either side grows the tree of life, bearing fruit for the healing of nations.
You see, this isn’t some mystical fog. This is a renewed creation. Real. Physical. Eternal.
Heaven is not less than what we know—it is far more. More color. More depth. More joy. More life.
And some of us have this idea that heaven will be endless boredom—that we’ll float on clouds, strum harps, and sing the same song forever. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The descriptions of heaven in Scripture point to a place of purpose, exploration, worship, community, and beauty beyond imagination.
God is a Creator. He made the mountains, the oceans, the galaxies. Do you really think He would prepare a dull eternity for His children?
No. Heaven will be bursting with life. With music. With movement. With meaning.
So when you think of heaven, don’t think of something abstract. Think of something real. More real than the chair you’re sitting on. More real than the sky outside your window.
That’s the place Jesus went to prepare for you.
Keynote 4: Eyewitness accounts and near-death experiences echo biblical truths about heaven.
We live in a skeptical age, don’t we? People demand evidence. Proof. And while our ultimate authority is always the Word of God, isn’t it something that time after time, even modern experiences echo what Scripture already declared?
You’ve probably heard stories—people who were declared clinically dead, yet came back with vivid descriptions of beauty, light, peace… even encounters with Jesus Himself.
Now, let me be clear—we don’t base our theology on these experiences. But we don’t ignore them either. Why? Because when you line them up with what the Bible says, the harmony is striking.
People talk about being overwhelmed by a love they’ve never felt before. About peace that passed all understanding. They describe breathtaking colors, music they can’t explain, and a deep, soul-level knowing that they were home.
Doesn’t that sound like what Jesus promised? “Peace I leave with you… not as the world gives.” Doesn’t it echo the apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12, when he said he was “caught up to the third heaven,” and heard things too wonderful for words?
These aren’t just emotional hallucinations. They’re spiritual confirmations. Reminders that what we believe is not a myth—it’s a glimpse of reality.
God doesn’t need to give us near-death experiences to prove His Word is true—but sometimes, He uses them to encourage our hearts. To remind us that heaven isn’t wishful thinking. It’s waiting.
And isn’t it fascinating that people from different cultures, backgrounds, and even religions report similar experiences when they die and come back? Many see a bright light. A beautiful place. A presence they describe as Jesus—even when they didn’t believe in Him before.
Friend, these glimpses are like whispers from eternity. Echoes of the truth we already have in the pages of Scripture.
Heaven is real. And in a world that’s constantly shouting, “This is all there is,” God continues to quietly show us: There’s more.
Keynote 5: The longing for heaven points to its reality, not illusion.
Let me ask you something, friend…
Have you ever had a moment—maybe just a fleeting second—where you looked out at a sunset or held a newborn baby or stood in absolute stillness… and something inside you whispered, “This isn’t all there is.”
That ache in your heart? That longing for something more? That sense that life has to be bigger, deeper, more beautiful than what we see around us?
That’s not fantasy. That’s not weakness. That is the fingerprint of eternity on your soul.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us, “He has set eternity in the human heart.” That means every single one of us, whether we admit it or not, has a God-given hunger for something beyond this life. We ache for justice that lasts. For peace that doesn’t end. For love that never fails. For joy that doesn’t fade.
Why?
Because we were made for another world.
C.S. Lewis once said, “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.”
Think about that.
You hunger for food—because food exists. You thirst—because water exists. You long for heaven—because heaven exists.
But the world around us is quick to dismiss those feelings. Modern culture tells us, “That’s just biology. It’s your brain making up stories so you won’t be afraid of death.”
No, my friend. That’s not your brain. That’s your spirit. That’s the echo of Eden. That’s the voice of your Creator calling you home.
People chase money, success, fame, pleasure—and yet they still feel empty. Why? Because the hole in your heart isn’t shaped like a career or a relationship or a possession. It’s shaped like heaven. It’s shaped like God.
You weren’t made to live 70 or 80 years and then vanish into nothing. You were created for eternity. And your soul knows it—even when your mind forgets.
So don’t silence that longing. Don’t ignore it. Lean into it. Ask the question: Why do I long for more? Why does my heart ache for heaven?
Because you were never meant to settle for this broken world.
Heaven isn’t an illusion created by man. It’s the destiny created by God for every soul who trusts in Him. That longing you feel—that homesickness—it’s not a lie. It’s a compass. It’s pointing you toward the truth.
Toward the place you were always meant to be.
Keynote 6: Heaven gives purpose, hope, and urgency for how we live today.
Heaven is not just something to believe in for someday. It’s something to live for today.
You see, when you truly believe that heaven is real—when it moves from your head to your heart—it changes everything. It changes how you grieve, how you forgive, how you spend your time, how you treat others, and how you endure pain.
Because suddenly, life isn’t about this moment. It’s about eternity.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
That means your suffering isn’t wasted. Your pain isn’t pointless. Your trials here on earth are not the end of the story—they are preparing you for something greater.
That’s why heaven matters today.
It gives hope in the face of heartbreak. When you lose a loved one, you don’t grieve like those who have no hope. You grieve knowing you will see them again. That’s the promise of heaven.
It gives purpose in the face of monotony. When life feels ordinary or small, remember: what you do here echoes in eternity. Every act of love, every prayer, every sacrifice—it matters.
And it gives urgency in the face of distraction. Friend, we don’t have forever. Life is a vapor. The people around us need the hope of heaven. That neighbor. That co-worker. That family member. They need to know the truth—that this life isn’t all there is, and that Jesus is the way to life eternal.
So don’t live with your eyes on the ground. Lift them. Set your mind on things above.
Heaven isn’t a far-off idea for the religious. It’s the anchor of the soul. It’s the fire in your spirit. It’s the motivation that carries you through suffering, temptation, and weariness.
Because if you believe that Jesus is preparing a place for you… then you know this broken world is not your final home.
And that means every day here is an opportunity—not to store up treasure on earth—but to invest in eternity.
Live like heaven is real. Because it is.
