Handout available here
Heaven as home concept more from songs than Scripture
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - Coming and Meeting

• Traditional reading: Jesus comes back and takes us to heaven
• Not 'The Rapture'
• Paul's pastoral purpose
• Left hanging in the air
• Parousia (royal visit) & apantesis (meeting and escorting the king)

Philippians 3:20-21 - Citizenship in Heaven

• Traditional reading: Citizens of heaven = heaven is home
• Citizenship in the Roman Empire & Philippi
• Jesus comes here from there (not vice versa)

John 14:1-3 - Jesus Prepares a Place

• What's not said
• Translations of 'dwelling places' (monai)
• Where/what is 'my Father's house'? (Answer is less clear than we assume)
• The place is prepared in heaven now to be revealed here later

The pastoral point: We are not abandoned (and neither is any of God's good creation)