Jan 25 Filling station
We welcomed Matt Caddick, Pastor of Counterslip Baptist Church in South Bristol.
Matt’s sermon explored the biblical concept of ‘heaven’, challenging traditional perceptions and presenting a more nuanced understanding. He argued that heaven is not merely a distant, ethereal realm, but a space of divine presence that has been intimately connected with earth throughout biblical history.
Beginning with Genesis, he highlighted how heaven and earth were originally unified in the Garden of Eden – a place of God’s dwelling, abundance, and life. After humanity’s fall, this connection was disrupted, but God consistently worked to re-establish it. The sermon traced this theme through the tabernacle and temple, which were designed as representations of the original garden, marked by intricate symbolic details like the recurring use of the number seven.
The culmination of this reconnection, according to the sermon, is Jesus Christ. In Jesus, heaven literally “tabernacles” on earth, bringing divine presence directly to humanity. After Jesus’s ascension, this mission continues through believers, who are described as “walking heaven” – the new temple where God’s Spirit dwells.
Matt emphasised that Christians are not just waiting to go to heaven, but are called to bring heaven to earth through prayer (“Your kingdom come”) and by embodying God’s presence. Each believer is an “embassy” of divine life, capable of bringing hope, freedom, and peace to the world around them.
