Quotes About Heaven for Funerals, Sermons, and Comfort
Scripture and two of the most widely quoted lines on heaven from Augustine and C.S. Lewis, chosen because their sources are exact and checkable.
Heaven is one of the topics where a sermon can drift furthest from what scripture actually says, filling in details scripture leaves open. The quotes below stay close to the text: what is promised, not what is imagined.
Two non-scriptural quotes are included because they are unusually well documented and directly on point: Augustine's line about restlessness, from the opening of the Confessions, and C.S. Lewis's argument from desire, from a specific, named chapter of Mere Christianity.
Quotes about heaven
Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible (public domain). Every non-scripture quote names its specific source so you can verify it before you preach it.
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”
John — Revelation 21:4 (WEB)
“In my Father's house are many homes. If it weren't so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.”
Jesus — John 14:2 (WEB)
“Things which an eye didn't see, and an ear didn't hear, which didn't enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.”
Paul — 1 Corinthians 2:9 (WEB)
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul — Philippians 3:20 (WEB)
“Behold, God's dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
John — Revelation 21:3 (WEB)
“Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it repose in Thee.”
Augustine — Confessions, Book I (c. 397)
“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.”
C.S. Lewis — Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 10 ("Hope")
Using these quotes in preaching
- 1Revelation 21:3–4 is the strongest text for a funeral: it names the specific griefs (tears, death, mourning, crying, pain) rather than speaking about heaven in the abstract.
- 2The Lewis quote is an argument, not a mood, so it is worth reading the paragraph before and after in Mere Christianity if you use it, since the line only lands with its logical setup intact.
- 31 Corinthians 2:9 is frequently misquoted as a promise that heaven is unimaginable and therefore not worth describing. In context (verse 10) Paul's point is the opposite: God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.
- 4Augustine's line works as an opening rather than a closing: it names the longing before the text answers it, which is the shape most heaven sermons actually need.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Bible verse about heaven for a funeral?
Revelation 21:4 ("He will wipe away every tear from their eyes...") is the most commonly used, because it addresses grief directly rather than describing heaven abstractly. John 14:2–3 is the next most common, for its personal, promised tone ("I am going to prepare a place for you").
Is the Augustine quote about restlessness genuine?
Yes. "Our heart is restless until it repose in Thee" is from the opening paragraph of Augustine's Confessions (written around 397 AD), one of the most quoted lines in Christian literature and easy to verify in any standard translation.
What is C.S. Lewis's "argument from desire"?
A line of reasoning in Mere Christianity: since every natural human desire (hunger, thirst, sexual desire) corresponds to something real that satisfies it, the persistent human longing for something this world cannot supply suggests we were made for another world, heaven.
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Related quote themes
Quotes about Darkness
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Quotes about Good Friday
Scripture from the cross itself, plus two hymns whose words have carried Good Friday services for three centuries.
Quotes about Jesus
Jesus's own words about himself, plus C.S. Lewis's well-known argument that a merely good teacher is not on the table.
Quotes about God's Love
Scripture on the scope and character of God's love: beginning before we deserved it and holding regardless of what tries to separate us from it.
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