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What’s Up With Heaven?
John 14:1-3 Epitaph in “Here lies the body of
old man Peas, Buried ‘neath the
flowers and trees. But Peas ain’t here,
just the pod. Peas shelled out and
went to God.” A lady tried to quote
this to her women’s missionary group, but accidentally got it wrong… “Here lies the body of
old man Peas, Buried ‘neath the
flowers and trees. But Peas ain’t here,
just the shell...” [she couldn’t finish!] Well, since it’s true
that one day true believers will leave the pod behind…just an empty
shell...and go somewhere called heaven, it makes sense to check out the
place we’re going to live forever!
"NO!" the children all answered.
"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept
everything neat and tidy, would I get into heaven?"
Again, the answer was "NO!"
"Well," she continued, "then how can I get to heaven?"
From the back of the room, a five-year-old boy shouted out, "You gotta
be dead!" Where will you go when
you die? The current death
rate is still 100%. 3 humans
die each second. Over a
quarter million people each day go either to heaven or hell. Where are we to get
our information about heaven?
From our imagination or a dream we had? From books written by
some who have had ‘near death’ experiences?
No, the Bible says no one has seen God at any time, and none can
return from the dead. Even
Paul, who WAS allowed a glimpse into heaven was sent back with
instruction not to tell what he saw.
But John was given a revelation…a vision, and was given
permission to give us a peek into heaven, but with no great detail. It was this same John
who earlier wrote this gospel we study, and was inspired to reveal a bit
about the place Jesus would go to prepare for us! Some say we shouldn’t
give too much effort to thinking about heaven, but rather focus on our
life on earth.
“So heavenly minded you’re no
earthly good.” They say
that if we focus on the next world we will lose our vision for relieving
suffering in this world. I believe that it is
when we lose sight of eternity that we get so wrapped up in this present
life. Thinking about hell
doesn’t discourage me in this life, it motivates me to preach the truth!
And thinking about heaven doesn’t distract me from the here and
now, it motivates me to take others there with me! It has always bothered
me that statistics say that by and large, Christians don’t live any
different than the world does.
Could it be, in part, because of a lack of teaching on eternity? You see, when you
forget that God has prepared a wonderful place for you in eternity, or
when it is simply not on your radar screen, you develop a hunger for
paradise in your heart and you begin trying to create it here on earth.
You will spend a lot of money and go to great extremes to try to
build your utopia, complete with all the comforts of heaven. You’ll need to somehow
remove pain, and have a beautiful place, more toys and luxuries, no
stress, no commitments…just find a way to escape from this world.
These things may be ok to
have to some extent, but let’s remember we could never really come close
to approximating what awaits us in heaven.
You could be rich, and it will only lead to emptiness.
Fame is a pain, and stressful!
Pleasure is fleeting, and doesn’t last, and no matter how you try
to medicate away the pain, it is real, and never completely goes away. The richest man who
ever lived was also the wisest, and reasoned that it is all vanity!
God has placed within the human heart a hunger for heaven, and if
we don’t feed that hunger from the truth of the Word of God, we will
subconsciously begin to attempt to replace that with the cheap and
tawdry allurements of this world, trying to create a paradise of our
own.
Question?
What if God allowed us to create our own heaven on earth, but we
had to trade the true heaven in order to get it? What’s up with heaven?
1.
The Prominence of Heaven. It is mentioned over
500 times in the Bible. It
means 'lofty,' or 'high up.'
It carries the idea of a raised goal, as in, being high on our priority
list as something to aspire to. Yes, heaven is
prominent in the Bible, prominent in our language and culture…just not
prominent in our thoughts as believers or else we would make some big
changes in how we view life on earth.
Our perspective would be very different if we really grasped what
Jesus said to us in our text today.
2.
The Plurality of Heaven. The Bible speaks of 3
heavens: the atmosphere,
outer space [stellar heaven], and third heaven...the place where God
resides. Don’t confuse them
in Scripture. 1st heaven: Isaiah 55:9-10 Genesis 1:14 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 We pray - our Father,
which is in…heaven. Matthew 5:16 This is the eternal
abode of God, and the one mankind aspires to.
3.
The Place of Heaven The disciples’ hearts
are troubled at the news that Jesus is going to be killed and depart the
earth. Jesus gives them the
good news that they will be joining Him one day. The ‘Father’s House’
is home. There’s something
very intimate and personal about this place Jesus is describing.
It’s a real place...a
prepared place for a prepared people. The Greek topos
topos = place [in the sense of a location…a point that you can locate] So where is it?
Write this down! I don’t
know. The Bible refers to
heaven as being ‘up.’ [slide] Ephesians 4:10 Acts 1:10-11 But, which way is up?
If we say it is directly above where you stand, then since the
world is a sphere it would be in a different direction from every point
on the earth. It would be
everywhere in general and nowhere in particular!
A better answer... Isaiah 14:13 Job 26:7 No matter where you
are on the earth, ‘north’ is always up. Perhaps heaven is somewhere in
the northern heavens.
Astronomers say there is such a place in space that seems to be vacant
of stars and galaxies in the northern heavens, beyond Polaris the north
star. This is serious
speculation...heaven may be another dimension entirely.
I must say sorry to all our
subscribers in the south, but heaven may be in the north!
4.
The Preciousness of Heaven. Everything that is
near and dear to us Christ followers is in heaven:
Our redeemer. Hebrews 9:24 Streets of gold and
gates of pearl and a sea of glass will fade by comparison to the Savior,
Jesus. Do you want to touch
gold...or touch the nail scarred hand?
Our relationships. One way to know you
are getting old is when you have more loved ones in heaven than you have
on earth! Hebrews 12:23 Ladies Home Journal
did a poll [nice of them to do this for my sermon] “Whom would you like
to see first in heaven?” 31% said mother, 16%
said father, and 10% said spouse!
Our resources. 1 Peter 1:3-4 When God is your
Father, you become an heir, and you have an inheritance in heaven,
preserved for you!
Our residence. Philippians 3:20 I’m not a citizen of
earth, I’m on a visa from heaven…I’m an ambassador, sent by my king to
represent Him for a time!
“This world is not my home…” No wonder Paul said to
set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. If we forget about
heaven and never look up, all we can do is look around, and that can be
very depressing. Remember,
one day we are going home!
Our reward. Matthew 5:12 There are 5 crowns we
can earn by our service for the Lord.
God is into motivation by reward, and since He is the worthy one,
we will lay those crowns at His feet.
Our riches. Matthew 6:20-21 The only way to send
treasures to heaven – is to invest in things going there, like the souls
of mankind.
Our reservation. Revelation 21:27 Is your name in the
registry? Have you made a
reservation? Luke 10:20 What if you got to the
gate of heaven and God asked you why He should let you in…what would you
say? At the reception,
waiters in tuxedos offered luscious hors d’oeuvres and exotic beverages.
The bride and groom approached a beautiful glass and brass staircase
that led to the top floor. Someone ceremoniously cut a satin ribbon
draped across the bottom of the stairs. They announced the wedding feast
was about to begin. Bride and groom ascended the stairs, followed by
their guests. At the top of the
stairs, a maitre d’ with a bound book greeted the guests outside the
doors. “May I have your name
please?” “I am Ruthanna Metzger
and this is my husband, Roy.” He searched the M’s.
“I’m not finding it. Would you spell it please?” Ruthanna spelled her
name slowly. After searching the book, the maitre d’ looked up and said,
“I’m sorry, but your name isn’t here.” “There must be some
mistake,” Ruthanna replied. “I’m the singer. I sang for this wedding!” The gentleman
answered, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you did. Without your
name in the book you cannot attend the banquet.” He motioned to a
waiter and said, “Show these people to the service elevator, please.” … The waiter led
Ruthanna and
After locating their
car and driving several miles in silence, “When the invitation
arrived, I was busy,” Ruthanna replied. “I never bothered to RSVP.
Besides, I was the singer. Surely I could go to the reception without
returning the RSVP!” Ruthanna started to
weep–not only because she had missed the most lavish banquet she’d ever
been invited to, but also because she suddenly had a small taste of what
it will be like someday for people as they stand before Christ and find
their names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Throughout the ages,
countless people have been too busy to respond to Christ’s invitation to
His wedding banquet. Many assume that the good they’ve done–perhaps
attending church, being baptized, singing in the choir, or helping in a
soup-kitchen–will be enough to gain entry to heaven. But people who do
not respond to Christ’s invitation to forgive their sins are people
whose names aren’t written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. To be denied
entrance into heaven’s wedding banquet means the elevator they will be
put on will go much lower than the garage.
God is still taking
reservations for heaven. Is
your name on the list? v. 6 tells the one way
to heaven! Tonite:
a
Tour of Heaven
[based in part on outline from David
Jeremiah] Please help keep this ministry free by honoring our system...
Please Choose:
Grace Notes Sermon Ministry:
NOTICE! Our sermons are free to download, copy and paste, edit and use as you see fit...but only our free subscribers get the newest messages, featured sermons, and some free gifts we shower on them from time to time! Help keep this service free by recommending it using the links above the sermon
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