The
doctrine of the ultimate state of man’s existence –i.e. eternal life in a place called heaven or hell generally receives little attention among
the Christian people of our
age. One heretical preacher’s bestselling book even claims that you can have
your best life now. The so called Christian exponents of the health, wealth and
prosperity movement are known to want to create their heaven on earth, except
that death gets eventually in the way! Very recently I had conducted the
funeral of a man who had left this movement and attended our church, and he
really had trusted in the Lord Jesus. His wife and family had not joined him
and they could simply not get to terms with his cancer and mortality and until
the end they claimed his healing. The
point is that heaven, for many is not more desirable than this life. What about
you? Are you content to live out your allotted years on this earth, and are you
really looking forward to heaven?
I
have chosen this text from the gospel of John to remind you that soon you and I will face eternal reality, and if you are a
Christian I want to
encourage you to look forward
to that day.
The Context :
· Upper room discourses in John 13-17- The
night He was betrayed. Jesus was facing His own death
· Last supper – the foot-washing,
servant act of Jesus – The betrayal of Judas and Peter’s denial is foretold.
· The mood is one of
pessimism. Jesus’ intention
is clearly announced in 13:1. “Jesus
knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father…“. And in 13:33
He says, “Little children, yet a little while I am with you… Where I am going, you cannot come.”
Simon Peter asks Him, “Lord where are you
going?“ (13:36),to which Jesus
responds, “Where I am going you cannot
follow me now, but you will follow afterward.”
So
we see that the hearts of the disciples are troubled and discouraged. Their
beloved Teacher and good friend is
saying that He is going to leave them. Jesus responds: “Let not your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God, trust also in me.“ (14:1).
And He proceeds to give them two important assurances:
(i)
Vv.2,3 He is telling them
that He is going away to prepare a place for them. And He promises to come back
to fetch the. By this He indicates that they will see him again.
(ii)
Vv.16- 18. He would not leave
them as orphans. He would provide
Another One like himself – and from that follows the doctrine of the Holy Spirit which we find in Jn.
14:15ff and Jn. 16:5ff.
In
giving them these two assurances Jesus caters for His disciples immediate security (sending the Holy
Spirit) and future security (heaven)
But
as we consider now verses 1- 3, we are interested by what He means by
His “Father’s House “ where there are “many rooms” which He is
intending to “prepare” for them.
The big thought of this message is that heaven is a home for Christians!
The
Father’s House here is another word for heaven, the place to which
Jesus had ascended, and from where He shall come again. The term heaven is not used
here, but it is often used in the OT (shamayim
- pl. noun lit. the heights) and in the
NT (ouranos). The terms
“shamayim” and “ouranos“ are used
in 3 senses:
(i)
The atmospheric heaven. This is the sky, or
the troposphere—the atmosphere that surrounds the earth. That is the first
heaven.
(ii)
The planetary heaven, the second heaven, the abode of the moon, stars, and the planets.
(iii)
The third heaven, the one Paul speaks
of in 2 Corinthians 12, is the heaven
where God dwells with His holy angels and those saints who have died.
The other two heavens will pass away (2
Peter 3:10); this heaven is eternal. It is this place that Jesus refers to
here.
And
so, when you ask, what is heaven like,
we have here a remarkable description of what heaven is like. Jesus calls it “the Father’s house”! Heaven
is compared to a home! And in this home we have
a Father and a brother and a very big family in a setting of absolute sinlessness, perfect
joy and eternal peace. Regarding the
aspect of joy, we may believe that there will be continued
satisfaction and happiness in heaven. Martin Luther once said, “If you’re
not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there“. Heaven will be a happy place. Regarding our family in heaven we shall have the unspeakable privilege not
only to see and enjoy the company of our
heavenly Father, but also that of our elder brother, Jesus and we shall
experience the continual ministry of the
Holy Spirit, but we shall also be in the company of all the fathers and the mothers of the Old
and New Testaments.
In heaven no one shall ever complain that others have too
much while we have too little. In heaven
there shall be no misunderstanding or
arguments. There will be no hospitals and no cemeteries. And if there is
work to do, which is something that God has ordained and which is part of His creative being and our beings, there will be no
policemen, soldiers and lawyers, for there will be no war and no crime. There will be no doctors and nurses and
hospitals, for there shall be no sickness. There will be no churches and no
denominations and no pastors, for there shall be one flock and one shepherd -
the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be no regrets in heaven, no tears, no
second thoughts, and no lost causes,
Everything in heaven is purposeful and meaningful.
And
since language will exist in heaven,
there will be many words missing from that dictionary. Words like stealing,
prison, adultery, murder, lying, coveting, idolatry- all those things forbidden
in the 10 commandments, will not exist in heaven’s dictionary.
When
Christians die they go home to their Father’s house. Have you ever thought of
this? God’s eternal plan centers on family
structures. God created society to be made up of families. Churches may be described best as families, the household of God [1 Tim 3:15]. Heaven is a
family home. When Jacob dreamed at Bethel
[Gen. 28: 10ff], earth and heaven
was connected with the angels ascending and descending on a stairway between
the two. When Jacob awoke he had the
distinct impression that he had been in
God’s direct presence. And what did he
conclude from that? He said, “how awesome is this place . This is none
other than the house of God ; this
is the gate of heaven… he called that place “Beth- el” which means “House of God”.
So
it true to say that heaven is a home.
Therefore it is a distinct place. And while it is true to say that God is everywhere, and that
He manifests His presence
everywhere, yet it is also true
that there is also a special place in which He manifests Himself
in a visible, glorious and uninterrupted manner. Heaven is His throne room, His center of
command, if you like.
The
architecture of the earthly temple helps us to understand this. In the temple
there were many rooms and spaces, but there was the holy of holies, that place where God’s presence on earth was
supremely manifested. Well, this is the picture of heaven, but the real heaven
of which the earthly holy of holies is but a shadow is far more profound than
we are able comprehend right now. The
operative principle by which we live now
is by faith … we live in
anticipation of that eternal home. We live in anticipation of entering into the
holy of holies – the very presence of God – heaven! It is ours already by inheritance through the
Son who has justified us and cleansed us from all sin, and who ALONE enables us
enter the Father’s presence! But we are
not there yet! But in a little while …
We are presently like
Abraham
of whom it is said, “that he was looking
forward (by faith) to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is
God.” [Hebr.11:10]. This is the same city as that
which is described in Revelation 21 and 22.
Heaven
is our eternal home! Right now we are
not at home. We are strangers and aliens here. Do you feel it, dear Christian?
It is true that we have important work to do here, and important relationships
to pursue, and right now we need to pay
attention to them. But do you find that
your thoughts wander frequently and
longingly to your heart’s true home?
The many “rooms” (KJV mansions)which are prepared for us by the Lord Jesus
in heaven: The KJV translation “mansion” is misleading
in our modern context. You might be tempted to think that you might occupy your
own Buckingham palace in heaven. But
the word used here in the original does not indicate such. The Greek word used
here is “mone”[1]. It
simply means “dwelling place”. But
the significance of this dwelling place is that it shall be our eternal
dwelling place. Presently we actually
live in temporary dwellings. Many of
us have moved so often in life, and we have had so many dwelling places here on earth, that we are certainly looking
forward to our final dwelling place, where we shall never ever have to pack and unpack a single thing again!
What
will heaven’s architecture and dwellings look like? We have very few
descriptions, but one of them is found in Rev.
21:9 – 22:5 (read)
For
a moment however we must take our eyes
off the physical beauty of heaven
and consider the atmosphere in which we will live. We all know that we can live in
a beautiful mansion, but in which we
never feel at home. What makes a house a home? The atmosphere! And what is the atmosphere of heaven? In 1738
Jonathan Edwards preached a series of messages to his congregation in
Northampton, Massachusetts, on 1 Cor. 13. The last message he preached was
taken from 1 Cor. 13: 8 – 10, and it
was entitled, Heaven – a world of love.
That text, you may remember, tells us that many things will pass away, but love
never. In that sermon Edwards preached
his heart out! In essence he reminded his hearers that the atmosphere of heaven
is “perfect love”. He begins with the Triune God whose supreme attribute is
“love“. The Triune God lives in a love relationship. Thereafter he covers the fact that
everything in heaven is “lovely” - “perfectly lovely “- uninterrupted , mutual
expressions of perfect love flowing from
the Creator to His creation and between the creatures to one another! Nothing imperfect will ever
jar our relationships in heaven. And you who are deeply wounded and hurt
because of your broken relationships here on earth - look forward to that
wonderful atmosphere of heaven. Heaven is more than a place or a street address
at which we shall live. Heaven is a “state
of being“. It is a state of wellbeing! And it is connected to the state of
our bodies. The truth is that our present bodies are
tabernacles, tents – temporary lodgings. In heaven we will be clothed with our
“immortal bodies” [1 Cor. 15:53,54] – bodies
that do not get sick, depressed, discouraged, confused, lonely - in
our eternal city [Hebr. 13:14] … our eternal
house not built by human hands [2 Cor. 5:1] . And now lastly, remember that …
Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared
people
Jesus
said: “I go to prepare
a place for you”.
Who are the
“you?”
Heaven is a place for sheep.
There are no goats in heaven. Sheep are the people that Jesus died for [John 10]. There will be great multitudes of Jesus’
sheep, from every nation, tribe, people
and language standing before the throne and before the lamb [Rev.
7:9] in heaven.
Heaven
is a real place. It doesn’t find a natural home in our heart. But it must, and
it only happens when Jesus becomes
our Saviour. He is the way. He is the only way for you to
heaven. Until you come to Jesus, heaven will have no attraction for you – but
worse still - heaven will reject you. George
Swinnock said: “Heaven must be in
you, before you can be in heaven.“
And
the question for each one of us is this: “Shall
I occupy a place in this house with many
dwelling places? “
Someone
once asked the Lord Jesus this question in Luke 13:23:
“Lord are only a few people going to be saved?“ The Lord Jesus does not give a direct answer to that
question, but he turns the question upon the questioner and says to him: “Make
every effort (strive – agonize) to enter
through the narrow door, because many, I tell you , will try to enter and will
not be able to.“
Jesus is the narrow door. Look to Him. Trust in Him. Follow Him. Only prepared people go to heaven. And prepared people by definition are those, who have become participators in Christ, whose blood covers their sin. Heaven is for prepared people. Are you among them?
Jesus is the narrow door. Look to Him. Trust in Him. Follow Him. Only prepared people go to heaven. And prepared people by definition are those, who have become participators in Christ, whose blood covers their sin. Heaven is for prepared people. Are you among them?
Beloved
people, my abiding interest for you and yours is this : Not that you may be firstly healthy,
wealthy and prosperous , but that you
may firstly be lovers of God and therefore citizens of heaven.
Nothing shall give me greater
pleasure than knowing that it is well with your soul.
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