going up?
life’s final elevator ride
2/03/06
I. Introduction
The story is told of a Sunday school teacher whose assignment was to explain to the six-year-olds in his class what someone had to do in order to go to heaven. In an attempt to discover what the kids already believed about the subject, he asked them a few questions.
“If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale, and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?”
“NO!” the children all answered.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into heaven?”
Again the answer was, “NO!”
“Well then,” he said, “if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children and loved my wife, would that get me into heaven?”
Again they all shouted, “NO!”
“Well, how CAN I get into heaven?”
A boy in the back row stood up and shouted, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD!”
There’s the problem: You gotta be dead to go to heaven. Consequently, you gotta be dead to know much about the place.
Now, some people claim to have seen heaven. They say they’ve died and come back to talk about it and have even written best-selling books on the subject. Now, their stories are interesting, but they never give a straight answer to the questions we’re all asking: “How do you get there? What can we do on this side of death to be sure we get a spot in heaven?”
Most agree that death is a prerequisite, but that’s pretty much where agreement ends and speculation begins. Tonight’s message is “going up?: life’s final elevator ride” and by the end of the message you’ll know for sure what you can and can’t do to get to heaven when you do kick the bucket.
II. Good People Go to Heaven?
I want to take the next few minutes and examine a view that many people hold when they consider the question, “how do you get to heaven?” and the view is this: good people go to heaven. In spite of all their differences and peculiarities, the religions of this world share one common denominator: How you live your life on this side of the grave determines what happens next. Here’s something to think about: If God appeared to you and asked, “Why should I let you into heaven?” how would you answer? If you’re like most people, your answer might run something along these lines: “I’ve always tried to…” “I never…” “I do my best…” The moral? Behave yourself now and you don’t really have to worry too much about what happens next. But then every once in a while something happens that forces you to seriously consider what’s next—a family member dies or you have a near-death experience because you almost hit that car in front of you while you’re changing the radio station.
You don’t LIKE to think about death. You rarely ever talk about it. But it’s a fact of life. The death rate for humans is 100 percent. There’s no chance of escaping it. Not to be morbid or anything, but at some point you’re going to die. And at that point you’ll find out real quick whether your view was the right view.
Several problems come to mind when looking at this view of “good people go to heaven.”
First of all, if good people go to heaven, then we need a clear and consistent definition of what is good. We need a list. We need to know that the rules reflect God’s standard, not something manufactured by important-looking guys in robes.
If God allows good people into heaven, but he didn’t bother to specify what he means by good, it leaves me to wonder just how good God is. Let me illustrate.
Pretend for a moment that you’re on the track team and you’re at your first meet. You’re standing at the starting line with all the other runners. Up ahead you notice that the track forks off in three directions. You also note the total absence of signs, flags, or markers. You ask a race official for a map and are informed that there is no map. And your eyes haven’t deceived you; there are no markers of any kind signifying the boundaries of the course. “What is the distance?” you ask. The race official just shrugs his shoulders and replies. “You just run. We’ll tell you when you cross the finish line, assuming you find it.” With no warning, the starting gun is fired and the runners take off in half a dozen different directions.
Would you call that a good race? What would you expect from upcoming meets? Would you try and get your friends to join the team after that race?
Unrealistic? Sure. But let’s be honest. If there is a life beyond this one, and where you end up is determined by your “test score” here, do you really have anything specific to go on? “Be good” is about as helpful as “run fast.”
If there is a level of performance that will get us into heaven, and God neglects to tell us exactly what it is, can we in good conscience call him good?
Right now, many of you are thinking, “What about the Bible? What about the Ten Commandments? Didn’t God give us the Bible to show us how to live?
A friend of mine frequented the dry cleaners while he was in grad school and he oftentimes held conversations with the manager named Phyliss. They would talk about routine stuff but at some point they got to talking about death and heaven and angels and all kinds of stuff that neither of them knew much about. As he was leaving one day, Phyliss made a comment that struck him. She said, “If something were to happen to me, I know I would go to heaven.”
“Really?” he said. “Why’s that?”
“Because I keep the Ten Commandments,” she said.
“Phyliss, do you even KNOW the Ten Commandments?
She smiled and sheepishly admitted that she knew a few of them.
“Do you know where in the Bible the Ten Commandments are found?” he asked.
“Nope,” she said, “but I sure as hell don’t break any of ‘em!”
Phyliss knew there were some laws somewhere in the Bible. And she assumed, like most people, that there is some connection between those laws and where a person spends eternity. It sounds like it makes sense, but the fact is, there is no connection between the Ten Commandments and heaven. None. Nada. Zero. It doesn’t exist. You don’t have to take my word for it. You can pick up a Bible and check it out for yourself.
The 10 Commandments are found in the book of Exodus. Interesting book. But there is no promise of heaven for people who keep the Ten Commandments.
The point is, don’t look to the Bible, certainly not the Old Testament, for a LIST of things to do to ensure your place in heaven. The standard is too high. Besides, you have to sacrifice a bull or cow or pigeon to get right with God every time you break a commandment.
Unlike the Old Testament, which seemingly ignores issues of eternity, the New Testament is full of stuff about heaven and hell. But once again, we find no help in our quest for a standard by which we can earn favor with God. Here’s what the NT says about working our way into heaven:
Romans 3:10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;
Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death.
That will just about make your day, won’t it?
Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in [God’s] sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
The NT comes right out and says what the OT implies: No one will reach God by being good.
III. Bad Guys Finish First
Probably one of the biggest problems with the good people go to heaven view is that it contradicts the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The truth is, Jesus taught the very opposite of what most people in the world believe. Jesus taught that good people don’t go to heaven. And that ticked the religious leaders off so much that they had him arrested and killed. After all, you can’t have someone running around saying that God loves bad people and that bad people go to heaven. That might result in a moral free-for-all.
Now, there’s a particular incident in the NT that brings some clarity to what Jesus believed about good people and heaven.
Following his arrest and bogus trial, Jesus was beaten and forced to drag his cross toward the place of execution. Once Jesus was nailed to the cross, an exchange took place between Jesus and the men being crucified on either side of him.
Luke 23:39-41 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don’t you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
This guy knew he was bad. He basically said, “stack our deeds up and you won’t find a good one in there anywhere.” Then the convicted criminal did the unthinkable: He asked Jesus for a favor.
Luke 23:42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Keep in mind that this guy had pretty much punched his last ticket. There’s no opportunity for turning over a new leaf and doing good. This was a dead man talking.
Now, if Jesus, like most people, believed that good people go to heaven and bad people don’t, what would you expect him to say to a guy like this?
What would YOU have told him?
Jesus, pushing himself up on the nail that pierced his foot, uttered these words:
Luke 23:43 "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
Clearly, Jesus did not believe that good people go to heaven.
IV. The Alternative
Well, certainly, the good people go to heaven view isn’t the only view of how to get to heaven. There is an alternative. This is the view I hold, along with almost one-third of the world’s population.
According to this view, FORGIVEN people go to heaven. And forgiveness is made possible by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
For more than a thousand years, Jews had been sacrificing animals so that God might overlook their sins. The OT was clear: sin required death. God had allowed the prescribed death of an animal to temporarily substitute for the death of the sinner. But the death of a lamb did not permanently erase the guilt associated with sin; it merely atoned for or covered over the sin.
So how could Jesus claim to be the ONLY way to God?
Because he was the Lamb of God.
Sin had to be paid for.
He paid.
We owed a debt we couldn’t pay. Jesus paid a debt he didn’t owe.
He paid for our sins.
There’s no way we can live up to the standard of the law. We’re not good enough to get into heaven. But the fact is, you don’t have to be good enough to take the final elevator ride going up. It’s not what you do, it’s what He did. It’s not what you know, but WHO you know.
The only way you’ll go to heaven when you die is to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. I want to give you the opportunity tonight to do just that. If you know you’re not good enough and you want to say a simple prayer that will assure you a place in heaven, just slip your hand up right now as a way of saying, “I’m ready.” Everybody repeat this prayer after me:
Dear God,
I know I’m not good enough to get into heaven. I know you sent Jesus to pay for my sins and he died on the cross and rose again. Jesus, I confess you as my Lord. Thank you for saving me and making me new. I know now that I’m going to heaven when I die. Amen.
