“Let not your heart be troubled!” Disciples were worried – Jesus has just announced his betrayer. And a little later he tells Peter he would betray him three times. Jesus was to be arrested. They were not going to see Jesus for awhile. Things seemed out of control. Certain disaster was ahead. Everything was going wrong! So what did Jesus do? He talked about home.
Pastor Don Piper tells the testimony of his horrible accident – his car was in a head-on collision with a semi and he was instantly killed. He found himself immediately in heavenly glory surrounded by all his friends and family who had in some way or other walked with him in his Christian life. It was a wonderful reunion as everyone was transformed into such beauty and filled with such joy. He was just about to enter the pearly gates of heaven to the praise of Jesus when he was transported back to his body through the prayers of a brother pastor. Piper says that his heavenly experience was more real than any experience he had on earth.
Do you look forward to that day? Is heaven YOUR hope? Is it your HOME? In our text today Jesus tells us about this place called heaven which is not some philosophy or experience or vision. It is a real place! What kind of place is heaven?
1. Heaven is a place to live. (verse 2a)
“In my Father’s house are many rooms.” It’s a place to live which will be our home. The book of Hebrews tells us of Abraham who looked ahead to heaven: “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents … for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (11:9-10) Abraham lived in a tent and in a foreign land with full peace because his eyes were on his real home in heaven.
Every year the Israelites celebrated the feast of tabernacles which was a time when they remember when they were wandering in the wilderness. They lived temporarily in tents for 40 years and God provided for them all that time. During the feast of tabernacles every Israelite family built a temporary shelter of sticks and leaves outside and on the rooftops and there they lived and ate and slept for a whole week. It reminded them that this earth is not their home. God is preparing a place in heaven! What a great hope we have!
Whenever we have earthly trials, worries or troubles, we need to remember that this isn’t home. If you like your home, realize that it’s just a “hotel” – a rest stop along the way. What’s 80, 90 years in the face of eternity?
2. It’s a place Jesus has prepared for us. (2b)
“for I go to prepare a place for you”
I recall preparing our first apartment in Cesky Tesin before we were married. It was a lot of work – stripping old wallpaper, painting, cleaning, installing lamps, furniture. Everything had to be ready before our wedding so that we could move into our new home.
Some of you remember all the preparation that went into building this sanctuary. I’ve seen the pictures and the hard work and labor of love that went into it. You can see the joy on the faces as the work progressed and it must have been a wonderful day when that first worship service took place.
Our future “wedding” home has been prepared. After Jesus spoke these words he made all the preparations himself for every one of you here. What are those preparations? He died on the cross, he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and he sits on the right hand of God. He made the way for us to his home through his own flesh and blood. No greater sacrifice!
And yet we get so caught up in these earthly homes and places. We saw Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument in the Black Hills. So much time and energy has gone into them. But when the Lord returns, and the earthquakes and fires come, it will all be destroyed.
Don’t set your heart on anything on earth when your permanent home is with the Lord. Sooner or later, even with all the best preservatives, they will be destroyed. Nothing will last.
This home is PERMANENT, unshakeable, glorious, neverending! No it’s not a literal house made with hands. Actually we don’t know what exactly our future home will look like but we know it’s going to be glorious! Set your heart on that home.
3. It’s a place of continued RELATIONSHIP with Jesus (verse 3a)
He told his followers that they will live in HIS home. It’s not like you’ll have your home and I’ll have mine and God will be far away on the throne. All of heaven is the home of God. That means intimacy and relationship. You can’t live in someone’s home without intimacy. We sure learned that this last week as we hosted a family of five.
One of the greatest men of God was Enoch. Of course he is one of the few men who was taken by God to heaven before death. The Bible writes very little about Enoch but it says that he “walked with God.”
A Sunday school teacher once explained the story of Enoch: One day God showed up at Enoch’s door and asked him if he’s like to go for a walk with him and talk. So Enoch did so. And from that day on, every day God came by Enoch’s house and they went for a walk. Enoch would even wait outside by the gate for God to come. Then one day they went on a very long walk because they had so much to talk about. Pretty soon they were closer to God’s house than to Enoch’s so God suggested that Enoch stay at God’s house since it’s closer and Enoch never went back home again.
Are you walking with God every day? Are you talking with him every day? Heaven is simply a CONTINUATION of your walk with God now. A taste of heaven is found simply in your present walk with Jesus.
4. It’s a place of Jesus’ glorious presence. (verse 3)
“I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” We will meet God “face to face” - “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face;” (1 Cor. 13:12a)
What will it be like? Have you ever been in love? I remember falling in love with my wife and then being separated for six weeks as I traveled to visit friends and missionary supporters. We wrote letters and talked on the phone. The love was strong and wonderful but it wasn’t like being face to face.
Heaven will be something like that. Right now you can be in love with Jesus but in heaven you’ll hug! You’ll see each other face to face. You’ll see the great smile of joy on Jesus face and laugh together. And with tears we’ll fall at his feet and praise and thank him for his great love for us. While hell is a complete separation from God, heaven is a glorious union with God. What a great day that will be!
What will we do when we get there?
If Jesus is your Lord and the one you serve and worship on earth, that is what you will do in heaven. Our primary joy and privilege in heaven will be to lift up the name of the Jesus. The main occupation of a Christian is to bring glory to Jesus name. We worship him, lift him up because we love him and he is our Lord. Heaven is just a continuation of that but much more wonderful.
One preacher illustrated heaven as an eternity of days and nights. Even though there will be no night. But imagine that you arrive in heaven your first day and there you see the brilliant glory of God. You are so amazed and overwhelmed with the beauty, the holiness, the purity that you are brought immediately to your knees in praise and worship. You just can’t imagine experiencing anything so beautiful and awesome!
After the first night you get up and then God reveals his glory again except this time you see something different that you had never seen before – something that is so spectacular and awesome that you are immediately falling to your knees in praise and worship. And so the next day and next…
You see, the glory of God is infinite. You can never in all eternity totally know all of God’s glory. He’s like a diamond with different facets. Every day of eternity we’ll see a different facet of God’s glory and praise Him. That’s partly why we can sing a new song of praise every day.
In Revelation we get a brief glimpse into the heavenly praise: Rev. 5:11-13. Why does God offer you eternal life in heaven? To make you happy? No – heaven changes our wants and needs so that we only want what God wants – and THAT brings us the most joy possible, 1 Peter 2:9 - “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Now, the biggest mistake you can make concerning heaven is to wait for heaven. Certainly we all look forward to it. But we don’t wait for a sweet relationship with the Lord. We don’t wait for the heavenly glory. We don’t wait for the angelic praise. We start praising him and glorifying Him NOW. We begin our eternal occupation of lifting up the name of Jesus NOW.
The greatest thing you can do as a believer is to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus! To praise him and glorify him in your life. When you praise him in the midst of your trials, that is what brings the most joy to the Father. In heaven, we will simply continue what we have started here.
Why am I talking about Heaven?
1. It’s a great encouragement for us as believers to endure and persevere! There isn’t a person who doesn’t suffer. Even believers suffer. I think that when we realize that our life on earth is just temporary, that this is not our home, it is a great comfort. It gives us a reason to endure difficult times on earth.
2. Heaven is a motivation for us to praise Jesus. Look at what he’s paid for! Look at what he’s given us as a free gift! Oh we complain about our life now and our problems but he’s bought us eternity in heaven! Let’s praise His name NOW! Let’s give him all glory NOW. Nothing would be possible for us without Jesus! Our work and service for the Lord is not a waste – but it brings glory to Him. Persevere!
3. To warn those who think they are going to heaven but aren’t.
At the same time there is a great danger in talking about heaven. There is a great danger today among many people, both Christians and non-Christians, to believe that they are going to heaven when they die. There is a belief that at judgment day God will take all your bad deeds and put them on the scales and on the other side of the scales will be your good deeds. If you have more good than bad, you’re allowed into heaven.
God will not allow you into his heaven based on your good works. It doesn’t matter if you’re 60% good or 80% good or 99% good. If God finds even 1% of sin in your life, he must punish it. He is just and cannot allow it into his heaven.
We cannot get out of the sea of life by our own efforts without drowning. We cannot work our way to heaven any more than we can swim across the ocean by ourselves. But Jesus appears in the boat of salvation. He reaches out a powerful hand of love and offers us the life preserver of eternal life. Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”
Today the world will offer many ways to get to heaven. There are even theologians and pastors today who will say that there are many ways to heaven. A recent Lutheran study Bible included this commentary on the “Great Commission” text of Mt. 28: “Jesus now sends the disciples to make disciples of all nations. That does not mean make everyone disciples. Most people who are helped by Jesus and believe in him never become disciples. Jesus includes in salvation people who do not believe in him or even know about him.” (p. 1658; Augsburg Fortress Lutheran Study Bible).
But what did Jesus say? “No one comes to the Father but by me.” Acts 4:12 says that there is no other name by which man can be saved. No one. There is only one Savior of the world. There is only one person who bridged the gap. There is only one man who walked this earth and was God. Only one man who paid the price for sin. And if any man wants to get to heaven, he must trust in the one man Jesus Christ. No Buddha, no Allah, only Jesus!
The eternal song of Heaven in the book of Revelation is: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” Only those who can sing that song of praise today, will go to heaven tomorrow. May every one of us live our lives for Jesus Christ and for his glory and be encouraged that our inheritance is in heaven. Heaven is our home, not this place on earth. For if heaven is our home, our life right now is the most difficult we will ever have to deal with. Persevere and bring Jesus glory!
Amen
