Back at the first of the year, we started our journey through the book of Joel. Week after week since then, we’ve talked about the nearness of the Day of the Lord. We’ve seen that the Day of the Lord will be a time when the cup of God’s wrath is finally filled. His patience and longsuffering will have reached its end. And at that time, He will pour out His all-powerful pent-up wrath on all of sinful creation. We’ve seen all the ways that our days are inevitably leading up to that great and terrible day. And we’ve also seen how, apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ, no one will be able to endure the Day of the Lord. Over the past several months, we’ve also seen how, by all outward evidence, at least 60% of our closest neighbors and billions of people scattered throughout the nations are lost without Christ. That means that if the Rapture was to happen today—each of those billions of people will suffer the unmitigated wrath of God. That ought to break our heart. It breaks our heart because we have seen that the task before us is too big for us. It’s too big for our church. It’s too big for our local associations of churches. It’s too big for our state convention of churches. It’s too big for all the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention. As a matter of fact, it’s too big for all Bible-believing evangelical churches put together. But it’s not too big for God. Because of that, one month ago, I stood right here in this pulpit and called us as a church to a Solemn Assembly of Prayer and Fasting—because we know that it’s too big for us. So out of our broken humility, we as a church have been praying and fasting that God would do 5 things. We’ve been praying and fasting that we would see people saved and baptized. We’ve been praying and fasting that each of us would personally be delivered from any sin that regularly besets and entangles us. We’ve been praying and fasting that God will raise up leaders amongst us—pastors, church planters, missionaries, entrepreneurial business leaders. We’ve been praying and fasting that He would grow our church in supernatural unity. And finally, we’ve been praying and fasting that He would bring another Great Awakening to our nation. Today is the day that we set aside to break that fast. It’s the end of our Solemn Assembly, but it’s not the end of our prayer. Let’s persistently continue to cry out to God day and night for those things. Because the Day of the Lord is great and terrible—who can endure it?
So much of this series has been hard to hear. Let’s face it, it’s more fun to hear about almost anything than it is to hear about God’s wrath. But if you take away God’s wrath, His love doesn’t mean anything. If you take away the promises of God’s justice and righteousness, His mercy and grace is empty and hollow. Unless there’s a real Hell to be shunned, then gaining Heaven doesn’t really mean all that much. So after all this talk about the Day of the Lord, this is a wonderful way for the Holy Spirit to end this book through the prophet Joel. Here’s what you need to understand this morning—most of your concepts about heaven are probably distorted. Heaven isn’t a place of harps and clouds and halos. It isn’t a bright light at the end of a tunnel. And it certainly isn’t fishing or playing baseball with your pawpaw forever. There’s no “man upstairs.” There’s no check-in desk with St. Peter. And no matter what Hank Williams or Bill Monroe used to sing—Jesus isn’t building you a cabin in the corner of gloryland. Heaven is eternal—but it isn’t static. The experience of heaven isn’t clearly and exhaustively laid out in the Bible—mostly because in our flesh, I don’t think we can fully comprehend what it will really be like. But here’s what we do know. When a believer dies, our spirit is immediately in the presence of Jesus. The existence is real. It’s conscious. It’s blissful. But in this current state, our bodies are still in the ground and we haven’t received our new, glorified bodies. Frankly, that’s about all we know about this current state of Heaven from the Bible. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul tells us that God allowed him to see it. But even though he was allowed to see it, God didn’t let him tell us about it. By the way—that’s one of the huge problems I have with books and movies like Heaven is for Real. If Paul was allowed to see the current state of Heaven but wasn’t allowed to tell us about it authoritatively in inspired Scripture, why would God allow a 3-year old boy to? He wouldn’t. So don’t fall for it. Stick with what the Bible tells you about the current state of Heaven—which isn’t much. For believers, when we die, our spirit is consciously, blissfully in the presence of Jesus. But as I said—that existence isn’t static. Because at the Rapture, our spirits will be united with new glorified bodies. Think back to what happened when God first created Adam. The Bible says that God formed Adam’s body out of the dust of the ground and breathed life into him and he became a living, material soul. The Hebrew and Greek words for breath is the same word for spirit. When we die, our spirit is torn from our physical bodies. At the Rapture, God will once again breathe our eternal spirits into our resurrected, newly glorified, recreated bodies and we will once again be living material souls. That’s the way we’re going to exist for the rest of eternity—once again as living souls. But this time with perfect, sinless, disease-free and pain-free bodies. Bodies that are holy and pure and not marred with sin and degradation. It’s in that state that we will ride in behind Jesus for the Battle of Armageddon. And it’s in that state that we will rule and reign with Him throughout the Millennial Kingdom that’s described in Revelation 20. And it’s in that state that we will reside in the final, ultimate state of Heaven—the Holy City New Jerusalem that’s described in Revelation 21-22. Like most of the Old Testament prophets, Joel’s description here is very brief. It’s kind of a mashup of the Millennial Kingdom and the New Jerusalem. That shouldn’t be a concern to us, because that’s exactly what we do when we talk about Heaven. Rarely do we distinguish between the three states of Heaven—we just talk about how unimaginably awesome it’s going to be to be with Jesus forever with no more sin or death or pain or sickness. I love to think about heaven—don’t you? But here’s something I’ve noticed lately. Just like you don’t hear a lot of preaching about the end times these days, you don’t hear a lot of preaching about heaven either. I think I know why that is. I think it’s because there’s a perception that when we think too much about heaven, we forget about what we’re supposed to be doing till we get there. I’ve heard people accuse some believers of being so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good. Well here’s the reality—the only way a believer can be any earthly good is if we’re heavenly minded. So since this last passage in Joel has got us thinking about heaven—I want us to talk about four earthly goods that come from being heavenly minded.
First, being heavenly minded reminds us that we have a future. Here’s a newsflash for you—this isn’t all there is. Wow—that’s profound, preacher. Glad I got out of bed this morning for that one. We inherently know that this isn’t all there is, don’t we? So let me ask you something—if we know that this isn’t all there is, why do we spend most of our lives living like it is? In Luke 12:16-21, Jesus told a parable about this very attitude. “And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” What was the problem with the rich man? Was the problem that he was rich? Was the problem that he had a good investment plan? No—the problem isn’t a resource problem. The problem isn’t a 401K or annuity problem. The problem is a heart problem. This guy’s problem was that he was living like this life is all there is. With all of his vast resources, he had the opportunity to invest in something that would make an eternal difference. But he was more interested in his earthly security than he was in anybody else’s eternal security. But preacher—I don’t have that kind of money! Well, neither do I—and with kids and grandkids and colleges and weddings and mortgages and taxes and bills, it doesn’t look like I ever will. This isn’t ultimately about how you’re spending your money—although that’s a symptom. This is about how you’re spending your life. Are you investing your life with eternity in mind? Or are you just living your life for the next paycheck or promotion or piece of pie? The reality is—you have a future. And that future is far bigger than eating, drinking and being merry. That future is about living every moment God gives you today for Jesus and the advancement of His Kingdom. It’s about wringing out every last drop of life and health and wealth and time He gives you for His glory and for His mission that He’s given us. Being heavenly minded reminds us that we have a future. It also reminds us that death isn’t final.
I’m really hoping to go in the Rapture. But the reality is, almost everybody is being shipped out of here via ground, not air. So here’s some news for you—unless the Rapture happens in your lifetime, there’s a 100% chance you’re going to die. Vegas will let you bet on anything—but they won’t let you bet on that. Because no matter how physically fit you are. No matter how much moisturizer and Oil of Olay you use. No matter how vegan or paleo or gluten-free you are. You’re still going to die. You might be really healthy and young looking when you die, but you’re still going to die. But here’s the good news—death may be inevitable, but it isn’t final. Death isn’t final, because Jesus conquered death. Listen to how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15:50-57: “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” For a believer, death isn’t a time of defeat. For a believer, death is a time of victory. It’s a time when our race might be finished, but our reward is eternal. The fact is—death is terrible. As a matter of fact, I hate death. I hate death because it separates loved ones. I hate death because it breaks hearts of those left behind. I hate death because it’s so often accompanied by the pain of things left undone and words left unsaid. But do you know why I hate death most of all? I hate death most of all, because the only reason we have to experience death is because of the fall. And the only reason for the fall is sin. And I hate sin. But Jesus paid for sin on the cross, didn’t He? And not only did He pay for sin, three days later He rose victorious over it. And when Jesus got up from that grave, He proclaimed victory over sin and death and hell and the grave. And when He did that—He assured you that death isn’t final. Being heavenly minded reminds us that we have a future and that death isn’t final. It also reminds us that heaven is real. Look back at Joel 3:18
JOEL 3:18
Notice how Joel describes the scene here. He’s obviously using picturesque language like a poet would. But even in his picturesque language, he’s talking about real stuff. He’s talking about mountains and streambeds and fountains and valleys. One thing we get really mixed up when we think about heaven is we start to think it’s like a cartoon. We think about harps and robes and clouds. Or we think about a bunch of disembodied spirits floating around with nothing to do for eternity. That sounds more like a haunted house that heaven to me. As a matter of fact, if that was the way the Bible portrayed heaven, I’d be terrified. Let me tell you something—Heaven is real. And when I tell you that—I’m not saying that I believe in the reality of heaven because somebody made a movie about a 3-year old who thinks he went there. When I tell you that Heaven is real, I’m not even saying that it’s real because I believe in it. What I’m saying is that Heaven is a real, physical place where real, physical people will do real, physical stuff. I’ve got to tell you—do you have any idea how boring it would be to float around on a cloud playing a harp all day… much less for eternity? I’m not even sure I like harp music. Here’s what heaven is going to be like—Heaven is going to be more like the Garden of Eden than anything else. Those of us who have trusted Jesus as Lord and Master and Savior will once again be living souls. Our spirits will be reunited with new, glorified bodies—perfectly fit for living in the presence of God. We will have real work with real responsibility. Now when I say that, some folks might get a little turned off. But think about all the best things about work. The feeling of accomplishment. The feelings of being needed. The feelings of reward from a job well done. The feelings of camaraderie and teamwork from working together. Of course, the reason people get turned off is because all of the good things about our work here have been tainted by the effects of sin. We get tired. We get cranky. Our boss can be a jerk. Sometimes our feelings of accomplishment are drowned by feelings of frustration or despair. But in heaven all of those things are going to be gone. We will work the way God intended for us to work before the curse of sin—joyfully, harmoniously, productively, perfectly fruitfully. All of the beautiful uniqueness of you and your cultural identity will be fully expressed in pure fruitful service to the One who saved you. What an expression of worship that will be! Being heavenly minded reminds us that we have a future, that death isn’t final and that heaven is real. But it also reminds us of one final thing. Being heavenly minded reminds us that we are responsible. Look again at verses 19-21
JOEL 3:19-21
Once again, even in this beautiful picture of what comes after the Day of the Lord, Joel reminds Israel about what’s going to happen to those who have come against them. And in the book of Revelation, even in the middle of describing the beautiful Millennial Kingdom and the New Jerusalem, John describes the lake of fire where Satan, the beast, the false prophet and everyone who has rejected Christ will be cast forever. Do you know what that means? That means that your choices right now have eternal consequences. The fact that those nations chose to continually come against Israel resulted in eternal consequences for them. But more importantly for you and me—the choices we make here today have real eternal consequences. First—if you choose to reject Jesus as your Lord and Master and Savior, you will face an eternity in hell. But here’s where most of us in here are. If you’re saved and you choose to disobey Jesus’ command to share the gospel and make disciples, then you are effectively choosing to condemn your neighbors and the nations to an eternity in hell. You see—your actions or inactions have real consequences. God has chosen to give us real responsibility—and He doesn’t have a plan B. So, the only question for you this morning is—are you really heavenly minded? Are you heavenly minded enough to take on the real responsibility the Lord has entrusted you with? Or are you not heavenly minded enough to be any earthly good?
