Many of us are familiar with Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This instant bestseller has been adapted to film and stage productions. Most of you have either watched it or read the account of an 18th century Christmas Eve in London featuring Ebenezer Scrooge. All of us know his “Bah Humbug.” Scrooge is an uncharitable miser that all of us are familiar with. Scrooge’s business partner, Jacob Marley, has died seven years before the story. And the opening parts of the story focus on Scrooge’s miserly stinginess. He refuses to donate to the poor and only reluctantly allows his underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit to take Christmas Eve off. The miserable and wealthy Scrooge is then visited by Marley’s ghost who is weighed down with chains of his own greed from a lifetime of selfishness. Marley says to Scrooge that he will be visited by three ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future. It’s this last spirit that shows Scrooge a Christmas Day in his future his employee’s son, Tiny Tim’s grave. Tiny Tim dies as a result of his father not being able to afford the much-needed surgery for his son. It’s when Scrooge’s see his Christmas future that his behavior changes. After seeing Tiny Tim’s future, Scrooge bring “a prize Turkey” to their home on Christmas Day and gives Cratchit a raise. His view of his future makes him change his acts in the present. But the story spilled out into real life as well. In fact, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol challenge people in Great Britain to kindness, compassion and care for those who are poor, on the margins and struggling in society. During this time of the Industrial Revolution, many fathers were sent to debtor’s prison while their children were left feed and house themselves.
If we could see your future, what would this change about how you live in the present? For the next few moments, I want to speak to you about your future as Jesus teaches us about Heaven.
Find John 6 with me. Over the next few minutes, I want to share with you four scenes of Heaven from the lips of Jesus.
1. A Man from Heaven
When I was a child, Nike ran a commercial about superstar athlete Bo Jackson – Bo Knows. Well, I don’t know what Bo Know, but I do know what Jesus Knows. And Jesus knows Heaven.
Jesus described Heaven as a place where the angels stare at the very face of God: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10) And remember it was an angel from Heaven that strengthened Jesus at Gethsemane (Luke 22:43). It was a heavenly host that told the shepherds in the middle of the night about Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:13). Jesus taught us to pray to our Father in heaven for our lives to work like Heaven on earth (Matthew 6:9). And Jesus tells us there’s more joy in Heaven when one sinner repents of his sin or her sin (Luke 15:7).
Yes, Jesus knew Heaven. Jesus and Heaven had a constant stream of contact all throughout Jesus’ time walking on earth. And we discover the reason, Jesus knew so much about Heaven was because He came to earth from Heaven: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:38–40)
On one level, Jesus teaches us that He came from Heaven (verse 38). Yet on another level, Jesus will not lose anyone that the Father has given Him (verse 39). You may lose your keys, your glasses, or your homework, but Jesus will not lose anyone person that Father has entrusted to Him. One more layer to Jesus’ Heaven talk can be seen: everyone who looks to Jesus and believes in Jesus will have eternal life (verse 40). Everyone who looks to Jesus and believes in Jesus will be raised up on the last day (verse 40). Jesus came from Heaven to take people back to Heaven.
The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:17, 20). Jesus tells His disciples that there happy for the wrong reason. They’re happy that demons do what they tell them to do but they should be happy because their names are written in God’s book. You can understand why they are happy, can’t you? To see people oppressed by demons and to witness with your own eyes the complete reversal of emotional, psychological, and medical problems in people who have been plagued by Satanic spirits for years, maybe even decades …and to see this vanish away in a matter of moments – WOW! This would make nearly anyone happy! Jesus reminds them that their greatest blessing isn’t their power but their position. Don’t be happy in what you accomplish; be happy in what He’s accomplished for you. If you looked to Jesus and believed in Jesus, then Jesus will protect until the very day when He raises you at His return. If Jesus failed to protect anyone of His children on their route to Heaven, it would be to His everlasting shame!
Jesus knows Heaven because 1. A Man from Heaven
2. The Way to Heaven
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:1–7)
These are Jesus’ most famous words on Heaven – they’re read and referenced at nearly every funeral. Jesus is but hours from the cross when He turns to His disciples and speaks these powerful words of comfort. Hours from His agony, it’s Jesus who is comforting us! While everyone abandons Him, He is steadfastly loyal to God’s will and showing care to those who are going to turn tail and run. All through this: Jesus’s message is simple and clear: trust in God and trust in Me. Hearing Jesus speak on Heaven and their future home, Thomas asks the question we all want to know: “How do we get to Heaven? How can we know the way Home?”
A little boy got on the elevator with his father at the Empire State Building. They were going to the observation deck at the top and view the city. As the elevator ascended the boy watched the signs flash as they went by the floors: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70. The farther they went, the more nervous the boy became. Finally he looked up as his dad and said, “Daddy, does God know we’re coming?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Jesus says “I am truth.” He didn’t say, “I point to the truth.” Do you remember the story of Lazarus and his death? Martha’s brother says to Jesus, “You know, if you were here, he wouldn’t have died, but he’ll be raised in the resurrection of the dead in the last day.” What does Jesus say in return? He doesn’t say … “I don’t point to the resurrection,” Instead, hear Him say, “I’m the resurrection.” Over in Mark 2, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. Well, the leaders come together and say, “You shouldn’t be working on the Sabbath.” What does Jesus say? He doesn’t says, “I don’t point to the Sabbath.” Instead, He says, “I’m the Lord of the Sabbath.” “I am the source and author of the eternal Sabbath rest. I …”
Again, Jesus came from Heaven to take people back to Heaven.
1. A Man from Heaven
2. The Way to Heaven
3. Your Marriage in Heaven
Jesus knows Heaven because He came from Heaven and He is the way to Heaven. Find Matthew 22 with me. When you find it, you’ll see an argument between Jesus and a group called the Sadducees. They were aristocratic and educated, and though they believed in God, they believed in a very stripped down version of the Jewish faith: “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.” (Acts 23:8)
But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. (Matthew 22:29–33)
3.1 God of the Living
“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:6a)
Did you notice something? Look at that language. He does not say, “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Instead, He says, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” He speaks of them in the present tense. He speaks of His relationship with them in the present tense even though they’ve been dead for centuries when he says these words. The Sadducees believed in God, but they believed only in the first five books of the Old Testament. They would argue there’s no resurrection of the dead because the books of Moses don’t mention a resurrection. Jesus makes the case of the resurrection and the afterlife from the verb tense of the Hebrew word in Exodus.
God is the 3.1 God of the Living
3.2 Humans Don’t Transform into Angels
Since the Sadducees also do not believe in angels Jesus is probably deliberately inserting a little jibe just for them: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Matthew 22:30) You hear someone say, “God needed another angel in Heaven.” No, people don’t transform into angels. Angels are created by God. Men, women, boy and girls do not become angels. The Bible is clear: humans don’t transform to angels. Jesus said, “Humans will be like the angels.” He did not say they will be angels.
3.1 God of the Living
3.2 Humans Don’t Transform into Angels
3.3 No Sex in Heaven
These religious guys were making fun of the resurrection and people’s belief in Heaven. Hebrew law commanded a widow to be taken care of her husband’s brother. The brother was to marry his brother’s widow so she wouldn’t be stranded. Real Men Always Take Care of the Women in Their Lives. Jesus said that there wouldn’t be marriage in heaven — in that respect we would be like the angels. And we need to realize that is a very limited respect in which we will be like the angels. It is not that we will become like angels in most respects but only that your future self will become like angel in that you’ll not have marriage or sexual relations in Heaven. There are all kinds of teenagers waking up during the pastor’s sermon right now: “Wait a minute…. There’s no sex in Heaven? There’s no marriage in Heaven?” There’s no sex in Heaven because there’s no marriages in Heaven for sex is intended to happen only inside a lifelong marriage relationship.
Will I Know My Spouse in Heaven?
Yes, you will know your spouse in Heaven. You’ll know your family, your children, your friends, your parents, and your spouse. How do we know this? We know this because everyone recognized the resurrected Jesus, who is the model and the fuel for our future resurrections (1 John 3:2). You will receive a transformed and upgraded glorified body for the upgraded New Heavens and New Earth. Your love for your husband and wife will not decrease. But your love for them will only increase. There is continuity from the life to the next life.
You will not be without a family in the New Heavens and the New Earth but everyone will be one big family: “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:29–30)
Every longing from human relationship that has been frustrated here will be fulfilled there. If you don’t have a parent you can trust now, you will then. If you don’t have a friend you can trust now, you certainly will then.
3.4 One Marriage in Heaven
Just because you will not be married in Heaven doesn’t mean there is no marriage in Heaven. In fact, Christ marries His bride
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31–32)
All marriages today are but copy and a shadow this heavenly marriage. Once this marriage begins, all human marriages that have pointed to it will fade away. The best marriage here on earth cannot replace that marriage on the New Earth but only prepare you for it. I will not lose my best friend, Traci. She will know me and I will know here. We will know our children and we have every reason that our future resurrected selves will pick up right were we left off with our relationships here on earth.
By the way, does your spouse know Jesus Christ? Do your children know Christ? If not, I would pray and strategize now to see they would embrace Christ and His cross by faith so they can join you them.
1. A Man from Heaven
2. The Way to Heaven
3. Your Marriage in Heaven
4. Possible Rewards in Heaven
God will reward every act of faithfulness on your part: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:32–34)
Every person here will face judgment at both the end of their life but a second judgment around the Second Coming. When we die, we face judgment, we can call this the judgment of faith. The outcome of this judgment determines whether we go to the Heaven or Hell. This initial judgment depends not on our works but on our faith. It is not about what we’ve done during our lives but about what Christ has done for us. If we have accepted Christ’s atoning death for us, then when God judges us after we die, he sees his Son’s sacrifice for us, not our sin. Salvation is a free gift, to which we can contribute absolutely nothing.
The Bible indicates that all believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of their lives: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
It’s critical to understand that this judgment is a judgment of works, not of faith (1 Corinthians 3:13-14). Our works do not affect our salvation, but they do affect our reward. Rewards are about our work for God, empowered by his Spirit. Rewards are conditional, because they are dependent on our faithfulness as believers.
Jesus promised a generous reward for being faithful as much as 100 times return (Matthew 19:29).
What Does God Reward?
According to the Bible, God rewards many things, including doing good works (Ephesians 6:8; Romans 2:6, 10). He rewards His followers when they denying ourselves (Matthew 16:24-27). You should know that He rewards when you show compassion to the needy (Luke 14:13-14). And when you treat your enemies kindly (Luke 6:35). He also grants us rewards for sacrificial and generous giving: “…go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven…” (Matthew 19:21)b God promises rewards to those who endure difficult circumstances while trusting him (Hebrews 10:34-36). He also promises a reward to you who live faithfully and with good motives (1 Corinthians 4:2, 5). And He will reward those who persevere under persecution (Luke 6:22-23). God will richly reward a life of godliness (2 Peter 3:11-14). God will also reward those who make wise and productive use of the resources and opportunities he has given them (Matthew 25:14-23).
Don’t you want many people in Heaven? Jesus came from Heaven to take people back to Heaven. If so, make a short list right now (don’t put it off) of people who you know who have yet to embrace Jesus Christ. Carefully and prayerfully strategize over the coming days and weeks how to share the gospel and the happy news of Heaven. We all want many people enjoying Heaven’s welcome. You recognize what Jesus did for you, don’t you. On the cross, Jesus says, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” His name was removed from heaven’s book so your name could be written down. Jesus’ grace isn’t God’s helping hand for you; it’s much more. Jesus’ grace is Jesus’ single-handed effort to reach down and pull you from the mess you’ve created.
