Reaching For Heaven
John 14:1-3
Introduction:
This morning, I want to talk about the ultimate goal of the Christian life. This morning we are going to reach for Heaven.
The outline of this sermon is taken from the famous sermon by the Nazarene preacher L. B. Hicks entitled "There Must Be A Heaven Somewhere". One Sunday morning before church, God gave him the main points of the sermon, he jotted them down on the back of an envelope, and preached a glorious message on the subject of Heaven.
Some may ask, "How can you be sure there is a Heaven?". There are several answers to such a question:
1. Because the soul has always longed for such a place. Whatever culture you stumble across, whatever time period of history, you will find some sort of belief in the afterlife. I don't believe God would plant in the soul a universal longing like that without making some provision for it.
2. Because the soul has always felt there was such a place. Like the little boy flying his kite and the kite was out of sight and someone asked him where it was and he pointed up to the sky. They asked him how he knew it was there if he couldn't see it and he said, "I know it is there because I can feel it tug." We can know in a similar way that there is a Heaven, because we can feel the pull of it, the tug of it in our souls.
3. Because God says there is such a place as Heaven. I'd rather have God's word about anything than the opinion of all the philosophers and scientists in all the world.
For the next few moments, I want to talk about Heaven, and why each of us should want to go there.
I. Heaven Will Be Ready.
We won't have to wait in line for St. Peter to open the gate to let us in. There will be no lack of fruit on the free of life. There will no lack of water cascading through the city.
Heaven has been prepared for us from the foundations of the world … it is ready for our arrival. There will be no "under construction" signs when we arrive!
There is a story told about a 5-year-old African-American boy who will never be forgotten by those who knew him. He was dying of lung cancer, which is a terrifying disease in its final stages. The lungs fill with fluid, and the patient is unable to breathe. It is terribly claustrophobic, especially for a small child.
This little boy had a Christian mother who loved him and stayed by his side through the long ordeal. She cradled him on her lap and talked softly about the Lord. Instinctively, the woman was preparing her son for the final hours to come. Gracie told me that she entered his room one day as death approached, and she heard this lad talking about hearing bells. "The bells are ringing, Mommie," he said. "I can hear them."
Gracie thought he was hallucinating because he was already slipping away. She left and returned a few minutes later and again heard him talking about hearing bells ringing. The nurse said to his mother, 'I'm sure you know your baby is hearing things that aren't there. He is hallucinating because of the sickness."
The mother pulled her son closer to her chest, smiled and said, "No, he is not hallucinating. I told him when he was frightened — when he couldn't breathe — if he would listen carefully, he could hear the bells of heaven ringing for him. That is what he's been talking about all day."
That precious child died on his mother's lap later that evening, and he was still talking about the bells of heaven when the angels came to take him. What a brave little trooper he was!
There will be no scurrying around trying to find a mansion for you, if the Lord were to call you home today. Because Heaven will be ready.
II. Heaven Will Be Resplendent.
Turn to Revelation 21:10-23 …
I recently read of a man who visited a distinguished artist at his studio. He found the artist there with an open Bible in front of him while he was arranging squares of colored glass. "I have made a singular discovery," he said, "these are the precious stones in the foundation of the New Jerusalem, and when placed in the order described in the vision they form a perfect harmony of color. Were a convention of artists called to produce a perfect color-scheme, they could not improve upon it."
God loves beauty or He wouldn't have put so much of it in this world. Who painted the butterfly's wing with all those gorgeous hues and threw around the evening sun her drapery of a thousand colors? Who put the red on the robin's breast? From whose pastel were the colors mixed that gave the rose its blushing charm and touched the lily with its dreamy white? Who taught the raindrop to take a ray of light from the sun and pencil it on the sky in one huge arch of bewildering elegance? God did it all! He made everything beautiful and only sin has marred it, and in Heaven you'll find God's beauty at its best!
A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; "Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!"
III. Heaven Will Be Rapture.
Two things are found in Heaven which cannot fail to make its inhabitants happy: the first is the absence of all evil; and the second is, the presence of all good. The one prevents sorrow; and the other brings fullness of joy.
It will be all joy and rapture to hear the angels song reverberate throughout the city.
It will be rapture to meet the saints of old.
It will be rapture praise our Redeemer for all eternity.
IV. Heaven Will Be Restoration.
There will be a day, for those who live right and make it to Heaven, where the blinded eyes will see, the deaf ears will hear, the muted mouth will speak, the crippled feet will run, … it will be a place of restoration!
John Bradford (1510-1555), less than five months before his death, wrote of the glories of heaven he anticipated:
I am assured that though I want here, I have riches there; though I hunger here, I shall have fullness there; though I faint here, I shall be refreshed there; and though I be accounted here as a dead man, I shall there live in perpetual glory.
Heaven is the city promised to the captives whom Christ shall make free; it is the kingdom assured to them whom Christ shall crown; there is the light that shall never go out; there is the health that shall never be impaired; there is the glory that shall never be defaced; there is the life that shall taste no death; and there is the place that passes all the world's imaginations.
There is the world that shall never decline; there is every want supplied freely without money; there is no danger, but happiness, and honor, and singing, and praise and thanksgiving unto the heavenly Jehovah, "to him that sits on the throne," "to the lamb" that here was led to the slaughter, that now "reigns" on High.
D. L. Moody gave a vivid description of Heaven when he wrote, "A city without pain, a city without sorrow, without sickness, without death. There is no darkness there. The Lamb is the light thereof. It needs no sun, it needs no moon. The paradise of Eden was as nothing compared with this one. The tempter came into Eden and triumphed, but in that city nothing that defileth shall ever enter. There will be no temper there. Think of a place where temptation cannot come. Think of a place where we will be free from sin; where pollution cannot enter, and where the righteous shall reign forever. Think of a city that is not built with hands, where the buildings do not grow old with time; a city whose inhabitants no census has numbered except the Book of Life, which is a heavenly directory. Think of a city through whose streets runs no tide of business, where no nodding hearses creep slowly with their burdens to the tomb; a city without griefs or graves, without sins or sorrows, without marriages or mournings, without births or burials; a city which glories in having Jesus for its king, angels for its guards, and whose citizens are saints!"
V. Heaven Will Be Real.
Heaven is a definite place — it has a specific location in Heavenly geography. Our text says that He has gone to prepare a place for us.
Some say that heaven will simply be a state of mind.
I am here to tell you this morning that Heaven is real. It is not an imaginary "pie in the sky" for those who are weak minded and need to place their hope in a better life than the one they have on this earth.
Heaven is spoken of as a house, as a city, as a country.
Heaven will not be make-believe or imagination, the streets of gold will be real!
VI. Heaven Will Be Reunion.
Most of us look forward to Homecomings and reunions. Just about this time last year, we celebrated the Chapel's 150th anniversary by inviting those who attended here in the past to come worship with us.
Throughout that weekend, we couldn't help but think of those who have already passed the line of worlds. There was much talk of the Montgomerys, and Paul's father, some mentioned Rev. Leidig, and other pastors who could not physically be with us.
Won't it be wonderful to be in Heaven, and have the chance to meet or be reunited with friends.
Just over in Heaven's Land, there will be a reunion where mothers and babies, and fathers and sons, and husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters will be brought together.
There will be a tomorrow where there will be reunion.
VII. Heaven Will Be Right.
Down here, not everything turns out well. One of these days every wrong will be righted. One of these days, everything will be made correct.
Conclusion:
As Christian, in the Pilgrim's Progress drew near to the Heavenly City, he saw the gates opened to receive others. "I looked in after them," he says, "and, behold, the city shone like the sun; the streets also were paved with gold, and in them walked many who had crowns on their heads and palms in their hands and golden harps to sing praises withal. There were some that had wings, and they answered one another without intermission, saying 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!' And after that they shut up the gates; which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them."
If you also, wish to be among them, take the hand of Jesus and let Him lead you on through the duties and responsibilities of life, and up the steeps and over the rough places, and at last through the gates into the city.
Are you ready for Heaven?
