9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Hebrews 11:9-10
21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21
8think about such things… Philippians 4:8c
“Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.”-Westminster Catechism
Let me start this series with the most important question you will ever be asked: “Where will you be standing ten minutes after you die?” Each of us has an appointment with death (Should the Lord tarry. Come quickly Lord Jesus).
Pastor Erwin Lutzer tells of a cemetery in Indiana that reminds us of this truth:1
Pause, Stranger, when you pass me by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, so you will be
So prepare for death and follow me
An unknown passerby read those words and underneath scratched the following reply:
To follow you I’m not content
Until I know which way you went
The response of millions Catholics around the world to the Pope’s death in April 2005 was clear:
To follow you I am content,
I know which way you went
This attitude was underscored by the words of Undersecretary of State Archbishop Leonardi Sandri who told a crowd of 70,000 gathered in St. Peter’s Square below the Pope’s still-lighted apartment windows: “We are like orphans this evening.”
At one point church officials asked those in the square to stay silent so they might “accompany the Pope in his first steps into heaven.”2
With 20/20 vision, the eyes of the world were fixed on the papal apartment, home and hospice to Pope John Paul II, age 84. His last days followed an early Easter in 2005. His passing took place at 9:37 PM, Saturday, April 2nd in his private apartment in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
“Our most beloved Holy Father has returned to the house of the Father,” Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, a senior Vatican official, told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.
The Pope’s death brought an end to the Roman Catholic Church’s third longest papacy. Millions of Catholics, Protestants, and unsaved prayed for John Paul’s peaceful home going. The day after his death, headlines around the world read:
“Pope at peace” Everett Herald, April 3, 2005
“John Paul II dies; Catholics and world mourn end of an epic life” Chicago Tribune, April 3, 2005
“Pope John Paul II Dies” Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2005
“Pope John Paul II: 1920-2005 – ‘Don’t weep for me’” The Sunday Times, Britain, April 3, 2005
I don’t know of any event in the modern era that has stirred more interest in Heaven and the life beyond than the passing of Pope John Paul II. I believe his passing is causing many people to come to grips with their need to prepare for an afterlife. The Pope’s passing is stirring a greater interest in eternity, the role of suffering in dying, learning how to face death, and many other related topics. This series, entitled Heaven Is Our Home, is intended to help you think more about Heaven, order your personal life with Heaven in mind, and stir up a heart for evangelism.
If we end up in Heaven it will be because we have admitted our sinfulness. Mankind’s only hope for eternal life in Heaven is to receive Christ as Savior and have their sins forgiven. Author Eugene Peterson spells it out very clearly in the Message Bible in Romans 3:9-26. Read the passage when you get a chance. We are all in the same sinking boat of sin. Only God through Christ can rescue us.
He did it all. We can receive it all.
We add nothing. He leaves out nothing.
He loves us so much that He couldn’t bear to live in eternity without us.
We love him so little that the thought to make God a priority in our lives seldom crosses our minds.
We are in a boat that is sinking, or we are in an Ark that is sailing.
He has done the work. We have to make the choice.
However incredible Heaven will be, we Christians give it too little thought. Guilty as charged! Isn’t it odd that even though we know for a fact we will spend eternity in an awesome place called Heaven, that thoughts of Heaven seldom cross our mind? Heaven gets about as much attention as our awareness of what dictionary words went obsolete this year. So we need a motivation, or reason, to bring Heaven to the front burner of our thinking.
Before you know it, one day your appointed time will come; you will die and your eternal journey will begin. You will live with God the Father who would rather die than live without your fellowship and friendship.
As C.S. Lewis says, “All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page; now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: …which goes on forever; in which every chapter is better than the one before.”1
Your only hope for getting ready for Heaven is to think more often about your future home, not less.
…as man thinks …so is He…Proverbs 23:7
Nothing shapes your life more than the thoughts you think! Your thoughts can either develop or destroy you as a person. Do you understand how your thoughts will define you in this life and the life to come? Let me into your brain for the next week and I will tell you what your life will be like for the next 20 years, even next 20 million years. This series is about letting go of some old thought patterns and replacing them with new ones. Mark my words friend, the Holy Spirit is the only one who can help you pull this off.
I read an exhaustive e-mail this week from a person working really hard to convince me there was nothing I need to do in my effort to serve God. Danice and I were shocked as we followed the faulty logic giving us permission to consider if we were a part of the chosen elect. At best the author offered an opportunity to “wish upon a star.” Somehow we were going to Heaven.
My Bible clearly states, “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:12b-13)
Do you see what I see in that passage? It couldn’t be any clearer than the nose on my face. My growth in Christ is built on Siamese twins:
…work out, which is my part and
…work in, which is God’s part.
Your spiritual growth is the cooperative effort of you working with the Holy Spirit. I already have a body given by God, now I must do the “work out.” You have a garden; do the work out, cooperate with God’s growing process and reap the results. I urge you to make a fresh investment and commitment to that end.
THINKING MORE ABOUT HEAVEN
1. With Heaven as your final destination, you need a proper perspective.
9By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Hebrews 11:9-10
If you have any reference point other than Heaven as your goal, you are in for a big disappointment. Got a great family? Not enough. The job of lifetime? Your job falls even further down the list. When our thinking is turned toward Heaven we gain a proper perspective in life about career, family, health, wealth, time, and pleasure.
It was the resurrection of Christ that got the sleepy disciples’ attention and motivated them to evangelize the world. Even unto death. The disciples lived as if Christ could return in their lifetime. All of us have a reference point that determines what is important and how we live. The high school student wanting to get into a top college says no to many social events in high school in order to make the grade. The Olympic hopeful moves away from home to the best skating facilities in the country. Parents sacrifice financially to be a part of the making of an Olympic skater.
Most people fall short of whatever reference point they have dedicated themselves to, never satisfied. It could have been better. It could have been bigger. Another challenge. The new house soon looses its luster. We work all our life for the retirement dream then find ourselves depressed. Too much energy is left unspent. We have no passion to work for. We experience a deep longing for something more. We want something greater than ourselves and something that stretches beyond the temporal.
We’re looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. It is for Heaven we have been formed and fashioned. No other reference point will satisfy. You must fix your mind on things above, as Paul states in Colossians 3:1-2.
2. With Heaven as your final destination, you need purposeful priorities.
19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth... 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” Matthew 6:19-20
Let me offer two statements, each equally convicting. Fasten your seatbelt, there’s going to be a little rough air for a moment, but you look like you’re open to conviction:
One: are your possessions a symbol of significance or commodities to be used for eternity?
Second: are they commodities for your own consumption or capital that you invest in eternal gain?
At the tender age of eight, my son Jesse is a sports fanatic. He will run through a wall. He picked up a book about Ichiro, the Seattle Mariners right fielder, from the school library for a “little light” reading. When Jesse comes to the plate for batting, he sticks out his arms and pulls up his sleeve just like Ichiro.
Several years ago an Ichiro rookie card was worth $200; I’m not sure of its value today. The Assemblies of God Missions Department records eight converts for every dollar spent in Assemblies of God missions. That same $200 could be used to see 1600 Chinese converts find Christ. Which would you rather have? Converts credited to your life or the need to work hard to protect the safety of a baseball card? You would have to constantly instruct your kids to “be careful with the card.” Your wife would roll her eyes every time you brought the card out in a social setting. Come on honey, not the card.
Let me go a step further than the right priority of possessions and talk for a moment about the right perception of people. When my priority is Heaven, my view of those around me changes. It is one of the best ways to correct a sour attitude and destructive behavior.
People are the only thing we will take with us into eternity. Everything else stops at the state line. Everything else stops at the front door. God wants us to see His people like He does, fragile and in need of His daily grace. When eternity guides your conduct toward others, you will no longer see them as inferior objects to be used, abused, manipulated, offended, consumed, harassed, and so on.
A father with eternity as his priority says no to overtime and comes home from work to invest in the lives of his children. With eternity in his heart, he never considers his daughter a sexual object to be abused. Yet it happens.
A mother with Heaven on her mind disciplines her family’s spending so they can give to an orphanage in Honduras. Yet there are children everywhere who have never felt hunger or heard the word no!
A student who loves Jesus Christ wants to be ready for His wedding day with the Savior so he keeps himself pure because he knows that the Bridegroom could return at any moment. Just as their Pope chided American Catholics for tolerating abortion, so Christians are reminded of the lack of self-control in the average Christian young person’s life. The fruit of the poisonous tree often falls near the root of a mom or dad engrossed in sexual misconduct, misdeeds, or missteps.
The Christian’s only hope for getting their priorities right is to make all decisions in light of eternity. The net result will be a change in church attendance, how we serve one another, what we do with our resources, and the desire to live holy.
3. With Heaven as your final destination, you need to be people of purity.
11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 2 Peter 3:11, 13
You can’t travel far down the road of purity in scripture without running into a bride.
…”I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” Revelation 21:2
Does your job have fringe benefits? I love the fringe benefits of the ministry. One is that I get an early peak at the bride as she enters the sanctuary. I have never seen an ugly bride. Now, the groom, I’ve seen a few of those who could use a little more work.4
The bride and beauty are one. The blush of love on her cheeks, the sparkle in her eye as she looks for her groom, the wrinkle-free dress that floats down the runner stopping before the minister. That blinding whiteness offers an aura of beauty that this world cannot match.
Then there’s the bouquet of flowers that spell out I am with you forever. Rings that seal a vow that says, our best days are still ahead, our future is worth saying, “I do.” Vows announcing faithful promises of purity and sacrificial love, vows that are spoken by one to be never spoken again, are spoken before God and man.
When I read that my heavenly home is like that of a bride, I can’t wait for the experience. But I don’t live in that world yet. The world I live in is grieving. A man goes to surgery. His wife’s future as a mom and woman will be changed forever. She will have to say good-bye. She will grieve.
The world I live in is depressed. A student is confused over his parent’s divorce. He didn’t see it coming and is forever hounded by the guilt of misbehavior.
The world I live in is financially strapped, martially torn, and ethnically abused. A family waits for child-support. A spouse waits for a Christian counseling appointment. A reporter waits for a story on prejudice.
This world is filled with sweet and bitter. If one of the great joys of a pastor is placing a kiss on the cheek of a new bride, one of the great heartaches is placing a final kiss on the cold forehead of a church parishioner. One of the hard things in this life is the tear; in Heaven God himself will wipe away those tears. Doesn’t it make you want to go home?
In this life our name carries the scars of abuse, failure, second chair, last picked, and overlooked. In eternity we get a new name, one known only to the Savior and us. Our current name is to unworthy to enter Heaven’s lofty status. Doesn’t it make you want to go home?
4. With Heaven as your final destination, you need precious promises (about suffering).
6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith… 1 Peter 1:6-7a
Put your focus on Heaven and your view of pain and hardship are immediately changed. Mark this verse in your Bible - 2 Corinthians 4:17, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
Whether your pain is chronic or occasional, it is temporary.
Whether your trouble is self-induced or you are a victim, it is temporary.
Whether your hardships are emotional, mental, or physical, they are temporary.
Regardless of how you feel about your difficulties today, there will come a day when you will thank God for your growth.
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke these words with confidence right before he was hung for his commitment to Christ in the face of German atrocities: “Oh, God, this is the end; but for me it is just the beginning.”
It didn’t me long to mess up God’s creation. Recently our church’s youth department asked me to write some thoughts for a youth devotional they publish each quarter. The assigned topic was Genesis three. My first thoughts were, it didn’t take man long to mess up God’s creation.
It doesn’t take long for my sons (Jesse, 8 and Joseph, 6) to mess up their bedroom. My wife tries to keep it clean. Now that’s a fruitless task. Micro-machines are everywhere. Have you ever stepped on a micro-machine in the dark? Ouch! MacDonald toys are everywhere. The child enjoys them during the drive home then they’re tossed under the bed.
My kids took a bunch of these toys to Mexico a few years ago on a mission’s trip. They tried to give them away to poor kids. They were not impressed one bit. Neither are my kids.
Have you ever tried to set up a tent in the bedroom? Where does all that excess stuff go? The towels. Folded clothes. Backpacks and Sunday school crafts. They pile up against the wall. They climb the wall. They scratch the wall.
I am afraid to enter my boys’ room. I’m sure something is growing in there. It looks like a Kansas tornado tore through the room. What’s my reaction? I wish I were more Christ-like, but anger and frustration get the best of me. “You guys get in there and clean that room, and I don’t want you ever to mess it up again,” I say. “Don’t you ever play in that room again. These toys are just to look at. They are not to play with. What are these fingerprints on the wall? How many times have I told you to pick up your clothes?”
It would not have been a pretty sight if God had responded to Adam and Eve when they sinned the way I respond to my boys. I will be eternally grateful that when I mess up the rooms of my life, like Adam and Eve messed up creation, I didn’t meet God on a bad day.
He loves me even though my rooms (thoughts) are not clean.
He loves me even though my room (attitude) stinks.
He loves me even though my fingerprints (consequences of sin) are clearly visible on the wall.
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
(Genesis 3:21)
God is doing everything He can to help us make it. The Bible is filled with His grace offering us help and hope. Do you need an ark to sail safely from a flood? Do you need a city to run to in order to avoid lightening from Heaven? Even though I blow it, God, I thank you for not sending me to my room. Better still, thank you for not giving me a time-out. That could be a long time by your standards. I promise you, God, I will work harder at trying to keep my room (life) clean. Never forget, He loves you even though YOU messed up his creation.
Doesn’t it make you want to go home? I think I’ll start living today as if I’m ready today to go home. I think I’ll start living today so people know where my future plans are - to go home. I think I’ll start living today so my Savior will long for my arrival. Doesn’t it make you want to go home?
Summary Highlights
However incredible Heaven will be, we Christians give it too little thought. Guilty as charged! Isn’t it odd that even though we know for a fact we will spend eternity in an awesome place called Heaven, that thoughts of Heaven seldom cross our mind? Heaven gets about as much attention as our awareness of what dictionary words went obsolete this year. So we need a motivation, or reason, to bring Heaven to the front burner of our thinking.
Before you know it, one day your appointed time will come; you will die and your eternal journey will begin. You will live with God the Father who would rather die than live without your fellowship and friendship.
Nothing shapes your life more than the thoughts you think! Your thoughts can either develop or destroy you as a person. Do you understand how your thoughts will define you in this life and the life to come? Let me into your brain for the next week and I will tell you what your life will be like for the next 20 years, even next 20 million years. This series is about letting go of some old thought patterns and replacing them with new ones. Mark my words friend, the Holy Spirit is the only one who can help you pull this off.
Let me go a step further than the right priority of possessions and talk for a moment about the right perception of people. When my priority is Heaven, my view of those around me changes. It is one of the best ways to correct a sour attitude and destructive behavior.
People are the only thing we will take with us into eternity. Everything else stops at the state line. Everything else stops at the front door. God wants us to see His people like He does, fragile and in need of His daily grace. When eternity guides your conduct toward others, you will no longer see them as inferior objects to be used, abused, manipulated, offended, consumed, harassed, and so on.
Surprising Highlights
If we end up in Heaven it will be because we have admitted our sinfulness. Mankind’s only hope for eternal life in Heaven is to receive Christ as Savior and have their sins forgiven. Author Eugene Peterson spells it out very clearly in the Message Bible in Romans 3:9-26. Read the passage when you get a chance. We are all in the same sinking boat of sin. Only God through Christ can rescue us.
He did it all. We can receive it all.
We add nothing. He leaves out nothing.
He loves us so much that He couldn’t bear to live in eternity without us.
We love him so little that the thought to make God a priority in our lives seldom crosses our minds.
We are in a boat that is sinking, or we are in an Ark that is sailing.
He has done the work. We have to make the choice.
This world is filled with sweet and bitter. If one of the great joys of a pastor is placing a kiss on the cheek of a new bride, one of the great heartaches is placing a final kiss on the cold forehead of a church parishioner. One of the hard things in this life is the tear; in Heaven God himself will wipe away those tears. Doesn’t it make you want to go home?
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke these words with confidence right before he was hung for his commitment to Christ in the face of German atrocities: “Oh, God, this is the end; but for me it is just the beginning.”
End Notes
1. Erwin W. Lutzer. Coming To Grips With Heaven. Moody Press, Chicago, Ill. 1990, pg. 7.
2. Pope John Paul Dies at 84, AP Headlines
3. C. S. Lewis. Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle. Scholastic, Inc. New York, New York, 1956, pg. 210-211.
4. Max Lucado. The Applause of Heaven. Word, Dallas, Texas. 1990, 184.
5. Christian Leaders. 10 Reasons Why Jesus Is Coming Soon. Multnomah Books, Sisters, Oregon. 1998, pg. 247.
