The Believers Hope of Heaven

As we conclude at least my series for this year on what it means to be a Christian a biblical understanding of the doctrine of salvation, I want us to look at it in this last session from the other side. We've talked about this from the perspective of asking people those two important questions. Question number one, are you a Christian? And we've said that for most people, when you ask that question, the overwhelmingly common response that you get is a resounding yes, Yes, I am a Christian. But if you want to separate the men from the boys, so to speak, you want to separate the people who are genuine from those who are not, you ask the next question, and the next question is why you say you're a Christian? Why? Then you start to get all kinds of answers and explanations that have absolutely nothing to do with the doctrine of salvation. It has nothing to do with finding pardon in Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. It has everything to do with either some religious experience that they've had, some religious tradition that they've observed, or it has to do with some family relations that they have, or it has to do with some rules that they've decided to keep, but completely circumventing the person and work of Christ, completely ignoring the fact that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that apart from the person and work of Christ, apart from faith being placed in Him and Him alone, that we have absolutely no hope whatsoever of salvation. And we've looked at this all the way from the beginning. We've looked at it from the covenant of redemption between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in eternity past, how our salvation is rooted and grounded in that. We've looked at it from the standpoint of what our guilt is and our sin is, and what sin means, how it separates us from God. We've looked at it from the standpoint of our election and predestination. We've looked at it from the standpoint of justification and adoption and sanctification and glorification and all of these things. Today we want to look at the implications of that and talk about the believers hope of heaven. It's another way of coming at the same issue, because just like when you talk to me most people, and ask most people whether or not they're Christians. The answer is an overwhelming, unequivocal yes. It is also true that when most people die, the assumption is that they're in heaven. The assumption is that they're going to heaven. Most people get sick and are on their deathbed, most people that I've never heard of a person on their deathbed being visited by friends and family who say it's okay, I'll be in Hell real soon. But overwhelmingly, for the people who are dying, they are holding on to hope that they're going to heaven. And for the people who are left behind, they're holding on to hope that that one went to heaven. In fact, if we're honest about it, most people, most people believe that almost no one goes to hell. For most people, we believe that Hell is a very small place, and that there are a very few notorious sinners in history, right, people like Hitler and you know, Mussolini, and you know, maybe maybe some maybe some bad folks like that. But other than that, other than five, six, maybe seven people, no one else goes to Hell. Everybody else goes to heaven when they die. But can that possibly be the case, and if it were the case, what would it say about the person and work of Christ. So all of that we've done up to this point has been about looking at that one perspective and asking the question from that side, are you a Christian? If you say yes, then based on what today, we want to look at it from the other end, where are you going when you die? By the way, for me, i've told you before my own personal experience. I didn't grow up going to church. I didn't grow up around Christianity. My mother was a practicing Buddhist. I never heard the gospel until I got to university, and when the Gospel was shared with me, I didn't really understand it all that well. And what really got me to thinking about this was Steve asking me if I believed I was going to heaven when I died, and I said, of course, I'm going to heaven when I die. Why wouldn't I go to heaven when I died? And then he asked, you know, how sure are you know? I was confident, young man, I said ninety five percent. He looked at me and he said, what if I can give you the other five how about that? It was his way of saying whatever you're trusting in is not secure. As secure as you think you are, whatever it is that you're trusting in is not secure. And you're cocky and confident enough to say that you're ninety five percent sure. But that's because you're basing your understanding on this. I'm better than most people. I'm not a thief or a murderer. Even if you have been a thief or a murderer, I'm not a thief or a murderer today. So whatever it is, we hold out that little hole that ultimately it doesn't take much, if anything, to get to Heaven. So that's where I'm on my way to. Is that your testimony today, It is your testimony this that you believe that Heaven is for everyone and hell is only for a select few, notorious sinners. And since you are not a sinner on that level or to that degree, then you believe that when you die, you'll go to heaven. Here's why this is important. It's important because when you put these two things together, here's what you get. Most people believe that they're Christians, even though they can't explain why. But that doesn't really matter, because most people believe that unless you're a notorious sinner, you'll go to heaven when you die anyway, So who cares whether you're sure that you're a Christian? Do you see how this works? And it has you him then on both sides, on the one hand, pretty sure that you're a Christian and on the other hand, pretty sure that if you're not, it doesn't matter, because, after all, everyone goes to heaven when they die except five, six, seven notorious sinners who are so notorious that their names are written in history books. But is that what the Bible teaches? Is that the truth? Is that the reality? Or is there something else? I believe we find an answer to those questions in, among other places, John fourteen. So let's look at John fourteen together, shall we? And when we look at John fourteen, usually it's interesting John fourteen, I say, John fourteen. We think John fourteen six right on the way the truth of life. There's more to John fourteen than John fourteen six. And even if we think about more than that, we think about that first paragraph or the first couple of paragraphs, but we certainly don't think about the whole chapter. I want us to look at the whole chapter today. John fourteen comes in a very important portion of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John's starts off as broad as broad can be. He doesn't start off with the birth of Jesus. In fact, John starts off in eternity. Past in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. You don't get broader than that. He starts off in eternity, and then he goes from eternity to the ministry of Jesus. And so we go from all of time to this smaller portion of time. But then John does something unique, and starting in John thirteen, John slows everything down and we start looking at the Passion week. And here he slows down and he looks at one night extensively. He looks at this time that Jesus spends with his disciples right before he goes to the cross, and everything here in this setse beginning in John thirteen, slows down and focuses in So we've gone from eternity to the life and ministry of Jesus to one night. Have you ever thought about this? Think about it in your own life. If you knew that you were a condemned man, that you were a condemned woman, and you knew when your moment was coming, and you had your disciples, your family, your children, and you had one night to impress upon them whatever it was that you were going to leave them with that one last night. There are no more tomorrows, there are no more lessons, There are no more. Let me remind you, if this again, what would you do? What would you say? And whatever that was, think about the amount of importance that it would have for you and then for them. And now that is what we find here in John fourteen. Jesus is about to go to the cross. This is the night of nights. He's washed his disciples feet in chapter thirteen. He's given them lessons from that, and now he says, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it weren't so, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself. Where I am. You may be also, and you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father. Also from now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, just you gotta love, Philip, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me? Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, But the Father, who dwells in me does his work. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, And greater works than these will he do. Because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the son if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the Lord, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor or knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day. You will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas not as Scariot said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world, Jesus answered him. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my word. And the word that you hear is not mine, but the fathers who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives. Do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, I am going away, and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father. For the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it takes place, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me. But I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise. Let us go from here. Amazing statements when you put the entire chapter in its context, especially for things I want you to see about the believers, hope of heaven Number one, that it is rooted in faith in Christ. Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe in Me. It is faith in Christ. Our hope of heaven is based on faith in Christ. Not to the traditions of men and the traditions of men. Wherever you are, wherever you live, wherever you come from, the traditions of men have answers to the question that every man asks, and every man wants to know, what's after this? Where do we go from here? When death comes and death comes to us all when death comes and we see that death has come, the question has to be raised, what happens after this? Because this is going to happen to me. You can't avoid it. You know, when we come to church every Lord's Day, we have to pass by the cemetery on Leopards Hill. We passed by it all the time, sometimes multiple times a day, and never give it a thought. And then someone dies and you have to take the turn and go into the cemetery, and the grave is dug and a casket is put inside, and all of a sudden you can't ignore it anymore because it's there. But that's just one person. But then all of a sudden this begins to happen. You begin to grow older, and all of a sudden, not only do grandparents die, but let's say your grandmother or your grandfather was one of seven, eight, nine, ten, and all of a sudden, one by one, that entire generation dies. And not only are your grandparents gone, but every one of their siblings is gone. And now your parents and their siblings begin to die, until that entire generation is gone, and suddenly your siblings begin to die, and all of a sudden, it is as though old man Death is walking through every generation of your friends and families and saying to you, what make you think I will stop Before I get to your door, You too will die. And so every man has to come to grips with this reality. Every culture has an answer for this reality. And the believer's hope of heaven is not rooted and grounded in culture or tradition. It is rooted and grounded in faith in Christ, and only in faith in Christ. Not rooted and grounded in the visions of mediums or the experiences of men, not rooted and grounded in stories that we have heard, like the story of the Young Boy that became a bestseller when he wrote about going to heaven and seeing Jesus when he died. Interestingly enough, he recanted that story. Later on, we read in an article in The Guardian the car accident that almost killed Malarkey was his name, Alex Malarkey happened in two thousand and four in Ohio when he was six years old. Two months later, he woke up from a coma to find himself paralyzed from the neck down. He and his father, Kevin, a Christian therapist, wrote The Boy who Came Back from Heaven together. According to Chicago's Tyndale House, the firm that brought the book out in twenty ten, Malarkey wrote of the angels that took him through the gates of Heaven itself, of the unearthly music that sounded just terrible to a six year old, and most amazing of all of meeting and talking to Jesus. But when he was sixteen, Malarkey revealed on his blog that he had made it all up. I didn't die, I didn't go to heaven, he said. When I made the claims, I had never read the Bible. But people have profited from the lies and continue to do so. They should read the Bible, which is enough. Listen to this. Tyndale House pulled the book, which had already sold a reported one million copies. One million copies the average Christian books, The average Christian book sells less than five thousand copies. This book sold a million copies. Why? Because who cares about reading what the author of heaven says about Heaven and the Bible. We want to know what a six year old boy experienced when he died a million copies? Why? Because Christ is not enough Jesus and what he says is not enough. Wait, wait, wait, somebody went and they came back. Let me hear what they have to say. Because what I have now is not enough. Perhaps if I listen to their words, or perhaps if somebody's eyes roll back in their head and they go into a trance and then come back and tell me what ah, then maybe then it will be enough. But Christ himself, who died and three days later rose from the grave with all power in his hand, the one who spoke the world into existence, the author of Heaven himself, that's just not enough. I need a man. I need decorated dust to give me something to hold on to. That is not the believers hope of heaven. The believers hope of heaven is rooted in faith in Christ, Christ who says, let not your heart be troubled. If you believe in God, believe also in me. Secondly, it's based on the substance of a promise from Christ again, not the substance of visions and dreams Verses two through four. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also, and you know the way to where I'm going. It's clear here Jesus says he's going to pay a place, prepare a place, he says when he's going to come again for us. The metaphor here is unmistakable. It is the metaphor of the bridegroom. It is the metaphor of Jewish wedding practices, marriage practices. It is the metaphor of the one who becomes betrothed and then goes to prepare a place, oftentimes building on a room onto his father's house. Father has a house, and he's going to either build onto it, or his father has some property, or he's going to build something on that property. But the idea is that he is going to prepare the marriage house and then he's going to come back after the marriage house has been prepared, and he's going to take his bride with him to the marriage house that has been prepared. Jesus makes this promise to his people on the Night of Nights, and the believer's hope of heaven is based on this promise, on a promise from Christ himself. Are you going to heaven when you die? Based on what if you don't have faith in Christ and you're not believing in the promise of Christ, what are you believing in? What are you believing on? Imagine you know, I'm standing here and there was a chair behind me. Before I got up. I've seen sometimes there are pulpits, and you know, and behind there the chairs and the guys sit on the chairs back. I've never never liked that, by the way, I'm always happy. And in fact, sometimes you know, I'll come in and there's all these chairs up. I'll just sit down there and people be like, I'll act like I don't see them, and then when they realize I see them, they're like, you know, I'll get up and what sucks am I wearing today? Everybody's gonna be looking. So I'll get up and I'll go, and I'll say I just but imagine that standing up here, there's a seat behind me. I stand up and deliver my message. But as I stood up to deliver my message, someone had removed the seat from behind me. So I finished my message and I take a few steps back and confidently sit. What would happen my fall would be great. But wait a minute, I believe that the chair is there. In fact, my belief and faith that the chair is there is so strong that I put all my weight on the chair that I know is there. That's what faith is, literally, resting all your weight on what you believe to be true. Wouldn't matter how much faith I had in that chair if it wasn't there. The answer is no. You see, your faith is important, but the object of your faith is more important. If the object of your faith doesn't exist, it doesn't matter how strong your faith is. I don't care how much you believe You're going to heaven when you die. What is the object of your faith? What is the evidence upon? What are you basing it? The fact that the alternative is too much for you to bear. That's not enough. That's not enough. But the believer's hope of heaven is based on the substance of the promise of Christ himself. Thirdly, the believer's hope of heaven is based on the continuation of an intimate relationship with Christ. Look at what he says verse five and seven. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father. Also from now on, you do know him and have seen him. Listen, listen, saints, this is amazing. Here Jesus is talking to his disciples and talking about this place that he's going. He's answering the question, I'm sorry, he's answering the question that every man desires to have answered. What happens after all of this? Already a couple of chapters earlier, in John chapter eleven, of course, they weren't thinking and chapters as this was happening, but already earlier Lazarus had died. Christ calls him forward from the grave. He says, I am the resurrection and the life, and so we know now about Jesus' power as it relates to death. Jesus is now talking about a place that he's going, a place that he's preparing for them, and Thomas says, whoa whoa, whoa whoa, who whoa whoah, time out. I don't know about these other guys, but if you gave out a map, I missed that meeting. Where is this place, Jesus? How do I get there? And then what we all want to know? Where is this place? How do we get there? And his answer is amazing? You know you know, No, you know, I appreciate the confidence that you have in me, Lord, but I don't know. Yes, you do know, because you know me and I am the way you see, the believer's hope of heaven is based on the continuation of an intimate relationship with Christ. This is what amazes me about people who want nothing to do with Christ but want to die and go to heaven. Do you understand that heaven is Jesus's home. Do you understand that that is his place? And not only is it his place and his home, but what's the metaphor. The metaphor is he's the bridegroom. How do you want nothing to do with Jesus in the here and the now, but then want to be married to him for eternity? As we say in Texas, that dog won't hunt? Isn't it amazing? It's a game that we used to play when we were children, and I'm convinced that children all over the world play this game. We're sitting in the car and you're riding around. You don't know where you're going, how long it's gonna take to get there. You find ways to entertain yourself. And there are multiple games that we used to play. One of the games we used to play is that's my house. Right. You're riding along, you know, you know, you take turns and you look at the house. You say, ah, that's my house. Oh that's a nice house. Now, now you wait right, and you try to thank you and you try to you try to bide your time. Right, I've got to pick a house that's nicer than the one that that my friend just picked right, and I got that that's nice. But that's not nicer because if I pick a house, that's not nicer. You know, they said, that's my house. You pick a house and it's not nicer. They're like, whatever, it's not as nice as my house. No, you want to pick a house that makes them regret their choice earlier of their house. So yeah, that's my house. Okay, okay, okay, fine, Ah, that's my house. You want them to say, ah, I got to pick another house. But imagine now that in this game, you pick a house, and then later on you come back and you go and get your things from your home, and you walk up to this house and he says, excuse me, but we were riding by earlier and we were playing a game. That's my house, and this is the house that I picked, and so I've brought my things to. That's the unbeliever who says he's going to heaven when he dies. He's playing a game of that's my house, and he doesn't know the owner and believes that when he dies, he's going to pack his things so to speak, and knock on the door and just go live there because he lacked the place enough to choose it for himself. That is utterly ridiculous. Is that your hope is that your hope because Jesus says He is the way and the idea is that our hope of heaven is based on the continuation of an intimate relationship. What is going to happen when I die? I'm going to continue the relationship that I have with Christ. Now that is true for every person. If you have a personal intimate relationship with Christ as your savior, when you die, you will be with Christ too as your savior. And if your relationship with him is as your judge and you have not come to him in repentance and faith as your savior, your Lord, your master, then when you die, he will continue to be your judge. You will continue the relationship that you have on this side. It will just be heightened and intensified. Fourthly, and finally, the believer's hope of heaven is meaningless apart from the person and deity of Christ. Philip speaks up, I love Philip, I do I really do? I love Philip. I appreciate Philip. And when we see things like this we always cringe, especially Peter. How many times has Peter just put his foot in his mouth. I mean, you just want to just even if you've read it before, Peter, No, don't just just no, don't, don't. And here's Philip, let's be honest. For many of us. Thomas has just spoken up. Jesus essentially says, yeah, Thomas know you're you're wrong, and he encourages Thomas with the truth. No, no, no, you know where I'm going. I'm the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you'd known me, you would have known the Father from now on. You know him and have seen him. It's Philip, Philip, Yes, Lord, just show us the Father and that'll be enough. Wait what were you not listening? Were you not paying attention? Did you not hear what I just said? But don't you love the gentleness of Christ? Here he explained it. Thomas didn't understand and interjected. He explained it again in a different way. Now Philip has come asking in the same question another way. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me? Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father? How can you say show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father, who dwells in me does his work. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. This is the very theme of John's Gospel, from the beginning to the end, from his first words in the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. That word that was God became flesh that's Jesus. And then at the end in chapter twenty, verse thirty, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. That's his point. From beginning to end, he gives us seven signs. John's Gospel is not written around the same format as the other gospels. It's different than the other gospels. He has things in different orders. Why because he's writing around seven signs that are designed to do one thing, point you to who Christ is as the Son of the Living God, as God the Son and He when it relates to the believer's hope of heaven, don't miss the saints. Why is it that we can place our faith in Christ, that we can place our faith in His promise, that we can hold on to the hope of the continuation of an intimate relationship with Him. I mean, who's He? He is God, He's God. You take the word of some little boy who was in a coma if you want to, I'm going to trust God, God, Christ is God. Listen to the words the nice En Creed from the fourth century after the Apostles Creed, expanding a little bit on the Apostle's creed. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of light, very God of very, God begotten, not made being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made, Who for us men and our salvation, came down from Heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under ponstious pilot. He suffered and was buried, And the third day he rose again, according to the scripture, and ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. And we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. And we believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church again Catholic Universal. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and we look forward for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. That's what we believe, and it is all connected. You cannot just take the last line. I believe in the world to come, because everything before that is the basis for what we believe about the world to come. The world to come is the world that is made by the one who spoke this world into existence, by God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You don't get the world to come without the world that He made. You don't get the world to come without the price that He paid. You can't get there from here. The believers hope of heaven, it's rooted in faith in Christ. Have you placed your faith in Christ in his finished work? The believers hope in heaven is based on promise from Christ, our bridegroom, who has gone before us to prepare a place. Is that what your hope is? Or are you just playing a child this game of that's my house? The believer's hope of heaven is based on the continuation of an intimate relationship with Christ. Is that your hope and ultimately, the believer's hope of heaven is rooted and grounded in the person of Christ, the deity of Christ, which is why he has the authority to make such promises, and which is why our faith is rooted in an object that can sustain it. Beloved, we are not going to sit in an empty chair. We have placed our faith substance that is real, that is there, that is immovable, that is unchangeable, that can never fail. Is that your hope is that your hope. If it is not, then I pray that, by God's grace today it will become, so that you would place your faith not in whims or wishes, or hopes or dreams, not in visions or empty beliefs, but that you would place your hope and your faith in the person and finished work of Jesus Christ. For he is indeed our only hope of heaven. Let's pray, Oh Gracious God, our heavenly Father, how we thank you for your goodness and mercy and kindness toward us. We thank you that we, mortal men, who must face death and must do so with nothing in of or about ourselves to merit life thereafter, have been granted through the person and work of Christ, and through our faith in Him, the hope of eternal life based solely upon his merit, And in spite of our lack thereof grant by your grace, that we might trust Him, that we might hope in Him, and that we might be found in him. For He is the Way and he is the Truth, he is the Life. And we ask these things, and believe these things, and hope these things in His name. Amen.