What Is Your Hope of Heaven Based On (John 14)

Good morning. You have your Bibles with you, please open them to John fourteen John chapter fourteen. This is often a passive descripture that is reserved for funerals, unless we happen to be preaching through the Book of John. But we tend not to say much about this subject, which is the subject of heaven. But I believe it's the most important subject that we can address because the last time I checked, the death rate was one per person. I didn't look this morning, but I'm sure there has been no change. That's not like the stock market. It doesn't change. The death rate is one per person. Nobody gets out of here alive. Think about that for a moment. One hundred and fifty years from now, every person in this room will be gone, every last one of us. The question has gone. Where have you thought about that? Have you considered that? So often we think about Christianity in terms of the here and the now, and it's very important that we do that. It's very important that we recognize that our faith has an incredible impact on our life today. But ultimately, our faith has an impact on where and how we spend eternity. And I'm afraid that many of us don't look at our life from that perspective, and because of it, we take sin very lightly. Because of it, we look around us at other people, and we think I'm better than most people. So so I'm okay. And that's what most people believe. I talked this weekend about my first encounter with the gospel. Never heard the gospel too. I got to university and in my first encounter with the gospel, I was stopped in my tracks when Steve Morgan, the guy who shared the gospel with me, asked me how sure I was that I was going to heaven when I died, And I told him, I mean, I was so cocky. I was so confident. I was so self assured, self absorbed, I said, And as I told you. He responded to me, everybody, don't you're We're okay. I spent the last decade in Zambia. The lights going off does not bother me at all. And he stopped me in my tracks when he looked at me and said, what if I can give you the other five percent? I didn't know. I didn't know what to do with that. And for most people, we believe that God grades on the courage, and that because we're better than most, or at least because we're not as bad as the worst, that we can have a hope of heaven. But is that the truth? Is that what we find in the scriptures? And the answer is a resounding no. And so I want to ask you this morning, what is your hope of heaven based on because I'm sure that there are very few people who came through those doors this morning thinking to themselves, if I died today, I would go to hell. Few people came through those doors like that. Few, if any, came through those doors like that. And even the ones who come through the doors like that don't really believe it. They don't really believe that they're going to help when they die. That's usually an attention seeking statement, Amen, because if you really thought that you'd be trying to do something about it, if you really believed that you'd be doing everything you could, not just going around saying that you think can going to hell when you die again, that's a tension seeking behavior. We came through that door, and we honestly believe that if it all ended today, we would be ushered into God's kingdom. But based on what. John chapter fourteen, the most poignant verse we have I believe in the New Testament on this question offers us some insight as to the believer's hope of heaven. John fourteen, beginning of verse one, Jesus, speaking here, says, let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. 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. And if I go and prepare there are a place for you. I will come again and will take you to myself. That where I am you may be also, And you know the way to where I'm 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, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, have you been with 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 works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. I want to make this as personal as I can this morning, as we examine this all two important issue of the believer's hope of heaven. I want you to consider where your hope lies. I want you to consider what it is that makes you so confident that if you close your eyes tonight for the last time, you'll stand before God in heaven and be received. I want you to examine that. I want you to ask yourself what you're basing that on, and whether it's consistent with what we see in this text. The first thing that we see in this text is that the believers hope of heaven is grounded in a promise from Jesus. It's based on a promise from Jesus. Look what he says in verse one. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God believe also in me that that's where he starts. He starts with the fact that he's making a promise and that he is trustworthy. This is consistent with. What we see in scripture about Jesus, and there are two ways that we need to look at this. First, this hope is based on a promise from Jesus. Jesus is trustworthy. We can trust the promises that he makes. Amen in Hebrews chapter ten, we already looked at it verse twenty three. This statement, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering why, For he who promised is faithful. We hold fast to the confession of our hope, to our hope of eternal life, to our hope of the forgiveness of our sins, to our hope of heaven. We hold fast to that hope, and we hold it without wavering why because of something in me? No, for he who promised is faithful. Another passage that helps us to see this and understand it is in Revelation Chapter one. Revelation Chapter one. I love the Book of Revelation absolutely, and one of the reasons one of the things I love about the Book of Revelation is. Is how much it makes of Christ. Revelation one, beginning verse four, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was, and who is to come, and from the seventh spirits that are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful. Witness, the faithful witness. That's who he is. He is faithful. And so the believer's hope of heaven is based on a promise from Jesus. And because Jesus is faithful, we can have hope. He makes that clear here in this text. Let not your heart be troubled. Don't be troubled, beloved, don't be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. We have a promise from Jesus. The believer's hope of heaven is based on a promise from Jesus. The believer's hope of heaven is not based on his or her own value worth. It's not based on his or her own deeds. The believer's hope of heaven is not based on I think it is these brother It's not based on him or her having anything in their hands with which they can come before God. Nothing. It's based on a promise from Jesus. By the way, the believer's hope of heaven being based on the promise of Jesus. Remember, I said, there's two sides of this. Number one, Jesus is faithful. Number two, we believe in what Jesus has promised, not with somebody who supposed he died and came back right on the surgeon's table as promised. But the one who died for sin was dead, buried in the grave, and three days later rose with all power in his hands, the one who has ascended to the right hand and the Father, and is there ever make the intercession for us. That's what it's based on. It's based on the promises that we have in the scriptures. It's not based on mythology. It's not based on cultural impressions or images. It's based on the promise that we have from Jesus. Is that the promise that you're holding to listen, go earlier in John and look in John chap three, looking John chapter three. Earlier on in this same book, in John three, there's a very famous encounter with Nicodemus John chapter three, beginning verse one. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher. Come from God. For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, Truly, Julie, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Remember, the believer's hope of heaven is based on a promise from Jesus, and Jesus says, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. We're not talking about getting into the Kingdom of God. We're talking about just seeing the Kingdom of God. Unless you're born again, you can't even see the Kingdom of God. So I ask you again, what is your hope of heaven? Based on The believer's hope of heaven is based on a promise. From Jesus, and Jesus says, unless we're born again, you can't see the Kingdom of God. So if you have not been born again, what hope do you have of heaven? You must be born again. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old, can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? What are you talking about? What does this mean? Jesus answered, truly, Truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. So we've gone from seeing the kingdom to entering the kingdom. He ust to be born of water and the spirit. Well, what does that mean. Let's just keep reading and he'll explain what he means. There are a lot of people who have a whole bunch of answers on this, when all you have to do is keep reading. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which. Is born of the spirit is spirit. In other words, born of water is born of the flesh, born of spirit, born of God. It's your physical birth and your spiritual birth. That's all that is. Referring to verse seven, do not marvel that I said to you you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound where you do not know where it comes. From or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit, a spiritual birth, which is from God. You must be born again. You must be born of God. You must be awakened from your slumber by God. You must have the scales removed from your eyes by God. You must become aware of your spiritual condition because of the work of God. You must become aware of your sin and your need for a savior, because of a spiritual birth that is from God. You must be born again. And upon being born again and seeing our spiritual condition, our only response is that of repentance and faith, agreeing with God about our sinful condition and fleeing to God. For forgiveness and redemption. That's it. That's it. That's the believers hope of heaven. It's based on a promise from Jesus. It's not based on cultural norms. It's not based on the assumptions about who's better than whom. It's not based on that. It's not based on words righteousness. It's not based on you believing that you have lived the kind of life that makes you worthy to stand before a holy and righteous God. Listen, your righteousness before God, says, is as filthy rags. You have no righteousness before God. Your words, your thoughts, and your deeds are unrighteous before a Holy God, and you know it, you know it, you know. One of the first phrases that people learn to say, regardless of what language they speak, one of the first phrases we learn to say with conviction is that's not fair. Keith learned that early. Don't they that's not fair. The only thing they say with more conviction is that's mine right. But we learn to say with conviction, that's not fair because in the heart of every human being is a desire for righteousness and justice. And when we. Say that's not fair, that's what we're crying out for. We look to the people around us in authority and we say an injustice has occurred and it needs to be made right. That's not fair. You need to fix it, every last one of us. We still feel that way when we look at some tragedy, that's not fair. It needs to be made right. When we look at people who live in horrible conditions. But when we look at people who are the victims of a cyclone or an earthquake or something, you may even shake your fist to God and say, God, that's not fair. And there are many people who turn away from religion because of that, because that's not fair. We have this sense of justice, and we believe that if there is a God and all powerful God, then these things just should not be. It's just not fair. There's a small problem, and that problem is from the time you are a child until now or that's not fair. Meter works in only one direction, outward and not inward. You look at what happens out there in the world and you shake your fist at God because he hasn't done something about it. But you do not look inward at your words, thoughts, and deeds and recognize that if God were completely and utterly just once and for all last night, you wouldn't have woken up this morning. You deserve justice, not just the world outside you. The fact of the matter is, if God was completely fair, all there would be was cyclones and earthquakes. Because that's what you deserve, That's what I deserve. You do not deserve for the sun to shine on you. You did not deserve to wake up this morning. When you look at the holiness and righteousness of God. The only fair thing would be for every one. Of us to be consumed with the fire of His justice and his righteousness. And yet God has been merciful. You receive mercy from God and not justice. But ultimately there will be justice. Ultimately everything that is wrong will be made right. That is why the believer's hope of heaven is not based on his or her own righteousness before God, but on the imputed righteousness of Christ. It's based on a promise from Jesus. I do not want God to be fair with me, because I know what I deserve. I know what would be fair from me, and I don't want that. I want God to be merciful, not fair, gracious and kind. That's what I want, That's what I need, which is why my only hope of heaven has to be based in a promise from Jesus. Secondly, believers too, Not only is the believer's hope of heaven based on a promise from Jesus, but the believer's hope of heaven is based on a place with Jesus and my father's. How are many rooms? If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. 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, it's interesting, you know, when I was when I was a kid, I grew up. I grew up pope, not poor pope. We couldn't afford the other ordin ar right, And I had a single teenage mother. And I remember as a kid, when you know, we'd be riding around somewhere and we would play a game that a lot of not well to do kids play, and the game is that's my house, right, especially if we're riding around somewhere nice, riding around somewhere nice, and we're to go, oh, that's my house. Oh, that's a good one, and then. You wait until you see another one, right, because then you get to go next to you, Ah, okay, that's my house. Ah that's a good one right there, So I don't get to pick another one, you know, and then that's my And everybody tries to outdo you know each other in the game of that's my house. But here's what you wouldn't do. You wouldn't play that game and say that's my house and then find you get out and you walk up to the house and you knock on the door of this mansion and say, excuse me, we were just playing a game called that's my house. And I claim this one, so. I'm home. You wouldn't do that. You recognize that it will be completely and utterly illegitimate, right, But that's what most people do with him. They're playing a game of that's my house. They liked the idea of this, this picturesque place, the serene, peaceful place, and they say, yes, yes, that's what I want. But you don't get heaven without Jesus, amen, somebody. He says, he's going to prepare a place so that where he is, we can be. If he goes, he's coming back to claim us. By the way, this is marriage language. This is the language of betrothal. We are betrothed, and now I'm going to prepare our place that we're going to live in when we're married. And then I'm going to come back and I'm going to get you, my bride, and then I'm going to take you with me to the place that I've prepared as our marital home so that we can live our life together there. That's the language that Jesus is using here. The believers hope of heaven is not based on some arbitrary place that we just get to go because it sounds good and looks good to us. It's based on a place with Jesus. In fact, let's go back to Revelation again and look at Revelation twenty one. Your Revelation twenty one. Revelation twenty one. We'll read a lot of stuff here in this chapter any part of the next, but we just have to. It's just too good. Revelation twenty one, beginning verse one, Then I saw a new heaven and a new Earth, for the first heaven in the first Earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And this is at the end of the age. God's justice has been poured out. His judgment has come on the wicked, and everything is redeemed and made new. That's why we see a. New heaven and a new Earth, because the first heard heaven and first earth had passed. Away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the Holy City New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Told you his marriage language. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. As their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Listen, we want verse four without verses one through three. We want no more tears, We want no more pain, no more death. Yes, I want heaven. But look at what comes before this, the loud voice saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be there. God, look down. In verse twenty two, I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lambre's Jesus, the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light where the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. And its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory. And the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The believer's hope of heaven is based on a promise from Jesus, and it's based on a place with Jesus. The believer's hope of heaven is not just about escaping the world. The believer's hope of heaven is not just being in a place where there is peace and no death and no dying. The believer's hope of heaven is about being where Christ is, Which leads us to the third point here, which is that the believer's hope of heaven is about the continuation of a relationship. Verse four, you know the way where I'm going? Thomas says, wait, did you hand out maps? Because these guys didn't give me one of the maps, right. I was saying, 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. How do you know the way? Jesus says, because you know me. You know the way. Because you know me, and I am the way, and I am the Truth, and I am the living. The believer's hope of heaven is based on the continuation of a relationship with Christ. Answer this, Why do you think. That you can live your life in the here and the now with no relationship with Christ and then go spend eternity with an intimate relationship with him. Huh help me with that. How does that work? The answer is it doesn't, it doesn't, or better yet, let's put the cookies. On the bottom shelf. How can so many say that they have a relationship with Christ, they don't going to go to heaven when they die, spend eternity with Jesus, but they don't love the church. I love Jesus, but not the Church. Really. It's like somebody coming to me and saying, hey, buddy, listen, brother, I love you man, I really. Do like you. One of my favorite people in the world. You and me, we're just you know, we're right here, and I'm I just I really You're like, I think you're my best friend, and I think I think I think I should be your best friend. Okay, cool, small problem. I can't stand Bridget. That's my wife's name. I can't stand your wife. What's my response supposed to be? Oh, that's okay, right, we used to be best, so I'll just keep her over dare No, Jesus, I love you, I hate your bride. I do not love what you love better yet I do not love what you love so much that you gave your life for her. But I really do love you. Go to John seventeen just momentarily. Here, let's look at John seventeen. John seventeen is Jesus high priestly prayer, and he prays here for his followers, for his disciples. Listen to what Jesus prays at the end of his life before he lays down his life for his bride. Listen to what he prays to his father beginning of verse twenty. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. So he's not just praying for the disciples who are in front of him, but everybody who's going to believe through the word of the Apostles, which means everybody who comes into the church. Because we believe because of their word. So Jesus, right here, right now, he's praying this for you and for me if we're part of his. Community. Now, what is he playing praying verse twenty one, that they may all be one, just as you, Father are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that that you have set me rest twenty two, the glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I and them, and you and me. That they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have set me and loved them even as you loved me. Not just as they might be one, but that they might be perfectly one. Being in Christ means being part of the bride of Christ, means being part of the body of Christ. By this, all men know that you're My disciples, that you have love for one another. Go to same author, Go to First John, First John, chapter five, First John, chapter five. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. There's that born again thing again. You must be born again. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. Everyone who's been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith. Who is it that is overcome the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God. We believe the gospel, we walk in obedience. We love the brothers, and that shows up over and over and over again in First John. How can you say you love God whom you've never seen, but hate your brother. Who you see every day? By the way, that puts the lie to this whole thing. Oh no, no, no, no no no. I love the church. I love the universal church. It's just the local one I have a problem with. And there's nothing in the scripture that says I have to be a part of the local church. How can you say you love God whom you've never seen, but hate your brother who you see every day. That's not universal church. That's the local church. That's local church and community. That's local church with accountability Matthew eighteen. Church discipline, that's local church. You can't be excommunicated from the universal church. Excommunication happens in a local church. It's easy to love the universal church. When you think of the universal church, you just think of people out there, nebulous people out there who never to disagree with you, who never confront you, who never disappoint you. That's easy. It's easy to love theoretical people. That's not what we're talking about here. The believer hope of heaven is based on the continuation of a relationship. Do you do you love his bride? If you don't, why. Would you want to go to him? Finally, the believers hope of heaven is based on the authority of Jesus. Verse seven. If you had known me, you would have known the Father, my father. Also from now on, you know him and have seen him, seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it's enough for us. Jesus said to him. Have I been with you so long and you do know me? Philip, wherever seeing 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 works believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or LUs believe on account of the works themselves. Jesus has the authority to make these promises because he's God, because he is the second person in the Trinity. John begins his Gospel with these words. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. And in him is life, and that life is the light of men. Entire argument is rooted and grounded in the fact that Jesus is God. He gives these seven signs, and he builds his Gospel around these seven signs. All these signs point to the fact that Jesus is God. He is the promised Messiah. He is the second person of the trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God. We have one God and three persons. Paul reminds us in Colossians that in Jesus the fullness of the God had dwelled in bodily form. We know who God is because of Christ, the final, the ultimate revelation of God, Jesus Christ. That's why. So at the end of the day, my hope of heaven again where we begin. It's not based on me. It's not based on me believing that anything that I have is worth coming before God. It's not based on me believing that anything that I've done. Earns me the right to come before God. It doesn't. It can't. I know better. So my hope of heaven is based on a promise from Jesus. I don't believe I'm going to heaven when I die because of anything other than the promise from Jesus. I am a sinner saved by grace. I have been born again by the power and the grace of God. I have been redeemed and forgiven through repentance and faith by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone, I have a hope of heaven because of the promise that I have from Jesus. Nothing else. What are you hoping in? What are you trusting in? My hope of heaven is based on a place with Jesus to spend eternity in the place where He is, not just in a place that's not here. Not just in a place that sounds good, but a place with Jesus. My hope of heaven is based on the continuation of a relationship with Jesus. Christ is my all in all, here and now. I abide in Him and He abides with me here and now, and heaven will be a continuation of that relationship, where I will abide in Him and He will abide in me throughout eternity. I'm not living my life one way now and expecting to live my life another way. Then I'm not living my life ignoring Jesus now and expecting to live my life and eternity with Jesus. Then the continuation of a relationship, the perfection of a relationship with Christ and with his bride, because I'm not going to spend eternity. With Jesus alone. I'm going to spend eternity with Jesus and his bride, whom he redeemed with his blood. And at the end of the day, my hope of heaven is based on the authority of Jesus. He is God, He is God. And I have his word on it. Beloved, what is your hope based on? Is it something other than this? Please say it's not, and if it is, please flee from that. Whatever it is, flee from it and flee to Christ. Whatever it is, Plead with God to remove the scales from your eyes. Fleet with God to give you that new birth, that supernatural birth from above. Plead with God to. Grant you grace to see yourself from outside yourself, so that you're not self deceived, to see that you're a sinner in need of a savior, to see that you are absolutely hopeless, and to see that you deserve the justice of God, and yet you've received mercy. And run to the one who's been merciful. Plead for the forgiveness of your sins. Trust to the finished work of Christ alone for your salvation, so that you two might have the hope of heatern So that you two might say, as we sang earlier on Christ, the solid rock is there. All of the ground is sinking sad. There is hope in no other, especially not yourself. Our hope of heaven is found in Christ, and in Christ alone. Flee to Him.