August 1, 2001

• #1 Heaven - Introduction

  

  Heaven - John MacArthur

  INTRODUCTION

  We live in a time when credit cards allow us to own what we can't afford, go where we wouldn't be able to go, and do what would otherwise be impossible for us. Then we begin paying--hopefully. Sometimes people allow their indebtedness to steadily increase until they can't meet all their obligations, and serious problems result. The credit problem is symptomatic of an attitude that says, "I want what I want when I want it!" The mindset of our age is against postponing anything. We prefer instant gratification, gladly sacrificing the future on the altar of the immediate.

  Unfortunately the church has fallen prey to such materialistic indulgence. Rather than setting their affections on things above (Col. 3:1), many Christians are attached to the earth. Rather than laying up their treasure in heaven, they have dedicated themselves to accumulating treasure here. Certain television and radio ministries, preaching a prosperity gospel, promise people that Jesus wants them healthy, wealthy, and successful. Such teaching is extremely popular because it caters to people's desire to have everything in this life. Because the church doesn't have heaven on its mind, it tends to be indulgent, self- centered, and weak. Its present comfort consumes its thoughts, and it entertains only passing thoughts of heaven.

  A. The Preciousness of Heaven - In reality, everything that is precious to us as Christians is in heaven.

  1. Our Father - In Matthew 6:9 Jesus says, "Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." Our Father, who is the source of everything, is in heaven.

  2. Our Savior - Hebrews 9:24 says, "Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Our Savior is also in heaven.

  3. Our brothers and sisters in Christ - Hebrews 12:23 says, "To the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect." Our brothers and sisters in the faith are there. Every Old and New Testament believer who has died is in heaven.

  4. Our names - In Luke 10:20 Christ tells His disciples, who were casting out demons, "Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven." By saying that our names are written in heaven, Christ assures us that we have a title deed to property there.

  5. Our inheritance - First Peter 1:3-4 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you." Our eternal inheritance--all the riches of God's glory and grace--is there.

  6. Our citizenship - In Philippians 3:20 Paul observes that "our citizenship is in heaven." We are citizens; we belong there.

  7. Our eternal reward - In Matthew 5:12 Jesus says we we're to consider ourselves blessed when others persecute us because our reward is in heaven.

  8. Our Master - In Ephesians 6:9 Paul reminds us that our Master is in heaven.

  9. Our treasure - In Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus says that the only treasure we will possess throughout eternity is there.

  We can summarize by saying that heaven is our home. Christians are strangers, pilgrims, and aliens in this world.

  B. The Priority of Heaven

  1. Explained - Everything we love, everything we value, everything eternal is in heaven. Nevertheless the church in this century has tended to be self-indulgent, proof that many Christians have lost their heavenly perspective. Too many don't want to go to heaven until they've enjoyed all that the world can deliver. Only when all earthly pursuits are exhausted, or when age and sickness hamper their enjoyment, are they ready for heaven. It is as if they pray, "Please God, don't take to heaven yet; I haven't been to Hawaii!" Or, "I haven't gotten my new car or house." What a jaded perspective!

  First John 2 says, "If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.... The world is passing away" (vv. 15, 17). Many people who claim to love Christ love the world so much that they can't possibly be citizens of heaven. Like the old spiritual says, everybody talking about heaven ain't going there. But it is also true that everyone going there isn't talking about it. The hope of heaven should fill us with a joy of anticipation that loosens us from this transitory world. It's easy to become so attached to the world that we spend our energy consuming things that will perish rather than accumulating treasure in heaven. Some people think heaven is an imaginary place, the dream of little children. Others believe it is a state of mind, a projection of all that is good in humanity, or the immortality of truth and beauty. But the Bible says heaven is a place, the eventual dwelling of all who love God. We will live there forever in complete perfection and glory.

  2. Exemplified

  a) Paul's situation - When Paul wrote 2 Corinthians, he was facing overwhelming persecution. In 4:8-10 he says, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." In verses 16-17 he says, "We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison." Paul is saying that whatever we endure in this life can't be compared with the glory it's producing in the life to come. When the mother of James and John asked Christ if He would allow her sons to sit on His left and right in the Kingdom, Christ said that decision was the Father's, but implied that the Father would give it to the one who suffered most here for His name (Matt. 20:21-23. Whatever we endure here will be compensated for in eternity.

  b) Paul's shell - Paul continues, "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 4:18,5:1).

  1) The decay of the earthly body - Our earthly tent is being torn down. I remember reading that when someone asked John Quincy Adams how he was doing, Adams replied something to the effect of, "John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well. The house in which he has been living is dilapidated and old, and he has received word from its maker that he must vacate soon. But John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well." Indeed our earthly tent is being torn down, but when it's gone, we'll have a building from God, eternal in the heavens. Second Corinthians 5:2 says of our earthly bodies, "Indeed in this house we groan." We groan because of the infirmities of the flesh and the sin that permeates it. We groan because we can't be what we long to be. We're debilitated in these bodies, so we groan with the rest of creation, waiting "eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8:19). We long to be clothed with a heavenly body.

  2) The anticipation of an eternal body - In 2 Corinthians 5:2-4 Paul continues, "We groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." Although in this body we groan because we are burdened by sin, sickness, sorrow, and death, we don't want to be unclothed. We want both our spirits and our bodies to enter the presence of God. Paul yearned for heaven and his eternal body.

  Verse 5 says, "He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to the Spirit as a pledge." The Greek word translated "pledge" is arrab[ma]on, the same word Paul uses in Ephesians 1:14 to refer to the Holy Spirit. In modern Greek a form of arrab[ma]on refers to an engagement ring. In New Testament times it referred to a down payment or first installment--earnest money. So, the Holy Spirit is the pledge of the new body we will have in the glories of heaven.

  c) Paul's strategy - In verses 6-8 Paul mentions the practical results of his teaching in the previous verses: "Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight--we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." Do you find it difficult to say honestly that those verses express the deepest desires of your heart? There is a tendency to hold tightly to this world because it's all we know. We experience meaningful relationships here, so we become captive to this life. But notice that Paul says, "At home with the Lord." We are at home only when we're with the Lord--that's where we belong.

  As we examine what the Bible teaches about heaven, we should long to be clothed with our heavenly form. We should look forward to being absent from the body and present with the Lord. We should become more preoccupied with the glories of eternity rather than the afflictions of today. We need to spend our energy accumulating heavenly treasures rather than amassing treasures here that are ultimately meaningless. After a rich person died, someone asked one of his friends how much he left. The friend answered, "All of it." And that's exactly what each of us will leave.

  • 03:35
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