The Eternal Destination of the Redeemed

John 14 1 through 6. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. And my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so what I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.

Now if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again, and we'll take you to myself that where I am you may be also. And if you know the way to our 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 I want to invite you to bow your heads and pray with me our father and our God we come to you in.

Jesus name and Lord as we open your word together we look at the subject of heaven. Father I pray that you would be merciful to me as I preach your word. I pray that you would keep me from error. I Pray that you would open the hearts of your people to the truth and I pray Lord that that truth would go into their ear through the mind down into the heart and that it would permeate their very soul.

Your word tells us that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword Able to cut through anything even dividing the soul and the spirit. Lord let us be laid bare before your word today. Let us be moved by your word today and Lord again be with me fill me with the Spirit of God as I preach your word in Christ.

Name.

Amen, I'm just going to use this it's okay.

Charles Spurgeon was once speaking to a group of seminary students, and this was what he told them. When you speak of heaven. Let your face light with a heavenly gleam. Let your eyes shine with reflected glory.

And When you speak of hell. Well, your usual face will do. Last week I preached about the torments of hell. And by God's grace that did not become a two-parter. Though it was a fairly long message. It was a difficult one, but I have found it interesting That this sermon on heaven was even more difficult in a sense.

I found myself weeping more in the preparation for this message than I did in my preparation for the sermon on hell as I considered the wonders of heaven the reality of it all I Became over. I wept at my desk.

One of the things that God has gifted me with is a fairly decent imagination. Yet still I have a hard time Really imagining what heaven will be like as I said a moment ago during the prayer. I Think it's almost harder to imagine heaven than it is to imagine hell.

I've experienced pain and torment and even though I know hell is Unimaginable pain and torment at least I can think of it being just worse and worse than what I what I've experienced in pain and torment.

But I've never experienced the unseparated immediate presence of Almighty God and that is hard to imagine. It's hard to imagine not to be somewhat separated by the flesh. Not to be somewhat separated by my own sin and my own failure my own Mental.

Limitations and that's what heaven is.

Heaven is God without separation and that's I mentioned in the prayer again. I hate to reiterate everything I said, but that's what worship is supposed to be. Worship is supposed to be a taste of heaven.

We're getting a glimpse of what it is like to have God in our midst. That's what the communion is about. The communion is reminding ourselves that Christ is present with us with his people. This is my body not physically.

But this reminds you of my presence with you. This is my blood. This is my body. This is me here with you. Not physical or crassly literal like the Roman Catholics would take it. But in a way that is very real and very spiritual and very present Christ is here with us and as I said just thinking about that is an overwhelming reality.

So as I prepared to preach on heaven this week I was moved in my soul and I pray that you will be moved as well as we look at the text together. I Had Adam read. I know that's not the normal thing. But we're trying something a little different this morning with the moving around on the chancel.

And so I appreciate him reading we've we've looked at the first passage actually two passages. We're going to look at today. We're gonna look at the passage. He read for the opening of the sermon and we're also going to look at the passage we read for the opening of the service, which was the call to worship and That's going to be our our subject today and I'm not normally a two passage man normally, I don't have time to get through one but but we're going to look at two because I think both of them speak to The subject at hand and I think we need to look at both but before we make our venture into those two texts I want to say a few words about the language that we're going to use today.

Because most of us are familiar with the generic language of heaven and hell. But you may remember last week that when I was preaching on hell I said there's actually different words in the Greek that are translated hell.

And so it's it's good for us to understand what Gehenna is and what Sheol is and what Hades are. They and I talked about those last week. Well, I want to mention today that heaven is is similar. Not that there are a lot of words that are translated heaven but the word heaven is used in many different ways.

In fact the King James Bible translates the word heaven 582 times and not all of those times are referring to the heaven we go to when we die. That has to be understood that not every time you see the words heaven in Scripture.

Is it referring to the afterlife? In fact, the Bible talks about three heavens. Now be careful. I'm not talking about the Mormon view of multiple views or multiple levels of heaven. But in the book of 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 The Apostle Paul is talking about heaven and he says I know a man who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven.

Well, what does it mean if there's a third? There's at least two more. Right, I mean if there's a third that by necessity would mean that there are two more. So why is it that we hear Paul refer to the third heaven?

Well, the answer is not really that difficult. He's not talking about three different afterlives or three different levels of heaven. What he's talking about is three different ways. The word heaven is used.

The first way the word heaven is used in Scripture is to simply refer to the atmosphere around us. The clouds are in the heavens the heavens Declare the glory of God and the sky above his handiwork, right?

So that's the first way that the word heavens are used. In fact, that's what the word Auranos in the Greek. It simply means the heights the heights of heaven and. So the first way heaven is used is simply to refer to what I would say the atmospheric heaven.

The sky that's where two birds live. That's where two clouds live. That's the abode of air and atmosphere. The second heaven I Would argue is Paul referring to the abode of the Sun and the moon and the stars.

That would be what we would call the stellar heavens. The celestial not and again not Mormon celestial heaven. You'll be careful because they use language. We have to be careful not to adopt and misuse language.

The abode of the Sun and the moon and the stars is Is not the same as the abode of the clouds and the birds. We agree. Well the Bible makes that distinction between the heavens of the the clouds and the birds and the heaven above that which is the heavens of the The star Sun moon and stars.

And now we live on this side of the scientific revolution. So we can actually go outside of scripture and say we know what it's referring to. It's talking about past our atmosphere. It's talking about the universe.

That's the second heaven. That's that it seems almost unending. Right and we think what could be greater than that? What could be greater than the heavens that seem to go on forever? The third heaven is greater.

That's the greater heaven and that's the point Paul's making the man who was caught up who many people believe is the Apostle Paul himself. He's speaking in the third person. When he says this man was caught up to the third heaven.

He wasn't just caught up to the clouds. He wasn't just caught up to this to space. But he was caught up to the throne of God. That's the third heaven and that is not just a place that is a different plane of existence.

That's not just a little higher. That's a totally different place. In fact, there was a cosmonaut who went into Space and when he came back some newspaper reporters were asking him Did you see God when you were up in space?

And he said no, I didn't see God and and and everybody who knows God was like well done. Just because you go a little higher Doesn't mean you're going to get a better look at the face of God. You don't get to the face of God through a spaceship.

You get to the face of God through the Son of God. You don't go by virtue of a trek you go by virtue of a way and Jesus is the way. So that's the point is is it's a different plane of existence. The third heaven is the throne room of God.

It is that place that you cannot see. Without being born again, and that's what I'm gonna preach next week. Jesus said unless a man be born again, he will not even see the kingdom of heaven. I'm looking forward to preaching that because that's the question of we've been talking about eternal destiny is the question.

What separates he who is going to heaven and he who is going to hell is whether or not he's been born again. So I look forward to I give you a little preview. That's what next week's about. But today We're going to look at heaven this third heaven this place that is only seen by those who are born again.

Now it is clear that many people do not believe in the third heaven. Karl Marx said That religion is the opiate of the people. Meaning that heaven was just like a drug that you give people to keep them quiet.

Sigmund Freud said religious doctrines are just illusions. They're just there to satisfy our psychological need for relevance. There's a famous pop song Written by the late John Lennon and it's titled imagine.

Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us above us only sky. Imagine all the people Living for today. That's the hope of the atheist because that's all they have to hope for live for today.

Stephen Hawking said that heaven is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark. John Lennox a Christian scientist said no. Atheism is a fairy tale for people afraid of the light. The world mocks the third heaven and I fear that the church has forgotten it.

I think we've become so comfortable and so satisfied in our little kingdoms here that we don't long for the kingdom above. We've become so happy with our little Fantastic mansions here our little micro mansions.

They call them that we don't look forward to our mansion in heaven. And I think a lot of Christians have come To the idea that it's really just pie in the sky. But I want to tell you this is not what the Bible says.

The Bible gives us a promise of heaven. And that's what we're going to look at today. That's really how the text breaks down. We're going to look at two texts. John 14 is the promise of heaven and Revelation 21 is the picture of heaven.

So that's how the sermon is going to break down two parts. We're going to look at the promise first and we're going to look at the picture second. So open your Bibles if you haven't got them open to John 14.

We're going to look at the promise of heaven. Adam read it for us earlier. And I got to tell you I've preached this text more than any text but You haven't heard me preach it. Unless you've been to a funeral that I've done.

Because this is the text that I normally preach even in unbelievers funerals not to give unbelievers the hope of heaven. But because of what verse 6 says no man comes to the father. Except through me.

I want everybody to hear that. Yes. There's a promise of heaven, but it's not for all. It is for all who believe. So I've preached this text well over a hundred times. So with that being said, I don't know why I brought notes.

But I did. I want to show you three things about this text first. I want to show you the promise maker. Second I want to show you the promise made and then I want to show you finally the promised means.

Let's look first at the promise maker. Jesus is speaking. He says let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God believe also in Me. This is part of what is known as the upper room. Discourse what that means is this is what was being spoken by Jesus in the room where they were having the last supper.

This is part of that long discourse of conversation. Jesus had to give you an idea of when this statement took place and it actually comes on the heels of Jesus telling Peter before the rooster crows.

If you go back to John 13 in the very end, he says to Peter truly truly I say to you the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times. So that's the that's the last thing Jesus says in verse 13 then in verse 1 of chapter 14 He says let not your hearts be troubled and The interesting thing about that is he switches from talking to Peter directly To talking to all of the disciples because the word you're there is in the plural.

Let not your hearts be true. Not just yours Peter. Yes, your heart's going to be troubled. Yes, your heart's going to be broken. Yes, you're going to deny me three times. Yes, you're going to do that and you're going to break down.

But you're going to be restored. Let not your hearts be troubled all of you when you watch me go to the cross. Let not your hearts be troubled when you see me nailed. Let not your hearts be troubled when you see me die because and he's about to make the promise but Before he does that he says because you believe in God believe also in me and by the way, I want to make a point about that language is important when we study and There are actually three ways to translate.

Believe in God believe also in me. There is something called an indicative and an imperative an Indicative says something is an imperative says something should be if I say that chair is sitting there.

That's an indicative if I say put that chair there. That's an Imperative it's a command so the problem with this text is the word pseudo, which is the word for believe is Written the same way in the indicative as it is in the imperative.

So based on that we have to make a decision. How is it being used the King James? says Ye believe in God indicative. Believe also in me imperative see the ESV says Believe in God believe also me. That's two imperatives.

Some translate it you believe in God you believe also me that'd be two indicatives. I think and again, I Can't prove it because it's it's something we have to determine based on the language and the language is a little obscure.

I think it's an indicative and an imperative. I think the King James got it, right? I think it's saying because you believe in God. You should also believe in me. It's obvious these men were theists it's obvious these men believed in a maker a creator a sustainer.

But would they keep the faith when Christ went to the cross? Would they maintain the faith when he was hanging from the tree? He says because you believe in God you should also believe in me and may not might I say that to you today.

That if you're here today and you believe in God and you don't believe in Jesus Christ that you should. If you came here today and you say I believe in God, but I don't believe in Jesus. Let me tell you something believe in God will not get you one inch closer to heaven.

You do not go to heaven because you believe in God you go to heaven because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you deny him, he will deny you before the Father who is in heaven. It is just that simple.

Because you believe in God you should believe also in me. That's the promise maker. Now, let's look at the promise made in my father's house our many rooms. By the way, the father's house there. That's the abode of God.

I think that's the third heaven. Even though the word heaven isn't used. I think that's can be. Clearly seen contextually the father's house is the house of God the presence of God. And by the way, if you this is where I'm going to disagree with the King James.

So if you were all excited that I agree to the King James, you might be a little disappointed now. The King James says in my father's house. There are many mansions and that has caused some people to imagine that.

Again, heaven is the house you're going to receive as a palace and some people say well I don't care if I have a shack as long as I'm in heaven, you know, whatever. But the idea of heaven having mansion after mansion after mansion.

The word manzione in Latin simply means a dwelling place and that word was brought over into the English. So the way we use mansion and the way they use mansion in the 1600 is not the same. The word dwelling place is a much better way to translate the word or a room a room.

The idea is this if this isn't talking about the palatial nature of heaven. We're gonna see that in Revelation 21 and it is palatial. It is palace life. This is talking about the fact that there is space for you.

There is room for you. You've heard that this song there's room at the cross for you. There is room there in my father's house. There's so many rooms and if it were not so What I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you and the King James it says if it were not so I would have told you.

I love that statement. Because when Jesus said if it were not so I would have told you What he's saying is beloved. I am not a liar. CS Lewis I Believe it was in his book mere Christianity Said this. He said Jesus Christ made great claims about himself and We have to decide How we respond to those claims?

If Jesus Christ said what he said and it wasn't true and he knew it he was a liar. If Jesus said what he said and he believed it and it wasn't true. He was a lunatic. But if he said it and it was true, he is the Lord and there's no other option.

Jesus right here says I am not a liar if it were not so I Would have told you if this was just pie in the sky if this were a false hope if this were something We're just looking forward to we're just gonna be dead eaten by the worms.

Blank and you're done blank and you're done. You're you're in the ground and everything just goes dark and you if that were the truth I would have told you. But I'm telling you This is the truth. If it were not so what I have told you I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am. There you may be also that's the promise. Jesus said I'm gonna come back and get you. You don't have to make it there on your own.

I'm gonna come and take you. You're not the one responsible for getting there. I'm gonna get you there and Then of course Thomas one of my favorite Bible characters. And I shouldn't say character one of my favorite people in the Bible.

They're not there's not like a play. They're not characters. They're people and you say why do you like Thomas? He was the doubter. Well, I Think he gets a bad rap sometimes. You know when Jesus was going to go heal Lazarus and they said well if you go there you're gonna get killed.

Thomas said let us go that we might die with him. Thomas was not. As bad as sometime he's made out but he did have questions. He did have doubts and here's one of the times Jesus said I'm going to prepare a place for you and Thomas said we don't Know where you're going.

How can we know the way he wanted to know how to go there and Jesus said I'm the way. You want to know how to get to heaven this morning? Sovereign grace you went out to get to heaven. Beloved through Jesus.

There is no other way. I am the way and the truth and the life and no one that is the universal negative. No one comes to the Father except through me. You will not go to heaven outside of Jesus Christ.

You will not make it outside of him. Your sins are scarlet and Only through him will they be washed whiter than snow. That's the means by the way. That's the means of the promise the promise made as I'm going to prepare a place for you and the means.

To receive the promise is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is no other means. There's no other way. There's no other there's no other direction. There is a broad way that leads to destruction and a narrow way that leads to life and only those who find the narrow way will find heaven.

So we've seen the promise of heaven. Now, let's look at the picture of heaven. Turn with me to Revelation 21 quickly becoming one of my favorite chapters. So the more I read it the more I realize I want to see it.

I.

Really just want to see it says in Revelation 21 verse 1.

Then I saw I Knew heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more and I saw the Holy City the new Jerusalem Coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God. Remember that we talked about the dwelling place of God. 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 him 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. Now I want us to see two things from this text.

One I want us to see the physical reality and two I want us to see the spiritual reality. It's all a spiritual reality understand that but what I want you to see when I say the physical reality is. Notice there are three new things in this in this text.

There is a new heaven. There is a new earth and there is a new Jerusalem there is a new heaven a new earth and a new Jerusalem and You say well, wait a minute. You told us earlier. There are three heavens and you're right.

I Believe this is referring to all of it. I Think everything gets renewed the atmosphere the planets. I think everything is going to be renewed. The universe is going to undergo a massive reconstruction in the abode of God.

Will be with men right now. The abode of God is separate from me. Sin has separated you from your God, but at this point no more and that's the blessing of the new heavens but also the new earth. Many people picture heaven as being somewhat of an ethereal existence like you live as a vaporous mist.

And you just float around as as just some sort of vaporous soul. No, I've already told you first Corinthians 15 when we were preaching through first Corinthians when you were raised you were raised a physical body.

It's a spiritual body, but it's a physical body. You can touch it. It's not just gas. It's not just air. It's not just spirit. It is a spiritual body and It's going to be on a new earth. Not in a disembodied state.

You're going to have a physical body. You're going to need a physical place to put it. God's going to give us a physical place to put it. This is the thing about heaven that I think is so important people think of heaven.

It's just sitting on a cloud strumming a heart forever. No heaven is a place a physical place when I say heaven now I'm talking about this this this new earth. It's a physical place it's different than what we currently have.

I like to think. It's going to be similar to what Adam and Eve experienced. I Can't prove that but we always hear the earth being redeemed and and and and redeem means purchased back. You know, that's God what God created the beginning was very good.

We ruined it. And he's going to restore it and it's going to be great. It's gonna be awesome and I can't believe you're not excited because I'm like about the pop. This world is rough every day people mistreat misuse abandon attack wars death murder rape abortion.

Hating God hating each other and all that goes away. Right, did you know the earth like like tries to kill us like the hurricanes in the in the floods and the One day California's gonna fall off in the ocean.

He's gonna fall off. You know, the earth is just constantly no more. The new earth will not be constantly trying to kill us. I know it's just so funny, but it just really we're going to have an earth That loves us right now.

The earth is hates us because of what we did to it. I'm using Metaphor there, but you understand what I mean? We're gonna have to be we don't have to prepare for hurricanes in the new earth. We don't have to have a storm shelter in the new earth or a or a cabinet full of food in case we lose electricity from the new earth.

It's a new earth. And a new Jerusalem. This is the city Hebrews tells us this who's designer and builder is God. I Tell you what, I don't know who designed and built Jacksonville, but we got all kinds of problems.

The new Jerusalem will not have those problems. It's going to be heaven on earth and the simplest of language. It's going to be a place of Heaven on earth. We're gonna have things to do there. The physical reality of heaven is you're not just gonna sit down and and be on a hammock forever.

Did you know work. I'm gonna talk about this when I'm preaching Genesis. I'm already preparing for that. Did you know work is not part of the curse? Work was before the curse. What makes what makes work?

Part of the curse is after the curse the world no longer works with us now. It's against us. We have thorns and thistles and fighting our brow sweat. We get tired. But work is not curse and I believe we're gonna have work in the new heaven.

I don't know what it is. But I think it's gonna be great it's gonna be physical and real and That's the new heaven the new earth and the new Jerusalem, but I want you to think of the spiritual reality I mean This is this is even more important because the the physical reality is great.

The spiritual reality is even better and the spiritual reality is this. God is there the dwelling place of God is with man and it says I will be their people or Rather, let me say this. He says I will he will draw them they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.

That's the spiritual blessing. The physical blessing is yes. We have a new heaven. We don't have to worry a new earth. We don't have to worry about floods and tornadoes and hurricanes. We don't have to worry about any of that.

But the great blessing of the new earth is that we get to be with God all the time that should be enough to exhaust our awe and wonder and Notice here the list of no mores. I Could preach a whole sermon on the no mores, but I'm gonna limit it to today.

The no mores number one. It says there's no more C. Now for those of you who are beach bums, you might be a little saddened by that. As it says there's no more C, but let me explain that to you the Bible especially Revelation particularly does use language of metaphor and we have to understand if it's using a symbolic Language what it means and when it says there's no more C.

You have to understand how the Jewish people saw the sea. The sea was a place of struggle. It was a place of tumult. It was a place of drama. It was a feared place. It was a place where men would go out and not come back.

Remember the stories of Jesus being out on the sea how many times during those stories did a big wind come and you have to Do something about it. When Revelation says there's no more C what it's saying is there will be peace there.

No more drama. No more struggle. No more battle. We will have shalom. You've heard people say shalom. Shalom in this life is always temporary. Over in the Middle East there might be temporary ceasefires.

There might be temporary times of peace, but it's not lasting. All it takes is one grenade or one Misfit shell and the whole thing goes right back to drama and fighting but in the new heaven It will be no more of that.

It will be true shalom. True peace no more C, but also It says there will be no more tears and no more crying. Now Some people have suggested That when it says he will wipe away the tears from their eyes that that what is happening is they get to heaven they realize Who's not there and they begin to weep and he wipes the tears from their eyes.

And I think that that's somewhat of a I can sympathize with that. But those who think that God wipes the memory of people I've heard that God wipes away all of our memories. I Can't go there with you one.

The text doesn't say it. But also I think that when we know what God wants us to know in heaven, we will understand why people aren't there. When we know what God wants us to know in heaven when we understand justice and we understand him.

We'll understand Why people are in hell? See right now we don't because we sympathize with them. We tend to want because we feel that we feel a connection in heaven. There will be an understanding we'll have a new connection.

Our connection will be with God and we'll understand it better now again, you can argue with me afterwards you can send me an ugly email do what you want to do, but Ultimately this No matter how God wipes away the tears or no matter what once we are in glory.

Our reasons for weeping will be done whether it's the satisfying of removing a memory or whether it's Providing us with the knowledge of us because God is not going to forget anything and he's going to be happy forever.

Just keep that in mind. Whatever happens there will be no more weeping. There will be no more death. And no more mourning. You realize what death is death is the product of sin and That sin is an enemy that's been defeated by Christ and the Bible says at the end Jesus is going to put all his enemies under his feet and the last enemy to be destroyed is death and Death will be no more.

You won't have to worry about getting old and dying in heaven. You think about getting old and dying? Do you think about it really some of you all know I never think about it. Okay, I do. I Think about the fact that this body is wearing out.

I'm Not going to mention my age, but I'm getting older and As I get older every year, I think that's one more year closer. That's one day closer to a turn. I don't mean that in a morbid way. It's just this body.

Is this gonna end? But when I get there it won't RC sub role he was preaching on heaven. He said, you know, he said he there's so many things He wants to do he and I had such kindred spirits, even though we only met each other a few times.

He was a type of guy like me just like to pick up hobbies. And one of his hobbies was playing the violin another one was doing painting and he said I look forward to spending 10 ,000 years becoming a really good painter.

Because I won't have what else what you know, I don't. I'm gonna have all the time. What do we always make excuses for here? We just don't have the time. When we've been there 10 ,000 years bright shining as the Sun will have no less days.

To sing his praise. Than when we first began. We can't even fathom that but that's the reality no more death. No morning because morning accompanies death and no more pain. We won't wake up, you know, honestly, I Joke about this.

I say I don't remember what it was like to get it to wake up feeling refreshed. I wake up tired. My body's getting older and it just you wake up, you know I remember when I was young and I'd wake up feeling great now.

I just wake up feeling like I got to start over again. One day I'll wake up feeling refreshed. I'll wake up over there. And I'll feel better than I ever did when I was 20. I ever did when I was 12. I'll feel better than I ever have.

Because I won't have sin waiting down this body. But the most important no more and I'm gonna get a draw to close the most important no more on this whole list of all. Of these no more no more. No more is no more separation from God.

The very worst thing sin does is separate us from God and the very best thing heaven does is take away that separation a Lot of people I want to say this a lot of people look forward to seeing their loved ones in heaven and I appreciate that I really do.