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Now we come to the part of our worship service that reminds me of Thanksgiving. Just a big feast, but not on turkey, but on the Word of God preached. Sinclair Ferguson was talking about heaven one day, and he did a little survey.
This is what he said. It was a radio survey. Some time ago, we heard a fascinating radio program in which a number of famous people were asked what they thought heaven would be like. And there were a three-point pattern that came up consistently in all these answers.
Number one, all those interviewed believed in heaven. Everyone believed that there would be a heaven. Two, you might guess, all those interviewed assumed they would go to heaven. And then interestingly, and maybe oddly, number three, when asked to describe heaven, not one of those interviewed mentioned that God would be there.
The special music song four stanzas says this, Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe. You that are longing to see His face, will you this moment His grace receive? Today, if you'll turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 as we continue our expositional study verse by verse to the Sermon on the Mount, we are going to understand that the most important thing about heaven is seeing the face of God.
Heaven will be heaven because God will be there. To see Jesus fully, completely, all the time, continually, and to see the face of God is an amazing thought. Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Before we get there, to Beatitude number 6, let's review the first five. The Sermon on the Mount, these first 12 verses commonly called the Beatitudes. By now you probably should have these memorized, right?
We just go through them in review each week. Matthew chapter 5 verse 3 is the first Beatitude. Blessed, approved by God, the opposite of cursing, God approves this kind of person, those who are poor in spirit.
The unbeliever that realizes there's nothing that they bring to God, they are empty, they are needing spiritually. And it says in the text there, Jesus said, for theirs, literally theirs alone is the kingdom of heaven.
The second Beatitude follows in verse 4, blessed are those who mourn. Building on the last one, we realize we're nothing before God and we're sad about it. And God is taking the unbeliever and he's moving that unbeliever, man or woman or boy or child or little girl, to realize that they are empty.
The Spirit of God is convicting them and confronting them with the glories of God and they say, God, how could I measure up? How could I stand before you? Just like Psalm 130 that we sung moments ago.
If God would count sins, how could we stand? We couldn't stand. It has to be by grace. So here are the physical human manifestations of what happens when the God of the universe is starting to convict and to confront and to draw that person to himself.
They're poor in spirit, they're mourning. By the way, if you're a Christian, can you look back in your life and say, I remember when God finally convinced me that contrary to my secular education, I wasn't good, I was bankrupt.
I was sad about my sins. I wasn't just sad about the consequences of my sin and somehow thinking it was a crime or if I do this I might go to jail, but I realize, God, you're holy and I've sinned against you.
It's the working of the Spirit of God on the inside of a person. It goes further, though, as the person who's being drawn by God begins to think of himself or herself as God thinks of them. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
As a matter of fact, yesterday, just to encourage some of you parents that have little ones, Dave Myers was working with Peter and Peter was asked in Matthew chapter 11 what meek meant and Peter responded, it means gentle.
And Dave said, well, how did Peter know that? And Peter, you said what? I preached a sermon on meekness and so he knew the synonym for meekness was gentleness. How old are you, Peter? Seven. If you don't think your kids are listening, they're listening.
I'm about ready to just preach another whole sermon on that topic. Blessed are the meek, the gentle, those that know as God has so shown them that they are in a lowly place before God and they're in the back, as it were, and they can't come up to meet God.
They just say, God, I have the right estimate of myself. I see myself as you see me and I'm going to need your grace. I have no power to somehow save myself and as we have just sung together, it is going to have to be by grace alone.
And now we start to turn to the solution, verse 6, for Beatitude number 4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. That dire need that all of us have to get rid of our own unrighteousness and to then be righteous is fulfilled, we know, theologically by Jesus Christ in 1 John chapter 2.
Jesus Christ, the Advocate, the Righteous. And now we stand in the stead of Christ's righteousness. He bears our unrighteousness and God, the Spirit, begins to work in our hearts and we just desire that.
We long after that. We want to be like God. We want to be conformed to the Son's image. Beatitude number 5, found in verse 7, as we now show the outward manifestations, the fruit of what salvation does to us, this could be called the fruit of the Spirit, if you will.
When God saves someone, they begin to become like God in many ways. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful, Beatitude number 5, for they and they alone shall receive mercy. A person who has pity and emotions but they do something about it.
They don't get the calculator out and that person deserves this and I don't know if I can go that far but I realize this person has a need, they're in a miserable state and as God has mercy upon the miserable, so we too see someone and we have love that doesn't just say, well, I feel that, but it's joined, as one man said, with the desire to relieve that misery.
And then we come to Beatitude number 6. Believers are merciful and also believers are pure in heart for they shall see God. That strike you as a shocking statement? They shall see God? We're going to find out in moments that this is shocking, this is unbelievable that we could see God.
Well, pure in heart can mean two things as we've learned last week. Number one, a moral purity, what you would think of if someone said pure, not just sexually but in every other area, morally pure and clean and holy, free from guilt and stain.
Like Psalm 15 where the psalmist says, O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? He who walks with integrity and works righteousness and speaks truth in the heart. This is not just an external piety, I do all the things on the outside, I show up when I'm supposed to, I act like I'm supposed to, but it's a real heart.
You see the text, pure in heart, that metaphorical use of language that means just everything that you are, the center of your personality, not just emotions but who you are, mind, soul, body, will, everything as the Greeks and certainly the Hebrews as well would talk about the heart as mission control center, everything that you are.
It also can imply a single-mindedness. If you're pure in heart, you're focused on one thing and that one thing is the God of the universe, you want to please Him and honor Him and you're single-minded in your devotion to this great God.
Lloyd-Jones said, it means that we should live to the glory of God in every respect and that He should be the supreme desire of our life. Well there's more information that we need to learn from this beatitude, look at verse 8 again, for they shall see God.
This is what the Puritans called the Visio Deo, the vision of God. Are you pure in heart? Then you will see God. What does that make you think about? Does it make you stir up any kind of emotion that wants to say, then if I'm going to see God, I should act in a certain way now?
Beloved, as we've learned at the church very often, if you've got the right theology, should it influence what you do? Absolutely. The proper theology leads to the proper methodology, what we do, which leads to the proper what?
Doxology. If I die and go to heaven this moment, I hope you remember that paradigm. Theology, methodology, doxology. We know we're going to see God and it should affect the way then we live. It should affect our prayers.
The certainty of seeing God. How do you take Ecclesiastes 1 .8 in light of this? Solomon said, the eye is not satisfied with seeing. Think you'll be satisfied when you see the God of the universe? This is a certainty.
The way Jesus said this is, I could say it this way, interpretively. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will absolutely, categorically, for sure, see the God of the universe. So let me give you several charges today.
Here's the outline. Stemming from this statement, how the personal vision of God should affect your life on earth today. That is to say, if you will see God in heaven, should you be different today? And let me give you several charges.
Number one, the certain and sure view of God should thrill your soul. I get to see God. I get to see the God of the universe. Listen to what R. Kent Hughes says. As we have said, in that split second of recognition, believers will experience more joy than the sum total of accumulated joys of a long life.
How many joys have you had? How many wonderful things have you experienced? You can add them all up and put them in one big heap of things, but the first second of heaven, R. Kent Hughes said, will be so much better than that.
I don't know if you've ever heard about Peter Pan preached from the pulpit, but let me tell you what the writer of Peter Pan, James Berry, said that will be true for Christians. Here's what he said. To die will be an awfully big adventure.
To see God, just take every joy. What kind of joys have you had as a child playing, as you're growing up and watching sports events, having children, physical intimacy, music, travel, friendship, fellowship, food, and put them all together.
And R. Kent Hughes, and I think he's right, says one second in heaven will take all those joys that you've experienced over 20, 60, 80 years and you put all together and you see God and you'll think, I get to see God.
What a thrill. Psalm 1715 says, As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied with your likeness when I awake. How much more for the psalmist when he sees God in person. Have you ever met a king?
Have you ever met a president? I've seen only two presidents live. One was Ronald Reagan in 1986. Was he president from through 88, right? So I rode my bicycle in California to Huntington Beach and went through all the checks and we stood from, he was probably right there where Brian is and I was here and I saw the president.
He didn't see me but I saw him. I also saw George H. Bush once in Omaha at a big auditorium. If we could get our minds wrapped around what it was like to live under a monarchy it would help us realize the gravity and thrill of what's happening here.
You think meeting a king, meeting the Queen. If you were thinking like a Jew back in this time when Jesus said, the pure get to see God. That had all kinds of overtones of Oriental language, of language of the East where you would go before the king.
You would meet the king and stand before the king and see this monarch face to face. Boy, that was a privilege. If you're married to a king, do you know how you talk to a king if you're even married to him?
Ladies, would you do this? Let me just read you Esther 7, a little bit of it. And the king said to Esther on the second day also, as they drank wine at their banquet, what is your petition Queen Esther?
It should be granted you and what is your request? Even half of the kingdom it should be done to you. Now here's the wife of the king who's the Queen, but to set up how you talk to the monarch back in those days seeing the king, here's what she said.
If I have found favor in your sight O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me as a petition and my people as a request. For we have been sold and I and my people are to be destroyed, to be killed and annihilated.
Now if we'd only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would remain silent for the trouble would not be commensurate with the annoyance of the king. That's how Kim talks to me at home, by the way, in my dreams.
She's very respectful, but I'm the head of the house, not the king of the house. Later in that same chapter in Esther chapter 7, it says in verse 8, now when the king returned from the palace garden into the place where they were drinking wine, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was.
Then the king said, will he even assault the queen with me in the house? And what do you do with someone who has displeased the king? With shame and disgust, you take that person's face and he's not allowed to see the king.
It says here, as the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. You don't get to look at the king. No eye-to-eye contact. The shame and disgust. The criminal is unworthy to look at the king.
Similarly, in 2 Samuel 14, however, the king said, let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face. So Absalom turned to his own house and did not see the king's face. Criminals, those in rebellion, are not allowed to see the king's face.
Now all of a sudden you start conjuring up in your mind 1 Timothy chapter 6 that God has called the king of kings and the Lord of lords and we now have entree and we get to see the king's face. This is language of approval, language of we get to enjoy the king, we get to see the king.
This is language of, we get to. We get to see the king. Can you imagine the throne room of God? Let me give you a little sneak peek. Ezekiel 1, now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne.
And on that resembled a throne high up was a figure with the appearance of a man. I noticed from the appearance of his loins an upward something like glowing metal looked like fire all around within it.
And from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something like fire and there was a radiance around him. Here you are at the throne room of God. And as the appearance of the rainbow and the clouds on a rainy day so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance.
Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And what did that man Ezekiel do when he saw the great king God on the throne? Reporting for duty, sir. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.
I can't look at the king. I can't look at his face. I can't let him see my face. The great favor of the king to look upon those in his kingdom. Yet those in his kingdom now are sinners and they're fallen and they're rebels and they've sinned against God.
But now the pure in heart who have been cleansed, who have been given the righteousness of Christ. You have Christ's substitutionary atonement, paying for every one of our sins past, present, and future.
Credited that great righteousness of Christ to our account. God's perfect forgiveness credited I'm getting so excited and thrilled to see the glory of God I'm getting mixed up. We get his righteousness.
He gets our sins. How about that? Credited to his account. And all of a sudden now we have favor. We have access. He has affection towards us. And if you were a Jew and you thought, I get to see someone's face, it is an expression simply of great favor.
As Proverbs 22 says, he shall stand before kings. If you would please turn over to Exodus chapter 33 and let's build on this a little bit more. I want you to feel the privilege and the joy of being able to see God's face.
To be able to see him in heaven without cowering, without falling on your face unless you want to. Exodus 33, do you remember Moses? When he got a little taste of the glory of God, could he see the full-on glory of God without any kind of filter?
No. Exodus chapter 33. By the way, if you'd love to understand the New Testament, I have great encouragement for you. Read the Old Testament. Exodus 33, 12,. Then Moses said to Yahweh, the Lord, there in capitals, See, Exodus 33, 12, thou dost say to me, bring up this people.
But thou thyself has not let me know whom thou will send with me. Moreover, thou hast said, I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy sight, let me know thy ways, that I may know thee, so I might find favor in thy sight.
Consider, too, that this nation is thy people. God, you say you know me, and I want to get to know you more. I want to get to know you better. And literally, it says in verse 14,. And he said, My face shall go with you, and I will give you rest.
My presence, the English says in the American Standard. Then he said to him, verse 15, If thy presence does not go with us, do not lead us from here. We want to go where you go. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in thy sight, I and thy people?
Is it not by thy going with us, so that we, I and thy people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth? And Moses was said, and the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in my sight.
I have known you by name. Then Moses said one of the most amazing statements in all the Bible, I pray thee, show me thy glory. And here comes a very kind of mysterious scene. He said, I myself will make all of my goodness pass before you, but there are going to be some precautions, because here's still sinful, although redeemed humanity, Moses, who was justified by faith, yes.
Moses was a saint, as it were, but still not glorified yet, so there's some kind of precautions. I will let my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.
I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. But he said, you cannot, what, see my face, for no man can see me and live. When I was a kid, we did this really dopey thing in Nebraska, I guess it was probably smart, and I can still see.
But there was going to be a solar eclipse, and you had to have the right kind of thing to look up at the solar eclipse, and don't touch wet paint, don't stare at the sun. You know, you want to kind of take a little look, but you'd hate to go blind.
It's kind of like your father saying, see that welding iron over there, that man's welding? Don't look directly into it. I just kind of want to see. So, you know, they told you that if you get a piece of cardboard and poke a hole in it, then when the sun comes through, and you have another piece of paper under, you can see the eclipse.
You can see kind of a mirror image without the radiance of the eclipse. There's got to be some precautions here because Moses still has sin. He's saved from the penalty of sin, certainly, but he's not saved from what the sin is in his life, and he still has some sin.
And so God says, there's going to have to be some precautions, and you're going to get, like, a little taste of it, but not the whole thing. You die. And so here's the precaution. Verse 21, then the Lord said, Behold, there's a place by me, and you shall stand there on the rock.
It shall come about while my glory is passing by, that I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand. What beautiful language, until I've passed by. And then here it is, emphatically, then I will take my hand away from you, and you shall see my back.
You should see, as it were, the fringe of who I am, but my face shall not be, what? Seen. Yet in heaven, no restrictions that Moses had, no restrictions that the priests had, no any restrictions. We get the full, complete, non-watered-down, undiluted glory of seeing God face to face.
It's amazing to me. God will see us as his friend, not as guilty in Adam. Queen Esther looked upon King Ahasuerus, and he was holding forth the golden scepter, and he found favor with her, and extended the golden scepter.
And so, too, in heaven we will be found with great favor because of Christ, our vicar, Christ, the one in our stead. And God, as it were, will extend the golden scepter of acceptance and favor to us. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Reminds me of Psalm 1611. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Seeing God face to face, let me call this the death of faith. That day when you see God face to face, it will be the death of faith.
Why? You don't need faith if you can see it face to face. This will be sight. No faith in heaven. In the throne room of God. That is amazing to me. How should a vision of God affect us on our life today?
Number one, we should be thrilled. Number two, the certain and sure view of God should remind you why heaven will be heaven. Why is heaven heaven? What is heaven? Let's go back to Matthew chapter...well, we don't have to turn there yet.
Here's the definition of I found of heaven this week. Pie in the sky and the sweet by and by. Remember my old boss, Ben? He thought heaven would be heaven because his dog, Max, the Pomeranian, would be in heaven.
What if heaven does have pearly gates, transparent streets of gold, but it doesn't have the king of the universe there? Will it be heaven? It was so weird. And sorry for all the stories about my mom, but just when I think about heaven, it's made me think about that.
When I go back to see my mother's house, that was the house that I grew up in for 45 years. That was my house. I moved out at 21, but it was still my house because my mother lived there. I couldn't believe when dad started charging me rent at 18 years old.
I said, I'm your son. He said, yeah, you're a boy too, 18 years old. Rent's due. So I tried to eat extra to kind of make up for it. But when I go back home, it's the same tree out front, the crabapple tree, same peach tree in the back, same raspberry bushes back there, the same pool that she had, the same steps, the same creaks in the floor, the same smell in the kitchen.
But my mom's not there. It's not home. And the reason heaven will be heaven, it's not because your loved ones will be there and those who are in Christ, they certainly will be. And that will be a joy, but that won't be the primary joy.
Anything less than having a heaven where you can't see God face to face will be a mirage. The face of God will be there. How much could we sing this song? What a fellowship, what a joy divine. I looked up the word to see in the dictionary, the Merriam-Webster College Dictionary, and I think this will help us a little bit because sometimes we think to see is only by sight.
To see, to come to know, to discover, to perceive the meaning or importance of, to understand, to be aware of, to recognize, to grasp something mentally. And so when you stand and see God, it's not just going to be the sight, it's going to be I understand, I see God for who He is.
I will really experience God. I'll know Him. Why do you think there's no marriage in heaven? We don't need marriage. If marriage is God's gift for the lonely, who needs marriage then? If God's gift of marriage is for intimacy, then who needs marriage when we're face to face with God and intimate with Him?
The functions of marriage aren't required anymore. Revelation chapter 22, I find it very interesting when it says this of heaven, and there shall be no longer any curse in the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it, and His bondservant shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
No ifs, no ands, no buts, no predicated upon such-and-such. No, we are in the inner circle of God. We have found favor by God. We get to see His face. Now, I don't know how many of you have this. I think mothers and fathers both have it, but I have a look that I can give to my kids that if Luke or Haley or Mattie or Grace is in the far back, and they're disobeying, and they're climbing underneath that thing over there, I can give them a look without saying one word.
I don't know if I could reproduce it for you, but it's just kind of the dad ray. It's just that look like, I'm gonna smile. I can't do it now when I smile. If I believed in drama during church, I'd do it, but there's something about that parental look, not just of disfavor, but also one of favor when you're watching your kid do something and they look over.
It's kind of like when my kids are in sports and stuff and they get scored on in basketball because they just did something and are looking over to see if dad's checking it out to make sure. Pay attention, though.
Good job. Pay attention. When you read that whole Aaronic blessing about the Lord's face shining upon us, and we're in heaven, certainly He has shined His face upon us because we're in Christ, and when He sees us, He sees Christ.
He loves us as much as He loves His Son. But just that look where we see God's face and it will be of divine pleasure and delight. Jude, verse 24, talks about we stand in His presence blameless with great joy.
Well, we have great joy, yes, but don't forget the great joy is going to emanate from another, and that other is a triune God of the universe. Joy that Christ has captured those who the Father has called and the Spirit has redeemed them, and He didn't lose one, and they all are giving Him favor, and there's the smile and the face that shines.
Ferguson's put it this way, showing what God has done for us at the expense of what He's done for Christ. The Lord bless you to Jesus at Calvary, the Lord curse you. The Lord keep you at Calvary, the Lord forsake you.
The Lord make His face shine upon you. At Calvary, the Lord make His face frown upon you, and be gracious to you and to condemn you. The Lord turns His face towards you. The Lord turns His face away from you, and give you peace and give you grief.
But it didn't stop there because Jesus was raised from the dead. Heaven is heaven because Jesus will be there. John 14, I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you for myself, for where I am, there you may be also.
A little boy jumped on grandpa's lap, put his arms around grandpa's neck and said, I love you very much grandpa. Do you know how I know I love you? How, grandpa said, because I like to be near you. And here we get the great joy of seeing God, the God of heaven, face to face.
Should it affect what we do here on earth? It should. Number three, we've seen that God's certain view for the Christian of Himself in heaven should make us be thrilled. It should make us remember what heaven's really like.
And, number three, a sure view of God should put trials on earth in perspective. Notice, I didn't say your trials are going to be gone, but they'll be in right perspective. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
One man said, earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. I believe that. One day closer, not much longer. Here's this kind of divine cordial, as one man called it to say, Beloved, you're in a trial now on earth, or you soon will be in one.
Heaven's your hope. A guy was getting killed for Christ, he said to his fellow martyr, one half hour in glory will make us forget our pain. It did for Job. We have lots of suffering at this church. I'm not sure anyone has suffered at this church as much as Job, as this is what Job said in Job 19.
As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last, He will take His stand on earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet my flesh, in my flesh, I shall what? See God. If you turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, let's look at this passage to try to see how a view of heaven could help us with our trials.
And again, at the church, we are no stranger to trials. I don't think any church is. We have our own varied, variegated trials. But 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we see this key passage that can help us understand Matthew chapter 5, verse 8.
Paul is writing, and he's giving his apostolic defense as people have criticized him and slandered him. He's given a little perspective for others in trials. And he says in 2 Corinthians 4 .16,. Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, it's in the process of external decay.
Don't we know that? Yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Yes, there's a toll on the person's body, but there is, as one man said, splendid compensation. It's worth it. Verse 17, For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.
Who could ever write such a thing? Does that seem to make sense to you? And somebody would write something like that? Paul certainly had his share of trials. But if you're in a trial now, and I were to say this to you, and you're having something horrible in your life, and something that you have to have your whole life long, and I said to you, you know, that's a momentary light affliction that you have.
What would you think? I was reading Johnny Erickson's Tata's book this week about heaven, and she was talking about this verse. Wait a minute, she said, did he say troubles light? This kind of nonchalance about gut-wrenching suffering used to drive me crazy.
Stuck in a wheelchair and staring out the window over the fields of our farm, I wondered, Lord, how in the world can you consider my troubles light and momentary? I will never walk or run again. I will never use my hands.
I've got a leaky leg bag. I smell like urine. My back aches. I'm trapped in front of this window. Maybe you see all this achieving eternal glory, but all I see is one awful day after the next in the stinking wheelchair.
Johnny said this, I did not buy the heavenly point of view. My pain screamed for undivided attention, insisting, forget the future. What's God going to do now? Time does that, she says. It rivets your attention on temporal things and makes you live in the moment.
And suffering doesn't make it any easier. It tightens the screw on the moment, making you anxious to fix, find quick fixes. I read Romans 5 .3, Rejoice in Our Sufferings. My first thought was, sure God, I'll rejoice the day you get me out of this thing.
And if you don't, what's going on? Are you poking fun at my paralysis, trying to convince me I'm in spiritual denial? My pain and hurt, are they imaginary? When it came to my affliction, being light and momentary, God was obviously using a different dictionary.
Years later, it dawned on me, she said. The Lord hadn't used a different lexicon when he picked the words light and momentary to define earthly troubles. Even if it meant being sawn asunder, torn apart by lions, or plopped in a wheelchair for the rest of one's life.
The spirit-inspired writers of the Bible simply had a different perspective, an end-of-time view. She's right, it's a matter of perspective. We don't lose heart, 1 Corinthians 4, verse 16. Why? Because momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.
Johnny goes on to say, what could possibly outweigh the pain of permanent paralysis? It was found in the next verse, she said. Verse 18, while we look at things which are seen, but at our things which are not seen.
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. Then Johnny said, these things outweigh thousands of afternoons of sweats and high blood pressure any day.
They outweigh a life of not feeling or moving. Mind you, I'm not saying my paralysis is light in and of itself, it only becomes light in contrast to the far greater weight on the other side of the scale.
I normally don't call three decades in a wheelchair light or momentary. And then she had such good advice, and this is Paul's advice. Scripture is constantly trying to get us to look at life this way.
Our life is but a blip on the eternal screen. Pain will be erased by a greater understanding. It will be eclipsed by a glorious result. Something so superb, so grandiose is going to happen at the world's finale that it will suffice for every hurt and atone for every heartache.
And if you haven't heard anything else I've said, here's her point. Nothing more radically altered the way I looked at my sufferings than leapfrogging to this end-of-time vantage point. Heaven became my greatest hope.
That's exactly what Paul is saying there. And that's why our theology saying we'll see God one day should change the way we live today. Looking at not the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen.
That's why Peter can say this, In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Christ Jesus.
Though you've not seen Him, you love Him. And though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. All this was happening when Peter was being, he was suffering and he had Nero running around.
It was that end-time perspective. You think about heaven. I walked out a couple nights this week and stood outside, take the dog out and kind of walk around and sometimes it's late at night so I just try to go outside without a coat on kind of.
So I'm cold and wake up and I just was looking at the stars thinking there is something beyond these stars. My first thought is if it's cold here, it must be even colder in heaven. I mean, it's not heaven.
It must be in the third heaven. No. In the first heaven it's cold. Second heaven it's cold. In the third heaven it's warm with the face of God. But I just thought there's something beyond that. The heavens of God where I'll stand and see Him one day.
Face to face, He'll see me. I can't even get in to see George Bush. When you look forward, it changes the way you live. You'll recognize these verses. See if you can put it together with the end times perspective of heaven.
First John 3, see how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God and such we are. For this reason the world doesn't know us because it didn't know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God and it is not appeared as yet what we will be.
We know that when He appears we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. But it doesn't stop there. And everyone who has this hope of seeing God face to face purifies himself just as He is pure.
Because when you see the purity of God and you realize how perfect He is, you want to be like Him. William Hendrickson said, resemblance is the indispensable prerequisite of personal fellowship and understanding.
We want to know God and enjoy Him. Well, we want to be like Him then. Lastly, let's just turn to Philippians chapter 1. We've seen that the sure view of God should thrill us. It should remind us why heaven's heaven, that is God, is there.
Number three, it should put trials into perspective. One day your trials will be over. And lastly, our certain and sure view of God should increase our single-mindedness to live for Him. Bringing it full circle back to what the verse originally is talking about.
Philippians chapter 1 verse 21. We've seen Peter's take. Now let's look at Paul's. By the way, where is Paul? In prison. And he says, even in prison, in verse 21, chapter 1, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
It's advantage to die. It's profit to die. Eternal rewards, eternal rest, eternal refreshment, eternal sight of God. How about you? Can you say when you think about towards the end, heaven, where you're going, for me to live is blank.
What would you put? Pleasure, popularity, power, business success. If you put any other word in for me to live is blank, then for you to die is what? Loss. Paul was already thinking about his future. He was kind of stuck.
He was stuck in the middle, kind of in a vice grip. Look at verse 23. If you jump down there. But I'm hard-pressed. I'm kind of seized. This is a word of gripping, kind of seizure. Somebody would grab a victim and not let them go.
I'm kind of in the middle of a vice grip. I don't know what to do. I'm hard-pressed in both directions. Having the desire to depart and be with Christ. I'd love to do that, for that's very much better.
It's all military metaphor here. I'd like to just break camp now, take the tents down and go to heaven. And what does he say? It is very much better. It's far better. He just scoops a bunch of words in the original to just make it much more better, very much better.
Longing for heaven. But while he's not going to heaven, he has one goal. And his goal is to live for Christ. That should be our life's desire. To live in such a way where we say, I'm going to heaven. I'll stand before God.
He's made me pure in heart and I want to just devote myself singly to you. And then it spills over into service. Do you know the end days are at hand? How many people would believe that? The end days are at hand.
What should you do? Well, we're going to buy a bunch of ladders and you can all get your ladders and we're going to come up to the top of this once the snow melts. We're going to all wait on top of the roof here.
It's the ladder ministry. Forget Jacob's ladder. We're all going to sit on top of the roof. We're waiting for Jesus to come back. He's coming back soon. The end times are here. We have our water. We're going to have everything that we got for Y2K that we didn't use.
And it is amazing to me when I read statements about end times. Let me just boil it all down. End times, whatever your view is, pre-meal, a-meal, post-meal, it should be with the effect that Jesus is going to come back.
Let's live holy lives and live for Him, right? What do we call that? Ethical eschatology. And if you come to me with all your arguments about end times and you're not trying to live all out for God because He's coming back soon, then you betray what you say you believe.
It's not some kind of academic debate. Jesus is coming back. Listen to what Peter said. The end of all things is near. Now what are you going to do? Here's what he said. Be of sound judgment, sober spirit.
Why? For the purpose of prayer. Above all, it's the end times. Be fervent or be hot. Be stretched out in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. I want you to pray. I want you to be a forgiving people.
How about this one, verse 9? Be hospitable to one another without complaint. Not just your friends, but strangers you don't know. Be hospitable to them. And then lastly, and this is the strange one for me, Jesus is coming back.
One day you'll die and see God's face. What should you do? As each one has received a special gift, spiritual gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Jesus is coming back.
Get a ministry. Jesus is coming back. Excel in your ministry. Jesus is coming back. Get busy. Get those ladders down and just serve the church. You say, well, who's the church? Read Luke 10. Who's my neighbor?
Whoever you run into is your neighbor. Well, I can't get to the church to serve. Well, then let's figure out a way that you can serve. We serve the servant, the suffering servant of Isaiah. Jesus, the one who suffered as a servant, he came to give his life what?
As a ransom for many, he came not to serve, but to be served? No way. He came not to be served, but to serve. We are servants. Say, well, I'm a WPI. I don't have time to serve the body. I'm getting older and I can't do it, you say.
I got too many kids. My ministry are my children. No, no, no. Your ministry is the body of believers at this church. Of course, study. Of course, take care of yourself. Of course, take care of your family.
But Jesus is coming back and one day you'll see him face-to-face. It's time to serve. You say, well, I don't know what to do around here. Pastor Dave would love to talk to you. He would love to talk to you.
One day, every Christian here will see God face-to-face. And that is written for encouragement. That is written for comfort. And it is written as a prod to motivate us to serve this King we say we love.
We get to go to heaven. It's like Spurgeon said, when you speak of heaven, let your face light up. I get to go to heaven. By the way, he said, when you speak of hell, well, your everyday face will do.
When I in righteousness at last thy glorious face shall see, when all the weary nights have passed, I awake with thee to view the glories that abide, then and only then will I be satisfied. That is the Christian hope, the glory of the face of God in heaven.
Let's pray. Lord, we would exalt your name today. We would exalt your name that you have the power, you have the wisdom to take sinful people and to make them your sons and daughters and adopt them into your kingdom.
And certainly the Father wants to see his children. And we would long for that day where we could see you face to face. Father, would you help us say no to the world's allurements? Would you help us to say no to the things of this earth and make them, by your grace, grow strangely dim in our sights?
Would you, Lord, help us to dedicate our families and devote our lives to the service of your Son, Jesus Christ the King? We'll need your grace and power to do it because the commands alone, we could never live up to those.
And that's why we're thankful that we had the servant, Jesus Christ, the one who always was in communion with the Father, who always did the right thing, and who longed to see his Father face to face.
And only one time, Lord, did you turn your back on him when you said, when in your wisdom, your son said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And that intimacy was broken for just those three hours.
And then now, Lord, forever and ever throughout eternity, we get to see you face to face. We want to live worthy lives of that. Lord, so many people here at the church suffer. From our human perspective, their suffering isn't light and it's not momentary.
So, Lord, would you refresh them? Would you give them hope again of heaven? Would you let them see again their eyes be fixed upon the glories that will come when Jesus Christ returns? Or they go to glory.
In Jesus' name, amen.