Home

Location & Map

Meetings

Beliefs

Ministries

Sermons

Sermon on Heaven (page two)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7  >>

Well, it’s resting squarely on what Jesus said to His disciples the last time He was with them before His death and resurrection. John has recorded in chapter 14 words that Jesus spoke. Jesus said: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am.”

  Our knowledge of heaven rests on these words of Jesus. It’s important for us to understand that.

  Heaven is not the way most people think about it, a desire for something better in the future. Karl Marx poured scorn on Christianity. He said, “Religion is the opiate of the people.” Some people can’t face the problems of life, so they turn to drugs or alcohol. Well, Marx says that’s what Christianity is like. It’s a drug helping you face the problems of life.

  Life is tough. Life is hard. There are discouragements. There are defeats. There’s pain. There’s suffering.

  So what do you do? You construct this future world that’s perfect and full of bliss. But there’s nothing to support it except your wishes. Heaven is just something that you’ve built out of your own desire for a better place.

  Is that what Heaven is? You know, pie in the sky when you die bye and bye. That’s what many unbelievers think that we are guilty of when we say that Heaven is real.

  Let’s be clear first of all that it is Jesus who gives us the certainty that Heaven is real. This is the way He describes it. “Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you.”

  Now that’s a very significant phrase. We’re so familiar with these words, “If it were not so, I would have told you.” They just roll over us. We don’t stop to think, “Wait a minute! That’s the language of experience, not wish.”

  “If it were not so, I would have told you.” Jesus speaks of the place from whence He has come. When He speaks about Heaven, He speaks about His native land. He has come from Heaven to earth, to redeem us by His death. And after His resurrection, He returns to Heaven.

  John says this very clearly in chapter 13, verse 1: “It was just before the Passover Feast and Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father.” And then verse 3 of chapter 13: “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power and that He had come from God and was returning to God.”

  Jesus came from Heaven to earth and now He’s about to go back to Heaven. When He speaks of Heaven, He speaks of what He knows, not of what He hopes. “If it were not so, I would have told you.”

  Suppose George says to me, “Pastor, you’re looking a little tired. You need to have a break. You should go to Florida. It’s beautiful there.”

  I say, “That sounds great. But George, you know me. I don’t like heat! I can’t go to Florida. It’s hot there.”

  Then George says, “Stop being a worry-wart. Look, I’ve been to Florida. There are air conditioners. You’ll be fine! If it were not so, I would have told you!” 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7  >>