What’s So Great About Heaven? (1st Peter 1:4)

Introduction

It’s good to see all of you today. The article that comes to my inbox on a quite frequent basis, the title of which caught my attention, why was Jesus so hard on rich people? You know, we talk about riches in the New Testament, the love of money, and all those passages and all that Jesus had to say about the acquiring of wealth and attitudes toward wealth, and that’s a legitimate question. And of course, he speaks specifically to the deceitfulness of riches. There’s something about having material wherewithal that puts things askew in our minds about what’s really important in our world. And there is a false sense of security that goes with that. And I think what happens if you have a lot of stuff, and we’ve said many times before that we’re among those people, even though there are people that have a lot more than we do.

But not many in comparison to the rest of the world. We have a lot of stuff. And when you have a lot of stuff, when you have a lot of riches, what happens? Well, we become overly enamored with our stuff. Overly so. And along with that, we become overly enamored with ourselves. I think of the story of the rich man and Lazarus in that regard, where the rich man whose fortunes turned quite a bit drastically to the worse after his death had little concern for righteous Lazarus who was just longing to be fed from the crumbs that fell from the master’s table. You see, the rich man, now concerned about spiritual things in eternity, while he was on earth and he had all of his stuff, he had a much greater concern for himself and bearing sumptuously every day than he did for the poor beggar righteous Lazarus.

And so that’s what affluence does to us. That’s what things do to us. And as we get so focused on that, we don’t get focused nearly enough or sufficiently on the subject of heaven. And because of our influence, we might even possess very little appetite for it, though it is an existence in heaven with God, an existence without comparison. There’s not anything even close to what the existence in heaven will be like.

And not longing for it will be displayed in our lack of zest for spiritual things. Our lack of interest in worship. Our behavior during worship, what we benefit or what we receive from worship, all of those things will be affected by our lack of anticipation and excitement for glory. And even our commitment to God’s people will diminish. Let’s tell it plainly. We’re more into our stuff. Our physique, our cars, our sports teams, our clothes, and the next moments of fun than we are about heaven. I know that was a generalization, but I did it for effect.

I can’t fulfill it. I wish you could, but I want to make an offer to you right now. What if I could transport you to heaven right now? You’re done here. Right now. That’s the offer today. No lunch. You’re going to heaven, and you’re going right now. How do you feel about that? I got some hands raised. Take me. I’m ready. Tony, wish you could deliver. Any hesitation? Any thoughts about what you might leave behind? What you might miss in this world. Jane Seabrook said, if there’s no chocolate in heaven, I’m not going. That summarizes the thoughts of people. John Milton, an English poet from the 17th century, exclaimed, and I’ve heard this before, better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. I don’t think Milton understood either place very well.

And now I’m pretty sure he’s not so happy about the quote. The answer that we would give to that question. Could you go to heaven right now? May well speak to a condition in your heart that needs some work.

What’s so great about heaven? I started researching. How long has it been since I preached about heaven? I thought it wasn’t very long ago. In fact, it was 15 months already. I mean, that’s how quickly time passes. I also went back even further, found a sermon and a set of slides by the same title, this is not a rerun, by the same title from 2011. Most of you weren’t here. And some of you that were aren’t here today. They’re taking kids to camp or whatever. But a few of you were here six years ago when I did a sermon by the same title. I think it’s an important title because people aren’t getting it. Why are people not as motivated about going to heaven as they ought to be?

Number one, because they don’t understand it. And we’re going to deal with that this morning. Maybe because it seems so very far away that it’s just not real. And yet it’s closer than you may think. Or because you may be thinking, I have very little shot at it. And I want to tell you that’s not true. These things I have written to you that you may know that you have eternal life. John told his entire audience in 1 John 5 and verse 13, a very possible reality for all of them. We are protected by faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 5. But perhaps because we value other things more highly, as I mentioned by way of introduction, that’s a real problem.

In our lack of anticipation for heaven. Or number five, we just get our focus askew. And hopefully, this morning’s lesson will help us to get our minds on the right track.

The disciples were all excited in Luke chapter 10 because they had power over the demons. And that would be a rush, a thrill. I mean, I wonder what it would be like to cast out demons or to heal someone. I would like to know what that experience was like, or to even speak in tongues, because those who claim to do so today aren’t really speaking in tongues. That’s my firm opinion. And actually, it’s more than opinion. I would like to know what that experience was like. And so they were all pumped and excited because they could cast out demons. I’m sure that was a thrill. That was a rush. And he says, Do you rejoice over this? Rejoice even more over the fact that your names are recorded in heaven.

There are greater things that you will experience than this. This grand eternal association and residence with God will be the completion of all that God intended in the creation of this world and man. It’ll be the ultimate triumph at the end of it all. God will be all in all, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We have a house with God, eternal in the heavens. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 1, and the Holy Spirit is preparing and molding us for this very purpose. Verse 5.

1. We Have a Prepared Destiny

I want you to contemplate what awaits the faithful. And your presence there. What is your place in eternity? What will it look like for you? I think we have to start in John 14 this morning as we talk about what’s so great about heaven is that we have a prepared destiny. I know the passages are familiar. The King James Version says mansions, but the idea is dwelling places. In my Father’s house were many dwelling places.

There’s an abode prepared, is the idea. If it were not so, I would have told you. And I go to prepare a place for you. He tells his disciples. There’s great concern over the fact that he’s been telling them he’s leaving them. He says, I am going to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you.

Has been prepared for Jesus will bring to us a sense of home and belonging that we’ve never had before. And I think that’s the best way to describe what Jesus is talking about in John chapter 14. There’s a home prepared, not just generically for all the righteous, but a home prepared for you. God wants for you to be at home with him forever. You. Not just the preacher or the elders or people that are the leaders in the local church, but every single member of the body of Christ. He has a home prepared for you. Home is not the same experience for everybody. You mentioned the word home to some people today, and unfortunately, it is a negative thought and feeling. Their homes were not what a lot of us experienced.

And so I want to talk about not that kind of home. Or the concept of home that might bring you grief and sorrow because your home wasn’t what God intended through no fault of your own. But a lot of us lived in good homes.

Provided wonderful lives for us.

But both my parents worked and they made a good living. And again, compared to most of the people in the world, I had an idyllic childhood. I mean, I had a Honda 70 mini-bike that I could drive, ride through the woods all summer long, played whiffle ball all summer with my next door neighbor. I mean, I had a carefree, fun life growing up. And even to this day, though, that childhood home that has so many special memories for me, even though that’s long since gone. I went off to college and it was gone. They sold it. Maybe you have the old home place where you could go. I drive by every now and then when I’m in Indiana, did the last time I was there to see where all those memories were made.

But now, even when I go to my parents’ little town home in Florida, you know, it’s it’s not a place where I grew up, but my mom and dad are there. And while I love my little sister Annetta a lot, and she has her own place about a mile down the street, and we’re welcome to stay with them, and I would enjoy that. There’s just something about being with my mom and dad. And my older sister lives with them. But being with my mom and dad, that’s that’s special. There’s a there’s a comfortable feeling. There’s a sense of belonging with family that is unlike even the best of relationships, even among brothers and sisters in Christ. And so when I think about home, I think about being with my mom and dad.

And how special that relationship is. And now I think about my own immediate family. And so you saw the pictures on Facebook with somebody said, Where are the parents? Bretton Reagan didn’t make any of the pictures. Those feelings of home, a sense of belonging. Sometimes we don’t feel like we’re high on people’s radar. Do you ever feel like you’re on the outside? No. You don’t get invited. Your mom and dad may invite you to come over, but you don’t get invited to things. Other people are invited. They want to spend time with me. People don’t want to spend time with me. I think some people feel that at times. Like they’re not included, that they’re on the periphery, that they’re on the outskirts, that the people don’t want to be with them, that I’m not as interesting to them as somebody else is.

Aaron was talking to us about what we’re to learn from those old testament stories with David and Jonathan, their souls were knit together. It was more than just friendship. Those guys had a lot in common. They were best buds. I think of John and Micah for some reason. I don’t know. I don’t know. They just engage in all sorts of different mankind of things together. Have a lot in common. You know what heaven’s going to be? A sense of belonging. Like you’ve never had at any point on this earth. It will be the ultimate sense of home. You’re not going to be in heaven concerned about home as it was on the earth or relationships that you had on earth, because in heaven, you will be in the ultimate of those things.

And you’ll belong. You matter to God. You’re invited to his home to be with him. A sense of I matter will be in heaven like it is in no other place. It is a prepared destiny. I think about the Taj Mahal. I really didn’t know much about it until I researched it this week. Meaning crown of the palace, an ivory white marble mausoleum commissioned by Shah Jahan to commemorate the passing of his beloved wife of 14 years. Muntaz Mahal. I mean, 14 years, the Persian princess died giving birth to her 14th child. A great monument, still one of the ancient wonders of the world, built to commemorate the passing of his wife after she was gone. Heaven as a home will be so far more exceeding.

This ancient wonder of the world, and we’ll actually be in the presence of the one who prepared it for us.

2. A Fulfilling Relationship Like No Other

And so heaven then is a fulfilling relationship like no other we’ve ever experienced. So many poor quotes about heaven, two of which I read. In fact, I went through a whole list of quotes. I wanted to find something really good about heaven. I kept going through these quotes, and there was just nothing. I mean, it’s like people don’t get it. But Max Lucato, at least he’s right about this. We may speak about a place where there are no tears, no death, no fear, no night, but those are just the benefits of heaven. The beauty of heaven is seeing God. And that’s right. And I think to help us with this, even though it pertains more to tonight’s lesson, when all of the enemies of the book of Revelation are vanquished.

And we come to Revelation chapter 21, the end of that third picture, and he says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And it says, the sea, the seed that was before the throne of God is removed. Everything that represented a barrier has been taken away. Think of all the things that are barriers that will not be found in heaven. Hard feelings, hurt feelings, misunderstandings, critical spirits, no business trips, no deployments, no divorce, no sickness, no ICU, no death, no murder. No fires, floods, political parties, thankfully. All of that will be removed. And as I think about what awaits the righteous, this ultimate fulfilling relationship. You people, why do people go from marriage to marriage to marriage? They’re looking for, they’re looking for the ultimate end all and be all the absolute right match and right fit for marriage on earth that is temporary, that was never intended to be what so many seek for.

I don’t care how compatible you are, there will be incompatibility. And I’m going to preach that until my voice falls off, if that’s possible. Marriage is about forging a union and friendship with two different people. They’re very different. So where you’re going, yeah. Person sitting next to me, very different. Very strange. But marriage was never designed by God to be torture for us. I think it only becomes torture when we become insanely selfish in the relationship. When you become insanely selfish in the relationship of marriage, it will be torture because that’s not how God designed it to work. But when you truly love this person and serve this person and want what’s best for this person and pursue making this person happy instead of what they may or may not do in relation to you, no matter what they may or may not do in relation to you, then you’ll find marriage is more fulfilling.

3. The Thrill That Will Never Tarnish

But it won’t be perfect. Because it only wets our appetite for the perfect marriage. The perfect relationship and the presence of the perfect person. The awesome and living God who loves perfectly all the time. And the third thing that I would say is that heaven should be greatly anticipated above all other experiences because it is the thrill that will never ever tarnish at all. The scars will fade away, but the immense joy, immense joy will never ever fade or flicker, even a smidge of it. You know, most of the thrills of this life are few and far between. Have you noticed that? Wouldn’t it be great if we could be vacation? I know it wears us out and all, but wouldn’t it be great if we could all vacation at least 15 weeks a year and go wherever it is we wanted to go and not have to worry about the gospel.

I saw this commercial yesterday at sandals.com where you can have your own little hut out on the water. It’s like, I’d like to go there. I’d like to try that for a week. Wouldn’t it be great if we could, but this is the experience of our lives. These kinds of fun things that we, you know, wouldn’t it be great if we could go to Disney World every week? No. But some might think they would like it. We plan for them, we say for them, we long for the experience of them. And the moment is usually enjoyable, usually. But then it’s over. You’ve got memories, pictures, fuzzy, warm thoughts about those days. But it’s like what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. This is the reward for all my labor.

I mean, I did it, I got something out of it, and I derived the pleasure from it, and then it was, it was done. And he goes, Wow, that was it. It’s vanity and striving after wind. He says, I have to keep doing it and keep duplicating it to get that same feeling and result. We better have heaven in our plans. You know, Bildad got a lot of things wrong in the book of Job, but we were reading this morning. He said something right on. He said, The hope of the godless will perish. And whatever your hope is besides heaven, that thing is going to perish. And if it doesn’t perish first, you’re going to perish.

But here’s the thing. The Lord is my shepherd. The fulfilling relationship is mentioned in that great Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. God fills me in a way that nothing else can. Nothing. And we can keep trying to stuff things in there that are happy and fun and pleasurable, and you’ll keep stuffing it. It’ll keep not filling you. You’ll keep coming up empty because that’s the nature of life in this temporary world and in these casings that wear out. Only by a relationship with a fulfilling person, the Lord is my shepherd, do we ever get to the place where we shall not want? And we will know the perfect of that when we get to glory, because the things that we talk about that will not be there, the absence of any pain or tears or suffering at all.

In heaven is a thrill that is constant.

But never tarnishes meat. We talk about my grandson, and I love my grandson, as you know. All babies are like this. We talk about him when he gets down to 95%. Because, you know, when babies are 100%, they’re great, they’re fun, they’re wonderful, oh, so cute and cuddly, and you just you want to pet their heads and all sorts. But when they get down to 95%, then they, you know, something’s not right. Either it’s the diaper, or I need a little nourishment, or something’s off just a little bit. Then they start to get a little antsy, and then as it goes down to about 80%, we’ve got real problems. As you get older, hopefully you can handle 80% better. And as you know, as you get my age, 80% is pretty good.

If you can get 80%.

Heaven is 100% all the time. That’s what it is. You feel 100%. And perhaps the reason why things are what they are here, the fact that the joys don’t last, but there are moments of suffering and difficulty, perhaps those things are good for us because we need to understand that 100% is later. 100%. Joy without measure. Think about that phrase we just say. Joy without measure will be my treasure. We have an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled and will not fade away. Reserved in heaven for us. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 4. That’s my favorite verse about heaven. This is the incorruptible part. You know, the only things that word is used in relation to in Scripture are things that last forever. The word of God is incorruptible.

Conclusion

God Himself, that body that we will be given on the day of judgment, that immortal body. It’s used of that. And one interesting other thing. The hidden quality in a woman of a meek and gentle spirit, a person’s character, is said to be incorruptible. Interesting. So I want to conclude this morning by asking this question. Are we moving in the direction of eternity? Do we sense that? God has glorious intentions for us. And it’s demonstrated in the statement of 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9 eye has not seen and ear is not heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. It’s greater than just heaven, but it’s talking about all of God’s intentions for us as evidenced in what we have and possess in the gospel, but even more this treasure and reward that’s coming.

All that God has prepared. Do we have an appetite and anticipation for that? I found some good quotes about heaven, far better than the initial ones. Heaven is reserved for those who think of it supremely. No one can ever enter heaven until he is first convinced he deserves hell. For heaven to be your destiny, it must first be in your soul. Heaven must be in me before I can be in heaven. I thought about that one for a while. It grew on me. The more of heaven we cherish, the less of earth we cut.

You don’t go to heaven, but grow to heaven. Could it be that we are ignoring or neglecting things right now that have tremendous importance in eternity? The molding of your character, priorities, investments, not material investments, spiritual investments, and service. You know, when Jesus talked about the two options, the devil and his angels and the residence of the wicked in eternal torment. And he talked about the righteous going into everlasting life and a lengthy context that flows out of questions regarding the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew chapter 24. But when he says, when he comes to the heart of this, who’s going to be saved in the end? It’s the person who cared about the things he cared about. The person who served others as he served others, who visited people in distress as he came to aid people in distress.

And he says, those people, the least of those who did to the least of those, they are my brothers. Are we moving in the direction of eternity? Are we thinking about the example of our Lord? What do you think about the most? What was on Jesus’ mind as his dying hour came? The joy that he had with the Father before the world was. Is the joy of our future home always on our minds? Or will we dismiss it as we leave this place and think about all the things that enamor us here? The fine foods that we eat, the comfortable homes that we live in, the next adventure. All of those things so very greatly pale. When set in contrast with our eternal hope. The best part about heaven is that we shall see his face.

It’ll be enough. Just that first moment. A moment that will abide forever. We will see his face. And the worst part about hell is that we’ll be banished forever from the presence of the person who loves us the most. And God has given us every ounce of information that we need and every incentive so that we can avoid that plight.

Are you preparing yourself for heaven? Can we assist you in making that preparation? If you’re not a Christian, you need to arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling upon the name of the Lord, choosing to serve the risen King while there’s time and opportunity. Let’s stand and sing together.