Heavenly Mindset (Colossians Sermon 10)

I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m just excited to preach on this text today. I said that to someone this morning and they said, “Well, you were excited last week.” I was. That is true. But I’m excited this week too. Because I think there are few texts in the Bible that have the power to make us happy like this one does today. And I think there is great value in being happy in Jesus. That we would rejoice in what God is giving us, and that we would look forward to with great anticipation. That there would be delight in our hearts today as a result of the promises of One who cannot lie and who cannot break his promise and there is no power in heaven or on earth or under the earth great enough to cause God to forget us or to break His promises. And so this has tremendous power to give us strength and energy and, yes, happiness and joy in Christ.

It was at the end of the first century, on the Lord’s Day, the apostle John, exiled on the Isle of Patmos, was worshiping the Lord in the Spirit and he heard behind him a voice, and he turned around and saw a vision of the resurrected Christ in heavenly glory, unlike he had ever seen Him in His days on earth. There was radiance, a heavenly glory, shining all around the Son of Man. And His eyes were like flaming fire and His feet like burnished bronze. And He just moved through these seven golden lampstands, ministering to the local churches, the seven churches of Asia. And later on, after the messages to those seven churches, the apostle John heard Jesus, the same One that he saw, give him a heavenly invitation. John saw a door standing open in heaven, and Jesus commanded him, “Come up here, and I will show you what must soon take place.”

I think that the Lord is giving us the same invitation today, in a different way, but the same invitation today as we look at Colossians 3:1-4. I believe that in the Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ is inviting His people, in their hearts by faith, by trusting in the promises of God to, “Come up here.” And to have a vision in our minds of a heavenly throne and the One who sits on it, One who rules over heaven and earth, One whose purposes cannot be thwarted. “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him, ‘What have you done?’” And this is the One who is inviting us to come up into the heavenly realms and spend eternity with Him. What could be better than that?

So my desire today is to just help you obey the text, to help you set your hearts on things above, to make you heavenly minded. If you have a tendency toward a dour face today, I am just urging that your faith would identify with your face and I would be able to see it. I could see some happiness and some joy, because God is going to be promising you some things today, He has already promised them. He is most certainly going to fulfill them. We have before us, joy in the text. I want to take you on a, basically a journey in heaven through the preaching and through faith and through the Word of God. My desire is that you would be happy in Jesus so that you can be holy in Jesus and so that you can be fruitful in Jesus.

Blaise Pascal said, “All men seek happiness, this is without exception.” You here today, you have in common with every other person sitting in this room today, and in fact with people all over the world, if Blaise Pascal is right, and I think he is, you want to be happy. You want to be joyful. It unites the human race. The problem is, we do not really know how to get there. We do not know how to be happy. We do not know what is going to make us happy. I think the Scripture testifies in Colossians 3 some very clear pathways, a clear pathway, to true, lasting happiness and health and fruitfulness in Christ, and it begins with heavenly mindedness.

Let me ask you a question. If this afternoon, the Lord gave you the blessing of one hour walking in the heavenly Jerusalem, looking around and seeing the beauty and perfection of that place, and seeing a vision of God sitting on His throne and seeing those that are already there, and you spent one hour in heaven, when you came back, do you think you would be any different? Do you think you will really care who won the national championship? Do you think it will really matter to you who gets the promotion or who gets the credit for a ministry in church? Do you think any of those things would matter? Would not those things just slip away from your consciousness as though they were the nothings they really are? Heavenly mindedness is the key to happiness and fruitfulness in the Christian life. Now I want to set this thing in context. Colossians 3 just gives a pathway I have mentioned to health, happiness, and fruitfulness in the Christian life.

We just finished in Colossians 2, looking at the heresy and false teaching that was occurring. The false teachers were giving them the idea that Jesus’ death on the cross was insufficient for them; Jesus’ ministry then was not enough. They had to add human philosophy, they had to add Jewish legalism, and they had to add worship of angels, mysticism, that kind of thing. And they had to add asceticism, the harsh treatment of the body. He ends up Colossians 2 by basically saying this: All of that, not just the asceticism but all of it, lacks any value in restraining sensual indulgence; it is not going to lead to holiness. But then we go into chapter three, and in effect, he is saying, “But I’ll show you something that does not lack value in restraining sensual indulgence. I will show you the power for true holiness and fruitfulness.” And so we get these 17 verses, Colossians 3:1-17. And I’m just going to give you an overview of the section. We are only looking today at four verses, but I want to give you a sense of where we are going over the next number of weeks.

I. Elements of a Happy, Fruitful Christian Life

The first element of a happy, fruitful, Christian life, verses one through four, is a heavenly mindset. That’s today. We are going to talk about a heavenly mindset, seeking things above, thinking about things to come, understanding our past- dead with Christ, raised with Christ. Understanding our present, that Christ is our life and He is at the right hand of God. Understanding our future that someday Jesus is coming back and He will appear as He is, a radiant and glorious King, and He will reign for ever and ever, and at that point we will appear with Him in glory. Think about those things, seek them. Have a heavenly mindset. Secondly, in verses five through nine, he gives us vigorous warfare against sin. We are to put to death all earthly sins, sexual immorality, and idolatries, and relational sins like anger and pride and selfishness and lying. We are to put all those things to death. If you want to be happy and fruitful in the Christian life, you have to go to war. There is no other way, you have to put on your spiritual armor every day and you have to go to war. And so, you have to have a vigorous warfare against sin, you have to break hold of the old habits that you have built up over years, habits of sin.

Thirdly, that we are going to walk together in a new kind of community. You are going to walk in the new self that we have in Christ, and you are not the only person who has a new self, there are other people with a new self. And we are going be in a whole new different kind of way of relating with other people in a Christian community called the church. We are going to understand what that means concerning the old self versus the new self in Christ. We are going to talk about the new community that there is here, a place where distinctions like Jew and Gentile, circumcised, “uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave” and free, none of those things mean anything, ultimately. Those distinctions don’t mean anything. We’re in a community of people who love Jesus, and we are going learn to walk together in newness of life, in compassion and kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. We are going to learn how to forgive each other completely, from the heart, walking together in community with other Christians.

And fourth, for our own personal hearts, we are going to have our hearts saturated with Christ, verses 15 through 17. The peace of Christ ruling in our hearts, the Word of Christ, richly dwelling in our hearts, the name of Christ, motivating everything we do in our hearts and with our bodies. And then we will give thanks to Christ, constantly, from the heart. You want to know how to be healthy and holy and happy in the Christian life? Do this. I would suggest you memorize Colossians 3:1-17, because herein lay the keys to the rest of your life. This is a happy and fruitful Christian life and, brothers and sisters, it begins with a heavenly mindset, verses one through four. I hope you don’t mind if I go ahead and read these verses again. These are some of my favorite verses in all of Scripture. Colossians 3:1-4, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For, you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

 II. Heavenly Mindset

So we have, friends, a present duty. It is a sweet duty, it is a delicious duty, it is delightful, but it is a duty, a responsibility. And that is, we are to seek heaven, we are to think heaven every single day. These are two key verbs, NIV has, “Set your hearts on things above,” but the Greek is really just “seek”, “Seek the things that are above.” And it also gives us, “set our minds on things above or things to come.”

So the question here before you is, “What are you seeking in life? What do you want? What are you yearning for?” The heart is a desire factory, so we’re told. What do you desire? This tells you that you should be seeking the things above. And what do you think about? What do you set your mind on? What do you meditate on every day? What’s dominating your thoughts? The happy, healthy, holy Christian life begins with mind control. That sounds a little scary, doesn’t it, a little ominous- mind control. But it’s something you’re doing, by the power of the Spirit. You’re learning to control how you think. No, this is not a cult. If we have any visitors here, don’t worry, this is not a strange, bizarre cult. We are not into electrodes coming from the brain and all that, we are not trying to dominate or control people’s minds. You are supposed to do that by the power of the Spirit.

Set your hearts on it, set you minds on it. It says in Romans 8: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” Just as in Romans 8, so also here in Colossians 3, the key is controlling your thought life. And so Paul gives us two positive things and one thing negatively. Positively, we are to focus on things above and things to come. The present heavenly realities of a spiritual world that surrounds us and a future world that is yet to come in the promises of God and the plans of God. So that’s our positive duty. That is the now and the not yet of our meditation. There are certain things that are going on right now, think about them. There are certain things that are yet to come in the promises of God, think about them, seek them positively. So we are to set our minds on those things.

Negatively, we are not to be thinking about earthly things. So there is the command, positively think about things above and things to come, negatively, not earthly things. Now, let’s talk about the first, things above. Look at verse one, “Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” This is Christ’s present kingly rule. Christ has ascended to heaven and He sits at the right hand of Almighty God. He sits enthroned there. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He rules over all things for His own glory. He is a King. And God the Father, having seated Jesus at his right hand, it says in Psalm 110:1, is determined to crush all of Christ’s enemies. It says in Psalm 110:1, “The Lord says to my lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

And so that’s going on- the throne of God, the seat of power, the very thing that John saw when he came through that heavenly door. He goes through the heavenly door and there is a throne with someone seated on it, and there is God Almighty and Jesus at the right hand of God. And so we see the kingly rule, His sovereignty. Set your minds on it, seek it. Think about it, about the reign of Christ as king. But also we have His priestly ministry as well. He is not just a king up there on the throne, but He also carries on constantly a priestly ministry for His people. He is our great high priest and that ministry is going on constantly. And you need it constantly and so do I. We need His constant priestly ministry and it is going on. It says in Hebrews 1:3, “After Christ had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” And it says in Hebrews 8:1 and 2, “We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves, [present tense] serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.” The earthly temple, the earthly tabernacle, was a shadow and an image of a heavenly reality. The heavenly reality is the place where Jesus, the true high priest, carries on His priestly ministry. And it’s going on right now, and it is a perfect ministry. He is ministering His own blood, shed once for all, for His people. One time He offered His body as a sacrifice, but forever He ministers the effects of His blood, and so He is a priest offering up His own blood as a sacrifice. He also is interceding for us. He’s constantly praying for you and me. Now I think it’s important for pastors to pray for the church. I think it’s vital for us to pray for each other. We’re commanded to do that, to lift up prayers in intercessory ministry for each other.

Samuel said, “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.” And so it’s a vital ministry that pastors have and that we have for each other, to pray for each other. Let me tell you something, you have 100% prayer coverage all the time, whether somebody’s praying for you or not. Because Jesus, it says, is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us. It says in Hebrews 7:24 and 25, “Because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. And therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.” He is able to save you to the uttermost and not one of you listening to me this morning is done being saved. You may be justified, but you are not done being saved. And so Jesus is praying for you, like He does for Simon Peter, that your faith may not fail. And He continues to pray for you and He upholds you constantly at the right hand of God. Set your mind on that. Say, “I am well loved. My sins are completely covered by the blood of Jesus. My life is completely covered by the intercessory ministry of Christ.” Set your heart on it. Jesus is King, sovereignly ruling over the world for your benefit and for mine.

He is also a great high priest at the right hand of God and is interceding for us constantly. Set your thoughts on that, Christ ruling over all things. Ephesians 1 says that God raised Christ “from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the age to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way”. Set your heart on things above. They are going on right now. Jesus rules sovereignly right now. He is a priest for you right now.

But there is another aspect of things you are to seek, and that is the things to come. It’s not just the present heavenly reality that you cannot see with your eyes or sense, but there is also the future world yet to come, and oh, is it glorious. If I could just have a gift, if it weren’t me you were listening to today but maybe Charles Spurgeon, or maybe Martin Lloyd Jones or one of those great preachers of the past, but you have me instead, so you’ll have to do with me. And it’s my job this morning to depict just how glorious is the world yet to come, and how attractive, and how much you should want to be there, and how excited you should be that every single day brings you closer and closer to it.

Oh, that’s my precious responsibility today, things to come, Christ’s future rule. Christ’s second coming in the clouds. He will come again, and He will reign forever and ever. And He will destroy the anti-Christ. And He will destroy Satan and all of his power. And He will destroy all of His enemies. And He will rule. And Christ will sit on the throne, and on Judgment Day, He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

All of that’s yet to come, but best of all after that comes the new heaven and the new earth, a home of righteousness, the eternal state is yet to come. And so you should set your minds on these things, the present spiritual world that surrounds us, the future world to come depicted in the promises of God, not on earthly things. And how much do they crowd in every day? How much do they press in and seek to dominate your thoughts and clamor for your attention, the things of this earth tied to this present earthly system?

Certainly, this would include wickedness and lust and sin. We should not be setting our minds on those things, certainly not. It says in 1 John 2, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life, comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but he who does the will of God lasts forever.”

So we are not to be putting our minds on the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and pride of life, but I think it actually goes beyond that. We shouldn’t have an over preoccupation even with the good gifts of God in this life. The good things that He’s given us, food and clothing and shelter, and even a godly spouse and children of our heart that we love, that we should not be overly preoccupied on our earthly relationships with them. Earthly hobbies, like sports and entertainment and travel, political events, elections, the rise and fall of the world. Current events, CNN, New York Times, whatever has pushed its way to be the number one lead story on tonight’s news. Don’t be overly preoccupied with these things.

I’m not saying we have our head in the sand that we don’t know what’s going on, I’m just saying, don’t set your heart on it. Don’t let it dominate your mind. Even the good things of a godly family, the apostle Paul says in a very interesting way, 1 Corinthians 7:29-32, he says, “What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on… ” By the way, if the time was short then, it’s shorter now. [chuckle] I mean, that was 2000 years ago, so it’s really short now what was short then. So the time is short, friends. “From now on, those who had wives should live as if they had none.”

Now, husbands, don’t misunderstand. [laughter] Please, still buy something for your wife on your anniversary. Please still be kind to her and love her, don’t ignore her. If she starts showing the wedding ring, “remember we’re married here,” you’ve gone too far. But there’s an aspect here of what he is saying, “Those who have wives should live as if they had none, and those who mourn, as if they did not, and those who are happy, as if they were not, and those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep, and those who use the things of this world, as if not engrossed by them. For this world in its present form is passing away.” The very thing John said about the lust of the world, Paul says here about the good gifts of the world. They’re passing away in their present form.

So don’t build your life on them. They are temporary, all of them. Set your hearts on things above, set your hearts on things to come, not on earthly things. We have a rich inheritance, the new heaven and the new earth. Fill your mind with biblical data, biblical text, one after the other of what that world is going to be like, what kind of existence we will have, feed your faith and your hope and the promises of God, and this greatly glorifies God when you live for it, when you yearn for it every day.

Hebrews 11 talks about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who had strong faith in the promises of God, and it celebrates that in Hebrews 11:13-16.  It says, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were aliens and strangers in the world.” That’s what you are. This is not your home. You don’t have any permanent dwelling here. We’re just passing through. You may be walking through a corridor that is well decorated with a plush carpet under your feet, or you may be walking through a corridor that looks like a bomb hit it, but either way you’re walking through a corridor and the next world is the one that will last forever. It’s not your home, and these folks, they were aliens and strangers on earth.

“People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they have been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return, instead they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one, and therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a place for them.” Are you longing for a better country? Are you longing for a heavenly one? Well, then God’s not ashamed to be called your God. He’s prepared a place for you.

And Jesus openly commanded this heavenly mindedness. He said in Matthew 6 in The Sermon on the Mount, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But store for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What is Jesus getting at? He wants your heart on things to come. He wants your heart on heaven, not on anything you can store up or accumulate in this life.

How do we do it? Well, think about your past, our past. We died. We died, and we rose with Christ spiritually. We are united with Him by faith. Look at verse three. It says, “For you died.” Look back at verse one, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ.” “So you died,” verse three. “You have been raised with Christ,” verse one. This is speaking of our spiritual union with Christ through faith. Once for all eternity through faith, we heard and believe the gospel of our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. We were one with Him. His death became our death, His resurrection, our resurrection. This is our position in Christ and nothing can change it, friends. Forever, we are united with Christ. We died, we rose. That is our past position and our present position by faith in Christ. Through Christ’s death, we have been united with Him.

What about present? Well, Christ, therefore, is our life. Look at verse three. “Your life,” it says, “is now hidden with Christ in God.” Look at verse four, “When Christ who is your life appears.” Your life is hidden with Christ. He is your life. My friends, preaching is not my life. Engineering in the past wasn’t my life. My family, as much as I love them, they’re not my life. Money is not my life. My hobbies and interests are not my life. Christ is my life, and yours too if you have been raised with Christ. He is your life and that is a present reality. And where Christ is seated, therefore, is our true home. And to some degree, we are away from home right now.

We yearn to be with Him because He is our true Home. He is in heaven at the right hand of God and so, in some sense, are we. And notice the word “hidden”. Our life is “hidden with Christ in God.” It doesn’t appear the way it really is. We do not appear like what we really are. We really are children of God, but we don’t appear that way. We appear rather homely, no offense. We appear like age is taking its toll on some of us, some more than others. Again, no offense. We appear mixed because that’s what we are, but we really are the children of God and our appearance is deceiving.

And it says in 1 John 3, “Behold what manner of love the father has given us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears we will be like him for we shall see him as he is.” Our life is hidden with Christ and so therefore we do not appear as what we really are.

But what is our future? Well, in verse four it says “Christ will appear and we will appear with him in glory.” Our future is glory. And so therefore, our present life hidden with Christ and by the way, please don’t misunderstand about that hidden life. I’m not talking to you, friends, about a double life. I’m not talking about a shameful, hidden, secret life of sin that you would be ashamed to have projected up on these screens here before the Family of God. I’m not talking about skeletons in the closet and dark habits that you don’t want anyone to know about. I’m not talking about that kind of hidden life. I’m talking about a hidden life with Christ of absolute purity, which will not be fully revealed until Christ comes back. That’s the hidden life I’m talking about, the hidden life of a Christian.

So look at verse four, “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” You are coming back with Jesus. We are coming back with Jesus. We are going to be there, friends. Revelation 19, there’s a clear depiction of the Second Coming of Christ. And Jesus is on a white horse and He has a name written on Him known only to He Himself. And He has written on His thigh and on the hem of His garment, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And He is riding back, I think, at the pinnacle of the anti-Christ’s attack on the earth. And He is coming back to destroy the anti-Christ with the breath of His mouth, and to slay him with the splendor of His coming. And it says that He rides in front of the armies of heaven dressed in pure white. That is us and the angels.

Now, if that isn’t overkill, I don’t know what is. The Son of God is coming with all the angels of heaven against the anti-Christ and his little army. We are going to be there though. And it says in 1 Thessalonians 4, don’t be dismayed about those who die in the faith and grieve like those who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep with Him. They’re coming back, “according to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them.”

We will all be there and we are coming back to set up an eternal kingdom on earth. We will be there and so therefore “when Christ, who is your life [finally] appears” as He really is, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, not riding on a little donkey this time coming into Jerusalem. He’s riding back on a charger for war. He’s coming back to establish a Kingdom and to finish the cleansing of the earth. We will be there. And so therefore, “when Christ who is our life appears, then we will appear with him in glory.” We will finally look like what we really are spiritually. We will be glorious. We are not just going to see glory, friends, we are going to be glory. Our bodies are going to be transformed. Philippians 3:21, “They will be made like his glorious body.” Not corrupt anymore, not diseased, not fatigued. “They will be made like his glorious body.” And Jesus said then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. That’s our future. That’s our future.

III. Heaven Revealed

Now, heaven, I believe, is greatly misunderstood. Since heaven does not appear to us, heaven must be revealed to us. And the only place it is going to be revealed to us in this present world order is in the Scriptures. So we have to go to the Scriptures and find out what heaven is going to be like. Randy Alcorn wrote a whole book called “Heaven”, specifically for the purpose of teaching the church what heaven is going to be like. And he relates a conversation that he had with a pastor who confessed to him, “Whenever I think about heaven, it makes me depressed. I’d rather just cease to exist when I die.” Alcorn said, “Why?” The pastor answered, “I can’t stand the thought of that endless tedium to float around in the clouds with nothing to do, but strum a harp. It’s all so terribly boring. Heaven doesn’t sound much better than hell. I’d rather be annihilated than spend eternity in a place like that.”

Now, at least he vocalizes it, but some Christians actually feel that. They think, “You know, I’m kind of iffy about what that’s going to be like. I mean I like the song, ‘Amazing Grace’ and all, but I don’t want to be there 10,000 years, bright shiny as the sun and sing nothing but ‘Amazing Grace’. Can we at least have some different songs?” Oh, but things will be different then. We will love “Amazing Grace” so much that when we have been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, it won’t matter to us that we have no less days. “That sounds like a lobotomy to me. It sounds like something different. I don’t know that I want to do that forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.” And so some people get discouraged about heaven of all things. Do you not see the hand of Satan in all that? Whoever talked about floating around ethereally in some cloud, as you’re some out-of-body person, strumming on a harp and singing a song that you never really liked that much here, but you’re going to be singing it, and you are going to like it in heaven? That is not what the Bible says.

First of all, let’s get rid of that out-of-body thing. We will have bodies, friends. Made like him, like him we will rise and we will be in a glorious resurrection body and a body must be in a place. So there’s going to be a place called the New Heaven and the New Earth. We are going to live there. That’s the future so we need some true teaching about heaven. Alcorn relates in his book Mark Twain’s poor view of heaven, no surprise there. In his book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he said the Christian spinster Miss Watson was taking a dim view of Huck’s fun loving spirit. “That’s not how you get to heaven.’ And according to Huck, she went on and told me all about the good place. She said, ‘All the body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing forever and ever.’ So I didn’t think much of it.” [chuckle] “I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there and she said, ‘Not by a considerable sight.’ I was glad about that because I wanted him and me to be together.” [chuckle] Well, that’s a way a lot of non-Christians think about the afterlife. This is not a sermon about hell, but it is a sermon about heaven. And clearly, Mark Twain doesn’t have the first idea what God has prepared for those who love Him. Too many people have a gross misunderstanding of our heavenly future, and I think it’s because they haven’t had good teaching on it.

John Calvin, for some reason in all of his careful Bible study, never did a commentary on the Book of Revelation, which has the clearest depictions of heaven. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, he wrote an in-depth two volume study entitled, The Nature and Destiny of Man, and never mentioned heaven. How do you do that? William Shedd’s three volume Dogmatic Theology has 87 pages on eternal punishment and two pages on heaven. In his 900 page theological work, Great Doctrines of the Bible, even Martin Lloyd Jones devoted less than two pages to the eternal state and a new earth. Louis Berkhof’s classic Systematic Theology, listen to this, devotes 38 pages to creation, 40 pages to baptism and communion, 15 pages to the intermediate state, which is what happens after you die but before the resurrection, 15 pages on it, two pages on hell and one on heaven.

Now you might think all these godly men, these great teachers of the Bible, they must be onto something. They must not be very much in the Bible about heaven. Nothing can be further from the truth. There is a river of information from the prophets and from the apostles. Some people quote a verse taken out of context and they quote it too short, you know how it happens. They take the verse out of context and they quote it too short, they stop short. And the verse I have in mind is 1 Corinthians 2:9, it says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard. Neither has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.” Well, that shuts it right there. There is nothing more to talk about, is there? We can’t know anything about heaven, is that what the verse says? Let’s put it in context. 1 Corinthians 1 and 2 are talking about the limitations of human philosophy to discern what God is doing in the world. There is a limit to what the human brain can come up with, and for the most part, we’re wrong, we’re off. So that’s the context, and they stop too short. Let me read the full verse, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has it entered the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him, but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.” Oh, that flips the verse, doesn’t it? [chuckle]

Maybe we ought to study then what God has revealed. Has He told us everything about heaven that there is to know? Absolutely not. The secret things belong to the Lord, but Deuteronomy 29:29, “The things revealed belong to us and to our children.” And so let’s study them. And I can’t in the next three minutes [chuckle], plumb the depths of all the things that we are going to enjoy and celebrate in heaven. But you ought to study it. You ought to try to find out what God has told us about the new heaven and new earth.

So what will it be like? Well, the new heaven and new earth will be a place. It will be a dwelling place. You will live there. It will be more beautiful than the star-studded sky at night, imagine the Milky Way and all that. “We will shine like the stars,” Jesus said. The new earth is going to be radiant. It’s going to be luscious. It’s going to be remade, free forever from bondage to decay. It’s going to be a world more pristine and certainly with more promise and future than Eden ever had. It’s going to be more exciting to explore the new earth than in the days of Lewis and Clark and the explorations of the Great Northwest. More exciting than any of those explorers like Columbus got on the boat and went over there to find the New World. It’s going to be far better, we’re going to venture out and find what God has made in the new earth and we’re going to be together exploring it.

We’re going to see God face to face. We’re going to see His face and we’re not going to be incinerated. We’re going to survive the experience. As a matter of fact, we’re going to thrive in the experience. This is the very same thing that Moses could not have when God hid him in the cleft of the rock. The same thing that is told, no man has ever seen the face of God, we will see His face and we will do it constantly. And like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we’re going to walk with Jesus and we’ll be able to see His wounds. And we’ll be able to sit at a table with Him and listen to Him and see His face. He has a resurrection body. And as He said in Luke 24, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” He still has His resurrection body, and we will get to see it. But we will have glorious bodies like His. There’s going to be an incredible city, and even if you’re not much on cities today, just realize you haven’t seen a city like the new Jerusalem.

Human cities have been defaced and destroyed by sin. This city is going to be pure and perfect. It is the New Jerusalem. And it’s going to come down, it says, out of heaven like a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. It’s going to shimmer with the glory of Christ. It is going to be incredible. It defies description really, but there are descriptions, 12 gates, three in the north, three in the west, three in the south, and three in the east. And the names of the 12 tribes of Israel will be there. And the foundations of the city will be like precious stones giving off different hues and colors. And the names of the apostles will be on the foundations of the city.

It’s going to be beautiful. And right down the center of the street of the city is the river of life flowing clear as crystal and the tree of life is on both sides of the river. I can’t picture that, it must be a big tree with big roots or something, Banyan trees or whatever, the big roots going across each side, I don’t know. But it’s on both sides and flows down, and 12 months a year it gives out its crop for the healing of the nations. And its gates are going to stand open. They will never be closed day or night. There will be no night there, frankly. And the wealth of the nations is going to be brought into it and there’s going to be a river of commerce and of beauty and glory.

And, yes, you will have things to do there. Boredom? How can you be bored in the presence of God? Is that even possible? Satan is the god of boredom. Follow his ways, you’ll be bored. But he’s not even going to be there, he’ll be in the lake of fire. God is a God of stimulation and of beauty, and of variety, and creativeness. And we’re going to see all of these beautiful things in heaven. And we will dine with Him. We will sit down at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. And multitudes will come, greater than anyone could count, as I already mentioned, from every tribe and language and people and nation. The work of the missionaries will be done.

There will be representatives from all of those places and we will get to know them, the brothers and sisters in Christ. And I don’t just mean the ones from your generation but the ones from back in the Middle Ages and back in the Patristic Era. You didn’t study Patristics now, back at third, fourth century. You will get to know them, just ask them, talk to them, they’ll be there. He is not the God of the dead but of the living. They’re still alive, they are in the presence of God and you will know them. And they will be your brothers and sisters. And “there will be no more death or mourning, or crying, or pain.” So you will have a resurrection body, and you will never stub your toe.

I was thinking about that. I was making my son’s bed, about a year ago and the thing pulled off and I jammed my thumb on the wall and I was like, “Ahh.” And I said, “Alright, there’s not going to be any pain in heaven. That will never happen in heaven.” And I thought, “How is the Lord going to prevent that kind of stuff from happening?” I guess He’s just going to be so sovereign and over all of our actions, that we won’t do any dumb things like bumping into things or standing up into things, or if we do, we won’t feel any pain. I don’t know. I just know there’s not going to be any pain, no physical pain. And that includes asthma, emphysema, cancer, diabetes, food poisoning, none of it. No pain, but that’s just physical.

There’s not going to be any psychological pain, friends. Some of the worst pain is not physical but psychological, emotional, mental pain. As a matter of fact, some have said, “The pain of that is so great I would have taken a good, clean amputation over this.” That’s all gone. There’s not going to be any jealousy. You’re not going to be slighted by anybody, left out, snubbed, all that’s gone. There’ll be no pain in that place. Meditate on it fully. You are going to be infinitely wealthy and you’re going to be given positions of responsibility. You will be given property of your own, quoting the Book of Luke. And you’ll manage it, and you’ll look after it.

And, no, it’s not all going to be equal. Some will have greater glory than others but all of us will be filled to the brim with the glory of God. By the way, if you want a bigger stake of heaven, then serve Him more faithfully here on earth. The way up is the way down. You want to be great? Then be a servant. If you want to be even greater, be a slave. He’s already told us that. If you want a bigger position and bigger situation for the glory of God in heaven, then serve now. Because the things we do here on earth now are translated over into eternity. And so it matters how we serve. Now I was going to read all these verses but you’ll have to read them when you get home. Revelation 21 and 22, the concepts flow from there. I want to finish with some benefits of heavenly mindedness, and we will be done.

VI. The Benefits of Heavenly-Mindedness

What are the benefits of heavenly mindedness? Well, first of all, it gives power to resist temptation. Temptations lose their power when you meditate on heaven. Illicit sex, power, money, it doesn’t matter. Secondly, heavenly mindedness gives energy to advance the kingdom. When you’re meditating on heaven and the future, you can do great things for God. Living moment by moment in the power and the presence of God, you’ll have energy to advance to His Kingdom. Thirdly, Heavenly mindedness keeps perspective in trials and suffering. All of your suffering, friends, is temporary, and all of it has a purpose. All of it does. It’s temporary and someday it’s going to end, and praise God for that. Fourthly, Heavenly mindedness enables us to love each other better, see your brother and sister as your partner in glory. You’re going to spend eternity with them. And yes I know, you want to tell me, “Well, they’ll be a lot different then.” Well that’s true, they will, but so will you, and your relationship is going to be perfect, so why not live accordingly now? It enables you to love others better, enables you to love the poor and needy better now too. See them with eternal eyes.

The things you give now to them will be rewarded in eternity. You can spread out, Jesus said, a banquet for the poor and needy and not worry about being repaid in this life. It will be repaid, Jesus said, at the resurrection of the righteous, and so you can be generous with your material possessions. Heavenly mindedness frees us from fear of man. What can man do to you? No one can take your reward from you. This frees you from the tyrant, concern about the tyrant, the non-Christian boss, so you can lose your fear of man in evangelism and be very bold in witnessing. Heavenly mindedness frees us from discouragement. Why be discouraged? Every second is bringing you closer and closer to the things I’ve talked about today. Don’t buy Satan’s discouragement.

Our labor in the Lord is not in vain. We’re going to get there, and so we’re free from discouragement through heavenly mindedness. Heavenly mindedness enables us to be excellent counselors to those who are discouraged. Point them to heaven. Point them to Christ. Point them to the power of the Cross over sin and to the fact that all of these things bring us closer and closer to Christ. Heavenly mindedness sweetens public and private worship. Many of the songs that we sing, not just this morning, but in the Hymnal, many of them are meditations on the future heavenly life. It sweetens public worship and it sweetens private worship to think of heaven. And Heavenly mindedness frees us from fear of aging and death. I’m not saying, ladies, don’t go buy Oil of Olay, okay. Go ahead and do that. That’s fine. But don’t set your heart on Oil of Olay. Or set your heart on cosmetic surgery or any Botox or any of those things. Don’t worry about it. You are going to age. [chuckle] And so am I.

We’re aging, but you know what? It doesn’t matter because we’re going to get resurrection bodies that are freed from corruption, and we need not fear these things. Now I’ve been speaking to the brothers and sisters in Christ about heaven. But I don’t necessarily know that everybody who is listening to me today is fit for heaven. I don’t know for sure that you’re going to heaven right now. I don’t know for sure that if we all died right now that all of us would go to heaven. I actually think not, not because of anything I can see, but just… I believe with all my heart that God brought somebody here today who needs to hear the gospel.

 V. Application

And so can I ask, if you have never trusted in Christ, that you disregard all the things I’ve just said, in terms of your own destiny, until you do this one thing. Come to faith in Christ and trust in Him. Put all of your sins on Him as your substitute, let Him take you to heaven, and then all of these things become your inheritance. Don’t think that you have any right to sit at that table without trusting in Christ. But if you trust in Christ, if you roll all of your sins onto Him, He will save you and bring you to this glorious place. Close with me in prayer please.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

American Jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes:  Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

However, C.S. Lewis said, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.  It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.  Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’:  aim at earth, and you will get neither.” (The Joyful Christian, p.138).

Richard Robarts, minister of God, early 19^th century… died of consumption at age 36

[He writes in his journal] “Frequently, all around me thought me about to expire.  My cough was so dreadful, so were the pains I felt in my chest and side; and above all the languor which oppressed me for a while seemed almost overwhelming.  But while I was thus sinking I felt more of the consolations and supports of religion than I ever had experienced before.  O, with what strong and assured confidence was I enabled to look upon my Redeemer, and how gladly would I have resigned my soul into his hands!  What glorious manifestations of His love and mercy did He make to my soul, and how did I rejoice to believe that in a few days more I should be with Him in glory eternal!  For the sake of my dear wife and friends, I was willing to live, and saw it my duty to use all proper means to promote my recovery… but for my own sake I had a desire to be with Christ.  Thus I lay in sweet suspense, as it were, between earth and heaven, and indeed, so I have remained in general ever since.”

Later on, a friend said to him:  “I should be glad to enjoy your happiness.”  Richard Robarts could not speak at this stage of his illness, but he wrote this on a slate:  “Believe constantly on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you may be much happier than you are.  Had I been more faithful in this respect I should have enjoyed more consolation and done more for the glory of God.”

[the account continues]  “In the course of this day he experienced an ecstasy of heavenly joy.  His eyes were bathed in tears, and he uttered words of praise, consolation and triumph; it appeared as if he was transported into Paradise.  It was evident that he experienced a foretaste of heaven.”  He said, “Oh, I am happy in my God, in his love.  I am going to possess Him forever.  I shall enter into that city whose streets are of fine gold, yes, the New Jerusalem from above, the City of the Living God.”

“All men seek happiness,” says Blaise Pascal. “This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object.

Problem:  most people don’t know how to find it… our text today gives the best answer you will ever find:  HEAVENLY-MINDEDNESS

If you could walk the streets of the New Jerusalem this afternoon for one hour, then returned to earth, would not earthly concerns seem ridiculous?  Would you care who won the National Championship?  Or who got the promotion at your company?  Or who got the credit for something done at church?

Is it possible to live mentally in heaven while walking vigorously on earth?  Is that happiness possible???  The Apostle Paul, in these seventeen crucial verses, gives the most comprehensive counsel you will find in all of Scripture to having a happy and fruitful life here on earth

And he begins with this:  a Heavenly Mindset

I. Elements of a Happy, Fruitful Christian Life

A. Heavenly Mindset (vs. 1-4)

·      Seeking things above, thinking about things above

·      Understanding our past:  dead with Christ, raised with Christ

·      Understanding our present:  Christ is our life, and He is in heaven

·      Understanding our future:  Christ will appear, and we will appear with Him in glory

B. Vigorous Warfare Against Sin (vs. 5-9)

·      Put to death all earthly sins…sexual sins, idolatries, relational sins, etc.

·      Understanding that because of these things the wrath of God is coming

·      Breaking the hold of old habits

C. Walking Together in the “New Self” (vs. 9-14)

·      Understanding the “old self” and “new self” in Christ

·      Understanding also the new community we make… old distinctions mean nothing:  Greek, Jew, barbarian, Scythian, slave free

·      Walking together in love: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience; learning how to forgive each other completely from the heart

D. Hearts Saturated with Christ (vs. 15-17)

·      The Peace of Christ Ruling Our Hearts

·      The Word of Christ Richly Dwelling in Our Hearts

·      The Name of Christ Motivating Our Hearts

·      Thanks to Christ Constantly Given by Our Hearts

Brothers and sisters, THIS is a happy, fruitful Christian life

It is the life that Christ purchased for us with His blood

It is a life that is possible in the Spirit

It is a life I yearn for here at FBC

II. Heavenly Mindset (vs. 1-4)

Colossians 3:1-4  Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  ⁴ When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

A. Present Duty: Seek and Think Heaven

1. Two key verbs:  SEEK and THINK

a. NIV has “set your hearts on” and “set your minds on”

b. What do you yearn for?… that is what you SEEK

c. What do you think about?… that is what you SET YOUR MIND ON

d. The happy, fruitful life begins with self-imposed MIND CONTROL

Romans 8:5-7  Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  ⁶ The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;  ⁷ the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

e. Paul gives us two things positively, one thing negatively:

i) Positively:  things above and things to come

ii) Negatively:  NOT on earthly things

2. “Things above” = Christ’s present rule

Colossians 3:1  set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

a. Christ has ascended to heaven

b. Christ sits at the right hand of Almighty God

c. God is determined to crush all of Christ’s enemies

Psalm 110:1  The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

d. Christ carries on his constant priestly ministry for us at God’s right hand

Hebrews 1:3  After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Hebrews 8:1-2  We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,  ² and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.

e. Christ constantly lives to intercede for us at God’s right hand

Hebrews 7:24-25  because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.  ²⁵ Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

f. Christ rules over all the earth, sovereignly, for the benefit of the Church

Ephesians 1:20-22  [God] raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,  ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church

g. So, think of Christ as king of the universe, sitting at the right hand of God

3. “Things to come” = Christ’s future rule

a. Christ’s second coming, in the clouds, when at last He is revealed as the rightful king of the universe

b. And, Judgement Day, when Christ will sit on His throne and will judge all the nations

c. And (best of all) the New Heavens and the New Earth, the perfect universe that Christ will establish as our eternal home

4. “Not on earthly things”

a. The things of this earth… tied to this present, earthly system

b. Certainly not the lusts of the earth

1 John 2:15-16  Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

c. But neither an over preoccupation with

i) Food, clothing, shelter

ii) The political events… the rise and fall of nations

iii) Earthly hobbies:  sports, entertainment, travel

iv) Earthly possessions:  some coveted item

d. Even GOOD things of an earthly nature should not take TOP PRIORITY… even your own families

1 Corinthians 7:29-32  What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;  ³⁰ those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep;  ³¹ those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.  ³² I would like you to be free from concern.

5. Our rich inheritance:  the New Heaven and the New Earth

a. Fill your mind with biblical data… what kind of existence will we have?

b. Feed your faith and your hope on the promises of God

c. This greatly glorifies God when we yearn for what He yearns to give us

d. Hebrews 11 teaches this… commenting on the other-worldly focus of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:

Hebrews 11:13-16  All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.  ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country– a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

e. Christ openly commanded this and appealed to it

Matthew 6:19-21  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

f. Revelation was given to help us do this

B. Our Past:  We Died and Were Raised with Christ

Colossians 3:3  For you died

Colossians 3:1  Since, then, you have been raised with Christ

1. This is speaking of our past union with Christ, once for all eternity, through faith

2. When we heard and believed the gospel, we were united with Christ in both His death and His resurrection

3. This is our POSITION in Christ, and nothing can ever change it

4. This is the BASIS of our heavenly meditation… we are homesick for heaven because Christ is there

C. Our Present:  Christ is Our Life, and He is in Heaven

Colossians 3:3  your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:4  When Christ, who is your life, appears

1. Christ is our life

2. Where Christ is seated is our TRUE home

3. He is in heaven, at the right hand of God

4. So, in some sense, so are we

5. Notice the word “hidden”… the world does not know us, and in some sense we don’t really even know ourselves

1 John 3:1-2  How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

D. Our Future:  Christ Will Appear, and We With Him in Glory

Colossians 3:4  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

1. Our future is a glorious unveiling of Christ in His Second Coming glory

2. AND our glorification in Him

Revelation 19:11-16  I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war.  ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself.  ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.  ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.  ¹⁵ Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.  ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Matthew 13:43   Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

III. Heaven Revealed

A. Heaven Misunderstood

Randy Alcorn wrote a book called Heaven specifically to rectify the gross neglect of good teaching on heaven that plagues the church today

He relates a conversation he had with a pastor who confessed to him:  “Whenever I think abut Heaven, it makes me depressed.  I’d rather just cease to exist when I die?”

Alcorn asked “Why?”

The pastor answered:  “I can’t stand the thought of that endless tedium.  To float around in the clouds with nothing to do but strum a harp…it’s all so terribly boring.  Heaven doesn’t sound much better than Hell.  I’d rather be annihilated than spend eternity in a place like that.”

Actually, many Christians misunderstand heaven

Many people think it will be this endless sing-along where we sing one great hymn after another, forever and ever and ever and ever and ever… strumming a harp, floating like a wisp of air on a puffy white cloud

Alcorn relates Mark Twain’s poor views of heaven, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:  “The Christian spinster Miss Watson takes a dim view of Huck’s fun-loving spirit.  According to Huck, “She went on and told me all about the good place.  She said all a body would have to do there was go around all day long with a harp and sing forever and ever.  So I didn’t think much of it….I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said ‘Not by a considerable sight.  I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.”

1. Too many people have a gross misunderstanding of our heavenly future

a. Many fine bible teachers have neglected careful teaching on heaven

i) John Calvin never wrote a commentary on Revelation, which has the clearest views of heaven

ii) Theologian Reinhold Neibuhr wrote an in-depth two-volume study entitled The Nature and Destiny of Man, and amazingly had nothing to say about heaven

iii) William Shedd’s three-volume Systematic Theology has 87 pages on eternal punishment, but only two pages on heaven

iv) In his 900 page theological work, Great Doctrines of the Bible, Martyn Lloyd-Jones devoted less than two pages to the eternal state and the New Earth

v) Louis Berkhof’s classic Systematic Theology devotes 38 pages to creation, 40 pages to baptism and communion, 15 pages to the “intermediate state” (what happens to people between death and resurrection) but only two pages to Hell and one page to Heaven

b. Key question:  does the Bible really have so little to say about Heaven?  ANSWER IS NO!!!!

B. A Verse Taken Out of Context

1. So many people shut down inquiry on details about heaven based on one verse:

1 Corinthians 2:9  “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”–

2. BUT it is taken out of context and the quote stops too soon

3. Context:  the limitation of human wisdom for discerning the plans of God

a. Human senses cannot perceive heaven

b. Human wisdom cannot predict heaven

4. Next verse reveals the whole concept

1 Corinthians 2:9-10  “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”–  ¹⁰ but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

5. Not everything has been revealed… but many things have

Deuteronomy 29:29  The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever

6. And we must study what God HAS revealed about heaven

C. What God Wants Us to Know About the New Heavens and New Earth

1. So what will it be like?

a. There will be a New Heaven and New Earth, the home of righteousness

i) The New Heaven will be God’s dwelling place, more beautiful even than the present star-studded night sky

ii) The New Earth will be radiant, luscious, remade, free forever from bondage to decay… a world more pristine than Eden, more exciting to explore than Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the Pacific Northwest

b. We will see God and Christ face to face!!

i) The very thing denied to Moses on the Mountain

ii) The very thing it is said that no man could ever do

iii) We will do constantly

iv) And, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we will see and talk with the risen Lord… see the nail marks in his hands, sit at table with him, see his face, hear his voice, ask him anything we want, learn from him forever

c. There will be a glorious city, the New Jerusalem, as a place of union between heaven and earth

i) It will be ravishingly beautiful… the most beautiful city in history, larger, more luminescent, more serene and powerful

ii) God will dwell there, and its gates will be constantly open so the wealth of the nations can stream in

d. We sit at table with Him in the Kingdom, at a banqueting table so lavish it cannot be described… and many will come from the east and the west and take their places at that table

e. We will be perfect in soul and in body… no internal struggle with sin, no bodily ailments, NO DEATH, MOURNING, CRYING or PAIN

i) Meditate on each one of those fully

ii) Take pain, for example:  no physical pain… no stubbed toes, no broken bones, no cancer or chemotherapy, no danger even!

iii) No psychological pain:  no disappointment, rejection, loneliness, regret, sadness, jealousy, discontent, boredom, etc.

·      It will be a place of infinite joy and pleasure

·      We will be perfectly conformed to Christ in every way:  physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, volitionally

·      It contains both a city and a country:  the “New Jerusalem” and the “New Earth”

·      The New Jerusalem will be immense, a place of perfect union between heaven and earth, a place under no threat but whose gates stand open constantly for the rich blessing of the nations to be brought within her walls

·      The future world will be completely free of all evil (death, mourning, crying, pain, sin, temptation, Satan, devils, evil people, worldly allurements, etc.)

·      It will be a place of infinite discovery, with Christ Himself being the chief object of study

·      The New Earth itself will be physical, a world to be explored, developed and cared for

·      It will be ravishingly beautiful

·      It will be eternal

·      There will be some kind of feasting there, and we will eat food as Christ did in His resurrection body

·      There will be work, and positions of responsibility and authority, though no jealousy of those over us or domineering of those under us

·      We will have eternal possessions on the New Earth, our inheritance

·      We will have physical bodies, perfect and glorious

·      We will enjoy perfect fellowship with people from every nation and language

·      We will enjoy perfect fellowship with people from every era of Redemptive History

·      We will be abundantly and specifically rewarded for all acts of faith-filled service to Christ and to His people, and we will never lose these rewards but will enjoy them forever

2. Clearest text:  Revelation 21-22

Revelation 21:1-7  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  ⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”  ⁶ He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  ⁷ He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Revelation 21:10-16  And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.  ¹¹ It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.  ¹² It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.  ¹³ There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west.  ¹⁴ The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.  ¹⁵ The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.  ¹⁶ The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long.

Revelation 21:22-27  I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.  ²³ The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.  ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  ²⁵ On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.  ²⁶ The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.  ²⁷ Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Revelation 22:1-6  Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb  ² down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  ³ No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  ⁴ They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  ⁵ There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.  ⁶ The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”

IV. The Benefits of Heavenly-Mindedness

A. Heavenly-Mindedness Gives Power to Resist Temptation

1. Paul says asceticism (harsh treatment of the body) lacks any value in restraining sensual indulgence

2. BUT setting your heart on things above has GREAT POWER in resisting temptation

3. Earthly-minded people struggle mightily with earthly lusts

4. Those who seem to live in the heavenlies are able to see each temptation in the light of eternity…

a. the lures of illicit sex seem repulsive to one whose heart is set on heaven

b. The attraction of the corner office and the bloated six-figure salary (at the cost of sixty-hour work-weeks and multiple divorces) is immeasurably diminished

B. Heavenly-Mindedness Gives Energy to Advance the Kingdom

American Jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes:  Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

However, C.S. Lewis said, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.  It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.  Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’:  aim at earth, and you will get neither.” (The Joyful Christian, p.138).

1. They lived moment-by-moment for their eternal happiness in heaven and for the pleasure of their Lord

2. They yearned to see Christ glorified on earth as they vividly imagine Him to be glorified in heaven

3. Their prayer lives and Bible meditations were effective sources of daily renewal for them

C. Heavenly-Mindedness Keeps Perspective in Trials and Suffering

1. The sufferings of cancer or of some other dread disease diminish when we consider that the worst that can happen is being in heaven with Christ

2. The sufferings of those persecuted for the faith dwindle:  as one house church pastor said to a terrifying security policeman threatening him with a gun:  “You can’t threaten me with heaven!!”

3. The sufferings of the body are all seen to be temporary in light of eternity

D. Heavenly-Mindedness Enables Us to Love Others Better

1. We shall see each other as future partners in a heavenly life

2. We shall yearn to help each other along the way to heaven, rather than involve ourselves in petty power struggles or backbiting or gossip or conflicts

3. We shall be much more willing to sacrifice our time, energy and money to benefit other people if we realize that all those things will be rewarded in heaven

4. We shall be freed from jealousy of the spiritual successes of others:  if God blesses someone else’s ministry more than ours, we are enabled to rejoice from the heavenly perspective

E. Heavenly-Mindedness Freed Us from Fear of Man

1. Human tyrants shrink into nothingness in light of the future heavenly life

2. The greatness of God, the glory of Christ, the infinite mystery and power of the Holy Spirit make human opponents seem as nothing

3. We shall lose our fear of man in evangelism and be very bold in witnessing

4. We shall lose our fear of missions work and be willing to go wherever God calls us

F. Heavenly-Mindedness Frees Us from Discouragement

1. Satan sells the poisonous purple kool-aid of discouragement at every street corner

2. He is especially zealous to do so to those who are most effective for the Kingdom

3. BUT a heavenly mindset frees us from discouragement:  we are going to a perfect world which will be eternally lit by the Glory of Christ

4. Everything we do to serve Christ will result in eternal blessing, and it is literally impossible for us to fail

5. Where then is discouragement??  It is CRUSHED FOREVER!!

G. Heavenly-Mindedness Enables Us to Be Excellent Counselors

1. We can point other people to the glory that will be revealed to us and in us

2. We can lift their spirits when they are discouraged

3. We can help them defeat temptation and sin

4. We can help them be eternally fruitful… all of this by saturating their minds with HEAVEN

H. Heavenly-Mindedness Makes Us Generous With Earthly Resources

1. We need not hold on to money, or be stingy with our material possessions

2. We can look on every moment of our day as preparation for our future heavenly life

3. We can spread a banquet for the poor and needy, and not expect to be repaid in this life… for we expect the reward at the resurrection of the righteous

4. We need not be clingy, materialistic, stingy, selfish… heaven frees us from all that

I. Heavenly-Mindedness Sweetens Public and Private Worship

1. Many of the best hymns have been enriched my meditations on heaven

2. Psalms is the first and greatest source of worship songs… but Revelation is second

3. We should talk about heaven, pray about heaven, sing about heaven… in private worship, longing to get there… in public worship, weeping for its beauty

J. Heavenly-Mindedness Frees Us from Fear of Aging and Death

V. Application (vs. 5-9)

A. Be Certain That it’s Heaven and Not Hell in your Future

B. Set Your Hearts on Things Above in Daily Quiet Time

C. Study the New Heaven and New Earth Biblically

D. Learn to Conquer Sin by Heavenly-Mindedness

E. Enrich Your Conversation with References to Heaven