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Sermon: Wonders of Heaven (Part 3)

Don Ruhl

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Wonders of Heaven (Part 3) 

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • December 9, In the year of our Lord, 2012

Scripture Reader and Reading: Gene Tomlinson – Revelation 21.1–5

Song Leader and Song Suggestions: Kevin Michael – Any songs on heaven

 

Prelude: 

  1. Part One, the Sounds 
    1. Well Done
    2. Inexpressible Words
    3. Angels Rejoicing
    4. Heaven Worshiping God
    5. God Singing
  2. Part Two, the Experiences 
    1. Jesus Serving Us
    2. Sitting on the Throne of Jesus
    3. Seeing Our Loved Ones Again
    4. Serving God
    5. Singing
    6. Fulfilling the Family Promise of God
    7. God Wiping Away Our Tears
    8. Experiencing the True Tree of Life
    9. Seeing God’s Face
  3. After my class last week, I realized more could be said on this subject. 

Persuasion: 

  1. Those in Heaven, Those Not in Heaven 
    1. Some we expect to be in heaven, but they will not be there.
    2. Some we expect not to be in heaven, but they will be there.
    3. Luke 13.23–30

      23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last” (Luke 13.23–30).

    4. Matthew 21.28–32

      28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him” (Matt 21.28–32).

  2. Meeting Saints and Angels

    22 “So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried” (Luke 16.22).

    11 “And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 8.11).

  3. We Shall Have Bodies Like the Body of Jesus

    20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself (Phi 3.20, 21).

    2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1Jo 3.2).

    13 …in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; 16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength (Rev 1.13–16).

  4. Unimaginable Glory (Rev 21.1–22.5) 
    1. 21.1–8 – Unimaginable Newness
    2. 21.9–21 – Unimaginable Wealth
    3. 21.22–27 – Unimaginable Light
    4. 22.1–5 – Unimaginable Paradise

Exhortation: 

  1. Does God Ease the Transition? 
    1. God knows the experience of death.
    2. He knows that we fear it.
      1. This is why He sent Jesus
      2. that we might be delivered from the bondage of the fear of death

        14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham (Heb 2.14–16).

    3. Death is not the end.
    4. God eases the moment:
      1. Mona Simpson said of her brother Steve Jobs when he died,

        “Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve’s final words were: OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.”

      2. Thomas Edison awoke from a coma hours before dying, and said,

        “It is very beautiful over there.”

      3. Not implying saved, just speaking of the death experience
    5. Luke 16.22
      1. Greeted by Angels
      2. With Abraham
  2. Is heaven worth it? 
    1. Is heaven worth the sacrifice that Jesus demands of us?
    2. Is heaven worth the waiting and the sacrificing?
  3. Heaven is the principal prize. 
    1. Therefore, get heaven.
    2. And in all your getting, get heaven!
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