“Why Not Be Saved?” – Luke 8

How many of you have a Facebook page?  How many of you don’t have one but wish you did?  How many of you have one and sometimes wish you didn’t?  I enjoy Facebook sometimes.  It’s good to see pictures of my friends and family and we can keep up with what folks are doing.  I’m afraid, though, that what Facebook has taught us more than anything is that some people have way too much time on their hands.

I just have no patience for some things on there. I don’t want to see pictures of abused animals or kids – ever.  I know it happens but I don’t want to see graphic pictures of it.  If you think that if you type “Amen” into a post that God will bless you with lots of money, you don’t understand God…or money.  And if you send me another request to play Candy Crush one more time, I will take your life.

But there are some things on there I don’t really understand.  I see them every time I go on there.  There are all of these little surveys you can do to find out what kind of bird you would be or what kind of food you are.  Evidently you answer some questions and it will tell you who you were in a previous life or what color your aura is.  My aura?  I don’t think I have an aura and if I do develop one, I’m going to the doctor to have it removed.  Aura!

But if Jesus were on Facebook, He might give us a survey to find out what kind of soil we are. Yes, soil.  It doesn’t sound very interesting at first but it is actually the most important question one can ask.  We need to know what kind of soil we are because our very eternity depends on it.  I guess there’s nothing wrong with knowing what 60’s rock anthem you are if you have that kind of time but what we really need to know is the spiritual condition of our hearts and Jesus brings that out in our passage this morning in Luke chapter 8.

Jesus is well into His ministry and is teaching and preaching and healing as He goes around the country and He has developed quite a following as you can imagine.  He has said some incredible things and done some incredible miracles including raising the dead to life and so lots of people are interested in Him, wondering what He is going to say or do next.  It’s life-changing for some and a pretty good show for others and Jesus sees that not all of them are going to accept His teaching and so He tells them a story - a parable - to illustrate that fact.

Turn to the third Gospel; the Gospel of Dr. Luke, if you will, and let’s see what kind of soil we are in verses 4-8 and 11-15.

Luke 8:4-8 ⁴While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ⁵"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. ⁶Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When he said this, he called out, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.  Verse 11."This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

Back in the early ‘90’s, I worked at a feed store in Arlington. One day, I watched a man pull up in front of the store in a nice, new van.  He got out and walked in.  He was well-dressed in slacks and a nice shirt.  He was well-groomed and a big man, well over six feet and muscular.  I thought he might be a salesman of some kind because he had something in his hand but I was surprised as he started to talk.

He introduced himself and explained that his family had done business with this store for years (although I had never seen him before) but that times had gotten tough and he was needing to make a few bucks today.  He then set this brass tea pitcher thing on the counter and asked me how much I would give him for the pitcher.

Well, I looked at it and knew right off the bat it was not something I needed or wanted.  I’m still not sure exactly what it is and I think it may be broken or at least missing some pieces.  So, I nicely explained it was not anything I really needed and I wouldn’t give him anything.  He got a little closer to me and a little more forceful and said, “I really need some money.  I’m not asking for much.  Just give me something.”

Again, I explained I didn’t want or need it but he wasn’t going to settle for that.  Now he leaned over the counter I was standing behind and sound in a loud voice, “You don’t understand!  I need some money and I need it right now!  How much are you going to give me?!”

Now, at this point I did not know what was on this man’s mind.  I didn’t know his heart but the one thing I did know was exactly how much money I had in my wallet so I got my wallet from my pocket and opened it up and there was one 1-dollar bill in there.  I opened it in front of him to show him and said, “This is all I ha…” and before I could finish my sentence, he grabbed the dollar bill, slammed the pitcher on the counter and screamed, “Thank you!  Have a nice day!” and walked out of the store.

That’s a true story and my mother keeps this pitcher at her house to remind her to pray for me.  Now, just like how I did not know this man’s mind or heart, we also cannot know anyone’s mind or heart when it comes to salvation, nor are we supposed to.  This passage is not for you to be able to tell if somebody else is a Christian.  This passage is so you will be able to tell if YOU are a Christian.  Our job is not to judge somebody else’s salvation but it most definitely is our job to know for sure that WE are saved.

So, as we look through this passage closer, try not to think of other people that you know who might fit into each soil type or heart type but, instead, see only where you fit.  There are four types of soil listed here by Jesus and they represent the conditions of the heart that people have as the Gospel is presented to them.  It is the same Gospel given to each one but each one has a different reaction.

Now, let’s backtrack for just a second and remember the first two sermons in this series that were entitled, “How Are We Saved?” and “Who May Be Saved?”  The answer to the first question is, we are saved by grace and through faith as Ephesians 2 tells us.  The answer to the second question is, anybody can be saved, even the most sinful, vile person on the planet.  This week we see that the same Gospel is given to everybody and yet there are different responses with most hearing and yet not being saved.

Have you ever wondered why some people don’t accept the Gospel?  Do you wonder why some people are saved and others are not?  How about the question of “once saved, always saved”?  So many people struggle with that doctrine, yet the Bible is clear on that and Jesus explains it simply right here.  All of that is in these few verses so let’s look closer, starting where Jesus is explaining the parable in verses 11 and 12.   "This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

In Luke 22:66-71, Luke describes the trial of Jesus and says, “At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. ⁶⁷"If you are the Messiah," they said, "tell us." Jesus answered, "If I tell you, you will not believe me, ⁶⁸and if I asked you, you would not answer. ⁶⁹But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God." ⁷⁰They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied, "You say that I am." ⁷¹Then they said, "Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips."

Yes, the chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there in front of Jesus, asking Him if He is the Messiah, the Christ and when He verifies it…they kill Him.  They don’t want to hear the Gospel and when it is presented, as Jesus had been doing for three years in their presence, as it says, “the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

Jesus compares these men’s hearts to the hard-packed ground like the paths that the farmer would walk on when he scattered his seed.  In those days, the farmer would have a sack of seed on his shoulder and as he walked along the path between the fields he would just scatter it out with his hand.  So, obviously, some of the seed would be wasted as it hit the hard-packed path.  The birds would snatch it or it would just be trampled underfoot.

When it comes to the Gospel and the fact that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man gets to the Father except through Him, do you think the chief priests and the teachers would have listened if Jesus had just explained it better?  Maybe He should have told them another parable or something.  No, I think that’s part of the reason Jesus didn’t say much during His trials.  No sense wasting His breath.  Their hearts had never been softened and tilled up by the realization of their sin.  They had never repented or asked forgiveness, not truly.

2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”  There’s no sense in pointing out the right direction to a blind man.  That’s what it’s like telling the Gospel to a man with a hard heart.

In verse 6 of our passage in Luke, Jesus says that some of the seed fell on rocky soil.  The person hears the Gospel and he receives it with joy but he has no root and it doesn’t last.  In verse 13, Jesus says that in time of testing they fall away. Sometimes you might see a flower grow in the crack of a sidewalk or somewhere strange and it will bloom faster and prettier than a flower planted in a nice flower bed but it doesn’t last as long.  When the sun beats down on it, it’s lack of roots make it unstable and unable to handle stress. People can react to the Gospel in a similar way.

Would you say that Judas Iscariot was a true believer?  Would you say he was a Christian?  Of course not.  But think about it.  He walked with Jesus for three years.  He ate with Him, ministered with Him, prayed with Him and even preached in His name.  But when things got difficult, he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, doing the devil’s work and is now in the devil’s hell.  How is that possible?  It’s a superficial acceptance of the Gospel that changes a person outwardly and temporarily but not down to the roots.

With that person there is no real repentance, no remorse over sin, no contrition, no brokenness and no humility.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”  Oftentimes this person came to Christ for what he thought he could get in the way of personal benefit but when he sees the price it will cost him, he won’t pay it. (John MacArthur)

The man with a rocky heart might have the outward appearance of being saved but falls away in times of testing.  Jesus said in Matthew 24:13, “He who stands firm to the end will be saved.”  That person won’t be perfect but he will be changed.  A true believer is a changed believer and continues to allow God to change him as the years go by.  I’m afraid the 21^st century church is full of Judases.

In the 14^th verse of our parable, Jesus explains the third soil type and that the seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures.  At the end of 2 Timothy, Paul asks his friends to come help him quickly because his one-time friend and fellow missionary Demas has deserted him “because he loved this world.”

The rich, young ruler in Luke 18 came to Jesus and asked what he had to do to be saved and Jesus told him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor.  Why did Jesus tell him that?  He never told anybody else that.  I thought we were saved by grace and through faith.  Jesus told him that because Jesus knew that man’s heart was full of thorns; thorns like worries over riches and pleasures.

I have told some of you before that when I was a kid, my dad bought this little camper trailer.  With three kids, he needed a place to get away and study or maybe just get away and I don’t blame him.  It wasn’t very big but he was proud of it, as he should have been.  There’s nothing shameful about having stuff.  The problem was, some neighbor kids got into it and messed up some stuff and he was afraid somebody might steal it so he had to put an extra lock on it.  Then it needed insurance and tags and then the lights didn’t work and then it was just one thing after another and it just got to be too distracting for what it was worth.

It’s easy to do that with anything, isn’t it?  That’s the problem with having stuff.  It doesn’t fulfill us but only brings worry and greed and distraction and when that is in our life, Jesus goes from first in our life to well on down the list until the Gospel just gets choked out.  Someone that professes to be a believer and a follower of Jesus but doesn’t come to church and is not broken by the sin in their life and is not bearing fruit like a believer should obviously has a “weedy” heart.  Where Jesus should be, they have the weeds of stuff, sports, entertainment, money or career and that is eternally tragic.

But Jesus wraps it up on a positive note as He explains the one good soil.  Make sure you fall into this category.  He says in verse 15 that the good soil “stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”  As I said, I hope you don’t try to think of people you know who fit into these categories because we can’t really know someone’s heart but the Bible knows their heart and reveals those to us.  When it comes to good soil; a good and noble heart, free from rocks and weeds, I think of the Apostle Peter.

I mentioned Peter a couple of weeks ago and we know he wasn’t perfect.  Even after expressing to Jesus that he knew Jesus was the Messiah, Peter still denied Him three times.  He was impetuous, violent, confused and just flat wrong at times but he had a noble and good heart, tender to the Lord and for His ministry.  The good soil that Jesus is talking about doesn’t mean it was perfect, it just means that it had been prepared; tilled up by trials and temptations but not distracted by worldly things.  He was all of that before he met Jesus but the heart of Peter - and therefore how he acted - was changed by his relationship with the Lord.

God talks about changing our stony hearts in Ezekiel 36:26. I like how the New Living Version puts it.  “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”  That’s what happened to Peter.  That’s what happens to everyone who hears the Word, retains it…and then what happens?  They produce a crop, according to Jesus in verse 15.

Now, what does that crop look like?  What does it mean to be fruitful?  Obviously, He is talking about spiritual fruit and spiritual fruit is the inevitable product of a spiritual life (MacArthur) and the fruit of the Spirit is described by Paul in Galatians 5 where he says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control.”  I bet some of us ought to run through those again and see how well our lives match up.

A tender, responsive heart is also obedient to God.  Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commands.”  (John 14:15) Obedience is fruitfulness.  What was the last thing Jesus told us to do before He ascended back to Heaven?  In Matthew 28, Jesus said, “Go and make disciples and teach them to obey me.” (My version.)  Good fruit makes more fruit.  Everywhere it goes, as it goes, it plants seeds.

That’s the Gospel.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and in Him and through Him we have eternal life with God the Father in Heaven.  We have lasting joy and peace in this life even in the difficult times but we have to be faithful and fruitful.  We have to tell others.  If we don’t, who will?  We have to be obedient to everything the Bible says.  No, none of us are perfect but when we mess up; when we sin, it should pain us.  We should hate that more than anything and we should immediately ask God for forgiveness and to help us never do that again.

Don’t be thinking about anybody else right now.  If that’s not how you are living your life, then maybe the soil of your heart has never really been tilled and prepared.  Maybe the weeds of materialism and stuff and the worries of this world have kept you from really putting all your faith and hope and trust in Jesus.  If that is true of you today, then I would love to pray with you right now as the music plays.

Some of you may think you would be too embarrassed to come down and pray because you are just now realizing that you are not a true believer and you have said you were or assumed you were or thought you were for all these years.  But there is nothing more joyful in this world than for a person to realize that and then have their lives changed.  Do that today.

“Who Can Be Saved?” – John 4

Tony Campolo is a professor and evangelist and he tells the story about flying to Hawaii to speak at a conference. The way he tells it, he checks into his hotel and tries to get some sleep. Unfortunately, his internal clock wakes him at 3:00 a.m. The night is dark, the streets are silent, the world is asleep, but Tony is wide awake and his stomach is growling. He gets up and prowls the streets looking for a place to get some bacon and eggs for an early breakfast. Everything is closed except for a grungy dive in an alley. He goes in and sits down at the counter. The fat guy behind the counter comes over and asks, "What d'ya want?" Well, Tony isn't so hungry anymore so eying some donuts under a plastic cover he says, "I'll have a donut and black coffee." As he sits there munching on his donut and sipping his coffee at 3:30, in walk eight or nine provocative, loud prostitutes just finished with their night's work. They plop down at the counter and Tony finds himself uncomfortably surrounded by this group of smoking, swearing hookers. He gulps his coffee, planning to make a quick getaway. Then the woman next to him says to her friend, "You know what? Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm gonna be 39." To which her friend nastily replies, "So what d'ya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to you?" The first woman says, "Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I'm just sayin' it's my birthday. I don't want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?" Well, when Tony heard that, he said he made a decision. He sat and waited until the women left, and then he asked the fat guy at the counter, "Do they come in here every night?" "Yeah," he answered. "The one right next to me," he asked, "she comes in every night?" "Yeah," he said, "that's Agnes. Yeah, she's here every night. She's been comin' here for years. Why do you want to know?" "Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think? Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?" A cute kind of smile crept over the fat man's chubby cheeks. "That's great," he says, "yeah, that's great. I like it." He turns to the kitchen and shouts to his wife, "Hey, come on out here. This guy's got a great idea. Tomorrow is Agnes' birthday and he wants to throw a party for her right here." His wife comes out. "That's terrific," she says. "You know, Agnes is really nice. She's always trying to help other people and nobody does anything nice for her." So they make their plans. Tony says he'll be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name turns out to be Harry, says he'll make a cake. At 2:30 the next morning, Tony is back. He has crepe paper and other decorations and a sign made of big pieces of cardboard that says, "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" They decorate the place from one end to the other and get it looking great. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 it seemed that every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. There were hookers wall to wall. At 3:30 on the dot, the door swings open and in walks Agnes and her friend. Tony has everybody ready. They all shout and scream "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Agnes is absolutely flabbergasted. She's stunned, her mouth falls open, her knees started to buckle, and she almost falls over. And when the birthday cake with all the candles is carried out, that's when she totally loses it. Now she's sobbing and crying. Harry, who's not used to seeing a prostitute cry, gruffly mumbles, "Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake." So she pulls herself together and blows them out. Everyone cheers and yells, "Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake!" But Agnes looks down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, slowly and softly says, "Look, Harry, is it all right with you if...I mean, if I don't...I mean, what I want to ask, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don't eat it right away?" Harry doesn't know what to say so he shrugs and says, "Sure, if that's what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want." "Oh, could I?" she asks. Looking at Tony she says, "I live just down the street a couple of doors; I want to take the cake home, is that okay? I'll be right back, honest." She gets off her stool, picks up the cake, and carries it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watches in stunned silence and when the door closes behind her, nobody seems to know what to do. They look at each other. They look at Tony. So Tony gets up on a chair and says, "What do you say that we pray together?" And there they are in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 a.m. listening to Tony as he prays for Agnes, for her life, her health, and her salvation. Tony recalls, "I prayed that her life would be changed, and that God would be good to her." When he's finished, Harry leans over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he says, "Hey, you never told me you was a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?" In one of those moments when just the right words came, Tony answers him quietly, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning." Harry thinks for a moment, and in a mocking way says, "No you don't. There ain't no church like that. If there was, I'd join it. Yep, I'd join a church like that."

What do you think about that story?  How do you think you would have responded if you were in his shoes?  How do you think Jesus would have responded?  Well, thankfully, we pretty much know how Jesus would have responded because there is a similar occasion related by the Apostle John in his Gospel.  No, they weren’t in Hawaii and Jesus wasn’t jetlagged, but He was tired and there was a promiscuous woman there so let’s look at John 4:1-42. 

Jesus has called His disciples and is just starting His ministry.  He is leaving Judea and heading north to Galilee.  Now, any other good Jew would have done whatever it takes not to go through Samaria even though it would be a much longer trip.  Samaria was between Judea and Galilee but Samaria was full of…you guessed it…Samaritans and Samaritans were half breed Jews and Gentiles and therefore despised by everyone.  In fact, in the time of Jesus, the only thing worse than being a Samaritan was being a woman.  Just keep all that in mind as we read John 4:1-42.

¹Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John- ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. ⁴Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. ⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." ¹¹"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?" ¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." ¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." ¹⁶He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." ¹⁷"I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." ¹⁹"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." ²¹"Woman," Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." ²⁵The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." ²⁶Then Jesus declared, "I, the one speaking to you-I am he." ²⁷Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" ²⁸Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" ³⁰They came out of the town and made their way toward him. ³¹Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." ³²But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." ³³Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" ³⁴"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. ³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." ³⁹Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹And because of his words many more became believers. ⁴²They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

Okay, we had a really long opening illustration and a really long passage to read and now I don’t have time to preach, so I hope you are blessed.  Have a great day!  No?  Okay, well then, I will preach fast if you promise to listen fast.  Actually, to top it all off, I want to spend just a minute talking about something that is not the main focus of this passage.  Look again at verses 1-3.  This is just a set-up for the rest of the passage but even here I want us to learn a very important lesson. 

It says that the religious folk were spreading a rumor that Jesus was baptizing more people than John the Baptist was when in reality, Jesus was letting His disciples do the baptizing.  Now, Jesus could have gone and set those guys straight.  Let’s make sure the record is clear about all this, right?  No.  Jesus realized that this was drama that could be avoided and should be avoided and since it did nothing to promote His work, He walked off from it.  That’s all I’ll say about that for lack of time but just save the drama for your llama and the Pharisees, okay?

Now, because He was leaving all that, Jesus goes through Samaria and meets this woman whose name we will never know until we see her in Heaven.  It says that Jesus was tired and so He waited there at the well which was some distance outside of town for His disciples to go buy lunch.  We know it was noon; it was lunchtime because it says it was the sixth hour and that’s how they told time back then.

When all of the sudden…what a coincidence, right?  This must be good luck or good karma or something for Jesus to meet this woman, don’t you think?  No!  This is a divine encounter.  This may be the only reason that Jesus went through Samaria.  In fact, this may be the whole reason He was headed to Galilee, just so He could meet this woman and I want you to see the process that happens in this woman’s mind about who Jesus is as He talks to her.

She first recognizes Him as being a Jew in verse 9.  If you write in your Bibles, you might underline or circle that.  Just underline the name “Jew”.  By the way He was dressed and how He talked, she recognized Him right off and she was probably shocked that this man would even look at her much less talk to her, much less ask her for a drink.  This was twelve kinds of scandalous.  This just doesn’t happen.

I tried to think of a similar group of people that some Americans might hate today but nothing compares to the hatred that Jews and Samaritans had for each other.  It was deep-rooted and vicious and ugly so when Jesus simply asks for a drink, it was a big deal.

The typical time for women to go this well for water would have been in the cool of the morning and evening but this woman was obviously trying to escape some drama herself since she probably had a bad reputation among the other women of the town and didn’t want to hear about it.  So, there she is at noon, in the heat of the day and this Jew just happens to be there.

Jesus immediately understands the situation and knows that this woman’s greatest need is not water.  It’s not companionship.  It sure isn’t judgment.  What she needs is salvation so He starts to turn the conversation that way as soon as possible by telling her of living water.  This term “living water” was what most people then would have understood as water from a stream or river.  It was moving water, not the stagnant water from a well.  Moving water or living water would have been fresher and better so this piqued her interest, although we know that is not what Jesus was really talking about.

The Samaritans were proud of this well, though, because they considered themselves children of Jacob and Jacob was said to have dug this well and it provided what they needed.  So, see in verses 11-12 that she now asks Him if He is better than Jacob.  Jesus went from being some Jew to now He is better than her forefather so He’s making progress.  Underline “greater than Jacob.”

Have you ever noticed that when Jesus talks to people about salvation that He never uses the same method twice?  He doesn’t have a canned speech or a one-size-fits-all approach.  He literally and figuratively meets people where they are in life and talks to them in terms they understand.  This woman was drawing water.  What better way than to talk about living water?  If she had been a farmer, He would have changed it up so it was obvious to a farmer.  Everywhere Jesus went, He went with a purpose and every conversation He had would ultimately lead to the Gospel.

Then, because Jesus is God and He knew this woman’s story before she told Him, He told her to go get her husband and when He says this, notice her response.  It’s the shortest sentence she says in this conversation.  “I have no husband.”  I imagine her eyes went down and she blushed a little as she said it.  She probably thought she was glad He didn’t know her whole story.  That would be embarrassing.

The problem was she was talking to Jesus and He tells her her story.  But notice that He doesn’t do it in a way that condemns her or puts her down.  He just states the facts and even does it in a loving way.  Then in verse 19, she promotes Him to prophet.  Underline that.  Now he’s a prophet.

Just like this woman does, we can also expect people we are talking to to change the subject when things get real personal.  She tries to get Jesus talking about how and where to worship but He gradually brings the conversation back to where it needs to be.  He didn’t get distracted.  He keeps the main thing the main thing and in doing so, she brings up the subject of the Messiah in verse 25.  Jesus unlocked the door.  She opened it and walked through.

Okay, just a few more verses to look at here.  In verses 28-29 she leaves her water jar and runs off to tell her friends and neighbors, calling Him the Messiah, the Christ, as she goes.  Underline that as well.  Her life has been changed and what used to be important (getting water) is not so important anymore.  Now she has good news to tell and the words of Isaiah 43:18-19 come back to mind.  ¹⁸"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. ¹⁹See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

She forgets why she even went to the well because now, because Jesus loved her and spent just a few minutes with her, this promiscuous woman is now a new creation.  She also sees Jesus differently as well and so do all her neighbors.  In verse 42, Jesus isn’t just a Jew.  He’s not just a good guy or a prophet.  He’s even more than just a fulfilled promise.  Underline that He is the Savior of the world!  He is the One who knows, who forgives, who loves, who saves and changes– even wild women!  Even big bad bikers, meth-heads, drunks, perverts, Atheists, Democrats - even you – and believe it or not, even me.  Thank you, Lord!

While the music plays, I would love to pray with you and for you.  Come to the front right now for prayer about whatever is on your heart.  Maybe today is the day you accept Jesus to be Lord of your life and you ask Him for forgiveness of your sins.  Repent - turn away from - those sins and accept His love, forgiveness and salvation today.  There is no other way to Heaven.  There is no other way to have lasting peace and joy in this life.  Do it now.  None of us are guaranteed another day.

“How Are We Saved?” – Genesis 15:1-6

If you were here last week you might remember that I started off with a made-up story about a wealthy man who promised to pay off your mortgage in full and all you had to do was tell other people about him so he could help them too.  Well, last week was the end of the sermon series on Heaven and today we begin a new series but I want to use that same made-up man again as today’s opening illustration.

Today we find out that the man who promised to pay off your mortgage in full did not just pay off the mortgage of the house you live in now.  No, he also paid off the mortgage on a much, much nicer house.  In fact, he has paid for and given you a beautiful mansion in a beautiful part of town.  He has paid for movers to move your stuff in if you want it but the house is already furnished with the nicest of everything and all you have to do is go there and then, as you go, tell other people about him so he can help them too.

Now, you don’t have to be a great theologian to understand that in this illustration, the man is God and the mansion is in Heaven, right?  You should be thinking about Heaven and how wonderful it is going to be a lot lately.  We just spent two months looking at what the Bible says Heaven is going to be like and hopefully you are looking forward to it even more.  This illustration should make your ears perk up because hopefully you recognize a similar scenario that will be played out there.

The only problem is, how do we know for sure that we really are going to get that mansion in the beautiful part of town?  Do we know how to get there?  Do we know how to tell others how to get there and what is the proof of it all?  What proves that we really know any of this for sure?  Those are some big questions.  In fact, they are the ultimate questions that anybody can and should ask in their lives.  They are the only questions that really matter.

So, we are going to ask those questions in the next month or so as we talk about how to get to Heaven.  We saw how incredible Heaven is going to be and we know we want all our friends and loved ones to be there with us but what proof do we have that we really are going there? 

As we talk about this, we will use some terms that need to be explained.  If you were moving from one house to the other, you might say you are moving or being transferred or you are leaving, packing up, whatever.  They all mean basically the same thing.  You were living in one place and now you are going to live in another place. 

In our study for the next month, we might talk about becoming a Christian, being born again, becoming a disciple of Jesus or starting our walk with the Lord.  We all know what those are supposed to mean.  They’re all good but I really like the word “saved”.  What are we saved from and what are we saved to?  Well, ultimately, we are saved from our old lives, living in sin and going to Hell.  We are saved to a new life, a full life in Christ that leads to Heaven.  Feel free to say “amen” right there.

When my sister, Suzy, was a little girl, she became a Christian – she got saved – and she wanted to tell her friends about it.  So she asked her friends sitting around the lunch table in elementary school if they had ever been saved.  One little boy spoke right up and said, “Oh, yes.  I have been saved.”  My sister was so excited to meet another believer until he went on to tell about how he had fallen out of his dad’s fishing boat one day and his dad saved him from drowning.

That’s good but that’s not what we are talking about today and I think we all know it.  Right?  Well, today’s sermon is entitled, “How Are We Saved?”  That’s where we have to start and the answer is actually pretty simple.  In fact, the Apostle Paul puts it one sentence.  In Ephesians 2:8, he says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith”.  You need to memorize that if you haven’t already.

We are saved by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ, right?  But I have a question.  How were the Old Testament saints saved?  How were people saved before Jesus came in the New Testament?  Have you ever thought of that?  Well, let’s turn to the very first book of the Bible and let’s see.  In Genesis 15, Abraham is still called Abram.  God had not changed his name yet but Abram was wealthy and powerful and had everything a man could ask for…except a son and this was a big problem.

He had no heir to his fortune.  He had nobody to carry on his name and while he had lots of servants, Abram was getting to be an old man and his wife Sarai was now too old to have children as well.  It looked pretty bleak for old Abram…until, well let’s look at Genesis 15, verses 1-6 and see what God does and what Abram does.

Genesis 15:1-6 ¹After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." ²But Abram said, "Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" ³And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." ⁴Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir." ⁵He took him outside and said, "Look up at the sky and count the stars-if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." ⁶Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

A week or so ago I was in bed sound asleep in the middle of the night when I heard a very plain whisper coming from the living room which is right next to my bedroom.  “Alexander… Alexander, is that you?”  As you can imagine, I jumped up out of that bed in a hurry and I was scared to death!  Obviously, somebody is in my house.  I heard them plain as day and they can’t be but a few feet away from me.  My heart was pounding out of my chest and I’m trying to figure out what to do when another voice answered and I realized…it was coming from the TV.

Somehow, just the sound, not the screen of my TV came on all by itself and it was just the perfect volume and at the perfect time in some movie for me to hear some actor whispering.  I promise this is a true story.  It scared me to death.  I don’t know how it happened but from now on, when I’m done watching TV, I mute it and then turn it off.

I wonder if that is how Abram felt when the word of the Lord came to him as it says in verse 1.  Maybe that’s why God said, “Don’t be afraid” right at first.  I’m sure Abram needed to hear that.  I know I would.  But God goes on to tell Abram some very big news.  He tells him that he is going to be a father.  Now, this is big talk.  In fact, it’s impossible since he and Sarai are both well past normal child-bearing years.  But the really amazing part of this passage comes in verse 6. “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”

Yes, it’s pretty amazing that Abram believed God but it’s really amazing that God credited that belief as righteousness because that word “righteousness” means simply to be right with.  It was originally a legal term that meant to be straight or square.  We say today that if somebody pays us the money they owe us that we are now square.  We’re even.  Everything is good between us.  Because Abram believed God, God said, “We’re good.”

What that tells me, first off, is that Abram had no righteousness before this.  He may have been a good person.  He may have been nice to his mama and walked little old ladies across the street and maybe even his good deeds outweighed his bad deeds but he had no righteousness apart from God’s grace and through faith that God was telling the truth.  That’s how Abram was what we would call “saved”.  He was saved by grace and through faith – faith that God was telling the truth, faith that God would send the Messiah, faith that there was life after death and that it was Heaven for Abram because of that faith.

Now, I want you to see that we have a lot in common when it comes to this.  He might have been born 4,000 years ago on the other side of the planet but God saves us in a similar fashion.  First, see that God draws us to Himself.  Jesus Himself said in John 6:44 that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”  That word “draw” literally means to drag like the disciples dragged their nets when they were fishing.

We obviously have to respond but everything about salvation is from God and by God.  God revealed Himself to Abram in a vision.  Abram didn’t go looking for God.  He wasn’t trying to contact God.  God drew Abram to Himself.  Why does God need to draw us to salvation? Simply put, if He didn’t, we would never come.  The natural man has no ability to come to God, nor does he even have the desire to come. Because his heart is hard and his mind is darkened, the person not drawn by God doesn’t desire God.  Romans 5:10 says that we are actually an enemy of God.  Therefore, it is only by the merciful and gracious drawing of God that we are saved.  (www.gotquestions.org)

So, first God draws us and then He starts to use us.  We have free will and even when God draws us to Him, we can still reject Him.  We can make any number of excuses.  We can say we don’t understand enough or that we are scared or that we don’t believe it or whatever we want.  One excuse is as good as another.  But once we show some faith and decide to allow God to be Lord of our lives and we are saved, then God starts to use us. 

That is a mark of every believer.  If you want to know whose cows those are out in the field, just look at the brand.  If you want to know whose disciples we are, look for God to work through us.  For Abram, God had a plan to use him and his descendants to bless the whole world, but He started with Abram.  The whole nation of Israel comes from Abram.  Jesus Himself was born in Israel.  All Israel was blessed because of the covenant God made with Abram and the whole world has been blessed since then.

Did you know that when Spence Sliver first invented the sticky-note for his company, 3M, that 3M originally had no use for it?  They couldn’t find any use for paper with adhesive on the back and couldn’t imagine that anyone would ever pay money for it.  It wasn’t until one of Sliver’s co-workers grabbed one for a bookmark that its usefulness was realized.  Now everybody in the world has sticky notes in every shape and color and size.

We all wonder sometimes why God allows some things to happen to us.  Why does God do this or allow that?  Wouldn’t a loving God shield His children from that kind of hurtful thing?  We can’t imagine how something like what we are going through could ever be useful…until one day, usually years later, when somebody we know is going through the exact same thing and God puts us in their lives at just the right time so we can help them because we have gone through it.  You see it happen all the time if you watch for it.

God used Abram to change the world and He might use you to change the world as well.  But maybe God just uses you to change your world.  One of the ways that we know we are saved is that God is using us to make some impact on this world for the sake of God’s Kingdom.  No, you are not Billy Graham.  You will probably never preach to thousands of people.  You may never see a great spiritual revival in the company you work for.  But you may be used by God to change that one person who goes on to change the world.  You may be the only one in this world that can bring the Gospel to your grandchild or to your best friend.  Billy Graham can’t do that.  Only you can and if you truly are a believer; if you truly are saved then part of the proof of that is that God is using you somewhere.

After God draws you to Himself and you are saved, He then starts to use you and then the other proof of that is that God starts to change you.  How many of you can relate to the Apostle Peter?  Man, I sure can.  He was constantly saying something or doing something wrong or just flat dumb.  You know what I mean?  In Matthew 17, Jesus is transfigured and meets with Moses and Elijah from the Old Testament.  Nothing like that had ever happened before or has happened since and what does Peter say?  “It’s good for us to be here.  Want me to put up some shelters for y’all?”

Don’t you know Jesus just wanted to put His hand over Peter’s mouth?  When Jesus was washing the disciples’ feet, (John 13) Peter first says, “No way, Lord!” to which Jesus said, “Well, then you have nothing to do with me.”  So, then Peter says, “Well then wash me all over!”  “No, Peter, just your feet will be fine.” Then Peter chops off a guy’s ear and Jesus has to heal it.  It was always something with this guy.

But in Matthew 16, Jesus asks His disciples who people were saying that He was and they responded that some said He was John the Baptist or Elijah or someone else.  But then Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?”  Then, don’t you know the disciples all cringed when Peter opened his mouth to speak but Peter wisely says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Yes!  Way to go Pete!  Jesus said, “Good job, Peter!  This was revealed to you by my Father in heaven.”  Those are my translations by the way.

Peter was changed.  Yes, about two minutes later Jesus had to tell Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” but Peter was constantly undergoing change.  He wasn’t perfect.  He still messed up.  Shoot, he even went on to deny Christ three times but you can’t say that Peter wasn’t changed because of his relationship with Jesus.  It’s the same with us.  It was like that for Abram and the other saints in the Old Testament who were saved by grace and through faith.  It was like that for the disciples in the New Testament who walked with Jesus and it is like that for us when we have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus.

He loves us too much to leave us like we are.  In fact, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that we are “new creations”.  As my friend Scott Parrish says, Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good.  He came to make dead people alive!  Before Jesus, we were dead in our sins, slaves to sin and dead to real life change but Jesus came so that we might have a full and abundant life (John 10:10) which is completely different from what we were before and if you are not constantly undergoing change then something is wrong between you and God.

God first draws us to Himself, then He starts to use us and change us and if that is not obvious in your life then I want you to think back to that moment in time when you first got saved.  Not everybody can remember a date and that’s okay but you should be able to pinpoint a time in your life when you felt God drawing you to Him and you came to God in faith and asked for His forgiveness of your sins and by His grace He forgave you and started using you and changing you.  If you can’t remember that time, then maybe this is that time.

You will have no lasting peace or joy in this life without Jesus and no way to Heaven but through Him.  By His grace and through faith in Him, accept His free gift today as the music plays.

“Heaven” – Part 8 – Rev. 22:12-17

Okay, here’s the scenario.  Every month you pay your mortgage.  Every month it’s difficult but you get it paid but you realize that you just don’t make enough money to keep paying it every month like you have been.  So, you cut back.  You scrimp and save.  You use coupons and buy only what you have to to survive.  You start to sell things you don’t need and then you even have to start selling things you do need but you just can’t make the mortgage payment.  You have a family to support and provide for but there is nothing you can do.  This is awful.  You can’t afford to move.  What in the world are you going to do?

So, you go to the bank officer and start to tell him your problem, hoping that he will give you some kind of hope.  But before you can even finish with your appeal, the banker says, “Oh, don’t worry.  The mortgage on your house has been paid in full by a generous man in the community.”

Wow!  That’s great, right?  Now, in this scenario, what do you do?  What’s the very first thing you would do?  I don’t know about you, but I would ask some questions first.  I would want to make sure that it’s not a mistake.  If it’s not, then what does this mysterious do-gooder want from me in return?  Before I run off to celebrate, I need to know some things about this situation because I know that if something sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

I want to know if this guy can be trusted.  Am I supposed to pay him back?  Why would he do this for me?  What’s in it for him and what is expected of me?  I’m going to be leery of this deal until I get some questions answered.  But suppose in our little scenario that you get your basic questions answered.  You find out that he has done this for lots of other people and he just does it out of the goodness of his heart because he is wealthy and wants to help people.

The banker knows the man well and can vouch for him that he is trustworthy and that he doesn’t expect to be paid back.  All that you have to do is sign the papers.  Now what do you do?  Again, I don’t know about you but as for me, hand me a pen or a pencil or a crayon or something.  I’ll use my own blood to sign if I have to.  Just show me where.  But then, just as you are signing, the banker says, “Oh, there is one thing…” and you think, “Oh, great.  Here it comes.”

But the banker then says that all the good neighbor asks you to do is tell your friends and loved ones because he wants to do the same for them too.  He wants to pay for everybody’s mortgage.  Hey, no problem!  I can do that!  I want everybody I know and love to hear about this guy.  I’m going to sing his praises from the rooftop.  I’m going to put it on Facebook.  I’m going to walk across the street.  I’ll go around the world.  I’ll do whatever I can to make this guy famous.

Since the beginning of time, man has dreamed of there being more to this life.  God has wired us to want more, search for more and not be satisfied until we find out what the secret is to life after we die.  Some people have concluded that there is no life after death.  Some people believe that we are reincarnated and come back as someone or something different.  Almost every religion believes it has something to do with how good we are in this life.

But God gave us the Bible to fully explain everything we need to know about how to get to Heaven and I’ll be honest with you.  It sounds too good to be true.  The benefits are way, way beyond the price of admission, if you know what I mean.  So, when we learn about what Heaven is like, like we have the past seven weeks, it should make you, first, ask some questions.  Then when those questions get answered well enough, it should make you accept the invitation to go there.  Then, lastly, it should make you want to announce it to the world just like if somebody said they were going to pay off your mortgage.

So, this week as we conclude our series on what the Bible says Heaven is going to be like, I want to go through those steps in a little more detail.  Let’s ask the important questions, then accept the invitation and then announce it to the world.  Turn to the last book of the Bible; the book of Revelation; the very last chapter of the last book, chapter 22, and let’s look at verses 12-17. 

The author of this book is the Apostle John and we have read what John was told to write down up to this point.  I always think, “Poor John, having to write down all this incredible stuff that would be so hard to describe.”  But in this passage at the very end of the last book of the Bible, Jesus is doing the talking.  Let’s read what He says in Revelation 22:12-17. 

Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. ¹⁴"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. ¹⁵Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. ¹⁶"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star." ¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let the one who hears say, "Come!" Let the one who is thirsty come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah". The teacher asked, "What if Jonah didn’t go to Heaven?" The little girl replied, "Then you ask him.”

We all look forward to asking some questions when we get to Heaven and we all have questions about Heaven right now.  Well, here Jesus answers several of the most important questions we have; namely, who is going to be there and who isn’t?  He starts off saying He is bringing His reward with Him. Did you know that we will all be judged according to our deeds when Jesus comes back?  Every one of us, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist – we all get judged according to what we have done and Jesus says here He is ready, willing and able to dispense with our rewards. 

If your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, then Jesus will reward you with eternity in Heaven and whatever good deeds you have done will be rewarded forever.  But that is only for true believers who, in this life, have come to have a life-changing relationship with the One True God through His Son Jesus.  When He says that He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, He is saying that this world was created by Him in the beginning.  He will last forever and if your life reflects that fact and you have made Him Lord of all your life, then you can expect to live with Him forever in Heaven.

“Those who wash their robes” simply means that you have had your sins washed away by your belief that Jesus’ death on the cross and the blood He shed was sufficient to wash you clean in the eyes of the Lord and you will enjoy eternity as a co-heir with Jesus to all the good things Heaven has to offer.  That’s incredible!  That’s wonderful news. 

But there is bad news for those who want to enter Heaven just based on their works or their deeds.  Verse 15 starts a representative list of those who won’t make it.  It’s not an exhaustive list.  This is not every sin in the world necessarily but Jesus says that to be sure, these folks are in big trouble for eternity.  Now, his use of the word “dogs” does not mean that all our furry, four-legged, Fido friends are going to Hell.  He uses the word as most Jews thought of them in those days as being of low character.

Then some of us read this list and we might think that because we have done one or two or all of these things that Jesus is saying we are going to Hell but as He says about lying or falsehoods, only those who love and practice these things.  If this is your lifestyle and you are unrepentant about it and you keep doing it, those are the ones He is talking about.  We will discuss this more in depth tonight at six so don’t miss that.

So, that is the most important question that any of us can ask and we should ask it.  Am I going to be there in Heaven?  The answer is, only through Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross can any of us expect to be there.  But there are lots of other questions and you should ask them.  I want to go over some of the most popular questions I hear about Heaven.  They are good questions.  We know that we will never understand everything about Heaven until we get there and we need to keep in mind that if the Bible doesn’t answer the question, it doesn’t mean it’s not a good question.  It just means that we don’t have to know the answer to get there.

The number one question I hear when people talk about Heaven is always, speaking of dogs in verse 15, “Will my dog/cat/horse/gerbil/squid/whatever pet be there?”  For pet lovers like me, that’s an important question.  We know that in Revelation 19, Jesus and all His followers are described as riding on white horses and we know that during Christ’s thousand-year reign on the earth during the Millennium that there will be animals such as the wolf, lamb, calf and lion (Isaiah 11:6-9) but there is no specific mention of animals in the New Heaven or New Earth.

So, it doesn’t say we will have pets in Heaven but it doesn’t say there won’t be and I always answer this by saying that wouldn’t it be just like Jesus to bring our pets back to us in the next life?  Although I’ve had a couple that I’m pretty sure won’t make it.  In fact, if that one dog, Junior, who kept chewing up my Bibles is there, it won’t be much like Heaven for me.  Crazy mutt.

Okay, here’s another popular question.  It’s one we have touched on several times but for the record, let’s talk about what we are going to do in Heaven.  What do y’all know about it?  What are we going to do for eternity?  I sure hope we aren’t just gonna sit on a cloud and strum a harp.  No, we aren’t.  Heaven is sometimes described as a new Eden, as in Garden of Eden and that’s right.  Heaven will be similar to how God created earth to begin with before Adam and Eve sinned. 

In the Garden, Adam and Eve had work to do.  They were created to have dominion over the earth (Gen. 2); to rule and reign over it and we will do the same.  According to our faithfulness in this life, God will assign us to be rulers over different parts of the earth or of the universe even and that will bring great satisfaction to us as we will finally be doing exactly what we were created to do and since we will have new, glorified bodies, we won’t get tired and since there will be no sin, we will do it perfectly.

That leads to our next question, which is, what will our bodies be like?  If you read Luke 24, you will see that Jesus’ resurrection body was not limited by time or space.  He could walk through doors and walls and yet he had flesh and bones and was recognizable to His disciples.  He even ate food which, I think, answers another question and that’s good.  We all look forward to that.

In Colossians 1:18, the Apostle Paul describes Jesus as the “firstborn from the dead.”  The Greek word translated “firstborn” is the same word from which we get our word “prototype”.  The Bible says that Jesus’ resurrection body was a prototype of the bodies we will one day receive; bodies that are superior, and yet similar to our present ones. (Perfect Ending by Robert Jeffress, page 217)

So, those are the most basic and most asked questions about Heaven.  Who is going to be there?  What are we going to do?  What will we be like?  And, of course, will Fido and Fluffy be there?  Now, just like in the opening illustration of the man who paid your mortgage, you should have some questions about Heaven just like you would have questions about that man.  But you don’t have to know everything about Heaven to realize it’s a good deal.

You wouldn’t have to know the shirt size of the good neighbor paying your mortgage.  You don’t have to know his eye color or his favorite Kardashian.  You just need to know the basics about him.  What matters is if he is trustworthy and serious and if he is going to do what he says he is going to do and if he is then you just accept the deal.

It’s the same with Heaven.  We should ask those questions but what it boils down to is if God is trustworthy and going to do what He says about Heaven.  So, how do we know?  Well, how do we know if anybody is trustworthy?  We have to know if what they have said in the past is true.  Is their word reliable?  If it is, then just accept the deal.  Well, we have God’s Word right here in the Bible.  How do we know it’s true?

Well, I’ll tell you what.  I could go all the way back to Genesis and start talking about how what God said would happen, actually happened.  I could tell you all about thousands of prophesies that predicted the birth, life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus hundreds of years before He was born.  Then I could show you in the New Testament all the places where those came true.  I could let you talk to friends of mine who could affirm the Word of God and some of them could tell wild stories of God’s salvation power.  But the best thing I know how to do to convince you of God’s trustworthiness is to just tell my simple story.

I became a follower of Jesus on February 16, 1975.  I was just a kid so my conversion story doesn’t have the flash that some Hells Angel, rapist, murdering, drug dealing thug might have but Jesus saved me that day nonetheless.  I knew that sin was anything that displeases God and I knew I was a sinner.  I could understand enough to know that Jesus was the only way to Heaven and that only He could forgive me of my sin and that without choosing Jesus, I was choosing Hell.  I understood enough.

Since that day, I have learned a lot and the more I study God’s Word, the more I realize I don’t know but I have never, not one time, found an error in His Word.  I have never known of Him to lie or be wrong or be late or unloving.  I don’t always understand Him but I know I can always trust Him.  I don’t have to know all the answers.  He has given me enough to know that He loves me and He is control and so I don’t have anything to fear or worry about.

That’s how I know and you can know too.  Ask whatever questions you need to ask.  That’s good.  You should ask.  But at some point, you have to have faith and just accept the deal.  Accept that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no man gets to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6) Accept Him into your life to be Lord of your life and the accept the fact that He will forgive you and make you into a new creation as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says.  All you have to do is accept the deal.

Then, do you know what God expects of you?  He expects you to go tell everybody you know about this deal.  He expects, actually commands that as we go, we are to make disciples of Him.  Do you remember what a disciple is?  We studied that a while back and I remember that a disciple is just somebody that learns from Jesus and then tells others what they know.

The subject of Heaven is a great place to start telling people what you know about it.  That’s exciting to think about and you don’t have to know everything.  It was funny.  The other night at Bible study, we were next door having a discussion about what the sermon was that morning and Jeanna asked some question I didn’t know.  (It’s not that hard.)

When I told her I didn’t know, she kind of looked at me funny and said, “Now, I don’t want to be rude, but how are we supposed to have a discussion if you don’t know the answer?”  Well, I’m just a disciple just like y’all are.  I am a long way from knowing everything but what I do know, I want to share with my loved ones.  I want everybody to know Jesus and have a life-changing relationship with Him and so does this church and did you know that the Holy Spirit of God wants that as well? 

Look at verse 17 as we close.  It says, “¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let the one who hears say, "Come!" Let the one who is thirsty come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”  The Spirit says come to Jesus.  The Bride, which is the church says come to Jesus.  I want to announce it from the rooftop, come to Jesus and do you know who I am talking to?  I’m talking to the elect.  I’m talking to those that the Bible calls predestined and do you know who is predestined?  The Bible makes it clear right here that whoever wishes is the elect and the predestined.

We don’t have to know how any of it works.  All we have to do is ask the questions, accept the deal and then announce it to the world.  If you have never accepted the deal then what are you waiting for?  You know enough.  I don’t want to go to Heaven without you.  I love you too much.  Accept the deal today if you haven’t already.