“Heaven” – Part 1 – Colossians 3:1-4

A man died and went to Heaven and when he got there, St. Peter greeted him and asked him what he had done to deserve to get into Heaven.  The man says, "There was this old lady. I came out of a store and found her surrounded by a dozen Hell's Angels. They had taken her purse and were shoving her around, taunting and abusing her.  I got so mad I threw my bags down, fought through the crowd, and got her purse back. I then helped her to her feet. I then went up to the biggest, baddest biker and told him how despicable, cowardly and mean he was and then spat in his face".
"Wow", said Peter, "That's impressive. When did this happen"?
"Oh, about 10 minutes ago", replied the man.

Now, what is wrong with this joke - besides it not being terribly funny?  What is wrong with it theologically?  First, I don’t know where we get the idea that Peter is going to greet us at the pearly gates but even more incorrect is the idea that we have to deserve to get there.  Aren’t you glad we don’t have to be good enough?  Ephesians 2:8-9 says we get to Heaven by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ.  Period.

There are so many misconceptions about Heaven.  Probably the worst misconception is that Heaven is going to be boring or that we are all going to just sit on clouds strumming harps and wishing we had a magazine to read like the old Far Side cartoon showed.  I have been so excited lately studying about what Heaven is going to be like and while we may not know everything, God has told us plainly lots of things that we may not realize about Heaven.

First, did you know that not everybody is going to be there?  Oh, sure we know Hitler’s not going to be there and there’s no way your ex-husband makes it, right?  But I have an idea that there are going to be a LOT of surprised people when they close their eyes that last time on earth and open them up again in the afterlife.  People are going to be surprised at who made it to Heaven and who didn’t make it and the ones that will be most surprised are the ones who consider themselves to be Christians in this life but never actually had a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ.

People are also going to be pleasantly surprised when they get to Heaven and see some very familiar people, but also familiar places and things.  Yes, that’s right.  As we study the place of Heaven for the next few weeks, I think you will find that the Bible tells us that we can expect to feel right at home as soon as we get there and that it won’t be scary or boring but a whole lot of fun – yes fun – and a whole lot of enjoyment.

Now, I know that some of you may not think you even care about what Heaven is going to be like.  You say you will be happy just being there and you don’t need to know details since God doesn’t tell us much about it anyhow.  Richard Baxter expresses the thought in these lines: 


My knowledge of that life is small, The eye of faith is dim, But it's enough that Christ knows all, And I shall be with him.


Nothing wrong about that necessarily.  Plus, it sounds so pious and so very Christian so that’s good.  But I want to know what lies in store for me when I get there and I believe that God wants us to know so we are going to be looking at it for the next few weeks.  We are going to see what Heaven is like according to what the Bible says.


If you were going on a trip to Australia, you would want to know something about it, wouldn’t you?  You would want to know what the weather is like and what kind of hotels they have and what there is to do when you get there.  You wouldn’t say, “Oh, I don’t know anything about it.  I’ll just be happy to be there.” 


Not only that, but did you know that we are told in the Bible to think often about what Heaven is going to be like?  In fact, maybe you remember that we just got through with a sermon series about putting on the full armor of God a couple of months ago.  In that armor is the helmet of salvation and part of putting on that helmet is not just knowing that you are saved but knowing where you are going when you die and thinking about what Heaven is going to be like.  That actually encourages us as we live here on this nasty old earth and keeps us from falling into sin.


There is another fascinating New Testament passage that encourages us – even commands us – to meditate on our future home.  Turn to Colossians 3:1-4 and let’s see what Paul has to say about it.  Colossians is in between Philippians and 1^st Thessalonians and was written in the context of how Christians should live.  In chapter 2, Paul says that since we have died with Christ, we have died to our sins.  It’s what baptism represents.  We are lowered into the water to represent Christ’s physical death and our death to sin. 

Now, let’s see what Paul says about what happens as we are raised out of the water in baptism and raised to a new life in Christ. 

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


That Paul!  I think it’s because he had so much to say that he packs every sentence, every phrase, every word with so much meaning that if somebody wanted to, they could preach fifty different sermons on that one passage.  There’s not a wasted word in there but I want to focus on the overall theme of what he is saying here.  Think about the afterlife.  Think about eternity.  Think about what Heaven is going to be like. 


I know the 70-80 years we live on this earth seems like a long time but several times the Bible reminds us that this life is but a wisp of smoke, a flower quickly fading or a faint breath but forever is forever and we should be more concerned about what life is going to be like for the trillions and trillions of years and then some that we spend in eternity rather than what life is like for the few years we are here.


Jonathan Edwards, the great Puritan preacher, said he resolved to endeavor to obtain for himself as much happiness, in the other world, as possible.  Think about that.  That is exactly what Paul is telling us to do.  We died with Christ to sin and now we have been raised with Christ through His resurrection and we are raised to live a NEW life.  That life is going to last just a short while here but while we are here we need to use this time to get prepared for our eternal lives.


Paul says to set your hearts and minds on things above.  A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; "Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!"  Charles L. Allen in Home Fires.


We are going to find out in the next few weeks more about what the Bible says Heaven is going to look like and what we are going to do there but we first have to overcome our preconceived notions about what it is because too often those ideas are wrong.  We have grown up listening to some hymns that may have been written with good intent but have bad theology when it comes to Heaven.


We watch TV shows and movies that depict Heaven as this vague, boring place that we as Christians are supposed to love but we don’t really know why.  We hear stories from people who have supposedly died and come back and yet all they have to talk about is getting to see Aunt Betty or how Ol’ Red, their favorite dog, was up there.


Cartoons and jokes make Heaven sound foolish and my favorite bumper sticker is written by some genius that says, “Heaven doesn’t want me and Hell’s afraid I’ll take over.”  All of this, our whole society, this whole world wants us to believe that if Heaven does exist, you don’t want to go there.  Do you know where this comes from?  This comes from the prince of this world, Satan himself.  Revelation 13:6 says that the beast was blaspheming God, slandering His name and His dwelling place and those who live in Heaven.


Do you think Satan wants us to know what Heaven is really like?  Do you think he wants us to meditate on it and to put on that helmet of salvation?  Of course not.  Randy Alcorn says that our enemy slanders three things:  God’s person, God’s people and God’s place.  The father of lies was evicted from Heaven so what better way for the devil and his demons to attack us than to whisper lies about the very place that God tells us to set our hearts and minds?


But what does it really mean to set our hearts and minds on things above?  What does that look like?  A Gallup poll showed that 78 percent of Americans expect to go to heaven when they die. However, many of them hardly ever pray, read the Bible, or attend church. They admit that they live to please themselves instead of God. I wonder why these people would want to go to heaven.


In an article title, "Are We Ready for Heaven?" Maurice R. Irwin points out that only 34 percent of the American people who call themselves Christians attend church at least once a week. Daily Bread, July 31, 1992.  Now, let me clarify that setting your hearts and minds on things above does not mean going to church.  But setting your hearts and minds on things above is what true believers do and true believers go to church.  Real Christians read their Bible and pray.  It’s what we do because of who we are.


You can’t say you love Jesus and not really love the bride of Jesus, the church.  If going to church, reading your Bible and prayer are not something you are passionate about then you have a problem with your relationship with the Lord.  You can’t set your hearts and minds on Christ without a relationship with Him so that is the first part of the equation.  True believers love and obey the One in whom they believe.


Now, for a Christian, setting your minds on things above means preparing to live there.  C.S. Lewis said, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.


In the original Greek in which Paul was writing, the phrase “set your hearts on” is one word, “zeteo” and it means a search or a quest.  You know in the Gospels how Jesus describes the shepherd looking for a lost sheep and a woman searching for a lost coin and merchant looking for a fine pearl?  It’s the same word.  “Zeteo” means an ongoing, diligent, single-minded pursuit.


In our diligent, single-minded pursuit of Heaven and the things of Heaven, this pursuit will include the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and not just Aunt Betty and Ol’ Red.  I want to see Betty and Red too and there is nothing wrong with that but there is way more to Heaven than loved ones.


Did you know that not everybody’s Heaven is going to be the same?  In Revelation 22:12, Jesus says, “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”  We won’t all get the same rewards or the same amount of rewards and while good works don’t get you to Heaven they are rewarded for eternity!


Oh, but I hear all you holier-than-thous out there.  “I will be glad just to be there.  I’ll be happy to just live in a tent in the presence of Holy God.”  That may be true to a degree but we are talking about rewards from the Creator of the universe for all of eternity and I don’t want you to be disappointed.  And here we go again, I hear you “holy ones” saying you can’t be disappointed in Heaven but I’m not the only one who thinks so.


In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul is talking about these same rewards and says, “the fire will test the quality of each person's work. ¹⁴If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss.”  You will suffer loss in Heaven, Paul says, without those rewards.  Imagine if everybody else’s dwelling place is huge and wonderful and has all the best rewards and you live in a van down by the River of Life.


That would be embarrassing and you would regret it forever but that’s not the worst thing that could happen.  Imagine if God was rewarding everybody with all these great crowns and then they all started placing those crowns at the feet of Jesus?  What do you have to give?  That’s not just embarrassing.  That’s tragic – forever.


Thankfully, the Bible tells us how to prepare for our lives in Heaven.  We get rewards for the good things we do in this short life and we store them in Heaven for eternity.  Matthew 6 says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”


I’ve said before that I don’t know what all the rewards are going to be.  I don’t know what the five crowns represent.  The Bible doesn’t specify.  But Jesus said in Matthew 5:12 that our rewards are great in Heaven!  Now Jesus didn’t go around saying too many things were great.  He wasn’t Tony the Tiger saying, “They’re great!” about stuff very often.  But if Jesus says these rewards are great, I believe Him and I want them, especially since they will last forever.


So, keeping our hearts and minds on the things above means thinking about, preparing for and planning on our eternal life in Heaven.  That’s why we are going through this sermon series.  We want to be ready and we want to be biblical.  So, some of you are thinking you might want to start doing that pretty soon, right?  Some of you are thinking that as soon as you get your life in order or as soon as you get that raise or as soon as your kids…


BOOM!  There’s Jesus!  Gabriel is shouting!  The trumpet is blowing and the wind is in your hair as we are raptured away from this world in the twinkling of an eye!  He comes like a thief in the night and it may be before I finish this sentence.  Do you realize that there is no reason it couldn’t happen that way?


There is no other prophecy that needs to be fulfilled.  Nothing else needs to happen.  We are just waiting and expecting so if you are thinking that one day pretty soon you are going to start getting prepared for life in Heaven, it may be too late.  It ought to be in our minds at all times just waiting for Jesus.  Look at verse 4 again. 


“When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”  Oh, I love to hear my Mama and her sisters sing a song called “Glory For Me”.  “When by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory, be glory for me!” What do you think it means to appear with Jesus in glory?


I was over at my parents’ house the other day and they had been watching TV when I got there and some kind of women’s gymnastics was on.  I was thinking I sure didn’t want to watch this.  This is gonna be dumb.  “Oh, my word!  Did you see what that little girl just did?”  She just jumped up and did some flips and some flying cartwheel things and then bounced way up in the air like she had a trampoline, doing flips and turns the whole time. It was crazy!  It looked impossible.


Part of what it means to appear with Jesus in glory is to have glorified bodies where we will all have bodies like Olympic champions only better.  There are several places in the Bible that talk about our glorified bodies and how they will be like the resurrection body of Jesus.  Our human bodies are described in 1 Corinthians 15:42–53 as perishable, dishonorable, and weak, all due to sin. Our glorified bodies will be imperishable, honorable, and powerful.


Can’t you see it now?  “Hey, where’s Janet?  We’re gonna sing some songs.”  “Oh, she’s out running and jumping and she just climbed that mountain this morning.  She hasn’t been home all day.”  How do you not get excited about that?  How do you not set your hearts and minds on the eternal Heaven when you know just a little bit about it?


No more tears, no more heartache.  In fact, nothing impure will ever enter Heaven (Rev. 21:27).  No more getting tired.  No more sin.  No more greed, or deception.  No lying or sickness, no more theft.  No locks on the doors or PIN numbers for our credit cards.  I sure am looking forward to that.  I’m looking forward to seeing all my loved ones.


When I get there, I know I’ll see my grandparents and my grandmother will probably pinch my cheek like she always did and tell me she baked some cookies for me.  That’ll be great but I’ll tell her, “Grandmother, I’ll be right back for those cookies in a few minutes.”


I’ll see my Uncle DeWayne there and I know he’ll have a great joke to tell me because nobody told a joke better than he did.  I’ll tell him, “Uncle D, I’m anxious to hear that joke.  I know it’s funny but give me just a few minutes and I’ll be back.”


I’ll see King David, my friend, there and I can’t wait to hear him tell about killing Goliath but that can wait a little while.  We have all of eternity.  There’s no hurry for that.  David, save me spot.


I’ll see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and that’ll be great.  Elijah, Paul and I will take bald-headed preacher selfies in just a little while but give me a few minutes.  I need to find Jesus.  I told Him when I first got here but I want to tell Him again how much I appreciate His sacrifice for me.  I want to spend some time just worshiping Him and walking with Him and talking with Him.


Can you imagine that?  Having one-on-one time with the Lamb of God Himself?  It reminds me of the song, “I Can Only Imagine.”  I don’t know what I’ll do or say but I can’t wait to spend eternity with Him.  How about you?  Are you sure without a doubt that you will be there?  Again, the Bible is plain about how to be sure.  Repent of your sins, trust in Him and believe then confess with your mouth that He is God and live a new life on this earth until it’s time for the next life.  Be sure today.