Good morning, Friends! Thank you all for coming to worship this morning!
Today’s message got started a few weeks ago, when somebody asked if sometime I could give a message about Heaven. I’m not sure exactly what was on their mind, but sure, this is something we all need to hear about.
We mostly talk about Heaven at funerals. We focus on comfort and hope. We want to help people to cope with their loss, and reassure them about their loved one. But really, Heaven is more than that. Heaven is a really big thing for Christians. So, I started digging in to what people think and what the Bible promises. And it’s a lot!
So, today and for the next couple of weeks, let’s talk about Heaven together.
The biggest thing we need to deal with is that most people believe in Heaven, but getting there is a one-way ticket. Except in dreams and visions, nobody except Jesus has ever gone there and come back to talk about it.
Our dreams and visions are important. They give us glimpses, and they make us hungry for Heaven. But we’d like to have a road map and a travel guide, not to mention a guaranteed ticket. What we really have to do is to reach out for Heaven, and be content with what little we really know.
We’re going to start today with something that Jesus said. You’ve probably heard this before. But it’s one of the great promises Jesus made, and it’s both illuminating and comforting.
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and I will take you to be with me, so that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and you have seen him.
John 14:1-7
The big questions we have about Heaven are really important:
- Am I going to be OK?
- Does everything come to an end when we die?
- What’s next? Is there going to be anything more? And is it going to be better, or worse for us?
- Will I be able to see the people I love again?
- What’s it going to be like? Tell me more!
People have come up with a lot of answers to those questions over the years. And one of the things I want to remind you of, all through this series, is that nobody really knows.
Nobody knows but God, and Jesus. There are shelves full of books at the store about Heaven. There are movies and TV series and web sites and whole industries devoted to talking about Heaven. And most of them are just hypee, and hope, and a lot of imagination. Nobody really knows. We have to wait and see.
Human beings aren’t real good at that. We’re intensely curious. If we can’t find an answer, we make up one instead. And there’s a lot of made-up answers about Heaven.
Some people think that we all came from there, but we forgot about it. All our lives, we’re longing to get back. We’re hungry for Heaven, we’re longing to be back home again. We want to remember what we used to know, and we know that the answer is there for us. It’s just outside of our reach.
This week, I remembered a story, about a Sunday School teacher who said to her class, “All right! Hands up in the air, everybody who wants to go to Heaven!”
And there was one little child, who kind of curled up and wouldn’t raise their hand, and started crying.
And the teacher said, “Why, what’s the matter? Don’t you want to go to Heaven?”
And the little kid cried and cried and said, “I thought you meant you were getting a group together, and you were going to leave right now!”
That’s the thing. We want to know about Heaven, before we get there. We’re hungry for Heaven, but nobody wants to leave right now.
What Jesus gives us are glimpses of what it’s all about. What Jesus gives us are promises. And they’re comforting promises. But we always want to know more.
The first thing Jesus says to us this morning is so reassuring.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”
How many times have we heard that? Don’t be afraid!
It’s what the angel said to Mary. “Don’t be afraid! You are blessed! God has chosen you to do something special!”
It’s what the angels said to the shepherds – “Don’t be afraid! I bring you great news! Joy to the world! There’s going to be peace again, here on earth, not just up in Heaven!”
It’s what Jesus said, on Easter morning, to the people who met him when he had risen – “Don’t be afraid!”
We spend too much of our lives in fear. We’re afraid of what’s going to happen to us now. And we’re afraid of what might happen to us, whenever we leave this place.
We’re afraid of the here, and we’re afraid of the hereafter. And Jesus tells us, over and over again, “Don’t be afraid! You believe in God; believe also in me. . .”
All through the gospel, Jesus keeps making this same point.
“We all believe in God. Now take that next step,” Jesus says. “Believe in me. Trust me. Put your faith in me. Walk with me for a while. See what I’m doing. Hear what I’m saying. Sit down, and have a meal with me. Learn from me. Live with me. Believe in me.”
“And along the way, let go of being afraid. I’ve never hurt you before. I’ve never led you wrong. Listen to me, and not to somebody else. I’m your shepherd, I’m your friend, I’m your Lord and Savior. I’m your daily bread. Believe in me!”
And then, Jesus rolls out this beautiful promise, which is one of the simplest descriptions we have of what Heaven is like.
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.
Some of us grew up with the translation that says, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” That’s kind of exciting – it makes God’s house feel like a palace.
In our pew Bibles, Jesus says, “My Father’s house has many rooms. . .”
Another translation says, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.”
You all get the idea – Heaven is a really big place, where there’s plenty of room. There’s room for everybody. You won’t be kept out or scrunched up. There’s all kinds of room!
People are not very good at visualizing some things. We can imagine our own home. We can imagine our neighborhood. We can picture in our minds some things that are pretty big. But we really don’t have a good mental picture of Heaven.
The many mansions or many rooms idea says that Heaven is big. How big? Bigger than our back yard? Bigger than this city? That’s way too small!
Heaven has room, for everyone we love. Heaven — which is God’s home — has to be big enough to hold all the people of faith who have died. All the people who God loves.
Can you really imagine a thousand in your mind? Probably not. How about a million? How about hundreds of millions, or more? Heaven has to be really, really big! It holds all those people, and probably so much more, because God loves so much.
I believe that Heaven holds all that is good in this world. The people, the thoughts, all the love that’s been shared. I believe that no love is ever wasted.
Nothing good is lost forever. No good deed is forgotten in Heaven. No act of kindness, no act of justice or mercy. It’s all there.
Let me try you out on a new idea. Is Heaven bigger than God? Or is God bigger than Heaven?
I’m just thinking about this here. But if God created Heaven, if Heaven is God’s home, then God must be greater than Heaven.
Heaven must be an unbelievably big place. Literally, beyond our ability to imagine. All the descriptions, all the superlatives, are just trying to stretch our imagination about Heaven. We can’t really picture it, until we get there. And we can probably spend forever, exploring it and enjoying it and rejoicing in it.
One of my favorite Christian writers, C.S. Lewis, in one of his books says that Heaven is bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside – that is, from our perspective, from where we live right now.
And Lewis says that in his imagination, all the people we love will be there. We won’t be young or old, he says. What we will be, will be ourselves. Our true selves. The best selves we’ve always been.
Our parents, our children, our friends and loved ones, will all be there. Instead of being in pain, they’ll be healed. Instead of being wounded or burdened, they’ll be whole.
We will know each other, and know God, face to face and heart to heart. We’ll see each other clearly again – not through a fog of misunderstanding or fear. We’ll see each other the way God sees us. And God’s light and love will surround us all.
So many times, people tell me they want to see someone they love in Heaven. During life, their hearts became one. They loved each other so much, they lived so much together, they gave so much to each other. They just want to be together again.
We believe that’s going to happen. Death can’t kill, what never dies. If there’s a connection that reaches out, between our hearts, across the barrier of death, then surely that connection will be even stronger and more real, when we’re together again.
If God has made our hearts in such a way that we can be connected in love, now, then our hearts tell us, for certain, that we’ll meet again.
And Heaven is big enough, to hold all the love, of all the hearts. Even if we can’t physically imagine how big Heaven has to be, we can picture that all of us will be surrounded by the love of God.
Let’s get back to this morning’s Scripture again. Because it still has a few more things to say to us.
Jesus says that he’s going ahead of us to get everything ready. Then he says he’s going to come back, and take us with him. His plan is for us to be with him.
That promise ought to be enough for us. If we trust Jesus, that’s all we really need to know. God has a place, there’s room for everyone, and Jesus himself is going to bring us there. Don’t be afraid!
A little later on, in this same chapter, Jesus goes on to say: “I’m not going to leave you orphaned. I will come to you. . .You will see me. Because I live, you also will live. . .Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
I have lived in many different places around the country. Joyce and I have moved from place to place. Everywhere we go, we always try to make it a home. A place where we feel safe. A place where we can unpack our things, and feel comfortable.
A place we can invite our friends, and have people come and visit us. A place where we can say grace around the table, and ask God to bless us. A place where we can plant a few flowers and grow things.
That’s what a home is for us. A home is a workshop, and a studio, and books and treasures. Home isn’t just a house or a farm or an apartment. Home is a place you make, a place you bring life and love into.
Heaven means that God wants to invite us into God’s home. God wants us to make our home, with Him. You’ve heard people say, “Mi casa es su casa – my home is your home.” That’s what God says to us.
This stuff isn’t hard to understand. It may be hard to believe, especially when we’re scared and anxious. But it isn’t hard to understand. Don’t be afraid!
Don’t be afraid of life. Don’t be afraid of Heaven. Don’t be afraid of whatever journey we take, from one place to the other.
Our Father’s house has many rooms, with room for all of God’s children. Don’t be afraid!