Bella Vista Church of Christ

11/08/2020 A.M.

Heaven

Our Christian Inheritance

1 Peter 1.3-3-5 Revelation chapters 21 & 22

Our Sunday Morning studies are from the Book of Galatians...

Some in these churches were insisting that members keep the Law of Moses in order to gain their Christian Inheritance of Heaven.

Last week... Jeff & Paul made the point that our inheritance of Eternal Life is not because of anything in the Law of Moses... Because our inheritance was promised to Abraham long before the Law was ever given.

Like Abraham... We are Children of God by Faith... at our being born again... Not by law-keeping.

The Hebrews’ Writer tells us that Abraham was... Searching... Looking... Hoping...

• For a City whose Builder and Maker is God...

• A God-Prepared Heavenly Country... Where Jehovah was not ashamed to be called their God.

• This City was seen as Mount Zion... The New Jerusalem... A Heavenly Assembly of Angels.

Peter speaks of our... Hope of Heaven... as a Living Hope... An inheritance that can never... Perish…Spoil… Or fade away.

Scripture... History... Human nature… tell us that Eternal Life is our inheritance.

Revelation 21.7... After giving us a description of Heaven... has God saying... He who overcomes will inherit all this...I will be his God and he will be my son.

Ecclesiastes 3.11 in our modern speech translations has Solomon saying that... God has placed eternity in our heart... A Heaven-shaped vacuum within each of us… A sense that we were created for something more than this life.

Why is that?... Because God has set life-after-life within the human heart. God has placed a desire for... Home...Heaven... A desire to live forever within each of us.

It is a sixth sense to us.

Some people argue that our hope of Heaven is a direct result of our Judeo-Christian culture. This is not true... Even if one looks outside of our Judeo-Christian heritage he finds this longing in every major civilization.

• The... Babylonian... Persian... and Egyptian... Cultures had a longing for life-after-life... The pyramids are ancient relics from this belief. Why did the Egyptians spend so much time and effort in these giant structures? Because God placed eternity in their hearts.

• The Greeks and Romans had a place in their culture for an eternal destiny.

• Look at our American Indians... Even though removed from the ancient civilizations by two major oceans... Half a world away from the Asian, African and European cultures. Yet when our Pilgrim Fathers arrived, they found a strong belief in life-after-life. Why?... Because God had placed eternity in their hearts.

Job... One of the oldest books in the Bible… poses this question in rhetoric... If a man die will he live again?... The obvious answer is yes.

Daniel 12.2 says... Those asleep in the earth will awake… Some to everlasting life and some to everlasting contempt.

In Psalm16.6-11... David speaks of Jesus’ and our own resurrection... I have a delightful... inheritance...My heart is glad... My tongue rejoices... My body will rest secure... WHY?...

Because you will not abandon me to the grave... Nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life... You will fill me with joy in your presence... I’ll enjoy eternal pleasures at your right hand.

David ends the 23^rd Psalm saying... Surly your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life... And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Jesus picks up this theme in John chapter 14... Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. 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.

Jesus... In the great sheep and goat judgment of Matthew 25 states that some would be given everlasting punishment while others will be granted... Everlasting life

Paul in II Corinthians 5.1 writes... For we know that if this earthly dwelling... This earthly house... This earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God… A house… A home…Not made with hands... Eternal... ETERNAL…in the heavens.

Again... Peter believed in Heaven... In I Peter 1.4 he speaks of... An inheritance... incorruptible and undefiled that fades not away… Reserved for us in heaven.

Come... Let’s see what we can learn about our Inheritance...

First... We understand Heaven is a place.

Jesus said... I go to prepare a place for you... And if I prepare a place for you... I will come again to take you where I am.

• Our text says... Heaven is a city...

• Hebrews 11.10 Abraham is said to have been Searching for a city.

• Hebrews 12.22... Heaven is referred to as the city of God.

Heaven is not a city with.... streets... curbs... gutters... parks... alleys...multistory buildings.

The idea from the Holy Spirit is not a physical city... But a community of believers.

• Heaven is a Fellowship of the Redeemed...

• A Family of the Saved...

• An assembly of angels...

• Revelation chapters four through seven... picture it as the Throne Room of God with the saved of all ages.

This brings us to... Heaven is a home.

Read our text with me… Verses 3 & 7 of 21… I heard a voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men… He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God… He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Both David and Jesus speak of Heaven as a HOME...

• The house of the Lord...

• In My Father’s house.

In John Chapter 14... The Greek is mone (mon-ay')... A mansion... An abode... Literally a dwelling place.

Now... Don’t look for a two-story Cape Cod style house on the ocean... A rambling ranch style home... A log cabin in the woods... Or a penthouse apartment.

Here it is church.... Heaven is not a house... But a home.

There is a world of difference...

• Home is where we are surrounded by Loved Ones...

• There’s security... Home becomes a refuge.

• There is a sense of permanence.

• Home is where we are accepted

• HOME IS WHERE THERE IS A sense of belonging.

I was always accepted at the farm.

• There were two older people there who were always glad to see me.

• I belonged there... was at home there... Because I was Arthur and Gladys' son.

• I was always welcome... Regardless of who was there... Or what was going on there.

• I didn’t have to dress up or change anything... I was accepted as I was.

• I could go to the refrigerator and put a spoon in the cold pot of brown beans... Sample them and nobody told me... You shouldn't do that… Because I was their son.

Church…God wants us to know that in Heaven we will be at home.

Always welcome... Always accepted... Because we're sons.

Those led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now... if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

At home with God... That’s where I want to be... Howabout you?

Heaven is... a new Place… The New Jerusalem…

I saw a new HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH… THE HOLY CITY… THE NEW JERUSALEM.

Behold old things have passed away… All thing have become new…

Peter also tells us that there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth.

For instance... In Heaven... there’ll be...

• No more persecution…

• No more politics… For the primitive church… No more Caesars..

• No more sin…

• No more tears…

• Death…

• Mourning…

• No more pain.

He who was seated on the throne said… I am making everything new.

This city will be a Holy City… A sinless place.

Heaven is…

• A place…

• A life…

• An economy…

Where sinning is over… This is symbolically represented by white robes.

In Heaven there is…

• No more sin…

• No more remorse…

• No more regret….

• No more guilt or shame

In heaven we will have a clean conscience… Made permanently clean by the blood of the lamb.

Note who will not be there… Verses eight and nine…

• The cowardly…

• The unbelieving…

• The vile…

• MURDERERS…

• The sexually immoral…

• Those who PRACTICE magic arts…

• Idolaters…

• And all liars.

Chapter 21 verse 27 reiterates… Nothing… NO THING…No one impure or unclean will ever enter Heaven’s gate… There shall by no means enter it anything that defiles… Or causes an abomination or a lie… Only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Heaven will be a city of ample provisions to sustain eternal life...

Provided by the tree of life and the river of life... That’s chapter 22 verses 1-2.

God is the LIGHT and LAMP of that city... Chapter 21 verses 23 & 24.

Heaven is a place of eternal joy and happiness.

Who could read these two chapters and not understand that Heaven is a place of absolute Joy & Happiness?...

• No sadness...

• No sorrow...

• No tears...

• No mourning...

• No pain...

• No death.

Heaven is a place where we will...

• Worship in spirit without distraction...

• Serve without exhaustion...

• There’ll be fellowship without fear...

• Learning without fatigue...

• And rest without boredom.

Revelation tells us that... Heaven is an economy filled with...

• Rewards...

• Rejoicing...

• Reunions.

In the sheep and goat judgment… Jesus said... Well done… Good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things… I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's… WHAT? happiness… Come share in the Joy of your Lord.

Church... Can you comprehend it?... Sharing God’s Happiness & Joy?

Heaven is a face-to-Face presence with God.

We see that in Chapter twenty-two... Verse four.

I want you to think of the most awe-inspiring sight you’ve ever seen...

The Grand Canyon... The Tetons... The Painted Desert... The Royal Gorge... The Garden of the God's... The Redwood Forest of the Northwest... The Pacific at sunset... A beach on the Atlantic at sunrise...

• Listen... If we gasp in awe at His creation... At His handiwork in this world, what will it be like to see Him face-to-face?

• If we shudder in the shadow... Think about what will happen when we see the reality of God and what he has prepared for us in heaven.

Again… It was Paul who wrote... Eye has not seen... Neither has it entered into the heart of man what God has in store for those who love Him.

Finally... We note that heaven is… attainable… ACCESSIBLE!

Revelation 21.12 tells us that heaven has twelve Gates...

There is no doubt that Jesus is the gate.

• We hear Jesus say... I am the gate to the sheepfold... I am the way... I am the truth... I am the life... No man comes to the Father... Except by Me.

• In 4.12 of Acts... Peter says... There is salvation in none other... There is no other name… Given among men… Under heaven… Whereby we can be saved.

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness...

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

The Book of Revelation appears to be written... to tell us that... HEAVEN IS FOR...

• Those who believe in Jesus...

• Those who are willing to confess His name above all names...

• Those who are willing to change their lives... Live by God’s principles... Not the world’s.

• Those washed in the blood of the lamb... Those who have been clothed with Christ and with His righteousness

• Those who are faithful unto and until death…

• Those whose names are in the lambs book of life...

Does that include you and your preacher?

Listen!... Here is God’s invitation... The Spirit and the bride say.... Come!... Let him who hears say... Come!... Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

Let each of us leave here this morning...

• Sure of our Hope in Heaven...

• Sure of our Promised Inheritance...

That can never... Perish… Spoil… Or fade away...

Come… Let’s confirm our faith in Jesus... As we stand and sing this song together.