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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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How to Know You’re Going to Heaven |
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John
14:1-3 Fifth
Sunday after Trinity July
12, 2009 In the 1970s D. James Kennedy’s book, Evangelism Explosion made two questions famous. The first was, “Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today you would go to Heaven?” The second was, “Suppose that you were to die today and stand before God and He were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into My Heaven?’ what would you say?” The answer to these questions is what we have been talking about in the sermons for the past several weeks. This is the central theme of the entire Bible, and I have zeroed in on two verses because they provide a good, summary of it. They are Ephesians 2:8-9; “by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.” I have spent several weeks talking about things like the meaning of grace, the meaning of faith and even the meaning of salvation as these words are used in the New Testament. I have spoken about regeneration, which is the change Christ made in our lives to give life to our souls and make us want to be saved. I have spoken about justification, which is our Divine pardon based on the sacrifice of Christ who bore our sins on the cross. I have spoken about sanctification, which is God’s continuing renewal of our inward being to enable us to become more of the person we were created to be and less of the person we have become by our own sin. Finally, I have spoken about the peace of Christ, which the world cannot give or take away; which enables us to face the trials and hardships of life with confidence and hope. These are the most important things in life. But are they yours? Do you possess them, or are they like items on a store shelf that you see but do not own? Today I want to tell you how you can know you are going to Heaven, and how you can know God will let you in. You can know you are going to Heaven only if you know you believe in Christ in biblical faith, for Heaven is for those who believe. What is biblical faith? It is more than just an intellectual belief in historical facts about Jesus. I believe in Adolph Hitler but I am not a Nazi. When I say I believe in Hitler I mean something very different from what a Nazi would mean. I believe in Hitler as a historical person, a Nazi believes in what Hitler stood for. When a Christian says “I believe in Jesus” he means he believes in everything Jesus stands for, everything He lived for, and everything He died for. To believe in Jesus, as the Bible tells us to believe in Him, is to be committed to Him. It means to believe His is God in Human form. It means to believe He died on the cross for your sins. But more than that, it means to trust His death and resurrection to make you right with God. It means to intentionally trust Him alone with your eternal soul, so that when you stand before God and He asks you why He should let you into Heaven, you can say with confidence, “Because I have trusted Jesus, who died for my sins, and I am forgiven.” This brings me to the point of this part of the sermon. Those who are forgiven, those who are in Christ, those who are going to Heaven, have at some point in their lives made a conscious decision to trust Christ to save them. I have said Christ died on the cross in your place. I have said He suffered the penalty of your sins for you, and that He offers forgiveness and Heaven to you as a free gift. All that is true, but, that gift is not in your possession until you accept it. It is not really yours until the moment you consciously decide to receive it. This decision to receive His forgiveness is a major part of what it means to believe in Him. Let me compare believing in Jesus to getting on a bus. If we knew that at 12:30 today a bus to Heaven would stop at the Courthouse, we could go there and see the bus and examine it and talk about it and even believe it could take us to Heaven. But it won’t take anyone anywhere unless we get on the bus. When I talk about trusting in Jesus and receiving the forgiveness of sins and going to Heaven, I am saying these things are for those who “get on the bus.” If you have not made that kind of personal decision to trust and believe in Christ, I invite you to do so today. I urge you to do so today. Life is too short and too fragile to delay such an important decision. We never know when we will stand before God. There is a story of a little boy who asked his pastor how far away Heaven is. The pastor thought about it for a moment, then replied, “One heartbeat away.” Every one of us is one heartbeat away from eternity. Make sure your eternity is Heaven. Now let me address those who have made this decision. You’re on the bus. How can you know God will let you into Heaven when you get there? You know He will let you in because He promised He will, and the promises of God stand forever. I could say, you have God’s word on it. I use “word” here as it was used in times past when a person made a verbal agreement with another person. He “gave his word.” A man’s word was his bond. Formal contracts were but useless papers between such people. A man who would not honour his word was a disgrace to himself, his family, his church, and his God. In those days it was often said that a man was only as good as his word. It is in that sense that I use “word” this morning, and I say to you God’s word, or promise, is good, and God’s promise is to save those who believe. This promise is found in many places in Scripture. It is not just confined to Ephesians 2:8-9. Look at John 3:16, for example. Look at John 14: 1-3, which we read at the beginning of this sermon. Remember that Jesus is talking to those who believe in Him. He says “I go”, that is, He is going to Heaven, to prepare a place for you. Now here is the good part. He says, “I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Listen to this, this is important. If you have biblical faith in Christ, you can know God will let you into Heaven because He promised He will. In fact He says Jesus Himself is going to come for you and take you to Heaven. Jesus is not talking here about the end of the world or the Second Coming. He is talking about the day He comes for you. He is talking about that instant that some people call death, when your soul departs from your body and goes out into eternity. His message to you is this; do not be afraid. I have prepared a place in Heaven for you that is greater than anything you can imagine; a house full of mansions. A house filled with glory and splendor beyond your wildest dreams, and I will take you there myself. When your soul passes into eternity, I will be there to meet you, and I will take you into my Heaven, forever. As your soul leaves your body, you will see Jesus standing beside you waiting for you. As your soul leaves your body He will take you by the hand and personally take you to Heaven. That is the meaning of His words in John 14. If you ask people if they are going to Heaven most say, “I hope so,” or, “I think so.” If you ask people why they think God will let them in, they say, “I’ve tried to be a good person, I’ve lived a good life. I’ve tried to treat people right.” If that is the answer you would give, I say to you that God has a record of all your faults and all your mistakes and all your sins, and frankly speaking, they cancel out all your so called “goodness” so that you can never hope to get into Heaven by your own good works. If you can imagine yourself telling God all the good things you have done, imagine also that as you speak to God a huge screen behind you plays a video of all your sins. No one can get into Heaven by his own good works because no one can atone for his own sins. So then, how can you know you are going to Heaven? How can you know God will let you in? The answer to this question is the reason Jesus came to earth. This is why He died on the cross. This is why He wrote the Bible. The answer is simply this; because you believe in Jesus, who died for you, and your sins are forgiven. Christ took the punishment of your sins upon Himself. He suffered and died for them on the cross. Your sins were transferred to Him, and He died for them. His righteousness is transferred to you, and you are regarded as righteous. That is your hope. That is why God should and will let you into Heaven. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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