July 24, 2022 Matt. 13:44-52 “What Is Heaven Like?”

22 Jul July 24, 2022 Matt. 13:44-52 “What Is Heaven Like?”

July 24, 2022   Matt. 13:44-52       “What Is Heaven Like?”

I think that this is a great time of year, especially here in North Dakota.  So far this summer, we have had weather warmer and humidity higher than Florida.  We also have had wonderful days when all you can do is relax by a lake.  This is also the time of year when colors are so fresh.  You can drive out in the country a find just about every shade of green that exists.  Now for some of you who live a little farther south, this might not be such a big deal.  But up here in the great white north, where we have at least six months of white and brown, these colors are a big deal because we see so little of them.  Our yard has been a haven for young birds.  We are on about the third hatch of various kinds of winged creatures.  But soon this season will be over and we will be in the season of harvest.  This is also a fun time of year.  As a matter of fact, all the seasons are good and we enjoy them here as much as possible.  I may complain a little about the harsh winters we have here but winter even has its high points.  I learned a lesson many years ago about our seasons, especially winter.  If you are going to live here, then it would be wise to do as many positive things as possible.  That can go for any season.  Always be marching ahead and enjoying life.  Today we are going to look at a few verses in Matthew where Jesus makes a description of heaven that we can understand.  Let’s see if this place called heaven is as great as everyone says it is.

In 1871 Fr. J. Boudreau wrote a short story entitled “The Happiness of Heaven.” It’s a story about a kindhearted king who is hunting in the forest when he discovers a blind, poor orphan boy living there. The king takes the blind orphan to his palace and adopts him as his own son. The king gives to his blind son the finest education and training money can buy. The blind son loves his father dearly and is grateful for everything he has done for him.

When the son turns twenty, a surgeon performs an experimental surgery on his eyes, and for the first time in his life he is able to see. This royal prince, who was once a starving orphan, realizes how he has been blessed with fine food, fragrant gardens, and lovely music. But when he gains his sight, he doesn’t care to look at the wealth of his kingdom or the wonders of the palace. Instead, he only wants to gaze upon the face of his father–the king who saved him, adopted him, and loved him.  We will be much like this when we get to heaven.  We won’t be looking at all the wonders and splendor of heaven and they will be everywhere we look.  We will be instead looking into the face of Jesus, who saved us from our wretched existence.

In case you don’t know, heaven is one of my favorite topics to preach about.  That is because no matter what I say about heaven, it has to be good.  I have told you before that God will not let anything bad to enter into heaven.  That is because He made heaven to be a perfect place.  It will be a place where there will be no sin, no badness.  All the terrible temptations we see here on earth will not be in heaven.  Of course, that means that the bad people we know today will not be in heaven.  This is unfortunate because it would be nice if everyone would end up there.  When I was younger, I had a hard time with the concept of people going to hell but I know better now.  Each and every person in the world has been offered a spot, a mansion in heaven and most of the people have rejected it.

Anyway, Jesus starts by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.”  The man reburied the treasure and went out and sold all that he possessed.  Then he came back and bought the field with all his money.  On the surface, this doesn’t seem like such a big deal but let’s look at this a little closer.

The first thing I would like us to notice is that the man had to recognize the treasure.  We don’t know what it was but we know that it was very valuable.  One of the problems we have in today’s world is that we probably won’t recognize a treasure like this if it walked up to us and slapped us in the face.  We have raised a generation where people are so caught up in their own ways that they cannot see past their noses.  I try to talk the truth here every week.  I try to follow the Bible and tell you what it says.  Now, there is some bad news in that everyone will not get to heaven.  You can argue that with me all you want, but you are wrong.  But I also try to tell you how wonderful a place heaven will be.

Now let’s put this first part in a little perspective.  We live in a pretty rich country.  Most of us are far, far richer than more than 90% of the world.  I’m not real sure of the exact figures on this but I know that even most of our poor people are far richer than their counterparts throughout the world.  So just think about what you have.  Now you take everything you have and you sold it.  So now you have nothing.  It’s all gone.  Right before this you went to a field near you and you found a treasure.  It is a treasure that is worth far more than all that you owned.  The treasure wasn’t on your land or anything you owned.  So, you had to take all the money you had, everything you had and you bought the field where you found this treasure which you reburied until you could do something about it.  So now you own this field and the treasure buried there.  It doesn’t tell us yet but the treasure is your relationship with Jesus Christ.

The next part of this tells of a merchant who was looking for fine pearls.   In ancient times pearls were a little more valuable than they are today.   One day this merchant finds some of the finest pearls he had ever seen.  They were so beautiful that he just had to have them.  So, he went away to gather his wealth.  He, too, sold everything he had and came back to buy these beautiful pearls.

So, we now have two instances where people sold everything they owned just so the could buy something that will be absolutely priceless.  I remember when I first started to think about Jesus about 30 years ago.  I remember getting on my knees and asking Jesus if I could just try out a relationship with Him.  I got up and went about my business and, of course, nothing happened.  I couldn’t try out Jesus.  I couldn’t take Him for a test drive.  It was about two weeks later that I was back on my knees again, asking Jesus to be Lord and Savior of my life.  You see, I had to sell everything I had, everything, so that I could make Jesus my Savior.  It’s really not that hard but you do have to get rid of your old self before you can have this new wonderful life.  And I have never looked back at this great decision I made.

I also remember when my dad died about 20 years ago.  He got sick and died.  My brother and sister were there and we gathered with the hospital chaplain to say a last prayer over my dad.  I held my dad’s hand and we all joined together holding hands and someone had his other hand.  As the chaplain prayed, I had a vision that I remember to this day.  My dad was standing in a place that was so bright and beautiful that it was breathtaking.  Everything was gold and bright.  You couldn’t tell where one thing began and the next thing ended because there were no shadows, absolutely none.  This goes for as far as we could see.  It was everywhere and it was spectacular, more than spectacular, and there was my dad standing at the base of this glorious sight.  All he could do is look around and he said, “Wow!”  People, this is the heaven where we can all be heading if you just sell all your worldly possessions and make Jesus Lord and Savior of your life.  And this doesn’t even begin to tell us how great heaven really is.

Heaven is far beyond our imaginations as far as a good place to live would be.  Doug Lyon puts it like this.  An advertisement for heaven based on Revelation chapter 21 reads: “Free, beautiful homes to be given away in a perfect city! With: 100% pure water, no electric bills, perpetual lighting, permanent pavement, nothing undesirable, everything new, perfect health, immunity from accidents, best of society, beautiful music, free transportation.”  Let your imagination run wild as you add your own wonderful features that you will find in heaven.  It’s going to be great and I sure do pray that I will get to see all of you and meet many of you for the first time.

Then Jesus says, “the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.”  Now listen closely to this next part.  “When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore.  Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.”  This is some tremendous news for those of us who know we will someday be in heaven.  It’s good news because, once again, we read that there will be no bad in heaven, not even a little bit.  We will be able to start our new lives in paradise without a worry in the world.  Jesus won’t even allow worry in heaven and that is very good.  We know that this is very good but we just can’t really imagine it because it’s beyond our imagination.

But, to those who don’t know Jesus, to those who don’t believe, there is a terrible warning.  Have you noticed lately how many of the passages that we have been studying have a similar dire warning?  Jesus says, “The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Then he says and I say the same thing, “Do you understand?”  I think that once again Jesus is being as clear as a bell.  There will be judgment when you die.  If you haven’t invited Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, then you will have some trouble, an eternity of trouble.  Jesus warns us and warns us but so many refuse to listen.

The last thing I want to bring out here is this.  Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old ones.”  This statement may seem a little ambiguous but here is one opinion on what He means.  Heaven will be a combination of what they knew about the Old Testament plus what they would know about Jesus and the New Testament.  Once again, we find in the New Testament just how relevant the Old Testament is.  There is no such thing as a God of the Old Testament and a different God of the New Testament.  They are both the same.  God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  That is a promise that is totally true.  So, if you are one of those people who think that we have no need of the Old Testament, think again.  Jesus tells us right here, before there is even a New Testament, just how relevant is the Old Testament.

From this reading, we should get how great heaven really will be.  It is far, far beyond our imaginations.  One of the ways to try to understand heaven is to think of this world as kindergarten.  We are all in this class and we are learning the basics of the world.  We learn the letters of the alphabet, numbers and certain basic concepts.  But we are totally unable to learn trigonometry or most abstract concepts because we are too young.  It’s the same way with heaven.  We learn the very, very basics of life here and we will learn the rest when we get to heaven.  And the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.

In short, heaven is a place where there will be no evil.  This is a hard concept for us kindergarteners to comprehend because everywhere we look, there is evil.  But not so in heaven.  It is also a place where there will be perfect friendships.  No longer will a friend stab you in the back, gossip about you or do anything bad to you.  There will be no evil so friendships will thrive.  You will always be busy but you will be busy doing the things that you love to do.  Your work will have meaning.  It’s not like this world where something like 75% of people hate their jobs.  You will also be in situations where you will learn and grow.  You will become more and more like Jesus the longer you are in heaven.  Plus think of all the famous people you will not only meet but have meaningful dialogue.

One of the problems we have is that we start with things of this world and try to compare them to heaven.  Well, there is very little in this world that compares to heaven.  We really know very little about heaven except that it will be the greatest place that we will ever be.  It is so great the it goes far beyond our imaginations.  If we knew what we were talking about we would try to make things of earth to be more like the actual things of heaven.  But we don’t know so we can only guess and know how great it is.

The bottom line in all this is that Jesus loves you, this I know.  He is standing right now waiting for people to come to Him.  If you don’t know or if you aren’t sure, then invite Jesus into your life today.  All He wants to do is to give, yes give, you the best life possible as He prepares you for an even greater life in the future.  We are so fortunate that we have a God who loves us this much.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.