He is Already There (2)
Heaven Matters • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 viewsAnother reason that Heaven is exceptional is because Jesus is already there. What is He doing? And what will He be doing soon?
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Power Unknown
Power Unknown
Do you really understand the power that you have? This is an iPhone. I can communicate by using this phone. But I can do more than that, I can communicate through texting, through pictures, and with video.
I can use it as a camera to create photos, moving photos, movies, animations and more. I can store thousands of pictures on this little device and up in the iCloud so I can see them on my phone, my television, my computer, or any of another dozen devices to include the front of your refrigerator!
I can shop on this thing. Almost anything that I could want is within a few taps and scrolls and then will be on its way to my home within hours.
I can monitor my blood pressure and my heart rate. I can be alerted for severe weather. One girl I know who should have died from a 4-wheeler accident was saved because her iPhone dialed 911 and provided the location of her accident while she was unconscious. I can get food delivered in just a couple swipes and it goes on and on.
The iPhone has changed our lives. We use it every day. It’s become a necessity. It’s a tool we couldn’t live without. And it’s changed how we communicate, work, play, shop, eat, travel, and entertain ourselves.[1]
We Have So Much More in Jesus!
We Have So Much More in Jesus!
Our cell phones have far more power than we use. I don’t like comparing Jesus to a cellphone because He is so much more, but it helps me make the point! Through His life, teachings, example, sacrifice, and Resurrection we have so much to consider and to celebrate but His influence and ministry didn’t stop at His Resurrection. Now in Heaven He continues to love and care for us.
Let’s go back to the last time that He was on the earth, already in His glorified body. The book of Acts opens up as the Church Age begins with 2 major events, the ascension of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach
until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
That is the description of the last steps that Jesus had on this earth. In the next chapter of Acts we see the receipt of the promise of the Holy Spirit.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
That is the second major event. This is what we as a “Pentecostal Church” celebrate. The 3rd Person of the Trinity provided to the Church to help us, empower us, and remind us of the teachings and heart of Jesus.
So, if Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts 1, what does that mean to us? What is He doing? That is the truths about heaven that we will take a look at…and look at it right now.
Jesus, What’s Up?
Jesus, What’s Up?
I opened by talking about the possibilities of the iPhone. The truth is, very few of us use the computing device we call a cellphone to all of its powerful possibilities. We shouldn’t make that mistake with Jesus. We need to know Him. We need to depend on Him. We need to understand what He has made available to us. And, we need to understand, to some degree, what occurs next on God’s timetable.
He Sent His Spirit
He Sent His Spirit
Now, I don’t want to shatter any of our comfort in what we’ve been taught about having Jesus in our hearts. But we saw from Acts that Jesus ascended into heaven. We’ve seen that the Holy Spirit was provided for those left behind. Now we need to put these facts together.
Communicating is hard, especially when we are trying to communicate ideas that are as big as the fact that God exists, He is tripartite – Father, Son, and Spirit. So, we take big ideas and simplify them – like encouraging someone to “invite Jesus in their heart”. Does Jesus come into our hearts. Well, there is only one place in the Bible that specifically refers to Jesus living in a person’s heart:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
The nearness of Christ that we enjoy is not because the Person of Jesus has been miniaturized but because of the work of the Spirit that we’ve received at salvation – believe in Jesus as the Son of God and repent of our sins. Check out these statements by Jesus:
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—
the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
That may be a new understanding for you. I hope that you see that it just makes God richer and fuller. It doesn’t make Jesus more distant but more felt through His Spirit. We can still worship Him with songs about His nearness because the Spirit is, in fact, near to us.
“Entering heaven, Jesus immediately redeemed His promise and sent the Holy Spirit to fashion the Church He said He would build (Mt 16:18; Jn 16:7; Acts 1:4, 2:1-4). In Christ we are already set in heavenly places and through His Ascension we have the assurance of a place in heaven with Him (Jn 17:24; Eph 2:6). It is His express wish that we should share His glory. Now, by the Spirit, the Church is the habitation of God. Soon she is to have an habitation in the divine abode.”
With that understood we also need to see that Jesus is not on a Heavenly Beach in a lounge chair. There is more to know.
Jesus Has Resumed His Position in Heaven
Jesus Has Resumed His Position in Heaven
The Bible gives us some insight into what Jesus is doing in Heaven. He has resumed all of His Divinity – all of His divine attributes.
After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
The expression, “right hand of God,” (He 1:3) is figurative of a position of authority, power, and glory.” It is also a declaration of the completion of the work of Jesus as our High Priest.
The Old Testament priest’s cultic work had constantly to be repeated because it was only temporarily beneficial. But Christ ‘offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins’. The priest stood because his task was never complete. He could never hope to bring it to the moment of final achievement. Only Christ’s sacrifice could be eternally effective. He sat down to indicate that the work was finished. On that day when he bore our sins in his own body, he cried, ‘It is finished.’[2]
As our High Priest, Jesus has completed His work. Sacrificial blood will not be spilled again. But, at the right hand of the Father represents position, power, and glory as King, and a soon coming King!
Jesus is Preparing a Place for You
Jesus is Preparing a Place for You
In the days that Jesus was with His disciples He comforted them with this:
“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 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.”
I believe that Jesus is saying at least 3 things: (1) Trust me! (2) you will be with me, and (3) Jesus is preparing Heaven as a special place. Jesus will go to heaven “by a specific route, through death and resurrection … his going to the Father is an act of power which will win eternal life for all who believe in him. … his going will prepare rooms for the disciples in God’s eternal home, the transcendent dwelling of God … ‘the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God’ (cf. Rev. 21–22).[3]
Jesus is Constantly Interceding and Advocating for Us
Jesus is Constantly Interceding and Advocating for Us
We’ve seen that He sent the Holy Spirit. He has resumed all His divine attributes and authority. And He is prepared a place for His disciples in Heaven. Another thing that Jesus is doing, according to the Bible, is that He is constantly interceding for us.
Last week we talked about Heaven as the home of the Father and that we, as Christians, will be welcomed into Heaven with joy.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul answers his own question, “Who will condemn?” The answer is NO ONE and Paul supports it with the fact that Jesus Himself continues to intercede for us. Bruce Barton explains it this way:
Like the last question, this one focuses on charges, but in Greek it carries a future tense: Who will condemn? Jesus Christ has been appointed by God to judge the world, but Christ Jesus, who died … is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. This is a divine court. God has already declared us “not guilty.” Any further charges of guilt are thrown out of court. Jesus would not condemn those for whom he died. Because he was raised to life, Christ Jesus is at God’s right hand interceding for us in heaven. The Spirit intercedes for us (8:27) and Christ intercedes for us. How much more advocacy do we need?[4]
Well, we do need advocating. What happens as we make mistakes and commit sins. We know Jesus died once and for all and that is sufficient, but He is also advocating for us with the Father.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
He sent the Holy Spirit. He has resumed all His divine attributes and authority. And He is preparing a place for His disciples in Heaven. He is constantly interceding for us and advocating for us.
Jesus is truly alive and active and as second after second click off, we await what happens next!
Every Eye Will See Him
Every Eye Will See Him
We began this message by looking at this little computer (iPhone). Some use it for nothing more than a simple phone and never know of the great power that the device has. Some see Jesus as a good teacher and a nice man but don’t know of His great power.
In upcoming weeks, we will continue to understand the matters of Heaven. One of those ‘matters’ is the fact that one day we will see Him again.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
What will tomorrow bring? Come back and find out!
[1] https://www.businessblogshub.com/2017/06/6-distinctive-ways-the-iphone-invention-has-affected-mankind/#:~:text=The%20invention%20of%20the%20iPhone,listening%20to%20music%2C%20and%20more.
[2]Raymond Brown, The Message of Hebrews: Christ above All, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 33.
[3]Bruce Milne, The Message of John: Here Is Your King!: With Study Guide, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 210.
[4]Bruce B. Barton, David Veerman, and Neil S. Wilson, Romans, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1992), 170.