Hope and Salvation

Introduction

In the book of Job we see an extraordinary proclamation from Job. This is found in the 19:25-27 where he exclaims:

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

Job knew that even in all the evils and despair he was in and had faced that he had a redeemer who lived and would see him. He knew that that is what mattered. Not this world and the things in it that can be taken, even your life, but the Redeemer.

Tommy knew this redeemer. He knew he would too see Him some day. He knew that this life was not the end all of it all. He knew his Redeemer was awaiting him when his time here was over. Tommy was as Job was and he knew that he would see God. He knew this because he trusted and believed Jesus when he said “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

He believed this and the greatest promise made by the greatest man.

The Greatest Promise

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14:1-3).

I. Made by the Greatest Person Who Ever Lived

Jesus’ life determined the course of history. His life is something that has shaped the worlds thinking for nearly 2,000 years. He is certainly the greatest person to live just by htat definition. Yet, not only did He shape history, He is the reason for history. As God the Son He was just as involved in creation as the Father was. He is certainly the greatest person who ever lived.

He was also because He lived a perfect and completely unselfish life. Phil. 2:5-8 illustrates this perfectly. He was in the form of God but did not use this to His advantage, He emptied Himself and became just like all of us, he humbled Himself further to death on the cross for us. He truly was unslefish and completely loving. Tommy saw this and grasped it. He clung to this.

Not only was this promise from the greatest, but...

II. About the Greatest Place Ever Imagined

There are many mansions. Many blessings for humanity in this place. All the greatest efforts we do are nothing compared. That beautiful rose garden and plot that Tommy worked so diligently on, as beautiful and wonderful as it is, it is bland compared to what he walked into this last week. We strive to make things as beautiful as God does and did, because we are in His image, but we can not even fathom heaven.

Paul the apostle was taken up and saw and heard things that no one could utter (2 Cor. 12:4). It is that unfathomable. It is that beautiful.

A sampling is found in Revelation 21:10-23. Here we see, it has the radiance of a rare jewel, all around is beauty of amazing jewels and gold pure gold. God is the light for the place all is subsumed by His glory and in perfection. It is a place of constant and glorious worship as Revelation 4 tells us. The glories of heaven are so much so that the only way to describe it is to find the most expensive and beautiful stones and precious metals and say they pale in comparison to what heaven will be like. It is pure and perfect where there are no tears or pain (Rev. 21:4). This is what Tommy is seeing right now. Pure and perfect perfection. Glory and beauty beyond all understanding. He is in glory and with Jesus right now and that is something to praise and know as comfort.

This promise Tommy believed has as...

III. Its Purpose Is Our Eternal Comfort

It is in several ways.

As comfort now because Christ said “Let not your heart be troubled.” This is comfort because we can rest in the peace of God because Christ made this promise.

He also said he is going to prepare a place. This is amazing comfort for us who are still here knowing that when Tommy opened His eyes he was in the place Christ had prepared for him. He was at home and with Our Savior. He is in the place of perfect peace and joy and happiness. No more sorrow or pain but perfect joy and peace.

What joy this is to know that Jesus has the place prepared. This is so amazing because Jesus did the work here for us to be able to spend eternity with Him when He died for our sins was buried and was raised again for the forgiveness of our sins (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

He did this but He also went and prepared this place for us. He did it all for us. Jesus the Son of God died for us and then went and prepared a place for us. A place of trmemndous beauty and glory for us.

Amazing, I know. Astounding, I know. What is even more astounding is that this is received by all who simply believe in Jesus for it. Crazy, right? But, so true. Jesus did the work so you do not have to. Tommy believed this and is now with Jesus who loves us so much that he came and died for us and then went and prepared a place for us. This is an astounding promise and fulfillment of the promise for us.

Yet it is, there is still even more of this promise that makes it even greater. This is that it...

IV. Holds Forth Greatest Prospect

This is seen in the promise of, “I will come again, and receive you.”

Jesus not only died for us and then went and prepared a place, but He will come and receive us to Him.

This is what Job meant when he said that he would see his redeemer stand on the earth. This is the promise Paul spoke to the Thessalonians when they were worried and upset over their dead loved ones. Paul said:

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thess. 4:15-18).

Christ has a place for us when we die, but He is not finished with our bodies. We will all one day be in a glorified body and see each other again and we will know one another. This is a hope we can rest in. This is a hope we can rely on. This is something we can trust because Jesus told us, “If it were not so, I would have told you.”

Jesus made this promise. Tommy trusted this promise and is now in the most amazing and glorious place imagineable. We cannot fathom the glory he is in now. But we can see him again if you just do, or have done, as Christ says and believe upon Him for eternal life. If you have done this you too will have a place prepared for you and will see Tommy once again. Until then, as the apostle Paul commands, encourage one another with the hope in Christ we have.

We have hope and this hope is a person and this person is Jesus Christ. He will hold up His end of the promise and bring you to glory in a place He prepared for you and He will make us to see the ones we love in perfection one day. That is our hope and this hope is in our salvation through Jesus Christ the Lord. This is a hope and the salvation Tommy had. And that is something to rest in.

I believe this poem is what Tommy would say to you now.

I am home in heaven, dear ones,

Oh, so happy and so bright!

There is perfect joy and beauty

in this everlasting light.

All the pain and grief is over,

every restless tossing passed.

I am now at peace forever,

safely home in heaven at last.

There is still work waiting for you,

so you must not idly stand by.

Do it now, while life remaineth,

you shall rest in God’s own land.

When that work is all completed,

He will gently call you home.

Ah, the rapture of that meeting,

Oh, the joy to see you come!

Let us pray.

Benediction

May the strength of God sustain us; may the power of God preserve us; may the hands of God protect us; may the way of God direct us; may the love of God go with us this day and forever. Amen. The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make His face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us.