He Gave Us His Heaven

INTRO

GIFTS

When you are young child one of the things you look forward to most is receiving presents. It is the thrill of unwrapping (in other word: tearing the wrapper to shreds) and seeing what is inside. When you are the age of Jethro and Amy, you could get them anything, and the joy and excitement of just receiving something is written all over their face. But things change as you become more seasoned. You have specific things you are after, and there a specific things that you dislike and would rather not have. And so our excitement of receiving presents die out as years go on and it becomes more like, "You better have gotten the right gift for me [or it is being re-gifted or something like that]." We become less childlike, and become prideful.

EASTER

Our series for this Easter is "Our Hell For His Heaven" and what we learned a few days a go on Good Friday is the immense sacrifice of Jesus, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

His suffering was intense. He suffered hell for us.

And the result of this complete and perfect sacrifice?

- As the sermon series title suggests, through his suffering Jesus has given us His heaven.

Ephesians 1:3 - God "has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places."

Ephesians 1:3 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Blessings and gifts given to us. He has given to us His heaven, the greatest blessing that God can give us. Isn't this amazing?

RESURRECTION

And this morning we will look deeper into what heaven is-- not what we want heaven to be but what Scriptures tell us is Jesus' heaven.

What has been revealed in the Western Culture is that heaven is just another place-- albeit an imaginary better place-- where everyone will end up with halos above our heads, just getting to do our hobbies. It is a nice sentiment but that is all that it is. There is no justification to say there is such place, and why we are deserving of such a place after death.

But God tells us of a heaven AND the resurrection of Jesus secures the hope we have in Him; Our future.

And the question is friends, do we look at this gift joyfully, ready to take all the wrapping off and receive every last bit of it, or do we look at it with dissatisfaction and say, "Nah, it's cool, this isn't what I wanted… I much rather not have it"?

REDEMPTION

First thing we can learn about His heaven is that we have redemption:

Ephesians 1:7–10 ESV

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

PRICE THAT HAS BEEN PAID

On Friday we saw that "grace is love that has paid the price…" (Warren Weirsbe)

For us it is a free gift of grace, but that does not mean that a price was not paid. No, someone had to pay the price for our sins. Someone had to have redeemed us, or else there would be nothing that could be worthy to come close to paying off our debt before God. In other words, if it weren't for an external source, we would have been in bondage to sin for all of our lives.

Through His blood we have been redeemed— bought out of slavery, back to God.

Does this bring us to our knees? One of the greatest safe-guard against Christian arrogance is the fact that we are redeemed-- we have been bought back by none other than God himself. There is nothing more annoying than a person who receives everything from their parents and they act like they are the one who earned everything for themselves.

SERIOUSNESS OF SIN

R. C. Sproul:

"We are living in a time when there has been a wholesale attempt to reconstruct Christianity apart from its central focus on personal salvation. That is to say, it seems as if people today want a Christianity without redemption. But we cannot avoid the fact that at the heart of the teaching of Jesus and of the apostolic message is a God who redeems his people."

And the reason that we cannot avoid the fact that the Gospel is the Redemption of God’s people is because sin is very serious.

It has power -- deceptive power that convinces us that sinning is ok.

Creation is in bondage. Sad reality is that there are people who bound to sin-- unable to escape from its power.

Bondage to sin means alienation from God; Separated from God; Enemies of God -- us to him and him to us.

Perhaps one of the dangers we need to guard our hearts from is downplaying the seriousness of sin lest we underappreciate the significance of being redeemded from it.

Sin: Mistake vs. Blatant disrespect/disobedience to God.

OUR NAMES ON HIS BLOOD:

When I was younger, I envied my friends because it seemed like their parent's were nicer-- they never got in trouble. Not only was that assumption false, but what lousy parents would mine have been if they didn't teach me that my actions had consequences-- if all they did was give me pat on the back and said, "I forgive you," and bought me McDonald's on the way home.

Do we believe Jesus' sacrifice for us was merely a pat on the back? Or are we convinced that our sins are what put him there and every drop of blood that he spilled on the cross has all my sins written on it?

Jesus has paid the price and as a result we have been redeemed.

ADOPTION

And along with the redemption we have received adoption.

Ephesians 1:5–6 ESV

he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

WHAT IS THE BEST GIFT GOD CAN GIVE YOU?

In our Life Explored course last year the first question that was asked in the book, "What's the best gift God could give you?

I hazard a guess that adoption is not one of the first things that come to mind.

But the question is does adoption come to mind at all? How far down our wish list is adoption?

Perhaps it speaks to the state of our heart if adoption isn't at least in the top three.

Perhaps we need to search our hearts if things like our rights, freedoms, comfort, and loves come before the gift of being adopted into the family of God.

GOD'S WILL AND PLEASURE

Because you see, from the very beginning God's plan, will, and pleasure was to bring us into His family through our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we can call, "Abba, Father!" And also consider Jesus as our brother. The goal of his promise and predestination was the adoption of His people.

And so friend, knowing this, how do you respond to God calling you to be in His family?

I was curious whether orphaned children wanted to be adopted or whether the hurt was so great that they would rather be alone. Not to my surprise there were those who wanted to go back to their parents so badly that they didn't want to be adopted but for those who did want to be there was a strong desire to have as sense of belonging , being in a loving family, to be safe, to have an identity. Some of the workers in orphanages say that some children tired to give their best 'performance' in the hope that someone will adopted them.

God requires no performance from us. The goal of his plan and will was to adopt you and me into His family through His Son Jesus, our Redeemer.

ASSURANCE

Robert Peterson, in his book Adopted by God shares an account by a woman named Lisa who was struggling with the assurance of her faith-- on the one hand believing and learning about the assurance of salvation, and on the other hand, doubting herself and hence doing everything she can be 'good enough' for God. And this is what she says:

"Adoption is a legal procedure which secures a child’s identity in a new family.… God didn’t choose to be our foster parent. We don’t get kicked out of the family because of our behavior. We don’t have to worry day to day whether or not we are good enough to be part of the family. In his infinite kindness, God made us a permanent part of his family.… Nothing can undo the legal procedure that binds me to Christ."

SEALED AND GUARANTEED

We know this [statement from Lisa] is true because Paul affirms it

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

CONFIRMED, STAMPED, SECURED

Some of you might like artwork and have artwork in your home or you like going to the galleries. In our home there are a few things on the walls (professional photoshoot and artwork) and all of them are signed by the artist. It authenticates it as genuine work.

Charles Hodges:

There are several purposes for which a seal is used:

1. To authenticate or confirm as genuine and true.

2. To mark as one's property.

3. To render secure.

And when it comes to our lives, God tell us it is he who has sealed us.

Romans 8:16 "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God"

God has marked us as his by adopting us.

He has secured us by giving us the Holy Spirit "who is the guarantee of our inheritance-- which Spurgeon says "is divinely great" for Paul says in Romans 8:17, "and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." And so we have God's infinite goodness, His love, His grace, His salvation, His Kingdom. All of this is ours!

When? "When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him."

CONCLUSION

When we think about heaven we can all these sorts of ideas of what we think would be a perfect or better place.

A pastor and rapper, Tripp Lee in one of his songs says, “If I want perfection I'm a have to wait till later. And I ain't trippin' 'cause He has promised”

But, there is only one way; and it is only becasue of the One that there is hope of this perfection— freedom from sin, redemption and adoption.

JESUS THE FIRSTFRUIT

And it all comes to a glorious climax on Easter Sunday, when the glory and power of God was revealed when Jesus rose from the tomb. And the same power which raised Jesus from the dead,

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead… Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” (v. 20-21, 23).

1 Corinthians 15:20–23 ESV

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

The firstfruits are the initial crops that are gathered by the farmers and it is a fortaste of the full harvest. Jesus’ resurrection is the foretaste of the resurrection of the Church— all those whom God has redeemed and adopted, and in our new and glorified bodies we will be with the Lord forever.

This is His heaven. This is His gift. Does that light a burning desire in our hearts, or are we slouching over with disinterest?

APPLICATION

Contemplate the truth and respond if you are unbelieving.

Marvel again as the church. Don't let Easter pass by without being amazed again.

Not just future, but is shapes the way we live now for “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1:6)

Cavlin:

"And whatever happens to us, let us always assure ourselves that we have good cause to praise our God, and that even if we are poor and miserable in this world, the happiness of heaven is enough to appease us, to sweeten all our afflictions and sorrows, and to give us such content that we may nevertheless have our mouths open to bless God for showing himself so kind-hearted and liberal towards us as even to adopt us as his children, and to show us that the heritage which has been purchased for us by the blood of his only Son is ready for us, and that we cannot miss it, seeing that we go to it with true and invincible constancy of faith."