Heaven Grounds Us (2 of 3)
Series: Heaven
Tony Nester
Ephesians 2:4-10
Today I want to preach about Heaven.
Heaven has become quite personal for me since my wife’s death two years ago.
When you watch someone die you recognize that something both awful and awesome happens in the split second when they die. You see their body, but the person is no longer there. “They’re gone,” we say. But where?
Some say nowhere. They see no life beyond death. They are, says the Scripture, “those who have no hope in this world.”
But we in Christ say otherwise. We stand on Jesus’ promise that he has prepared a place for us and will take us to be where he is. (John 14:1-3).
We identify with the Apostle Paul who affirmed that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8) and that nothing, especially not death, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:38-39).
We respond, “Yes, yes, yes,” when we read in 1st Peter 1:3-5: “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Like many other Christians, these promises of a future life beyond the grave have become precious to me.
But I’ve learned something more. Heaven isn’t just about the future. The Gospel doesn’t put Heaven on a timeline that places it in the distant future. Heaven is for now.
We know this because Jesus puts Heaven into the Lord’s Prayer, which is the prayer we and all Christians of whatever church or denomination pray. Heaven is there in the first line: “Our Father, who art in Heaven.” And the first thing Jesus taught us to ask for is the Kingdom to come here on earth, just as ...
Series: Heaven
Tony Nester
Ephesians 2:4-10
Today I want to preach about Heaven.
Heaven has become quite personal for me since my wife’s death two years ago.
When you watch someone die you recognize that something both awful and awesome happens in the split second when they die. You see their body, but the person is no longer there. “They’re gone,” we say. But where?
Some say nowhere. They see no life beyond death. They are, says the Scripture, “those who have no hope in this world.”
But we in Christ say otherwise. We stand on Jesus’ promise that he has prepared a place for us and will take us to be where he is. (John 14:1-3).
We identify with the Apostle Paul who affirmed that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8) and that nothing, especially not death, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:38-39).
We respond, “Yes, yes, yes,” when we read in 1st Peter 1:3-5: “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Like many other Christians, these promises of a future life beyond the grave have become precious to me.
But I’ve learned something more. Heaven isn’t just about the future. The Gospel doesn’t put Heaven on a timeline that places it in the distant future. Heaven is for now.
We know this because Jesus puts Heaven into the Lord’s Prayer, which is the prayer we and all Christians of whatever church or denomination pray. Heaven is there in the first line: “Our Father, who art in Heaven.” And the first thing Jesus taught us to ask for is the Kingdom to come here on earth, just as ...
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