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SLIDE On the Sunday or even Sundays after Easter I try to share a sermon or a sermon

series on a topic that many people who don’t go to church will find interesting. When Kellie and

I talked about a possible topic for today I suggested heaven. There’s not a person alive who

hasn’t at some point in their life thought about heaven. All people—and people who don’t go to

church—think and reflect on heaven. I asked Kellie, “what are some questions about heaven that

people have who don’t go to church.” She came up with some. Voila. The title of this sermon

is “Heaven and me.” I’ll address questions like

SLIDE “How do I go to heaven? How can I be assured that I’ll go to heaven? Can I just

wait until the end of my life to receive Christ? I’m basically a good person—is that enough?

What does heaven have to do with the world?”

With that introduction I’d like to invite you to get out this brochure that is in your

bulletin. This week in the devotion I shared some Old Testament readings about heaven and

some readings about eternal life in the New Testament. I believe you’ll be blessed if you use the

devotion. I haven’t received many comments about the devotion lately. Please let me know if

this devotion is helping you. In this brochure you’ll find a place to take notes. You might want

to tell your friends what new information about heaven you learned today. I encourage you to

write it down. And you’ll find a place for prayer requests. We have a lot of prayer requests in

our community. I encourage you to pray over each one every day this week.

I have three simple points in this sermon. These three points can clarify our own thinking

about heaven and going to heaven.

SLIDE The first simple point is this. God decides who goes to heaven. It’s not up to

you, me, or any human to decide or who does or doesn’t go to heaven. God decides who goes to

heaven.
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SLIDE Point 1a of that point is, “You and I are called to trust God’s decision-making.”

When I was going to seminary I served as a youth director at a church. A woman came

to talk to me. She was very distressed by the unexpected death of a little girl. This little girl died

in a car accident, and a story had appeared in the newspaper. The little girl was Jewish. This

woman who came to talk to me was torn up about the eternal fate of this little girl. “Do you

think she went to heaven?” she asked me. “That’s up to God, and I trust God,” I said. God

knows what God is doing. I don’t want you to be concerned about this little girl’s fate. I want

you to trust God.

The opposite of heaven, of course, is hell. I would never want to decide who goes to

heaven and who goes to hell. It’s my experience that sometimes we humans like to share our

opinions about who is going to hell. There’s hardly a greater disservice we can do to anyone

than to share our opinions that someone is going to hell. Even if we believe that someone is

going to hell, we still can do great harm by sharing our opinion.

Just this week I was at a meeting where some folks were sharing faith stories. A lovely

person shared the pain the person had experienced when someone had shared the opinion that a

loved one was going to hell. What a terrible thing to say.

I responded by saying that when we say that someone is going to hell that is an affront to

God. When we say that someone is going to hell we are being God. Obviously we’re not God.

SLIDE Right now there is a raging debate in the church about a book that was written by

Rob Bell. The book is called, “Love wins.” Rob Bell is a wildly successful pastor from Grand

Rapids Michigan. He comes from the conservative wing of the church. The subtitle of the book

shares why it’s drawn so much interest, “A book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person

who ever lived.” Some people have sensed that Rob Bell is a Universalist, that is he doesn’t
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believe in hell. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment on the book. But I have read some

of the reviews of the book, so I’m a bit familiar with the controversy. I don’t know if Rob Bell is

a Universalist or not, but I think it’s sad that raising the question about whether Hell exists would

bring so much scorn.

For the record, I’m not a Universalist. I believe in hell. But I spend hardly any time

thinking about it. I’m much more interested in heaven and helping people understand the way to

heaven. I want people to be humbly confident about going to heaven and that confidence can be

a wonderful source of strength.

I come across situations all the time when I wonder about someone’s eternal fate. In my

18 years of ministry I’ve officiated over a hundred funerals. I’ve only done two since I’ve come

to Chain of Lakes Church. I actually enjoy leading a funeral. I’m sorry for the death of the

person and the grief that the family is experiencing. Being present to a family in grief and

helping them through that time is very meaningful. Writing a funeral sermon about a person’s

life is a high honor.

I’ve done many funerals of people who weren’t connected to a church and didn’t even

believe in God. I was taught to use a phrase at every funeral. The phrase is this, “we have faith

in the resurrection.” Sometimes I might do a funeral when I’m not sure about a person’s eternal

fate. I still use this phrase, “we have faith in the resurrection.” When it comes to deciding who

goes to heaven I don’t make it or proclaim it. I do proclaim my trust in God. God does. First

point—God decides who goes to heaven. You and I are called to trust God’s decision-making.

Second point—we receive salvation by opening up the gift of grace that God has given

us. If you wanted to know a basic Bible reading about salvation, let me give you this one. It’s

Romans 5:1-2
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“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in
our hope of sharing the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2

A central tenet of being a Protestant is we are justified by faith. We receive salvation—eternal

life through faith. What does this mean?

Through the cross and resurrection God has justified us. Notice that Paul wrote we are

justified by faith. Another way to describe the word, “justify” is put into relationship. God

causes us to be in a relationship. Paul didn’t say we justify ourselves. God justified us.

One analogy I’ve used in describing “justification by faith” is opening a gift. Who

doesn’t like to open a gift? All of us have been given the gift of grace. When Jesus died on the

cross and was raised from the dead God ensured that every living person is given the gift of

grace. We humans don’t put this gift together; we don’t wrap it or put a ribbon on the gift. God

has done all of that and has freely given the gift. God so wants to give this gift of grace to us.

This analogy of the gift is similar to what we teach about baptism. We baptize infants

because we see baptism as a gift—it’s a gift of grace. The infant who has come into the world

has done nothing to earn grace. God bestows grace on a child just because that child came into

the world. Baptism doesn’t ensure a person’s salvation; we don’t believe that baptism is a ticket

to heaven.

With regards to infants, Baptism is a gift freely given; we do nothing to earn it; we

receive it by having a child baptized.

Salvation or eternal life or heaven is a gift freely given; we do nothing to earn it; we

receive it by opening up the gift.

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The way we open up the gift is to profess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. You might

wonder—is it as simple as that. All I have to do is profess Jesus as Lord and Savior and I’ll open

up the gift of salvation. Yes. God freely bestows salvation with anyone who wants to receive it.

One of the questions that we developed was, “How can I be assured that I’ll go to

heaven.” We’re assured because of our trust in God. God deeply wants to share this gift.

Another question we developed was, “Can I just wait until the end of my life to receive

Christ?” The point of the question is I’ll live how I want to live and wait until the end of my life

and then I’ll receive Christ at the end of my life. It’s like using the promise of heaven as an

insurance policy. You’ll catch me at the very end.

But if I do that I’m missing out on a wonderful journey with God.

If someone shared this with me that they want to wait to receive Christ at the end of their

life, I’d say, “why would you want to wait?” A life with God and devoted to God is very rich

and at times inspiring and certainly meaningful. Why wait

Again—can I just wait? Can I use the promise of heaven as an insurance policy? Yes, a

person could.

Let me tell you a story. It’s a story about the last day of Jesus’ life. Jesus was on the

cross. On each side of him there was another person who was being crucified. In Luke’s telling

of the story the people were called criminals. One of the criminals was deriding Jesus. He said,

“if you are the Messiah, Jesus why don’t you save yourself, and why don’t you save us. The

other criminal couldn’t stand this aggressive criticism of Jesus. “We are getting what we

deserve,” he said. He pointed to Jesus and said, “this man has done nothing wrong.” Then the

criminal looked at Jesus and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
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After the criminal made that request, Jesus looked at him and said, “Truly, I tell you,

today you will be with me in Paradise.” Wow. What a beautiful gift this man was given. At the

end of his life. If you ever question the compassion of God think of Jesus dying on the cross

being taunted by many people and then sharing the gift of salvation with a criminal.

These words, “Jesus remember me, when you come into your kingdom,” have been made

into a song. We sometimes sing these words when we receive Communion. When we receive

Communion we are like the criminal on the cross. We’re receiving grace—when we don’t

deserve it. But we’re still given it. We’re saying, “Jesus, remember me when you come into the

Kingdom.

There’s nothing magical in saying the words, Jesus is our Lord and Savior. The man on

the cross didn’t say these words. While he was dying the man basically acknowledge Jesus as

his Savior. He asked Jesus to save him. He acknowledged Jesus as the Lord. He opened up the

gift.

That’s what we’re called to do.

Second point—we receive the gift of salvation by opening up the gift of salvation that we

have received.

Third point—we don’t go to heaven because of our own goodness or what we do.

This is the hardest point for Midwesterners to accept. Because we’ve been taught since

we were in diapers that we get what we deserve. We think we have to deserve grace. We often

unconsciously believe that going to heaven depends on how good we are. But that’s not the

case.

SLIDE Let me tell you a story about Martin Luther. He is the ancestor of the Lutheran

tradition. Presbyterians and Lutherans are very similar. He was born in 1483 to a peasant family
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in Eisleben, Germany. His family wanted him to go into law, so they ensured that Martin had a

quality education. When he completed his education at the age of 22 his life took a turn away

from law and towards a more full-time spiritual quest. A powerful force in Martin Luther’s life

was his own sense of personal sinfulness and guilt. So he entered a monastery with the hope of

proving himself worthy of God’s love. Luther did very well in the monastery. He was ordained

as a priest at 24; at 29 he received a doctorate of theology. Luther had extraordinary gifts.

Luther always wanted to prove himself to God. The harder he tried to prove his own

worthiness before God the more spiritually depressed he felt.

Luther was one of the smartest people of his time, but he came to learn that he couldn’t

earn favor from God. “The only things that saves us,” said Luther, “is the grace of God—the

pure unqualified, unmitigated grace of God.”

Stephen Plunkett captured this point by writing this.

SLIDE
“It fact, it is entirely impossible for any person, no matter how accomplished or intelligent or
well-meaning or ‘religious,’ to win God’s favor by good deeds. The monk in the monastery
cannot do it; the hardworking businessperson cannot do it; the compassionate pastor cannot do it;
the nurturing homemaker cannot do it; the self-giving parent cannot do it; the obedient son or
daughter cannot do it; the morality-driven special-interest group cannot do it; no human being
can do it. We are justified before God only because of God’s gracious disposition toward us.”
Pages 86-87 “This We Believe Eight Truths Presbyterians Affirm” Stephen W. Plunkett

We don’t go to heaven because we’re good. We go to heaven because we’ve received a

gift.

Which leads me to my last point—which is point #4. The assurance of heaven gives us

great freedom to create the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

What’s one of the worst things in the world that can happen—our death. When we

receive grace our death has been overcome. We can live with tremendous freedom. We have

nothing to fear. Remember the first words out of Jesus’ mouth in Matthew to the women who
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came upon him. As the women bowed down at Jesus’ feet in worship, Jesus said, “do not fear.”

We can live with tremendous freedom. We have nothing to fear.

With this freedom we’re called to create the Kingdom of God in the world. God is just as

interested in our own personal salvation as God is interested in seeing the Kingdom of God take

place in the world. God wants to see the Kingdom happen. God wants us to go out of our way

to create the Kingdom.

I gave an entire sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount during Lent. In that series I

talked about God’s passion for the Kingdom of God. God wants to see a Kingdom where people

go out of their way to help people on the margins; God wants to see a Kingdom where the

division between poor and rich is small; God wants to see a Kingdom where war doesn’t take

place; God wants to see a Kingdom where God’s love is the foundation of who we are and is the

foundation in the world. When we live this way God’s Kingdom breaks into the earth.

Today we’re coming to celebrate Communion. One of the ways God’s Kingdom breaks

into the world is when we take Communion. John Calvin—the ancestor of the Presbyterian

tradition—taught people that when we participate in Communion we are lifted up to heaven.

Today we’ll receive a glimpse of heaven. Around the table there are no divisions. Around the

table we are inspired to love and care for each other. Around the table we are not divided by

being rich or poor; around the table. Today we are going to receive a preview of heaven.

Let’s come to the table in joy, knowing we are free. We have nothing to fear; our eternal

fate is assured; we can give ourselves with passion to creating and developing the Kingdom.