Acts 3:1-10: The Lame Man at the Beautiful Gate

INTRODUCTION

The Israelites of old loved their beautiful Temple.

Psalm 122 begins:

I was glad when they said to me,

‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’

And Psalm 84 begins:

How lovely is thy dwelling place,

O Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, yea, faints

for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Jesus also loved the Temple. The only event mentioned in the gospels about Jesus’s growing up years is the story about how, when he was twelve years old, his parents took him to Jerusalem for a Passover festival. He got so absorbed in the goings-on at the Temple that he got lost from his parents.

And when his mother chided him for staying behind, he said, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:48).

Jesus frequently prayed in the Temple, and he taught in the Temple.

After Jesus’s resurrection and ascension, we read that his disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the Temple blessing God” (Luke 24:50).

After Pentecost, the Temple was the main gathering place in Jerusalem for the followers of Jesus to gather for fellowship, prayer, and teaching.

The Temple was a gorgeous building. It was made of limestone, so white that it looked like a snow-capped mountain from a distance.

It was so richly decorated with gold that it was said that one could not look at it in the sunshine, it dazzled the eyes so.

Some of the finely-cut stones of Herod’s temple weighed 400 tons.

It was one of the marvels of the world.

I should mention that “going to the Temple” didn’t mean going into a building.

There was a building, but the building stood in the midst of a courtyard as big as six football fields.

This courtyard was surrounded by colonnaded porches where the people assembled for teaching and where they prayed. The entire complex—the courtyards with their colonnaded porticos and the sanctuary at its center were called “the Temple.”

Not long after Christ’s ascension into heaven and Pentecost—during the first days of excitement of the Jesus movement we read about a significant event:

We read about it in Acts 3:1-10:

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the temple.

Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms.

And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them.

But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

And leaping up, he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filed with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

I. First, we’ll talk about the lame man.

A. This poor man had been lame from birth, and we learn in the next chapter that he was more than 40 years old.

Every day for years and years friends or family had carried him to the gate of the Temple where he spent his day begging.

This had been his routine dreary year after dreary year, for as long as he could remember.

This gate of the Temple was a good place for begging because when people are going to pray, they might be inclined to be generous. In Judaism, giving alms was a sacred duty. They might have supposed that if they showed mercy to others, God might be more inclined to show mercy to them.

The lame man was a fixture there. People had seen him week after week, month after month, year after year—some of them for all their lives—sitting there, begging. It’s not surprising that they were filled with wonder and amazement when he got up and started walking.

B. Notice that the lame man’s begging station was at the gate called “the Beautiful Gate” of the Temple.

Historians believe that this Beautiful Gate was the gate that led to the Middle Court of the Temple.

The visitor would enter the Temple complex via an underground stairway and find himself in the Outer Court, or Court of the Gentiles. This was where much of the activity took place. Rabbis taught here. People prayed here. It was a busy place.

It was in this big outer court that Jesus made a whip and drove out the sellers of animals and birds and the moneychangers.

Worshipers would go through the Beautiful Gate from this big outer court into a smaller middle court where they could watch the sacrifices being offered and hear the chanting of the Levites and the harps and trumpets.

Only Jews could go into this court to worship.

This lame man was a Jew, but he was excluded because he was a cripple.

The rule was that anyone who was lame, blind, deaf, or who had a mutilated face, or a hunchback or a dwarf could come into that holy courtyard.

Actually that Old Testament law only applied to the priests, but by Jesus’s time it had come to be applied to all who had such disabilities.

The reason for that was that—in spite of the book of Job—people were convinced that disabilities were caused by sin. These people were considered unworthy of worshiping with normal unblemished people.

So although the poor lame man sat year after year at the Beautiful Gate, he could never go inside to see the worship.

II. On this afternoon, Peter and John came to the Temple for evening prayer at the ninth hour—that’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

A. When Peter and John came by, the beggar asked them for alms.

Peter and John looked directly at the man, and Peter said, “Look at us: I have no silver or gold, but I give you what I have. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, walk!” And he took him by the hand and raised him up.

Peter said, “Look at us” because he needed to get the man’s complete attention. Now the man was expecting something—that is the beginning of faith.

Then Peter said, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And Peter took him by the hand and raised him up.

We see Peter’s faith when he told him to get up and walk.

We see the lame man’s faith when he let Peter take his hand and got up off the ground.

The formerly lame man felt his feet and ankles made strong.

He didn’t stand up gently and trembling, like we would expect of someone who had just recovered from a debilitating condition.

He leaped up, and stood and walked through the gate and entered the courtyard walking and leaping and praising God.

He, who had sat outside the gate for his whole life up to then—thinking he was forever barred from Temple worship—can now take part in the worship of the community of God and thank God for his salvation.

This man had received far more than simply healing in his body.

He had received the gift of eternal life.

We can imagine the stir this miracle caused. Everyone recognized the man they had seen every time they came to Temple worship.

The people were so amazed that they eagerly listened to Peter tell them the way of salvation through Jesus.

And the result of the miracle was that on that day more than 5000 believed in Christ and found salvation.

The enemies of the gospel attempted to silence Peter, but when they saw the healed man standing beside Peter and John, and they had nothing to say in opposition (4:14).

APPLICATION

Each miracle we read of in the New Testament has a deeper meaning for us.

I have two applications for us from this story.

First, the lame man represents every one of us, who from birth are helpless to save ourselves from our sin.

Our sin has crippled us.

Each of us is a spiritual cripple, a beggar before God—in need of the strength of God’s grace to live a life of holiness and blessedness. 

Each of us is “outside the gate.” And then Jesus comes to us and heals us and invites us to come into his Kingdom.

Did you know that “to heal” and “to save” is the same word in Greek? So when Jesus says, in the gospels, “Your faith has healed you,” it could also be translated, “Your faith has saved you.”

Just as Peter took the lame man’s hand and raised him up, so Jesus takes our hand and raises us up to salvation

By “salvation,” I mean the assurance of sins forgiven, friendship with God, and eternal life.

So that is my first lesson from this story—the miracle of salvation.

Jesus died for you and me to bring us to God.

He stands with his arms outstretched to welcome us home when he calls us.

But I see in this story another truth that is especially important to me.

I see in this story a parable of my future.

There will come a time—maybe not far off—all these aches and weaknesses are gone.

Jesus will take our hand and raise us up and lead us through the “Beautiful Gate.”

We will enter the Heavenly Temple and we will leap and walk and praise the Lord.

1 Kings 19.9-16: Elijah and the Sound of Sheer Silence

1 Kings 19.9-16: Elijah and the Sound of Sheer Silence

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever felt so discouraged that you wondered whether you had the strength to go on? Some of God’s most faithful people have felt this way—Jeremiah, Job, many of the psalmists, St. Paul—and even Jesus.

St. Paul wrote that he was so utterly, unbearably crushed that he despaired of life itself (2 Corinthians 1:9).

And Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, told his disciples: “My soul is deeply grieved, even to death!” And we read that “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.”.

Today I want to tell you about one of my heroes of the Old Testament who became so despondent that he prayed to God to take away his life.

But he had a remarkable experience that gave him the strength to go on.

The hero I want to tell you about is Elijah.

Elijah was a prophet who lived in Israel about 850 years before Jesus was born.

During this time Ahab was King of Israel. Ahab was one of the worst kings ever to rule over Israel. But Ahab had a wife who was even more wicked than he was. Her name was Jezebel.

Jezebel was the daughter of the king of Sidon, a nation north of Israel.

Jezebel was not only a princess; she was also a priestess of the god Baal.

So when she came to Israel, she persuaded King Ahab to make an altar for her god Baal.

Jezebel then invited priests of Baal to come to Israel to teach the Israelites to worship Baal instead of the Lord.

You may remember the story of how Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal to a contest on Mt. Carmel to see which god was the stronger.

The 450 prophets of Baal built an altar to their god on Mt. Carmel, arranged the wood on the altar, and put upon it a bull for their sacrifice.

Then Elijah built an altar to the God of Israel, arranged the wood and put his bull on it.

The 450 prophets of Baal called on their god to come down with fire and burn the sacrifice.

They pled from morning until afternoon and even cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out of them, but Baal didn’t answer.

Then Elijah said to the people, “Come near to me.” He had four jars filled with water and poured on the sacrifice and the wood—to make the miracle even more spectacular.

Elijah called on his God, and immediately fire came down and burnt the sacrifice—and the stones—and the dust—and even licked up the water in the trench.

The people were so amazed that they cried out: “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”

But Jezebel wasn’t pleased. She swore that she would kill Elijah.

She sent a message to Elijah informing him of her intentions.

I. So Elijah had no time to savor his victory over the prophets of Baal.

A. To save his life, Elijah took two long journeys that took him far from his native land and from Queen Jezebel.

First, Elijah went to Beersheba—a city in the far south of the country.

1 Kings 19:1-8:

[Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers.”

And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.”

And he looked and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again.

And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you.”

And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Elijah was so discouraged he wanted to die.

When Elijah said, “O Lord, take away my life!” he wasn’t asking to go to heaven.

The Israelites in those days didn’t know about heaven yet.

Elijah was praying for oblivion. He was really discouraged.

But the food and water the angel brought him must have been nourishing, because on the strength of that food and drink, Elijah continued on his journey south for 40 days across the desert of Sinai to Mt. Horeb.

Horeb is another name for Mt. Sinai, the mountain on which Moses received the 10 Commandments.

B. When Elijah got to the Mt. Horeb, he found refuge in a cave.

1 Kings 19:9-15:

And there he came to a cave, and lodged there; and behold the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?

Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken the covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life to take it away.”

And the Lord said, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.”

And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind, an earthquake, but he Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still, small voice.

And when Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his cloak…”

He hid his face in his cloak, because—as everyone knew—no one can’t look God in the face and live.

Then God asked his question again: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

And Elijah told the Lord how zealous he had been in serving the Lord, and how the people hadn’t listened but had torn down the altars and killed the prophets, and that it was only a matter of time before they caught up with him.

Then the Lord gave Elijah his instructions and Elijah set out on the mission that would take him to the end of his life.

You will probably remember pictures of the chariot of fire that appeared when Elijah ascended into heaven in a whirlwind.

You’ve heard the song, “Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home.”

II. For me, the most instructive part of the story is what happened just after God called him out of the cave.

A. At the mouth of the cave Elijah witnessed three spectacular events.

First, Elijah saw and heard a terrific wind—such a wind as broke rocks into pieces. I suppose that the wind was such that it set rocks tumbling down the mountainside. I can’t imagine such a wind. But God didn’t speak in the wind.

Next came an earthquake. But God wasn’t in the earthquake.

Then Elijah came a blazing fire. But God wasn’t in the fire.

Now this is interesting, because when Moses came down the same mountain after speaking with God, God answered him with thunder, and fire, and the whole mountain quaked. Evidently, God spoke to Moses in these spectacular events. But he chose another way to reveal himself to Elijah.

B. What came to Elijah was “still, small voice.” This is the most common translation of the Hebrew phrase.

But people who know Hebrew tell us that a better translation is: “a sound of sheer silence.”

But what could “a sound of sheer silence” be?

Is it a gentle murmuring whisper?

Or is it maybe no sound at all but the total quiet that came after the terrific wind, earthquake, and fire?

We don’t know what Elijah “heard,” with his ears—maybe he himself didn’t know—but we do know that in that “sound of sheer silence,” Elijah had a deep experience of God’s presence.

He was overwhelmed by the presence of God.

And so he was ready to complete his mission.

Oh sure, as I told you, he was still distressed about his plight, but when God gave him instructions, he obeyed and finished the rest of his life strong.

APPLICATION

So what is the lesson from this story for you and me?

We are not Elijah. We are not prophets. We are not mighty people of God.

But we also have work to do, and we also get discouraged.

I suggest that one thing we can learn from he story is that God is in the silences as well as in the spectacular events.

And usually it is in the silences that God makes himself known to us.

I have never heard a voice from heaven.

I have never heard God’s voice.

But I have felt God to be with me.

In silence I have found the strength to go forward.

In silence I have gained sudden insights about the course ahead.

In silence I have felt that God was with me, sheltering me, protecting me, showing the way, giving me light.

God usually reveals himself to us in the quiet spaces of life.

When you are lying in bed at night, wakeful, wishing you could go to sleep, remember that God is with you.

Turn your thoughts to God—not anxiously, but with thankfulness…with your questions…your memories…your requests other people.

In the quietness, think of yourself as resting…resting in the arms of Jesus. Letting him love you.

And when anxious thoughts come crowding in, quiet your heart and say to yourself: “I’m resting in Jesus…resting in Jesus…resting in Jesus.”

The psalmist who wrote Psalm 62 expressed it this way:

For God alone my soul waits in silence;

from him comes my salvation…

For God alone my soul waits in silence,

for my hope is from him.

(Psalm 62:1 and 5)

A beautiful hymn says it like this—

Come to my heart, Lord, like dew gently falling;

Scatter my darkness like breaking of day.

Now in the stillness I list’ for thy calling,

Ready to hear thy small voice as I pray.

Not in the fire, nor yet in the earthquake,

Here but do whisper and I will obey.

(R. Woods)

John 6:35: Jesus: the Bread of Life

INTRODUCTION

Do you know why we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”?

It’s because in ancient times—and even up to modern times in Europe and the Near East—bread was the main thing people ate.

I have read in a history of Medieval Europe that in those days the biggest part of an ordinary family’s income was spent for bread—maybe 70%--not food, in general, bread. Historians estimate that 82% of the daily calories consumed in pre-industrial times was from bread.

Getting enough to eat was the main concern of people down to modern times.

Bread was so important that the Greeks called the part of the meal that wasn’t bread opson, which means “condiment,” or “relish,” or “seasoning.”

The meal itself they called “bread.”

Of course, ancient people ate fruits and vegetables in season—grapes, beans, dates, olives, a little fish. People rarely ate red meat or poultry. People didn’t usually eat sheep, except when they were sacrificed at the Temple. Sheep were raised for their wool—and when they died, their skins were used.

Bread, made of wheat or barley were the most useful of all foods because grain could be stored. With no refrigeration, or canning, or freezing, bread was the only food available every day.

If there was a drought or flood and the wheat or barley crop failed, people would starve.

“Give us this day our daily bread” was a real important prayer, something that people thought about a lot.

This is all background for one of Jesus’s most famous sayings. And you know this saying.

Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to me will not hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (6:35).

And again,

“I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (6:51).

I. What happened before.

A. In the first part of John, chapter 6, we read about how Jesus had fed a multitude of 5000 men—and we don’t know how many women and children with a little boy’s lunch that consisted of five barley loaves and two fish.

That was the end of the story according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But John tells what happened next.

B. The “guests” at Jesus’s picnic were so pleased with the free meal that they determined to take Jesus by force and make him their king.

They thought: This man can make bread out of nothing! He will be a great king. They weren’t thinking about following Jesus as their Lord; they were thinking about free food.

So Jesus ditched the crowd and sent his disciples back across the lake in their boat. He then went up into the hills to pray.

During the night, when it was almost morning, Jesus came walking on the water and met his disciples—on the lake. They took him into their boat and immediately reached the other shore.

C. But the people who had been fed with the miraculous bread and fish ran around the lake and caught up with Jesus, still intending to make him their king.

Jesus said to them: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (v27).

And then he said the saying I quoted before, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

II. So how is Jesus the Bread of Life?

A. Just as physical bread gives life to the body, Jesus is the spiritual bread that gives life to our souls.

Jesus gives us life—not the life that we have because we have been born on earth—but a new and more wonderful life which connects us to God and brings into our souls forgiveness, joy, and peace.

St. Paul describes our new life this way: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.”

And the new life that Jesus gives lasts, not just for a few years, but forever!

Just as the physical bread sustains the life of our body, Jesus is the spiritual bread that sustains our soul—our inner being.

Jesus gives us strength to live for God.

And we live for God as we feed on Christ—as we take him into our life—as we let his goodness nourish our souls—as we go forth and live our lives with the energy he supplies.

B. Jesus, as the Bread of Life, nourishes our souls.

Jesus, the Bread of Life, nourishes our souls when he fills our life with meaning and purpose.

Jesus nourishes our souls when he gives us the sure hope that this life is not all there is but that there are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind.

Jesus nourishes our souls when he gives us a joy that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away, when he gives us the peace that passes understanding, when he satisfies us with good things.

Jesus nourishes our souls when he fills our hearts with love for him and love for all our neighbors on earth.

Jesus nourishes our souls when he puts us into his family, when he gives us the will to forgive those who have hurt us and even to pray for our enemies.

Jesus nourishes our souls when he gives strength to bear the disappointments, the sicknesses, the regrets of life—and even the pains of old age.

Jesus nourishes our souls when he gives us the assurance that whatever happens, he will be with us—even in the valley of the shadow of death—until we reach the Father’s House and see him face-to-face and share his Glory.

III. Many people treat their religion as a hobby—something they add onto an already satisfying life—sort like frosting on the cake of life.

A. They have their work to do…and their recreation and their refreshment.

But their religion is for Sunday morning…or maybe a daily page read from a devotional booklet…something they take in small doses to make them feel better about themselves.

They are content with nibbles on the Bread of Life.

They don’t realize that Christianity doesn’t work unless Christ becomes all important to us.

Jesus needs to be Lord. He wants to be at center stage in our life?

Is it because Jesus is proud?

No, Jesus is humble. He died for us. He lives for us. And he knows that we can never experience his love to the fullest unless he has our whole heart.

Jesus wants to bless us, and the only way he can bless us is to give us himself.

St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians: “Blessed be the God and Father of us all, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.”

B. People are hungry. Mostly they are not aware of what they are hungry for. They only know that they feel empty. They know that life is disappointing, that something is missing, and the older they become the more they feel it.

There is an emptiness inside—an emptiness they try to fill with things that can never really satisfy—pleasures, worldly wealth, travel, books, amusements.

They are like the Prodigal Son in the far country. When the famine came he sought to fill his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.

So people without Christ seek to fill the emptiness in their hearts with things that can never really nourish their souls. Only Jesus can do that. Because Jesus is the Bread of Life…the Bread that gives life…the Bread that sustains life.

If we have no appetite for God in this world, we will have no appetite for God in the world to come. Heaven, as it’s depicted in the Bible would have no appeal to us. We would feel out of place in worship with the angels.

C. Let me tell you a story—a parable:

A beautiful swan alighted by the banks of the water in which a toad was waddling about seeking snails. For a few moments the toad viewed the swan in stupid wonder and then inquired: “Where did you come from?”

“I came from heaven!” replied the swan.

“And where is heaven? asked the toad.

“Heaven!” said the swan. “Haven’t you heard of heaven?” And the beautiful swan went on to describe the grandeur of the Eternal city. She told of the streets of gold and the gates of pearl and walls of precious stones; of the river of life, pure as crystal, upon whose banks is the tree with its twelve kinds of fruit. In eloquent terms the swan sought to describe the bright angels who live in the other world. But the toad didn’t share the swan’s excitement. In fact, the toad seemed bored.

Finally the toad asked, “Well, are there any snails and slugs there?”

“Snails and slugs!” repeated the swan. “No, of course not!”

“Then,” said the toad, as it continued to search along the slimy banks of the pools, “You can have your heaven; I want snails! I want slugs!”

CONCLUSION

Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

To come to Jesus is to open our heart and mind to Jesus, to invite him to share our life, to welcome him as a heavenly guest within our hearts, to let him be the one around whom we build our life.

To come to Jesus is to rest all our hopes on him… to seek to please him in all we do…to be always thankful…always aware that we are loved...always mindful that we have a work to do on earth…and always mindful o our glorious destiny.

The physical bread that we eat becomes part of us. “We are what we eat.”

The food we eat becomes muscle and bones and blood and skin.

Our food becomes part of us, not by our talking about it…or looking at pictures of it…or by collecting recipes.

Food becomes part of us when we eat it.

And Jesus becomes the Bread of Life for us when we take him into our lives by faith.

He becomes part of our thinking... our loving…our living…our giving.

At our last service here we sang this very old hymn, written in Latin almost 1000 years ago by the great saint, St. Bernard of Clairvaux:

Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts,

Thou Fount of life, thou Light of men,

From the best bliss that earth imparts,

We turn unfilled to Thee again…

We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread,

And long to feast upon Thee still;

We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead,

And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

O Jesus, ever with us stay,

Make all our moments calm and bright;

Chase the dark night of sin away,

John 14:2-3: Heaven’s Main Attraction

INTRODUCTION

A few weeks ago a friend gave me a copy of a popular hymn entitled, “Where the Roses Never Fade.”

The first verse goes like this:

I am going to a city

Where the streets with gold are laid

Where the tree of life is blooming

And the roses never fade.

The chorus is similar:

Here they bloom but for a season

Soon their beauty is decayed.

I am going to a city

Where the roses never fade.

There are four verses to the song and each successive verse ends with the words, “Where the roses never fade.”

It’s a popular hymn and I understand is sometimes sung at funerals.

But the song has missed the point.

The main attraction of heaven is not that the roses never fade.

The main attraction of heaven is that we will see Jesus.

I. The Bible has several ways of describing heaven.

A. In the next-to-the-last chapter of the Bible Heaven is called “The New Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2).

In the last chapter of the Bible we read of the River of Life that flows from the throne of God through the middle of the street of the city, and on either side of the river is the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

“The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him, and they shall see his face. And night shall be no more, for they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5).

The book of Hebrews adds that in that city—the city of the living God—we will see "innumerable angels in festal gathering" (Hebrews 12:22).

B. Jesus used another name for heaven. He promised the thief beside him on the cross: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Paradise meant a beautiful pleasure garden—flowers, green grass, shady trees with birds singing in them, and sparkling pools of water.

C. Jesus also called heaven a banquet where the righteous will sit down in his kingdom with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the saints (Matthew 8:11).

D. But my favorite picture heaven is the one Jesus told his disciples a few hours before his arrest and crucifixion. He called heaven his Father’s House. He said:

In my Father’s housed are many dwelling places;

if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself,

so that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:2-3).

E. All these—the Holy City, Paradise, the Banquet, and the Father’s House—are what English teachers call “metaphors,” or figures of speech, symbols.

He was using figures of speech to suggest aspects of something indescribable.

II. Jesus told his disciples that in his Father’s house were many dwelling places and that he would go and prepare a place for them there.

A. Here are some ideas suggested by calling Heaven “The Father’s house.”

The Father’s house will be the place where we will feel safe. It will be a place of comfort, where no evil can befall us.

In the Father's House we will dwell with the family of God.

Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. “… many dwelling places,” means that there is plenty of room there for all God’s family.

That we will be in the Father’s house tells us that we will have fellowship in Heaven. We will dwell with all our sisters and brothers in Christ.

Jesus called the Temple of Jerusalem “his Father’s House.” So the Father’s house also means the place where God’s glory is manifested. The Father’s house is a magnificent, spacious place where we will dwell and where God’s glory shines out.

B. But best of all, Jesus says, “I go to prepare a place for you, and when 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.”

The most important thing about heaven is that we will dwell with Jesus.

Jesus will take us to himself, so that where he is, there we will be also.

Jesus is the main attraction of heaven—not golden streets…or gates of pearl…or the river of life with its wonderful trees—not even unfading roses—the main attraction of heaven will be our Savior, our Lord Jesus .

Long before Jesus came to this earth, a psalmist wrote of an expected encounter with God—it’s the last verse of Psalm 17. He addresses the Lord, and he says,

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;

when I awake, I shall be satisfied with beholding your likeness.

That psalm was written long before the Hebrew faith tradition had any definite idea of a heaven. What the psalmist probably meant was that he expected an encounter with God in Temple worship the following morning.

But the psalm writer wrote something that day that was far more wonderful than he imagined. He knows that now.

We Christians apply the psalmist’s words to our anticipation of seeing Jesus on the morning of our Resurrection.

When we awake in Glory from the sleep of death, we will be satisfied with beholding our Lord Jesus, himself.

CONCLUSION

No one—not the greatest philosopher or theologian or saint who ever lived—knows what heaven is going to be like. But one thing we know—God has made it clear in his Word—we will see Jesus. We will dwell with Jesus. He will be our eternal Companion.

How will he have his arms around each of us—each of the millions of the redeemed?

How will we—everyone of us—have that closeness to him that we have always craved in this life?

We don’t know—we can’t know now—but we do know that we will be satisfied.

We will worship. What else we will do in Glory, we don’t know now. Surely, it won’t all be worship. But there will be worship—and it will be exciting and soul-satisfying.

We will re-connect with old friends…we will make new friends…

I think we will tell stories…we will learn and grow.

Maybe we’ll have work to do. Maybe we’ll play games.

Perhaps poets will continue to write poems…painters will pain pictures… and musicians will continue to create new music…and gardeners will make gardens.

All these things we don’t know. But we know we won’t be bored. We know that there will be wonderful surprises—we will have ever new experiences. We know that Glory will be better than we have ever imagined.

But the great thing—the main attraction—will always be—we will be with Jesus.

When I was a child we had a record of a famous evangelist of the days of my father’s youth named “Gypsy Smith.” (Gypsy Smith was actually a converted gypsy. My Dad thought highly of him and that’s why we had the record.)

On the record Gypsy Smith sang the Glory Song. It goes like this:

When all my labors and trials are o’er,

And I am safe on that beautiful shore,

Just to be near the dear Lord I adore

Will through the ages be glory for me.

O that will be glory for me, Glory for me, glory for me;

When by his grace I shall look on his face,

That will be glory, be glory for me.

That old song—“The Glory Song”—captures the idea of heaven.

We will see his face in righteousness—and we will be satisfied.

And that will be glory for us!