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!