Gratify Your Appetite

On Sunday, my Bible reading plan brought me to the start of Joshua. I've enjoyed reading the Pentateuch probably more than ant any other time this year, but something in me loves to arrive at narrative, at a story. One thing i've noticed about Joshua this year is that the genealogies continue, but they're genealogies of land, rather than people. Kings Moses defeated, Kings Joshua defeated, land conquered and land to be conquered. Why the switch from people to place? Because the story is about God's people in God's place, enjoying God's presence. The lists of place names teach us we're moving on with the story, we've got the people, now let's get the place.

But what about the presence? Well the Temple is built later on, and the glory descends, and the people shout and the priests can't enter. But then, sin. Sin. Sin. And division. And idol worship. And the promised land becomes a wept over memory. We were created for unadulterated communion with God. Enjoyment of God. Pleasure in God. We cram this desire with so much that the world has to offer, slowly slipping further and further from Him, and, in a way, from ourselves.

But it won't always be like this. The hebrews in the promised land refused to enjoy God alone and were exiled, but as Edwards tells us below, that is not something we have to worry about when we reach the promised land. Bathe in these paragraphs, from the end of Edwards' sermon, The Excellencies of Christ.'

'Yes the saints conversation with Christ in heaven shall not only be as intimate and their access to Him as free as the disciples with Jesus on Earth, but in many respects much more so; for in heaven the vital union shall be perfect, which is exceeding imperfect here. While the saints are in this world there are great remains of sin to separate or disunite them from Christ, which shall then all be removed...

When the saints shall see Christ's glory and exaltation in heaven, it will indeed posses their hearts with greater admiration and adoring respect, but will not awe them into separation but will only serve to heighten their surprise and joy when they find Christ condescending to admit them to such intimate access and so freely and fully communicating Himself to them. So that if we choose Christ as our friend and portion we will hereafter be so received by Him that there shall be nothing to hinder the fullest enjoyment of Him to the satisfying of the upmost cravings of our soul. We may take our full swing at gratifying our spiritual appetite after these holy pleasures. Christ will then say as in (Song of Songs) 5:1 'eat, o friends, drink yea, drink abundantly o beloved.' And this shall be our entertainment to all eternity! There shall never be any end of this happiness, or anything to interrupt our enjoyment of it, or in the least molest us in it!

Christ has brought it to pass that those whom the Father has given Him be brought into the household of God; that He and His Father and His people should be as one society, one family; that the church should be, as it were, admitted into the society of the blessed Trinity.'

The Complete Works of Jonathan Edwards, P689

Will I Be Bored In Heaven? (ii)

We see in Revelation 21:5 that Jesus makes all things new. And, what’s more, these things are trustworthy and true. If you trust Jesus for this life, for forgiveness of sins, for guidance, for whatever else, why shouldn’t you trust Jesus here as well? If you’re a Christian, no matter what happens between now and then, this is how your life will end up, this is where you’ll spend eternity. Everything is going to be new. Everything is going to be exciting. Nothing is going to be sinful, nothing is going to be boring. We’ll enjoy the newness of Heaven forever.

God makes another statement in verses 6 – 8, read those with me. God can say it is done, because He knows He will do it. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, He knows the end, so He can say, before it’s done, that it is. The end of verse 6 is a promise, and what a great promise it is. What is the qualification to enter this holy city? Thirst, and poverty. He’ll give water that satisfies and He’ll give it freely. What a promise that is! Remember this is what Jesus told the woman at the well, and now this promise is for all of us. Do you feel thirsty? Do you feel poor? Well great, you’re in! and, of course, the water that satisfies is Himself. Only Jesus will satisfy, are you thirsty for Him? Thirsty for your heart to be like His? Thirsty to see His justice? Thirsty to obey Him? Verse 8 makes it clear that if you don’t thirst for Him you’ll thirst for something else.

Verse 7 tell us that the one who conquers will have this heritage. What does that mean? It means that one who stays faithful to the end will inherit, earn, gain, be given these things. We’ll be sons of God. I’m not sure it gets much better. Imagine hearing this letter read for the first time. You’ve been told that persecution is coming, that people will quit the church, that Christians will be killed and that the devil will make war on you. And then what? If you overcome, you’ll be called God’s son. Doesn’t that make it worth it. I love how the Bible appeals to our senses. It doesn’t help us fight sin just be telling us that sin is evil and destructive, although it does do that, it helps us to fight sin by telling us about something better. You could quit the church to make life easy now, or you could overcome, and be called a son of God! I love that. If you trust God and thirst for Jesus more than anything else, then everything promised in this book is yours.

But if not, verse 8 warns us there can only be trouble. We all worship something. Jesus, or ourselves basically. If we worship ourselves we’ll be filled with cowardice, faithlessness, detestable thoughts and actions, and sexual immorality. If you don’t thirst for Jesus you’ll thirst for something like that. And you’ll end up where you belong, the lake of fire, the second death. If you reject Jesus, and reject righteousness, if your thirst for the toilet water of the world instead of the spring of Jesus, you’ll spend eternity where you want to be…away from Him.

We started be asking is Heaven will be boring? The real question, I guess, is will Jesus bore us for an eternity? Is there enough of Jesus to satisfy us totally, forever? It’s like a bird worrying he’ll run out of air, like a fish worrying he’ll run out of water. There’s the old song, ‘every day with Jesus is better than the one before,’ which is not totally true in this life, but it will be true in the next. I want to let one of my heroes, JE have the last word about this; ‘To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean’

Will I Be Bored in Heaven? (i)

Do you ever worry that Heaven might be a bit boring? You’d probably never say it out loud, but you’ve thought it. Life on Earth as a Christian seems so real, so fulfilling, so good, but what will Heaven be like? And eternity seems like a long time to be sitting on a cloud, or in a church service, or whatever. Can we be sure that we’ll enjoy Heaven?

The simple answer according to the Bible, and according to these eight verses, is a resounding and loud, yes! Yes! We can be sure that we’ll enjoy Heaven forever. In fact, we can be sure that the longer we’re in Heaven the more we will enjoy it. Revelation 21:1-8 promises us that we can look forward to a new Heaven and a new earth, where we will experience God’s mercy, where we’ll be satisfied by the pleasure of His presence, and where we’ll be delighted by fellowship with Him forever. Revelation 21:1-8 breaks up into two parts, in verses 1-4 we see that the former things have passed away, and in verses 5-8 we hear Jesus saying that He is making all things new.

Remember, the last two chapters of Revelation tell the story of the rest of time. The rebellion is over, the devil, the beast and the false prophet are gone forever, sin is gone forever with them and now we can live forever in peace with God. As The Lord promised to Abraham, He will be our God and we will be His people.

So let’s look at verses 1-4 together. Verses 1 and 4 both tell us that things have ‘passed away,’ those statements bookend this paragraph and let us know that this is it’s main thrust. Something has changed forever, never to go back. The old has gone, the new has come. We learn about the new Heaven, new Earth and the new Jerusalem in verses 1 and 2. These verses represt a fulfillment of God’s promise in Isaiah 65:13 where He promises to make a new Heavens and new Earth. Well here they are. Verse 1 gives us the wide angle of the whole new creation. No sea, no sin, no groaning, no corruption, then verse 2 narrows in on the new Jerusalem, which comes out of Heaven and to Earth. Maybe we should stop thinking about us going to Heaven, and start thinking about Heaven coming here. The city is ‘prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’ She’s pure, she’s holy, she’s beautiful, she’s ready. You and I have all been hurt by sin, by corruption, but Jesus promises us a world where none of these things exist. The new city isn’t a girlfriend who is going to break your heart, she’s your wife who will love you forever. Will we enjoy Heaven? Yes! We’ll enjoy the purity, the trust and the joy that comes from a world without sin. We can’t even imagine how good it will be there!

We can trust that these things are true because of who will be in the holy city. Look at verse 3 and 4 with me. Isn’t that the most astonishing promise. We’ll no longer be separated from God, in fact, we’ll be with Him. And where God is there is nothing to fear, nothing to ruin enjoyment. The presence of God is the greatest joy, the greatest reward the Bible knows how to offer, it’s what we were made for and we’ll enjoy it forever in Heaven! Every tear will be wiped away. Every sorrow forgotten. Every day will feel like the best day ever, because we will live with Jesus. No crying or prain. These things belong to the old order. These things, like sin, belong to a world influenced by the devil and his followers. These things belong to a world stained by sin. That world has passed away, gone forever. Jesus has made all things new.

Book review: The Glory of Heaven. John MacArthur

Here's the headline; if you've been allured, led astray, by the recent vogue for heaven tourism books, this is the necessary antidote. And i'm sorry.

Let's deal with those two statements backwards. I'm sorry because if you've read such books as 'Heaven is for real,' or  'To Heaven and Back' two cite to popular books, then, at some level you've been let down by the church. No one who is even familiar with the Bible should need books like these to help their faith, no one who is even familiar with the Bible would accept these books as compatible with Christianity. The fact that these books sell so well points to a systemic failure in the church. And it stinks. And i'm sorry.

This book, The Glory of Heaven, is the antidote. This book will fill you with longing for Heaven, actual heaven, the Heaven we find in the Bible, not in the, at best, dreams, or, at worst, demon inspired accounts of the near dead.

The Glory of Heaven was originally published in 1996, and the recent republished work is much the same, save for a new introduction, a new chapter at the beginning, and appendices at the end which deal, idea by idea, with three of the best selling Heaven tourism books. This lack of editing is an undoubted strength of the book. Why? Because MacArthur, with his typical faithful and probing exegesis focuses this book on what Heaven is like, and that never changes. The best way to deal with error is not neccesarily to refute it, but to tell the truth. Don't just sit there and tell me that Big Macs are bad for me, feed me steak. The reasons why heaven tourism books simply can not paint a real picture of Heaven are as long as your arm, but much better to focus on truth than error. The appendices are helpful for dealing with the errors in those books, but i'm thankful, for the sake of my heart, that the majority of the book retells the Biblical visions of heaven.

MacArthur writes chapters on what Heaven will be like, what we'll be like when we're there, the new Jerusalem, and angels. Reading it made me hungry for Heaven, hungry for Jesus, and hungry for the Word. It made sin seem foolish and Jesus seem glorious. It reminded me that Heaven is glorious in the most terrifying sense of the world, and that no one who has really been to Heaven and back could come back speaking of anything other than Jesus' glory. That, after all, is the theme of Revelation.

It's a fairly short book, only 215 pages including the appendices, but, if you want a beautiful, Biblical portrait of Heaven, there's nothing i've read like it. If you're not interested in Heaven tourism books, you should read this anyway, for the sake of your faith, for the sake of your heart. And if you've been drawn away from the Bible by what those books have to say, run, don't walk to imbibe the antidote, which makes Jesus look big and us look small. Truly the theme of Heaven itself.