"The Discoveries of Heaven"

Dear Friends in Christ,         

   If you’ve ever been to a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium, it’s quite possible you have seen or heard at some time or another an elderly black gentleman who parks his body across from the stadium and plays his saxophone after the games in the hopes of getting some tips from appreciative or sympathetic passers-by.  How many of you have ever seen this fellow?  Well, in a very similar manner, on Jan. 12, 2007, at 7:51 a.m. a musician took his place in a subway station in Washington, D.C. where he opened up his violin case, threw some pocket change into his hat for seed money, and then began to play.  For 43 minutes he played – passionately, powerfully, his body swaying back and forth with the music.  During those 43 minutes, 1037 people walked past him.  From those who donated he collected $32.14.  Of the 1037 people who passed him, only 7 people stopped.  Of those 7 people only one of them recognized him as the most celebrated violinist on the planet:  Joshua Bell.  Just a few days earlier Mr. Bell had played before a capacity crowd at Boston’s Symphony Hall where the cheap seats went for a hundred dollars a piece.  Three days later he would fill another symphony hall in Bethesda, MD.  Joshua Bell is such an accomplished virtuoso of the violin that he can command up to $1000 a minute for a performance.  Yet during those 43 minutes in that subway station he barely collected enough money to buy a family of 4 a supper at McDonald’s. 

   You can’t really blame it on the instrument he was using for he was playing a $3.5 million Stradivarius violin, personally owned by him and made during what is known as the golden period of Stradivarius’ career.  And you can’t blame it on the selection of the music he played.  One particular piece was a 14 minute rendition of a composition by Johann Sebastian Bach that has been called the greatest achievement of any composer in history.  Yet even though the instrument was priceless, the music was matchless, and the musician was accomplished, scarcely anyone noticed.  Why was that?  I suspect the primary reason was because we are not accustomed to seeing or looking for the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary.  I mean, here was a fellow who was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt, blue jeans, and a Washington Nationals baseball cap in a subway station, of all places.  We’re not used to beholding such virtuosity in that kind of setting dressed in that kind of way.  Add to that the fact that people are busy, especially at 7:51 a.m. in Washington, D.C. where they have one goal on their mind and that is to get to work.  Who has time to stop and listen to some nobody playing a violin in a subway station when there are meetings to attend and budgets to balance and world-changing decisions waiting to be made?  Who has time to notice the majesty in the midst of the mundane?

   Sadly, most if not all of us here today, can relate to what I’ve been talking about because we have been guilty of doing that, haven’t we?  We get so busy, so preoccupied with our own plans and schedules that we fail to see the majesty of God in the midst of our mundane lives.  We fail to behold the greatness and goodness of our Lord that he allows to spill over into our lives.  But the day is coming, my friends, when all of that will change.  When we who are believers in Christ finally leave this world behind and step across the threshold of heaven, we will behold and discover things that we never dreamed possible.  And this morning I want to spend my time taking a look at some of those “The Discoveries of Heaven” in the hopes that it will gladden your heart and fill you with great excitement and anticipation for that day when we will finally be able to behold them.

   One thing I think we’ll discover in heaven is saved people that we didn’t expect to be there.  Contrary to what a lot of misinformed people believe about God, he takes no pleasure, no delight, no satisfaction in the death of the wicked.  Rather Paul tells us in I Tim. 2:4, he “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”  And he has done everything possible and everything necessary to accomplish the salvation of all.  Please understand, my friends, that when Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t just die for those who would ultimately be saved.  He didn’t just shed his blood and give his life for those who would trust in him as their Savior and Lord.  Rather, the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 5:15 that “he died for all.”  So God has paid the price and paved the way for all people to be saved.  And when a person for whatever reason ignores or rejects what Christ did, God doesn’t give up on that individual.  The famous author C. S. Lewis knew what that was like.  Once a confirmed agnostic, which is just one step away from an atheist, he had distanced himself about as far away from God as possible, but as he put it in some of his writings, “the Hound of Heaven (referring to God) had crept ever closer.”  And after being pursued by God for so long, Lewis finally threw in the towel.  He gave up and surrendered himself to his Creator and Lord and went on to become one of the greatest defenders of the Christian faith that our world has ever known.

   I’ll never forget a story that one of our former vicars, Tim Koch, told me one time about some evangelism calls he was making one Saturday afternoon with some other teens from Ongoing Ambassadors for Christ.  They knocked on the door of one house only to be greeted by a man who basically slammed the door in their face once he found out why they were there.  So Tim and his companions continued working their way down that street going door to door and sharing the Gospel of Christ with those willing to listen.  The street ended in a cul-de-sac so when they were finished they began to retrace their steps out of that subdivision.  When they came to the house of the man who had rejected them, there was an ambulance parked outside and the man was being brought out to it.  Only the paramedics were not working on him because he had died of a heart attack.  But what struck me about that story is that God tried up to the very end to save that man, to get him safely home to heaven.  That’s how passionate and concerned he is about everyone’s salvation.

   So I’m convinced that one of the discoveries of heaven – and oh what a glorious one it will be – is that we will see people there that we didn’t expect to see, people who unbeknownst to us were brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit either after we knew them or before they died. But what about those who never respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit?  What about those who go to their graves without Christ in their hearts?  How can heaven have joy as long as hell has people, especially people that we’ve known and loved?  That’s a great question, one that I’ve been asked many times.  So let me see if I can answer it for you by taking a look at another discovery that awaits us in heaven and that is the fairness of hell.  We touched on this briefly in one of my previous sermons in this series when I emphasized very strongly that God never sends anyone to hell.  Rather, as we’ve already noted, he has done everything possible to keep people out of hell.  And so if a person ends up there, it is not God’s fault.  It is that person’s fault.  Hell is the chosen destiny of those who love self more than God, who love sin more than their Savior, who love this world more than God’s world.  Those who end up in hell are just like the crowd of people on that first Good Friday who called out to Pilate when he presented Jesus to them, “We don’t want this man to be our king.”  Not even their final judgment in hell will change their minds about Christ.  I don’t believe for one moment that hell is full of repentant and remorseful sinners.  We gather this from passages like Rev. 16:8-9 where it says of the Christ rejecters:  “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.”  When we look at the story of the rich man and Lazarus that Jesus told in Luke 16, not once do we hear one word of repentance coming from the rich man’s mouth once he is in hell.  Yes, he begs for a drop of water to cool his burning tongue.  Yes, he pleads with father Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers of this horrible place.  But at no time does he say he is sorry for the terrible things he did during his life on this earth and for the horrible ways he treated beggars like Lazarus.

   The point I’m getting at here, my friends, is that in our eternal, perfected, and glorified state we will see with different eyes and judge from a different perspective the justice of God that will fall upon those who turned their backs on him.  When we stand in the presence of this holy God and become aware of all the opportunities, all the invitations that he extended to the lost and we see all the times that they turned them down and told God to leave them alone, I believe we will understand with perfect clarity why hell is their just reward.  That doesn’t mean it will be easy and I’m not quite sure how we’ll handle it all.  But I agree with author Randy Alcorn who says: “Hell will have no power over heaven and none of hell’s misery will ever veto any of heaven’s joy.” 

   That takes us to a 3^rd discovery we’ll make in heaven and that is how small are the big things of earth and how big are the small things of heaven.  Now we’re already somewhat familiar with this progression.  For example, remember how big of a deal it was when you were a teenager that you get invited to that birthday party because everyone else was supposedly going to be there.  Why that was more important to you than solving the problem of world hunger!  Or remember how big of a deal it was for you to make the Little League team or the football squad or the school play?  You may have even made comments like, “If I don’t get picked, I’ll just die.”  But you didn’t.  You survived and with time you learned that that which was big back then was really pretty small.  And now that you’re an adult you have a whole new list of big things that cause you stress like managing your cholesterol, pleasing your boss, paying your bills, dealing with health issues, and so on.  But may I suggest to you that when we look back on those things from the perspective of heaven we’ll say, “Man, that was nothing more than an adolescent pimple of a problem.”  And the reason I say that is because of what the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 4:17 where he writes (and I’m going to read this to you from the paraphrase of the Bible known as The Message): “These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us.”  Now I don’t mean to discount or make light of any of the challenges and struggles that some of you are facing right now, but I really believe that the day is coming when they won’t seem very big.  Like Paul says in Rom. 8:18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” 

   So what is big on earth will be small in heaven.  And what may be considered small in heaven would be huge on this earth.  How does the hymn writer put it?  “Just one glimpse of him in glory will the toils of life repay.”  And trust me, my friends, we’re going to have more than one glimpse of Christ in glory.  We’re going to have an eternity of glimpses.  And not just glimpses, but face to face, one on one encounters with him.  And not only with him but with all the saints and patriarchs that have preceded us there: Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Peter, Paul, James, and John.  Imagine rubbing shoulders with and sitting at the feet of heaven’s elite.  But not only will we have encounters with them, we’ll be able to enjoy sweet times of fellowship with all our believing loved ones who are waiting for us there.  Oh how I long to see my mom and dad again in their perfect and glorified state, my grandmas and grandpas, my mother-in-law and father-in-law and brothers-in-law.  All of us have dear precious loved ones who are no doubt anxious for our arrival.  And to think that once we’re reunited with them we’ll never have to worry about being separated from them again!

   I want to close then with an experience that Marilyn and I had several years ago when we travelled to Colorado Springs to tackle our biggest hiking challenge ever: the 12 mile hike to the top of Pike’s Peak – 14,110 feet above sea level.  The day we arrived, which was the day before we planned to do our hike, the peak was completely enveloped and enshrouded in clouds.  You couldn’t see any of it.  But on the morning of our hike when we stepped outside before sunrise and looked up into the sky we saw brilliant sparkling stars.  So we knew it was going to be a good day.  And when the sun rose, there it was:  Beautiful.  Majestic.  Awesome.  I believe that’s a great analogy of the transition we will experience at the end of our journey on this earth where things seem to cloudy, so fuzzy, so dark and gloomy at times  and we take our first step into eternity where we shall behold a sight that will be so beautiful, so majestic, and so awe-inspiring that we’ll want to capture it and hold on to it forever.  And guess what?  That’s exactly what we’ll be able to do as we embark upon this incredible time of discovering all that we’ve talked about today and many other indescribables and undiscoverables that God has waiting for us there. 

Amen.