There are so many things that we, as Christians, hope for in life. We get very exited and pumped up about the manifestation, or even the possibility of the manifestation of those hopes. People shout, scream and clap at meetings when a healing is announced, or a job or career boost is announced. We get excited about new homes, relationships and graduate degrees. We get excited and pumped up about all sorts of things. And rightfully so. These are things we should get excited about. We should be glad and happy that prosperity has touched someone’s life. It’s alright to hope for these things in our own lives. What has bothered me for many years now about all of this is that, while the Church is getting pumped up about all of this temporary stuff, the Church doesn’t seem to get pumped up about Heaven anymore. I don’t see Christians getting pumped up about Heaven. That is strange to me.
We seem to spend all of our time hoping for things that Jesus never spent any particular amount of time talking about. But, we don’t spend anytime thinking about the only hope that He talked about all of the time. And indeed, the only hope that He gave His life for. Healing, prosperity, the solving of problems and such all existed before Jesus went to the cross. People were even raised from the dead before He went to the cross. So, obviously, He did not have to die for those things. The hope that He died for is something that could be fulfilled only by His death. If He thought it was worth dying for, why do we give it so little importance in our lives these days?
Let’s look at a few of the encouragements that the Word gives us concerning this hope. 1Pet. 3:15 is a good place to start. “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.” Peter admonishes us to know this hope so well, that we will always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks at any time. By the way, this is not a suggestion, but, rather a God inspired command. Be ready! We talk about everything else that is a part of salvation all of the time. We talk about healing, prosperity, getting over hurts and broken hearts. But we don’t talk about the main reason for salvation: Heaven. That is like watching a horse race, clearly seeing the winner and then constantly talking about the also-rans. We spend all of our time talking about who came in second, third and so on and never talk about the winner. That doesn’t make sense. Yet, that is exactly what the Church has been doing the past 20 years, talking about the also-rans.
“…that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”(Titus 3:7). “…looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”(Titus 2:13). Eternal life and the appearing of Christ to lead us into eternal life…this is the hope that lives within us. This is the hope that brings the joy of expectation. We are heirs to Heaven. Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house where there are many mansions. I speculate that, while He is going to prepare a place for us collectively, He will also prepare a place for us individually. So, you can come to my place and enjoy my kind of groove and I can go to your place and enjoy your groove. Jesus knows and loves us that much. 1Pet. 1:3-4 tells us that this hope is in a heavenly inheritance that is incorruptible and will not fade away. How can we not get excited about Heaven?
“Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel , confirmed by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul…”(Heb. 6:17-19. The early Church laid hold of this hope during a time of great persecution. It was the anchor that held them steady in the sea of turmoil. It was this hope that enabled them to die terrible deaths for their faith and still sing praises to God in the midst of dying. It was this hope that the persecutors saw in the faces of the saints as they were killing them. This same hope caused the persecutors to knell down on the spot and accept the Lord. It was this hope that caused the Church to flourish against all odds. It is this hope and only this hope that will keep us focused today in the midst of all of the distractions. Again and again we spend all of our time talking about things that Jesus never talked about and we never talk about what He talked about all of the time. Romans 8:20-21 tells us that all of creation eagerly awaits its redemption along with ours. Even a blade of grass is smart enough to look forward to Heaven. Aren’t we at least as smart as a blade of grass?
“But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”(1Cor. 2:9). This one passage alone should be enough to get Christians exited about Heaven. Think about all of the great accomplishments of mankind just during your life time. The imagination and talents of man have taken us to the moon and to Mars and other areas of space. Great strides have been made in medicine, art, technology, you name it. And yet, with all that we have accomplished and with all that we can imagine, God tells us that we won’t even get close to what He has in store for us who love Him. If that doesn’t get you pumped up, I don’t know what will. God loves us and has great things in store for us. We should be continually looking forward to His plan for our lives. He created us to spend eternity with Him. That hasn’t changed.
I often hear ministers say dumb stuff like, “You can be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.” Did they forget that Christ was heavenly minded and that we have the “mind of Christ?” Or they say something like, “Don’t use your Christianity as just fire insurance to avoid hell and get to Heaven.” Did they forget that the premium paid for our “fire insurance” is the Blood of Christ?
God placed the hope for heaven within us to keep us on course spiritually. In the past few years, we have been working overtime to replace the “blessed hope” with all sorts of other hopes. This is why we have so many frustrated Christians in church today. They are spending all of their time looking forward to the wrong hopes. The hopes that take up all of their time are not designed to fulfill a life. Hebrews 11 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for. If this is true, then our faith can never be stronger than our hope. Our faith can never exceed the level of our hope. If every thing that we hope for is at eye level, then our faith will be very shallow. It is not until we take our hope to the throne of God that our faith becomes deep. In other words, the higher the hope, the deeper the faith. The Bible is filled with God’s plan for our eternity. I hope this brief message will encourage you to look further than these few passages that I have shared with you. Remember: Christ in us, the Hope of Glory!!!
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