The Way to Heaven

John 14:1-6 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.  Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither you goest; and how can we know the way?  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

In this passage the Lord Jesus teaches us about heaven.  How do we get there? What is the way to heaven?  We have to ask that question because there is a way to heaven.  In our modern western world people just assume heaven.  It is assumed that we will go to heaven when we die.  People assume that they will arrive in heaven after death, this is an almost universal idea.  People who have no interest in God, no interest in Jesus Christ, no interest in His church, no time for the bible, somehow still think it's fitting and  natural that they will end up in heaven after they die.  If their destiny is questioned, they are hurt and offended. "They are looking down upon us now from heaven", that is what they say about people who had no interest in God their whole life.  "They are in a better place now."  Wake up.  Heaven is assumed because the people in the world don't seem to understand one of the facts of life: if you are going to end up somewhere, you need to be on the way to that place.  If you are not on the way to that place you are not going to end up there.  That is a fact of life.  Everybody knows that.  

Does there need to be a way to heaven?  Of course there needs to be a way.  There is a connection, a logical connection, a factual connection, an unquestionable connection, no one can deny it, between the way you are on and the destination at which you will arrive.  If you want to go to somewhere, you need to be on the road to get there.  If you are not on the way to a certain destination, you will not end up there.  There is an undeniable factual connection between the way you are on, and the destination at which you will arrive.  You don't get to a place by doing nothing.  Modern people assume they will get to heaven by sitting in their living room and doing nothing.  They assume that there is no connection between the way and the destination.  They assume heaven because modern people are illogical and irrational in this area.  The bible says they are foolish.  Jeremiah 5:4 "Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God." 

What Is It to be Sealed With the Spirit?

Ephesians 1:9-14; Romans 10:14-17

The child of God is blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ.  It doesn't matter whether the child of God feels or understand the blessings or not, Christ hath blessed us V3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."  Its something that Christ has done and we don't do it.  We are blessed in mind-blowing ways, in that we have been chosen in Christ from before the created order, we are blessed in that we are chosen to be holy and blameless before God.  In that we are adopted as God's beloved children and we are blessed in that it has been predestinated that we would inherit the inheritance of Christ.  We are blessed in that by grace we have been made acceptable in the presence of God, in that we have been bought by the blood of Jesus, all our sins are forgiven.  What blessings.  To do these things for us, God has abounded in his mercy and grace.  And more than that God has illuminated the saved, revealed his will to us and also the true believer has true unity in Christ presently.  One in Christ.  The body of believers is united.  We have been predestinated to bring God praise and glory.  

Another blessing is after we believed:  the sealing of the Holy Spirit.  Christ's people are sealed with the Holy Spirit.  V12-14 "That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."
 
You trusted when you heard the gospel, you were sealed after you believed, and what is it to be saved by the Holy Spirit?

Ephesians: All of Grace

Ephesians 1:3-10 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.  In whom we have redemption though his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him."

The blessings of God towards his people are amazing, they are spiritual blessings, and believers receive these spiritual blessings in that they are chosen in Christ from before the created order and they are chosen in Christ to be holy and without blame.  They are chosen in Christ to be sanctified, separation from sin to God, chosen to be made positionally holy and blameless.  God chose you for that before you existed.  We are adopted as his own children, he determined beforehand, he decreed from eternity that we would be adopted as his children, that we would be brought into the household of God and receive an eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus. 

By pure grace, which we have no right to, he has made us accepted in the very holy presence of God.  What blessings.  Anyone that would say "so what" or take these blessings for granted has never understood sin or God's holiness because that God would do those things for sinful wretches is absolutely astonishing.  Not to be amazed at these things that the bible says that God has done is to be an easy believer who sees salvation as a human right.  But the true Christian is saved by grace, undeserved mercy.  By grace, no one is saved as a human right.  The church needs to get away from the idea that humans have any right before God.  No one has rights to those things because salvation is of grace through faith.  Only grace.  It is only after we are adopted into his family that we become his children and the inheritors of eternal blessings from God and even then it is by Jesus Christ.  

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.  

Christ's Resurrection

The following piece on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is of notes taken from a sermon preached by Rev. Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational.  Here is the link to the sermon at Sermon Audio:

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=41807143440

Luke 24:44-49 "And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,  and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  And ye are witnesses of these things.  And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."

Christ rose from the dead and faithful Mary Magdelene saw him first, and that evening two downhearted disciples met him on the road to Emmaus..  they did not recognize him until he broke the bread.  Later on the Lord appeared to 10 apostles in the upper room, and then to Thomas and then to other people.  Make no mistake, the resurrection of Jesus Christ bodily from the tomb is central and foundational to the Christian faith.  Over the centuries Christ's resurrection has been questioned, doubted and denied.  Mocker's and sceptics views are easy to refute, they are untenable, they do not explain the facts.   No unbeliever has ever come up with a logical explanation of the facts.  The resurrection is a fact.  

That Jesus would be raised from the dead was foretold:.

1.  King David wrote Psalm 16:10  "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."  David was not talking about himself but he was prophetically talking about Jesus Christ, the holy one, whose body would see no corruption.

2.  Acts 13:33-37 "God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.  And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.  For David after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep (died) and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.

3. Christ himself,  Matthew 20:19  "And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again." Mark 9:9, "And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead."  Mark 14:28 "But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee."

The Lamb of God - The Lord Jesus Christ

The Lamb of God - The Lord Jesus Christ

This is a further meditation on the Lamb of God, but this time that perfect sacrifice enters the world as a baby, born of Mary, born a King,  the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2:5-11 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Why was the Lord Jesus our perfect sacrifice?  Why was He the perfect Lamb of God?  John the Baptist said upon seeing the approaching Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."  (John 1:29)

In the Holy Bible, old testament, every year one would take a sacrificial lamb, without spot and without blemish, to the priest.  The lamb would be slain, his blood was shed, and the person for whom the blood was shed was thus looking forward to the Saviour to come. Hebrews 9:12,15. “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us….and for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance..

When the Lord Jesus shed His precious blood and gave up His life on the cross, He was offered up Once for All.  Hebrews 10:9-10 "Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.  He taketh away the first that he may establish the second.  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."