High Expectations: Witness
Sermon begins at 29:01
Some years ago, I read a book titled “The One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven!” Before I opened the cover, someone challenged me to tell them what I thought the one thing was that I could not do in heaven.
As you hear that question, what answers come to mind? Do you think you can drink beer in heaven? Maybe you are like one of the people that I conducted a funeral for, his family got up and shared that he was golfing in heaven?
When I was in the fourth grade, my Sunday School teacher taught us that heaven was a place where we would be singing hymns and praising God all the time. As a fourth grader, that did not sound like ‘heaven’ to me! So, I asked my dad what we would be doing in heaven. He told me to think of the happiest thing of which you could think. I decided that I was going to ride my motorcycle in heaven!
The Bible does not really tell us whether we will drink beer or ride motorcycle or golf in heaven. What we do understand from the Bible is that we will not be able to tell other people there about Jesus because everyone there will already know about Jesus and those who needed to know about Jesus will not be there.
Mark 16:16 – “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” KJV
Why is it that we do not tell everyone we meet about Jesus? Are we ashamed of him? Do we feel foolish? Do we not want to have people push back against our beliefs, tell us we are crazy, have them point out how someone who represented the church or Christ hurt them? Perhaps all the above.
It may also be that we do not really believe that God is going to damn people to hell. Perhaps we have fallen into the good person trap with believing that despite what God’s Word says, if people are civilly good here, somehow, they will be found good “enough” to get into there… that is heaven.
In response to the resurrection, the early church found the message of the free gift of salvation so compelling that they shared their faith with everyone they met, and because of that, “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)
-Pastor Ken