Are you interested in Heaven? – 12 February 2010

It is said, and I have never researched this, that far more sermons are preached about Hell than about Heaven.  More energy is spent by preachers explaining how people may end up eternally separated from God and why that may or may not mean an eternity spent in burning sulphur, than on what Heaven may be like.  I have heard clergy say that the most common question they get asked about Heaven is by, or on behalf of, small children wanting to know if their recently-departed rabbit will be there or not.  Surprising really, that we don’t seem very interested in it, when it is the place where we are due to spend eternity.  More alarming is the thought that many of us spend the first sixty years of our life preparing and saving for the final twenty, and give little thought to our eternal destination where we live forever.

It is true that we can’t know everything about Heaven until we get there.  St Paul said that we can’t humanly comprehend Heaven (2 Corinthians 12), but he also said that we can see a little of what is to come (1 Corinthians 13).

That’s what I want to encourage you to do today.  Get interested in Heaven.  As a follower of Jesus, you have been promised a place in his Kingdom.  It is where you will spend eternity.  I haven’t got room here to tell you what else the Bible says about Heaven.  You go and find out!  A good way of starting is to consider what you would like Heaven to be like, and yes I too am hoping for rabbits.  Then check it out; read what the Bible has to say about Heaven.  That way you will glimpse your inheritance and live in the light of it.  It will invigorate you, as your journey on earth will have a clear goal.  Look at the saints of old, or any modern Christian that you have looked up to.  They all know, or knew, where they are travelling to.  Contrary to what the old saying says, the most Heavenly minded people are of the most earthly use.