What do you think about when you think of heaven? I don't think Hollywood got it right.
Forget the clouds and fog. Let's go to God's words instead. This is The Encouraging Word, featuring the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton, and today we head to the book of John chapter 14 about heaven.
That's Dr. Don's message, heaven. As we study God's Word, know that we're available for you, connecting a number of ways. If you would like to talk to someone and pray with someone, we're here 24 hours a day at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673, and we're connecting online as well, keyboard to keyboard at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. While you're there, check out the resource about praying for our children and grandchildren. What an opportunity.
That's online at www.tewonline.org. And now today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. We're in our Bibles in John chapter 14. I want to speak to you today about heaven, so you can imagine what a subject I'm speaking is. Steve, as we got up when we all get to heaven and you quoting, you quoted my passage today. I said, I didn't even tell Steve which passage I was going to be in, but evidently God knew. And I told Steve actually yesterday, I said, Steve, you know, we both felt very strongly led that I would preach on heaven today. And I told him yesterday, I said, Steve, this, the problem with this is I'm just coming up with more and more and more.
I mean, I might need to keep doing this. You ever thought about heaven? You know, in a general term, there are three schools of thought when it comes to heaven.
And I'm making a very general term here. First of all, there are some who believe that heaven doesn't exist. It's just a non-existent thing.
It's hardly worth talking about. Many, many people today who you talk about heaven, they say, listen, when you die, you just die. It's over. Just get on with it. Just live. Do whatever you can while you're alive because when you die, you just back to dust. You don't go anywhere.
You don't exist anywhere. There's no such thing as heaven. Then there's a second school of thought that believes that heaven may exist. And the emphasis is on may. While some believe heaven doesn't exist, there are some who believe that heaven may exist.
But it depends. It's a possibility. The may group, exist group, are a group of people, and I'm doing a broad sweep here, are people who would say, well, you know, it may, you know, they could possibly some place out there. The may exist are a vast group of people who come up with statements when people die like, well, you know, at least God needs a trumpet player. And they're just general, well, at least they're at peace now. People will make that statement when someone dies.
Well, at least they're at peace now. What they mean by, well, wherever it is, wherever it is, and by whatever you call paradise, some kind of sort of post-existent existence, it's may, it's, you know, but nobody knows, and one day, you know, you'll find out. And if it is, it is. If it isn't, it isn't.
So they're kind of caught in between. But there's a third group, and I fall into this third group, and I want you to know that there are many of us who believe that heaven does exist. I do. I want you to know that today. I'm a Christian man, and I believe very strongly. With all my heart, I'm absolutely convinced that heaven is very real. It's an absolute certainty, and, and I can guarantee you, not on my authority, but on God's authority, that when you die, you, every single person ever born, has every opportunity to go to heaven, because God loves you. And that's why he sent the Lord Jesus to die for you, and it's through him.
And I want to just show you today, in a very, very basic sense, something here that's so wonderful about heaven. Let me read this to you, first of all, in John chapter 14. Steve quoted this as we began our wonderful time of worship today. This is, this is what Jesus said in John 14. He said, Let not your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. Another word that's used, there are many mansions, many rooms, many places in which to live.
That's what that means. In my Father's house, that's God's house, there are many places in which you will live. And if it was not the case, if it were not so, I, Jesus said, I would have told you. And I'm going to that place to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you will be also.
And you know the way where I am going. Verse five, Thomas, good old doubting Thomas. We all have doubts, don't we? How many of you have ever had a doubt about God, about heaven?
I have my, both my hands up. Don't, don't be afraid of your doubts, okay? Don't, don't, don't be afraid of your doubts.
Because God will answer those. When you doubt something in a spiritual sense, God will demonstrate what it is that you need to know in order to overcome your doubt. Doubting Thomas said, man, how do I even know you are Jesus? Jesus said, see my hands, I'm the one that was crucified.
You, you doubted me, you're out. You're not going to go to heaven because you doubted. Thomas said, Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man can come to the Father excepting through me. And if you'd known me, you would have known my Father also.
From now on you do not know him and have not seen him. And Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and it'll be enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And Jesus here was talking in the context. He had this group of men in front of him that were not different to you and me. They were all a group of ragamuffins. They were all preoccupied. They were all surrounded by struggles. They were all being swallowed up by their community. Many of them were being persecuted.
They were all trying to make a living. And Jesus gathered them together and he said to them, I want to tell you something that is absolutely fantastic. The bottom line was, he said, I just want to tell you that heaven is real. And he put into perspective a very, very simple picture. He gave them a picture of heaven. And I've just extrapolated some of these things. What he said was that heaven, first of all, removes all your fear. When you accept by faith and know that what I'm saying to you concerning heaven, it will remove all fear.
He said, let not your hearts be troubled. There's a lot going on in our world. The jolly old Brits voted to lead the European Union. They've coined this phrase Brexit. And there is so much talk and discussion.
There are people saying all kinds of things. It's become a political football too. What's going to happen now that England has made a decision? We might be reverting back to what some of us remember the days when we would go to Europe and you'd move from Holland into Luxembourg, down to Belgium, go to Portugal and Spain and then cross every border you went across.
You had to go through a border crossing with a different passport. A lot of people asking questions about the economy, about what's happening and what is the fallout, what does it mean. The immigration issue is the centerpiece of everything. There are massive movements going on.
You've got a new rise of nationalism taking place in the world. And Jesus would look at you and me today and he'd say let not your heart be troubled. Some of you today with good reason may be anxious and personally. Some of you going through your own personal challenges.
There's not a day that goes by that we don't have the great privilege of holding someone's hand and loving on our friends and family members. And Jesus said let not your heart be troubled. You see heaven removes fear.
It's not the type of thing where he's saying well just listen, don't worry about a thing. But Jesus did say be anxious for nothing. And when you look to heaven, I personally and many of you can testify to this. How many times have you and I stood at the bedside of some precious person who is leaving this life? You want to know the reality of heaven? Be around some of these people.
And you and I would be there and we'd say wow look at them. And sometimes people suffer physically and yet the joy, there's an inner joy, there's a peace. I know that I'm my redeemer living.
Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back in just a moment with the rest of today's message on heaven from Dr. Don Wilton. But Dr. Don wants you to know we're here to pray with you 24 hours a day.
We can connect in a number of ways. Many folks are finding even though we do a lot of texting and typing today that the joy of hearing someone pray for you on the phone is a unique blessing that we'd love to offer. 866-899-WORD is our phone number.
That's 866-899-9673. And we'd love to pray with you. We'd also love to connect you with some wonderful resources that will help you grow in your faith.
If you're a prayer warrior and you have children or grandchildren, there's a tremendous resource called Stand in the Gap, talking about the prayers that availeth much for us as parents and grandparents. Again, you'll see all those details on our website www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. And while you're there, sign up for the daily encouraging word email. It's absolutely free from Dr. Wilton.
Again, that's online at www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Heaven, that's what Jesus was saying. Heaven removes all fear. But he also wanted us to know that heaven depends on faith. Believe in God, believe also in me. That's how you get to heaven. Believe in God, why? Because God authorized our access to heaven. Now back to today's message on heaven with Dr. Don Wilton here on the encouraging word.
Now my friends, listen carefully. There are many opinions today. You could come to me, you could go to people, religions, different religions will give you opinions. The opinion that I want is the opinion of my heavenly father, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in God. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The one who made us, who created the heavens and the earth and who loves us. For God so loved the world.
Believe in God. And what he's trying to tell us is, listen, yes, heaven will remove all fear and the means by which all fear is removed because of heaven is dependent solely and exclusively on faith, trusting. You got to take God at his word because God authorized it. I'm not here telling you that there is heaven. I'm here telling you that God has authorized heaven. It's his home. It's his house.
It's his abode. And I'm going to take God at his word. Faith means that I trust God. I take him at his word.
I just believe it. And he said, believe in God, believe also in me. God authorized it. Jesus did it. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not die, but should inherit eternal life. Jesus did it. And Jesus was gathered his disciples and he said, he said, listen, you want to know how heaven can be yours, how you can be guaranteed the fact that you're going to heaven. Believe in God and believe also in me.
God authorized it because he is God, our heavenly father. He gave Jesus Christ as the ultimate act of his grace and his mercy to all of us. And I, the Lord Jesus, am the son of the living God.
I am God. And I gave my life in order that you might have life. And through me, yes, you're going to heaven. So heaven removes all fear.
It depends on faith. And thirdly, it carries the promise. That's what Jesus, Jesus want us to know this about heaven, that it carries the ultimate promise. What, what's the ultimate promise? As I go, when I go, I will come back and receive you. What a promise. I'm coming back.
I'm coming back. You know, I remember when my children were little, long time ago now, but I love thinking back on some of those days. I do it with my grandkids now too.
We all do that. You know, when you have to go off somewhere, I remember the times when our children were just two bricks and a ticky high. And I was always going off all over the place, preaching and all over the country.
And I'd leave on overseas trips. And I can still see my little people just standing there, just absolutely not too happy that daddy was going off somewhere. And Karen, my wife, was always so wonderful. And so just the way she, and I, you know, when you go down and you get down with a little child, you say, hey buddy, come over here and give me a big hug.
And they come over there and they've got big tears running down their cheeks. That's okay. Daddy's coming back. I'm coming back. I'll be back, okay? I'm coming.
I'm coming back. Okay, dad. You know, then you're off somewhere and you just can't help it, you know, and you go and pick up some T-shirt or you go and get something for the kids, a little toy and you call back and then you say, you know what, when I get home, I've got you something special.
Moms and dads do that. There is a sense in which, listen, we are God's children. He loves us. Loves us very much. He carries the promise of our Heavenly Father. I'm going to my father's house and I will come back. The Bible tells us, gives us all that. And I told Steve, I said, you know, I'm really praying about maybe just developing a series here on heaven, right here on Sunday morning, because I want to just spend some time telling you some of these great truths and where the Bible tells us and how it all comes together.
It's fantastic. The Bible says that the Lord Jesus is going to come in the clouds and he's going to gather us all up together. And we're going to be joined together with all of those. Maybe your daddy is in heaven today and he loves you very much. You're going to see him again.
Your mother, maybe it's your son or your daughter. You know, we hurt a lot because we miss each other. But wow, we've got heaven to think about. You know, it hurts when you lose someone that you love very much, doesn't it? You know, I don't think Jesus ever told us to just kind of get over that.
If any of you can tell me how to get over love, I actually don't want to listen to you because I don't want to get over love. Why? Why? You know? And when someone that you really love, you know, suddenly leaves them and goes off to heaven.
But then think about this. I'm going to come back and I'm going to gather you. You're going to be, we are going to be together in heaven. That's a promise. I'll be coming back.
I'm coming to get you. And you know, you and I look at this and we say, gosh, you know, is that a whole year from now? Is that 50 years from now?
How? You know? I don't know that we can fully understand how short and meaningless time is in heaven. It's forever.
My favorite, I've told you this 100 times. Someone once told me it's like a little bird the size of my little finger landing on a steel ball the size of this earth. Once every million years and just scraping the beak on that steel ball, when that ball has been scraped away if it was possible, not even a millisecond of eternities passed by. And then it hasn't even begun. Any rate, I mean, heaven removes all fear. Depends on faith. Carries the promise. Number four, guarantees his presence. He said where I am, there you will be also.
The number one person present in heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ. And gathering us to himself once again gives us this beautiful picture of this personal relationship. Sam Davis and I some time back had to get a taxi to get to an airport. And we got in a taxi and Sam was with me and the man's name, he couldn't speak English very well, but his name was Abraham. Abraham.
Abraham. And of course he began talking. And didn't he talk, Sam? And he started trying to tell me about his religion. So I let him talk and let him talk and let him talk. And then I finally started to interrupt him.
And he wanted to talk again. I said, uh-uh. I said, I didn't interrupt you when you were telling me about your religion.
Now don't you interrupt me when I tell you. I said, Abraham, I'll make a deal with you. I said, I want you to just imagine sadly that riding in your taxi, in fact it wouldn't surprise me at all the way you driving, if around the corner we have a wreck and all of us were to die.
We were in a city and we were to die. And you've got from now until we all die when we go around that next corner to tell me why I need to believe in the God of your religion. And most importantly, I want you to tell me how I'm going to get into your heaven. He said, oh, can't do that.
Nobody can know if they get to heaven. I said, why? He said, well, you just don't know. He said, man, that's why I pray like I do. And he said, that's why I do this. And this is why I want to do this. And this is why this and this. And he gives me all these works and these things that he does in his religion.
And I said, all right, you be quiet now. Let me tell you, because we're about to go around that corner, we might all die. Do you know that Jesus is the son of the living God and he loves you? He's God's son and he died on a cross. You can give your heart to him. Be forgiven of your sin and be guaranteed his presence.
And you will go to heaven. Would you give your heart to Jesus? Now he turned me down flat. He said, no, no. He said, I don't. He said, I won't do that. He said, now I don't have any problem with Jesus. He's just a good man and a good prophet, but I'm not going to. He said, no, but I shared the gospel with him.
Do you know Jesus? See, this is what heaven's all about. This is why Jesus gathered his disciples like this.
Guarantees his presence to personal relationship. What sets Christianity apart from all world religions is you can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And we literally become brothers and sisters in Christ. We are part of the same family.
Red people, yellow people, black people, white people, people from every walk, every persuasion, every economic group. See, when Jesus went to the cross, he leveled the playing field. He died that all people might know him. It's been a great day of Bible study here at The Encouraging Word. Oh, but there's a great day ahead tomorrow. Tomorrow's topic is God's promise for praying for others. I hope you'll join us for the next edition of The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilson. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart in Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.
This is exciting news. If you just prayed along with Dr. Wilson to give your life to Christ or rededicate your life, we're not only excited to pray for you, but we'd love to put some resources in your hands that will help you take the next step and grow. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. And Dr. Wilson would love to pray for you. Each and every day we receive emails to Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G with friends telling us about what God is doing through the ministry of The Encouraging Word. This is fuel to our fire.
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