THE DOOR TO HEAVEN, WHERE IS IT?

TEXT: John 5:39

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; these are they which testify of Me.”

The term heaven is a word that many people use in the sense of a place that is wonderful or a place where there is no sorrow or pain. Many religions speak of this place where all sorrow is gone and where we will live forever and ever. As you read the newspapers about the terrorists who blow themselves up and believe they will go to heaven where there will be seventy virgins awaiting them and will enjoy themselves in sexual pleasures forever.  All this conjecture and what men view heaven as like.  Then you have those who believe that once you die you are unconscious of your surroundings and that you will come back to earth in a different form or will become an animal or insect. You also have those who teach that when you go to heaven you will impregnate women and create other gods. All these views are the product of the thinking of the natural man who is devoid of the spirit of God.  The word of God tells us in no uncertain terms that the natural men understands not the things of God, but are foolishness to Him. First Corinthians 2:14; “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to Him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” If you were to ask the average person what heaven is, you would get many answers and most people have no understanding of the Biblical view.  The earliest mention of heaven is found in the book of Genesis where the creator is speaking of having created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The Bible seems to indicate that there are three heavens.  One would be they sky and the atmosphere that we can see with our own eyes and then you have the planets and the sun and the moon and finally you have the heaven of heavens where the living God has his abode where you have a vast army of angelic beings who can not be numbered and contains the throne of God. Until you come to the New Testament the scriptures do not give us a lot of information about heaven. We do know that heaven is a real place and that no sin can enter heaven and that it is a place of holiness and it is a place where only a prepared people will live and that no unclean thing or person can live unless they are washed in the blood of the lamb. Heaven is also a place where all will worship the Lamb of God and will live forever in the presence of the living God and will serve Him throughout eternity the Lord Jesus speaks of heaven in the gospel of John. In chapter 14:1-3 we have these words from the lips of the son of God: “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Fathers 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 to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” Here the Lord Jesus is speaking of a place with many mansions or dwelling places, and that He would after His resurrection ascend to heaven and prepare the wonderful abode or place for all that would trust in him as Lord and Savior. The only door to heaven is a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are putting our trust in church memberships or good works we have missed the boat as they say. If you want to spend eternity in heaven then repent of your sins and call upon the name of the Lord.  “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans10:9.