Matthew 6:9 “who is in heaven “
Last week we began to look at what has been called a lot of different things…The Lord’s Prayer…the Our Father Prayer…the Model Prayer…the Disciples Prayer …all describing Jesus’ prayer He gave while preaching the Sermon on the Mount.
It’s interesting to note that Jesus first tells the disciples…based on the question one of them asked Him… ‘Lord teach us to pray’ [Lk. 11:1] …so when [vs.5-7] Jesus says, ‘when you pray’ He is actually suggesting how not to pray: don’t pray like the hypocrites…praying to be seen [7] …or babbling like the pagans using meaningless words…Jesus says: “Do not be like them” [8].
Jesus then tells them ‘what to pray’. Matthew records that prayer… [6] Jesus gives a command…it’s in the imperative voice…it is a command from Jesus Himself…a command calling for us to make prayer a habit.
It’s important to know…I said this last week…most translations of [Matthew 6:9] begin with: “this is how (Οὕτως) you (ὑμεῖς) (should) pray (προσεύχεσθε) …BUT the word ‘should’ has been inserted…the word ‘should’ is not in the original Greek text… adding the word ‘should’ implies that you should pray this specific prayer just like it is written…using these exact words…but that is not the intent.
The imperative voice is the reason for the addition of the word ‘should’ because of the command to pray…implying the need to pray this prayer exactly as it is written …the confusion is not to pray these exact words…the command is to use this prayer as a pattern…a more suitable translation could be “pray in this way“
The “Lord’s Prayer” was never intended to be used as a repetitious mundane guide for prayer…but as a model to what to pray for…so clearly Jesus is presenting a pattern for our prayers…not just the words to use…these are the words from God Himself about the prayer that He desires.
The Prayer falls into seven clauses or petitions…the opening
clause is:
Our Father
Talked about this last week…this statement clearly implies that we are something more than God’s creatures …it implies a relationship…but it is also a reminder that God is distinct from His creation.
That is why this prayer prayed by an unbeliever is meaningless…they have no relationship with God…they have NOT been adopted into his family…they have not been regenerated or born again… they have NOT been made heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.
By calling God ‘Our Father’ conveys our relationship to God…it establishes us as sons and daughters…that as Christians we don’t live in isolation…when we sin… there are repercussions throughout the whole church…when a brother or sister suffers…we’re all affected…our calling is not…me…mine…or I…it is our father.
Which Art in Heaven
Is it OK if we talk about heaven for a minute…so is this sermon about the Lord’s Prayer or Heaven…well…first we have to establish something about Heaven… since it’s part of the prayer.
Probably something everyone is fascinated about…where is heaven…and when do we get there? …probably one of the most controversial topics among people today is what happens to a person after they die.
Want to share something with you about studying Scripture…here’s where the confusion and mis-understanding regarding the Bible comes from…when studying Scripture, we must build scripture upon scripture…precept upon precept…this is the surest way of knowing the truth and what the Bible teaches.
If we base our belief on a doctrine solely on one verse in the Bible there is a good chance we have taken it out of context…but if we study all the verses on a subject the truth will make itself evident…so let’s see if the Bible has a consistent teaching on where heaven is and when do we go there.
Obviously there is a tremendous fascination with Heaven…usually coming from NDE…maybe you’re familiar with the 2014 movie “Heaven Is for Real” about the 4-year-old son of a Wesleyan Pastor who claims to have experienced heaven during an emergency surgery.
The movie grossed $91 million in the United States alone…the book has sold over 10 million copies and spent 206 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list… if you don’t think there’s a fascination about heaven, two other books by doctors…Proof of Heaven, by Eben Alexander, and To Heaven and Back, by Mary C. Neal…both documenting NDE’s (Near Death Experiences) have also done quite well.
With respect to the four-year-old boy…He describes incidents with people he never met or knew about: describes meeting his great-grandfather who had died long before he was born….or an unborn sister he never knew about who had died in a miscarriage…and of having met Jesus.
So…what about those incidents…there is only one instance in the Bible where someone went to heaven and came back…most theologians believe Paul had a near death experience as a result of his brush with death at Lystra [Acts 14] where he was nearly stoned to death.
It would appear that Apostle Paul’s words in [2 Corinthians 12:1-10] refer to this experience as a result of that “near death” stoning …but unlike the modern experiences we read about today…in Paul’s experience of heaven he is remarkably tight-lipped on the subject…referring to the incident, in only sketchy terms.
Unlike those trips to heaven that included being greeted by all kinds of relatives who had passed on before them…including seeing pet dogs that had died…Paul gave no sensational detailed description of what he saw…only saying…that what he saw was too incredible for words…they were inexpressible…so glorious that words could not describe them.
Regarding what he heard…Paul said it was in a language unlike anything on earth …though he understood what was said, there were no words in the human language to convey what he heard…nor would he have been permitted to speak about it even if there were.
So why was Paul given this opportunity…God doesn’t do things without a reason …I think God may have provided Paul this vision of heaven to remove his fear of death and give him more boldness to preach the Gospel…and possibly why Paul was so intense in his defense of the resurrection…he had seen heaven.
Are these other NDE’s real…I don’t know…I’m skeptical…my initial reaction is they’re not… probably offending someone…but I have to ask…if they are genuine what purpose do they serve with respect to glorifying God…God does not and would not give you an experience for your own personal benefit.
Everything is for God’s glory… ‘well what about the witness it might provide to a lost person’…that scenario has already been addressed…in the story of the rich man wanting someone to be sent back from the dead to warn his brother to repent … Jesus comments…’If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’
I’m not really sure what purpose it serves for someone to ‘go to heaven’ and return.
SO…then…do people go straight to heaven when they die…are they sent to purgatory… or some other place…can we truly be certain what happens to the dead? I firmly believe we can.
The concept of purgatory came into existence at the end of the twelfth century…up until that point no one had even remotely conceived of such a concept…it is the invention of the Catholic Church…it is not a place [John Paul II / Benedict XVI] but rather the process where Christians after death go to for the process of purification. (1 Corinthians 3:15 and 1 Peter 1:7). We’re in disagreement with our Catholic partners on this subject.
One thing for certain…we know that God and Jesus are in Heaven…but what about those who die? …do they immediately go to heaven…lot of controversy …some say no…some say yes…my take is NO they do not go to heaven when they die because there are very definite NO’s when it comes to entering heaven:
- No one living can go to heaven because Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God [1 Cor. 15:50].
- No one is admitted into heaven without their new resurrected bodies…and we don’t get those until Jesus’ second coming [Matt 22].
- No one goes to heaven when they die because [John 3:13] …”No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”
BUT…I am convinced that when we die, we do go somewhere…and that somewhere is to be immediately entered into the presence of the Lord.
In two places Paul wrote that when we die our spirits immediately go to be with Jesus … [2 Cor. 5:6-8 / Phil. 1:21-23] …these two verses dispel the false teaching that after we die we enter into ‘soul sleep’ …really…Peter and Paul have been sleeping for 2,000 years!!
So, what happens at death…AGAIN…we CANNOT go to heaven until we are given immortal bodies…Heaven is a real place where the people of God will one day live… BUT no one goes to heaven until after the rapture and the judgement
when we are given our new bodies similar to the body Jesus had after His resurrection…so…in the meantime…after death are people just hanging out?
After death our souls are with the Lord, and we are fully conscious of being in His presence…although there is no verse that give us a geographical location…heaven is where God is…where God and the angels now live…where Jesus is now preparing a place for us to live[Jn 14:1-3].
Jesus goes on to explain that it is the nature of God to be in heaven…and the nature of man is to be on earth…stating that God is in Heaven is conforming that God is The Cause…in religious phraseology heaven is the term for the Presence of God…so what will heaven be like:
1. We won’t miss our old lives.
Obviously going from Earth to heaven will be an upgrade…here’s the question… will I miss something from my old life…will it be available to me in heaven…I really enjoy playing my banjo.
In heaven…we will experience all God intends for us…God fashions us to want precisely what He will give us so what He gives us will be exactly what we want.
2. We won’t become angels.
You don’t become an angel when you die…we won’t be angels but we’ll be with them…death is a relocation of the same person from one place to another… “you don’t take anything into heaven when you die”…Yes you do…your character…the place may change but you remain the same.
3. We won’t be tempted.
One of my favorites…no temptation…no sin…we are righteous as a result of our faith in Jesus…it is imputed to us by God…it brings us into a right relationship with Him…God will never withdraw His holiness from us; therefore, in heaven we cannot sin.
It has been suggested that we will never forget the ugliness of sin…hope that is not so…but it’s suggested there’s a reason for that
By remembering the ugliness of sin…and what sin costs…every time we see the scarred hands of Jesus we’ll remember…how it impacted our fellowship with God during our time on earth…remembering that will cause us to never want to sin.
We’ll never be deceived into thinking God is withholding something good from us…which is partly what sin is.
4. We will have work to do.
The idea of working in heaven is foreign to many people…yet Scripture clearly teaches it…when God created Adam, he “took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15)…work was part of the original Eden…what makes people think heaven will be any different?
God Himself is a worker…He didn’t create the world and then retire…Jesus said, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working” (John 5:17). Jesus found great satisfaction in His work. “‘My food,’ Jesus said, ‘is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work'” (John 4:34).
We’ll also have work to do…it will be satisfying work that will be enjoyable… work that’ll never be a drudgery…all for God’s glory.
5. We will still experience emotions.
In Scripture, God is said to love…laugh…and rejoice…as well as be angry, happy, jealous and glad…to be like God means to have and express the same emotions… in heaven emotions will exist for God’s glory and our good.
6. We still won’t know everything.
God alone is omniscient…when we die, we will see things far more clearly… understating things we never realized before…and we’ll know much more than we know now…but we’ll never know everything… that’s a relief to me…because I plan on being in school.
In heaven we’ll be flawless…but being flawless doesn’t mean knowing everything. It’s part of being finite…the angels don’t know everything…and Scripture says they long to know more (1 Peter 1:12) …we should long for greater knowledge, as the angels do…and we’ll get to spend eternity gaining that greater knowledge.
7. We will recognize one another.
Scripture gives no indication of a memory wipe causing us not to recognize family and friends…Paul anticipated being with the Thessalonians in heaven…and it never occurred to him he wouldn’t know them…Paul even express the anticipation of an afterlife reunion [1 Thessalonians 4:14-18] …wouldn’t be much of a celebration if we couldn’t recognize an acquaintance…or forget someone’s name.
8. What will we do to avoid boredom?
People sometimes say, “I’d rather be having a good time in hell than be bored in heaven.”…Note the assumption: sin is exciting and righteousness is boring…rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
I already mention we’ll have work to do…believing the assumption that I’ll just be bored means you’ve fallen for the devil’s lie…in reality, sin robs us of fulfillment …sin doesn’t make life more interesting…it makes life empty…in heaven there is an endless reservoir of fascination—boredom becomes impossible. In heaven we’ll be filled—as Psalm 16:11 describes it—with joy and eternal pleasures.
9. If our loved ones are in hell, won’t that spoil heaven?
In heaven we’ll see clearly that God revealed Himself to each person and that He gave every opportunity for every person to seek and respond to Him [Romans 1:18-2:16] …everyone deserves hell; no one deserves heaven…BUT… Jesus went to the cross to offer salvation to all [1 John 2:2]
God is absolutely sovereign and doesn’t desire any to perish [1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9] …yet it is inevitable that many will perish in their unbelief [Matthew 7:13]. Heaven by Randy Alcorn, Tyndale House Publishers.
OK…all that comes out of the phrase ‘who is in heaven’? …the place we’re all going to spend eternity in does have some hazy areas of understanding…some are more concrete than others…BUT…for certain…the people who go to heaven are all alike in one way:
—we are all sinners who have placed our faith in Jesus as Savior [Jn. 1:12; Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9].
—we are all sinners who have accepted God’s offer of forgiveness.
—we are all sinners who have repented of their old ways of living for Christ [Mark 8:34; John 15:14].
—we have not attempted to earn God’s forgiveness but have served him gladly from grateful hearts [(Psalm 100:2].
The most important fact regarding heaven: heaven is a real place…heaven is the dwelling place of God…and one day we will all be there together forever.