Last October Judy and I traveled to Ohio and the Winton Place Baptist Church where I was scheduled to preach. Pastor Daniel Holt had made a reservation for us to stay at the Marriot Hotel in north Cincinnati. We drove up to the front door of that hotel, walked in, registered at the front desk and then took the elevator to a very nice room. The man at the desk was expecting us. There was a room reserved for us. It was nicely furnished and clean. It had fresh bottles of shampoo, lotion and fluffy pillows. It was perfect. And the cost of that room was paid ahead of time by the good brethren at the church.
That hotel reservation is but a slim illustration of the reservation mentioned by Peter here in this scripture. “Blessed be… God… which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope… to an inheritance… RESERVED in heaven for you…” The Greek word in this verse is translated “reserved” seven additional times in the New Testament. But it is far more often rendered “keep” or “kept.” Other ways we read that same word is as “watch,” “preserve,” and “hold fast.” The inheritance which is in Heaven in our name is guaranteed to us – it is held fast and kept for us.
It’s not the reservation I’d like to consider this evening, but the place where our inheritance is being reserved. “Blessed be… God… which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope… to an inheritance… reserved IN HEAVEN for you…” The Greek word is used 264 times, and almost always it is translated with some form of “Heaven.” But admittedly, sometimes it is referring to something less than to what Peter refers. Sometimes it is the sky above us and sometimes what most people think of as “space the final frontier.” I don’t plan on keeping you long this evening, but I’d like you to think about the character of the place where the Christian’s reservation is being held.
To prepare myself for this message, I read all 264 places where the word is used. It wasn’t difficult, because I could quickly skip over the references to the “kingdom of Heaven” and some of the other key phrases which I knew didn’t relate to our text. For example, we’re not interested this evening in what Heaven will be – what it will be like in the future. But I did jot down about two dozen thoughts, preparing to incorporate them into our lesson. I wanted only those references which speak of the place where our reservation is being kept for us today.
I found that a great many scriptures speak of Heaven as the place where GOD, the Father, DWELLS.
Our reservation is in a spiritual place worthy of the Almighty God. I saw a video the other day of Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea palace, reportedly worth more than a $ billion. Putin thinks rather highly of himself, despite what he actually is in the sight of the divine Judge. Jehovah, on the other hand, Putin’s Judge, really is the most glorious, most magnificent, most powerful being over all creation. The God we worship is worthy of a hundred billion dollar palace.
Of course, I have no words worthy of describing the Lord, and I have few words to describe Heaven. Christians may rejoice in John 14 and the mansion Christ has gone to prepare for us in His Father’s house, but not one of us has the heart, mind or imagination to properly envision that place. Is it correct to say that Heaven is God’s “home” when the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? And yet Jesus speaks of “His Father’s House.” And He instructs us to pray, “Our FATHER which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Our inheritance is reserved for us in the place where God our Father resides. And in my survey of the word, I heard the voice of God speak from heaven on a couple of occasions. Heaven is the abode of God, and it is the place where our inheritance is reserved for us.
Something I had never considered before this week involved our Saviour’s offering of thanks and prayer. On one occasion, Jesus took five loaves and two fish, “and looking up to Heaven, he blessed, and brake,” and gave the multiplied pieces to the disciples for distribution. Why did Christ look up into Heaven? On at least one occasion as He healed someone, He looked up to Heaven first, and He did the same at Lazarus’ tomb. Did the Lord Jesus look in the direction of Heaven, or did He have the ability to look INTO Heaven?
A statement about one of God’s early martyrs may indicate how deeply Christ’s sight penetrated Heaven. Just before Stephen sacrificed his life for the testimony of the gospel, “being full of the Holy Ghost, (he) looked up steadfast INTO heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” In that verse from Acts 8, we look with Stephen and we see the GLORY of God and the Lord Jesus. Our inheritance is being kept for us next to, or within, the glory of God. Do you think that something can be stolen or lost when it is stored next to the glory of the Lord?
And where are great TREASURES usually kept?
Do you suppose Heaven has a treasury? Has anyone ever made a visit some city, sending something to a designated hotel ahead of his arrival? You and I have the ability to do that sort of thing, but so few take full advantage. There are four scriptures which speak about “treasures in Heaven.” “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” Notice that the Lord Jesus speaks of the security around those treasures. If they are secure how much more is God’s inheritance for us or our reservation itself?
In Jesus’ sermon recorded in Luke 6 He said, “Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold your reward is great in heaven; for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” Rewards, like inheritances, which are laid up for the children of God in Heaven, are things about which to rejoice, even to dance about.
One of the things I discovered in my reading of the Heaven verses, was that the Sermon on the Mount is filled with references to that place. For example in Matthew 5 we have Jesus’ model prayer and reference to “our Father who is in Heaven.” And as we have seen there is no corruption in that place; no inflation eating away at value; no rust or tarnish destroying the glory of the inheritance God is willing to share with us. Later Jesus said that Heaven is the place of God’s throne. I feel pretty comfortable about the security around God’s throne. But there is so much more about God’s throne which deserves our consideration. For example, we know from other scriptures that an innumerable company of angels are there as well. We see them in Isaiah’s vision of God’s throne room. And after the announcement of Jesus’ birth, the angels involved returned to Heaven. So can we say that our inheritance is being watched by some of the army of God?
Of course, the LORD JESUS cannot be removed to far from connections to Heaven.
He said, “All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth.” As you know He was speaking of “authority.” Christ possesses the authority OF Heaven IN Heaven and in earth. Praise the Lord! But that authority isn’t His alone; the Father and the Son cannot be separated too far from each other, and their authority is shared equally. Just after He sent out His seventy disciples, telling them about some pretty astounding things, He prayed: “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes; even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father, and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.”
Just prior to that last statement from Luke 10, Jesus said to those seventy, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” You and I may not still have those special gifts and opportunities, but the exhortation remains: ”REJOICE because your names are written in heaven.”
To where did Christ go after He left this world? Mark 16 – “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.” The One who sacrificed His life, shedding His blood and arising from the grave in order that we might be have a living hope, ascended into Heaven, taking his place at the right hand of the Father. I think we can be assured of the security of the inheritance He has purchased for us.
After Christ’s resurrection, He ministered to the disciples, teaching, encouraging and exhorting them for 40 days. Then He met with them one final time, reiterating the commission He was leaving with them. “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was take up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you in heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Paul wrote to Philippians: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Where is our heavenly reservation? Where is our inheritance being kept for us? It is where our Saviour is. The One who bought this inheritance for us is there to watch over it for us. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” To what place may we look forward? Heaven, Christ’s Father’s house. Later in I Peter, the apostle speaks of “the resurrection of Jesus Christ: who is gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him” (I Peter 3:22).
Conclusion
How important is it that Peter doesn’t go out of his way to explain or define his use of the word “Heaven?” The fact is: most of the references we have of that place are mere statements without explanation. Could it be that we are expected to know and understand Heaven better than we really do? Are we supposed to meditate on Heaven and let our imaginations wander into that place? Perhaps not.
And yet, I do think we should take time, now and then to remind ourselves – God hath “begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for us, who are kept by the power God…”