How do you get to Heaven?
When you think of heaven, what do you imagine it to be like?
• Where God lives
• We are going to live there some day?
• Ice-cream will taste 1000 times as good
• Be able to eat as much as you like without Mum yelling at you or getting fat
• Be able to travel real fast
• Stronger than Spiderman
• No sickness or health problems! Ever been sick? Imagine no more hospitals, no more cripples, no more wheel chairs
• No one ever dies. No more funerals, No more cemeteries
• Do you know anyone who has died? Guess what, you’ll get to see them again
• People won’t grow old, girls are going to love it because they will look beautiful even if they are really old
• They won’t have to spend any money on dying their hair, makeup, tummy tucks
• Won’t need money, because there will be so much of everything, everyone will just help themselves to what they need
• No bullying, fighting, arguing, no more war, terrorism because people who do these things won’t be allowed there
• People there won’t even be able to have evil thoughts; you’ll even love your brother and sisters!
• Ever wanted your own house? God has a mansion especially built for you
• Let me read what the Bible says about heaven
• John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you
• Revelation 21:1-27
2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a beautiful bride prepared for her husband.
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever.”
7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. 8 But cowards who turn away from me, and unbelievers, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those who practice witchcraft, and idol worshipers, and all liars—their doom is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
10 So he took me in spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 11 It was filled with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious gem, crystal clear like jasper.
18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. 19 The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve gems: the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.
21 The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass.
22 No temple could be seen in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. 24 The nations of the earth will walk in its light, and the rulers of the world will come and bring their glory to it. 25 Its gates never close at the end of day because there is no night. 26 And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. 27 Nothing evil will be allowed to enter—no one who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Does it sound like a place you would like to be?
• I know I want to be there
Now what I would like is a volunteer to come up and draw a map on the white board of how you get from church to your home
• If it is to difficult for you, you are allowed to ask someone to help you draw the map
Why did you ask that particular person to help you draw the map rather than someone else?
• The person you asked had to know how to get there didn’t they
• It helps to ask someone who has been there to give instructions
How many of you can draw a map on how to get to heaven?
• Why not? That’s right we don’t know the way to get there
Would it help to ask your mum and dad to help you draw a map on how to get to heaven?
• No, why not? Because they haven’t been there so they won’t know the way either
But there is someone who does know the way to heaven, someone who has been there. Who is that?
• That’s right the Bible tells us that Jesus knows the way to heaven
• John 14:3-5 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know where I am going and how to get there.” 5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We haven’t any idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
But there’s another problem as well stopping us from getting to heaven
• We might know the way, but there’s another huge road block stopping us from going to heaven. What’s that?
• Only those who have never sinned are allowed into heaven
• Have any of you sinned? What have you done?
• Yep, all those things will stop you from getting into heaven
• So if we want to go to heaven, we have to become like someone who has never sinned
• How do we do that?
• Can your parents help you become like someone who has never sinned?
• No because they have sinned as well. They need help too
So is there someone who can make us non-sinners again?
• What did Jesus do so we can be forgiven and go to heaven with Him?
• 1 John 1:9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.
So if we want to go to heaven, who do we need to get to know? Jesus
