Heaven on Earth 1988

I'd like to base everything I want to share today on one passage from Ephesians chapter 2. And Ephesians is a rich, rich book, but it's not one that reads like a novel, and it doesn't read even like a parable in Jesus' Gospels. It's something we have to really soak up and kind of think about and read and reread. And I'd recommend, you know, that I believe you'd find it helpful, all of us would find it helpful, to read Ephesians chapter 2 several times this week and pray about how this fits into our life as individuals and really into our life as a body and how we fit into it.

I'm going to read the second half of this second chapter of Ephesians, starting at verse 11 and jumping pretty quickly into a section of verse 12. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you, that is you Gentiles, who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace who has made us both one, both Jew and Gentile one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile and God and man by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, the Jew and the Gentile, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, the far off being the Gentile, those who were near being the Jew, so that through him, for him, through him, we have access in one spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

In high school, there was this chap named Jesse Frasso, who was a happy-go-lucky, life-of-the-party type, a little on the wild side, couldn't help but like him. Some years after graduation from high school, I bumped into Jesse in another city. He was the same Jesse, but he had seen something that he just had to talk about.

Jesse had gone with some friends to a tent meeting on the edge of our hometown. And in that tent meeting, Jesse saw things that he couldn't get out of his mind. He saw people who testified that they'd been healed by Jesus.

And he experienced an atmosphere of joy like he'd never seen in his life. It was like walking into heaven. A few years later, Gene and I walked into a factory building, brand new, practically brand new, with a little neon sign on top, which was erected, I believe, on the very spot where that tent had been, which was now the home of that congregation which began in the tent.

And we saw what Jesse saw. We saw light from God shining on the people's faces and ringing in their praises. And then, a few years later, that same congregation, which had such light, began to kind of sink down into the old religious routine.

They still raised their hands to worship, they still said praise to the Lord, still had the same preacher, but now it was they were going to church. Heaven wasn't there like it had been. Most of us in this room can remember when we first saw this heaven on earth, the true church, the body of Christ.

Many of us can remember the exact place where we experienced for the first time this atmosphere of heaven, because it was so strong and so clear, it had such an impact on us that it gave us vision, and it fired us with zeal for the kingdom of God. Since that happened to us, those of us who have experienced this in any way, we've been able to tell the difference between plain church and the authentic atmosphere of the body of Christ, which can't be described really in any other way but to call it heaven on earth. Now those of us who are convinced that God is calling us to serve Him in this body really want to do whatever we can to enable the Spirit to make us such a place.

A heaven on earth, not just once in a while, and not just for a year or two, but on and on and on. We strongly desire to be able to produce here not a man-made Pentecost, not contrived enthusiasm, not programmed emotion, but life from God that's so genuine and so true that people walking into our midst are walking into heaven, and that anybody who has any integrity, any brokenness of spirit, contriteness of heart can see that this is heaven. That's what we're after.

That's what we're seeking. That's what we're praying for and wanting to produce under God's power. We want it to be so that people get not just a glimpse of heaven, not just a fleeting taste of it, and not just something that lasts for maybe six months or five years, but goes on and on and on, so that we ourselves have a base of operation for our life under God in this world where our vision of God is renewed all the time, and where people, strangers coming among us, who are looking for God, find God, hear God speak, experience His touch, and receive help.

Now, this is what Jesus offered people when He was here in flesh and blood. When you were near Jesus, you were in heaven. And you knew Him.

This is why people just dropped everything and packed their lunch and would head off into the wilderness or the hillside or the lakeshore, wherever He was, because when you were there, sitting at His feet, listening to Him teach, surrounded by these other people, you were in heaven. And this is what the apostolic congregations, the congregations of the New Testament, offered people, provided for people. And, of course, you had to have eyes to see it.

You could walk into the church at Corinth or the church at Ephesus or the church at Philippi and say, phew, this is strange. But if you had eyes to see it, you knew. It didn't matter whether you were a Gentile or a Jew, a Greek or a Macedonian or an Egyptian or a Roman.

You knew, this is heaven, this is peace. And you would come and you would stay and you would grow and you would serve God. Surely this is why God has called us together at this location, right here, surrounded by closing factories, abandoned buildings, and many discouraged, weary souls, young and old, to be a place of hope in the midst of this.

Christians who didn't run away from it, who stayed there, and who provide for people who are seeking evidence that Jesus is alive from the dead, that God is here, that the Spirit is moving, that anybody who can come can come and experience the change of the life, that any kind of bondage can be broken, that any kind of sin can be washed away here. Now this is what God desires for us, no question about it. And each of us has a part to play in this thing which God is doing.

It's His work, He does it, He creates it. But He does it as we cooperate, as we fit in, enter in, to a threefold miracle, which is described in Ephesians chapter 2. God is making us a heaven on earth, in this place, in this fellowship, as we enter into the miracle of the one new man. God is making us a heaven on earth as we enter into the miracle of the household of God.

God is making us a heaven on earth as we enter into the miracle of the living temple. And these three things are described in Ephesians 2 from 11 to the end of the chapter. One new man, the household of God, the living temple.

God is making us a heaven on earth as we enter into the miracle, first of all, of the one new man. Reading again from the passage I read at the beginning. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.

For He is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and ordinances that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. When Jesus died on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility, the dividing wall, first of all, between God and man, and then also between man and man, between Jew and Gentile, black and white, east and west, left wing and right wing, male and female. So that instead of two who are constantly struggling and at war, we have one new man, no division anymore.

The gospel is that Jesus, through His death, has removed the barrier, torn down the wall of hostility, and that anybody who wants to can come to God and experience and receive forgiveness. When we respond to that gospel and we in fact draw near to God and receive that forgiveness, the proof that the wall is down between God and us is that the wall is also down between man and man, man and woman, woman and woman, and that instead of being at enmity or reserved or withdrawn or separated out into little groups where we're comfortable with each other, these Christians meet over here and these Christians meet over here and these Christians meet over here because they feel so much more comfortable than to mix these all together. But in the kingdom of God, we've got no choice.

In the kingdom of God, He puts us together. Listen to this one more time. See, For He is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and ordinances that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.

Now this is a thing which God has done. We don't do it. We can't.

But God's done it. And this means that people who have for years been at enmity with each other or groups that for centuries have been at war with each other, coming into Christ, recognize that the wall is down. And now all this anger and all this suspicion and all this resentment for wrongs that have been done is washed away in the blood of the Lamb and we become one.

I enter into this miracle of the one new man when I submit to that and join myself to these brothers and these sisters and reckon that the wall is down and live and think that way. And when we do that, when we, by faith and in obedience, enter into the miracle of the one new man yielding to the Spirit as He keeps tearing away this wall of hostility, then we begin to function as one. We work as one.

We pray as one. We serve and labor as one. Then anybody with eyes, who has any eyes at all, can see this is heaven.

Where else in the world are you going to find it? You won't find it in South Africa. You won't find it in the Middle East. You won't find it in Detroit.

You won't find it anywhere except where Jesus is. But where Jesus is, there it is. And if you don't see it there, then you have reason to wonder whether Jesus is there.

And if Christians go on in their lives talking in wonderful platitudes and we never practice it, the wall isn't down, we aren't the one new man, then we need to repent until God can make it there. We will be heaven on earth when we're the one new man. Secondly, God is making us heaven on earth as we enter into the household of God.

And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access in one spirit to the Father, so that you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Now, what's the household of God? It's a supernatural family.

That's what heaven is. A supernatural family. In heaven, everybody's going to know you by name.

You're not going to be an outsider ever. Everybody's going to love you. And you're going to know everybody else by name.

And you're going to love them. And you know that you belong. That has already begun on earth in the household of God.

In the household of God, we're family. We're bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. God put us together and He broke down the wall and now we're family.

Out in the world, we may still experience rejection, neglect, anger. People may ignore us, may be put off by us. But when we come home to the household of God, we're in heaven.

This is family. And here, we serve and we are served. We care about these people and we pray for them.

And we know that they're praying for us and care about us. Not because we all look alike. Not because we all hold the same doctrines.

Not because we all have the same lifestyle. But because Jesus has made us one. This is an awesome thing.

And we need to keep entering into it all the time. Restoring the life of that. And repenting of anything in us that disturbs that or takes it away from us.

Every time we come together here to worship, we're not just coming to church, we're entering into the household of God. And when we eat the bread and drink the wine, we're not just going through some religious routine, we're eating the feast of the household of God. And even when we're scattered out over the city and the suburbs, going about our business, doing our work, taking care of whatever needs to be done, what a comfort to know that we're members of the household of God, that we have family.

And we belong to this. And we represent it wherever we are. When we think that way and live that way and pray that way, strangers who come into our midst know that they have stumbled right into heaven.

Finally, God is making us heaven on earth as we enter into the miracle of the living temple. The living temple built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God through the Spirit. Living temple.

Each stone, you know, is fit together. And it's living because it's growing, it's growing. But each one is a living stone, each one of us, and we're fit together in this thing.

And when we yield to that and we allow ourselves to be fit into each other, even though we're not normally, you know, compatible. But now God puts us together. When we allow that to happen, then we come, we become a temple.

We become a dwelling place for God in the Spirit. And then God hears prayer, heals the sick, opens the eyes of the blind, sets the captives free, and raises the dead in our midst. Then we are the ark, like Noah's ark.

And the ark is bouncing and tossing and pitching on the waters of uncertainty. But inside the ark, we get the life of God. And this ark has the door open all the time until the end of the age.

Then it closes. But right now, the door is open. Anybody can come in and find God.

Anybody can come in and be saved. Anybody can come in and receive whatever help is needed. Provided you and I are willing to be fit into each other in such a way that we are the temple of God unified around the cornerstone who is Jesus himself.

Now, there's a surprising number of people out there who are hungering and thirsting for such a heaven on earth and who will make whatever sacrifice they have to, travel whatever distance they need to, inconvenience themselves in whatever way they think they have to in order to taste that, to see it, to experience God's presence, and to know the atmosphere of heaven and to breathe it. And that's what God has called us to be. And that's what we desire to be.

We want to make whatever change we have to. Do whatever we have to do so that we can be such a heaven on earth. We are such a heaven on earth, even now.

And we're going to be more clearly this as we continue to enter into the miracle of the one new man. The wall of hostility down, not only between us and the Father, but between one and another. As we live as the household of God, family.

And as we function as a living temple, so fit together with each other that the Spirit can come in and dwell and people can come and find refuge here. May we be, for ourselves and for strangers who are going to find their way to us in the coming days, nothing less than heaven on earth. Let's just wait upon God in silence and let him speak to our hearts.