We live in a climate of uncertainty. We’re told globally that financial markets and job markets are shifting and significant political situations are on a knife-edge. On a personal level, as the pandemic has changed our lives, nearly all of us have felt the ground beneath us shifting in all kinds of ways.
There’s a moment in the Gospels when the disciples were facing immense uncertainty. They’d spent a few years living alongside their friend, teacher and brother, but this man they knew so well had told them He was about to leave them and return to His Father (John 12:23). Jesus was going elsewhere and this uncertainty left them on a precipice with troubled hearts.
Seeing their hearts, Jesus reassured them with the certainty of heaven.
Pushing heaven to one side
We’ll look at what Jesus says about heaven in a moment, but before we do, think for a moment about how often your mind wanders to thoughts of heaven when you are facing moments of uncertainty in your life. When the ground you thought was solid is shifting beneath your feet, how often does your mind turn to heaven?
Honestly, my mind rarely does – if it ever does. More often than not, when I don’t know what tomorrow holds, I turn to practical solutions, worry or distractions. Hardly ever in moments of uncertainty does my mind turn to thoughts of heaven!
For some time now, many believers have felt quite embarrassed or even ashamed to speak of heaven. We’ve been told by others that the idea of heaven is just a crutch to get people through hard times. This has led many of us (me included) who really do believe in the promise of the new heavens and the new earth to simply push heaven to one side.
We reserve talk of heaven for funerals or maybe the odd question at the end of a small group bible study (you know the kind: what kind of houses will we live in, what kind of food will we eat, what languages will we speak…?). But apart from that, we don’t talk about it much.
Yet Jesus often spoke of heaven. And He often did so when He wanted to comfort people.
He loved to the end and beyond
In John 13:1 we’re told that Jesus is departing from His disciples to be with His Father. Jesus knows that this won’t be a walk through the departure lounge but a walk up a hill to His death; a gruesome death at that. Later on, Jesus tells His disciples that one of them will go out of their way to betray Him and one of them will disown Him (John 13:21; 38). And in fact, Jesus knows that all of them will scatter. Before seeing the disciples’ reaction, it’s worth pausing for a moment to see the remarkable love that Jesus has for these disciples and for us too.
Even with this oncoming suffering, Jesus’ heart runs out for His own. Even though the nails are about to pierce His flesh, the great Shepherd looks beyond His cares to the troubles of His sheep. Even though they are about to betray Him, He never betrays them. Even though He faces His own end, Jesus “loved them to the end” (John 13:1).
What a friend we have in Jesus!
Troubled hearts
As chapter 13 unfolds, we can sense the fear within the disciples swell as it dawns on them that their friend, leader and brother will no longer be with them. Some of them question Jesus in chapters 13 and 14. You can tell their questions aren’t just inquiries about Jesus’ whereabouts and travel plans but are pleads from desperate hearts. The one they’ve walked dusty paths with, the one they’ve sat around a campfire with, the one they’ve laughed, cried, quarrelled and joked with is about to leave them. Their future is uncertain; they don’t know what tomorrow holds. John 14:1 tells us their hearts are troubled.
Jesus sees this and addresses their fear head-on. He begins: “you believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1). .
He then elaborates and gives them a picture of their future and it’s a truth they can be certain of: He tells them about the certainty of heaven. And despite this being a little way off in the future, Jesus clearly believes that this promised future should determine their comfort in the present.
The promise of heaven
In John 14:2-4, Jesus tells them that His Father’s house has many rooms and He is going to prepare one for them and will return to take them there. It’s easy to start asking those questions about what heaven will be like at this stage. But the most incredible blessing at the heart of heaven is that we will live in our Father’s house. The intimacy and proximity is easy to miss. When we live in the new heavens and the new earth, we won’t just live on the same continent as God, or in the same country, or in the same town or neighbourhood as Him, we will live with Him in His home. That’s the promise of heaven that Jesus shares with His disciples and with us too. And remarkably, as David Cook points out in Journey Through John, this promise is given to those followers of Jesus who fail Him and even deny Him.
The certainty of heaven
Jesus then reassures them of how certain this promised future is. And this sense of certainty is the undercurrent of chapters 13 and 14. Jesus has already assured the disciples, and us, that He “will come back” to take us to be with Him (John 14:3), but He goes further and assures them that He can do this because of who He is. He says: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
When Jesus promises heaven, He isn’t like a guest on a TV news program offering predictions on what might happen. Instead, Jesus’ words are certain because of who He is. Heaven is a certainty because Jesus can and will take us there – He is the way to the Father. Heaven is a certainty because Jesus’ promises are true – He is the truth. Heaven is a certainty because Jesus is the “the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25) – He is the life.
Unashamed of heaven
Jesus isn’t ashamed to speak of heaven in times of suffering and times of uncertainty.
If Jesus isn’t ashamed to speak of heaven, and if Paul and other New Testament writers aren’t ashamed (think of Philippians 1:19-26 or the whole Book of Revelation), we shouldn’t be ashamed either.
Of course, there are unhelpful ways to speak of heaven with people. Jesus doesn’t just quip: “cheer up folks, you’ll be in heaven soon”. No, of course not. Our Lord is far more understanding and compassionate than that. He reads the room and knows what they need to hear, but He does it sensitively. And He does it because He knows that the promise of heaven is a certainty to be sure of in a world of uncertainty.
A preacher once wrote that “the life of a Christian is wondrously ruled in this world by the consideration and meditation of the life of the world to come” (Richard Sibbes). Knowing that and thinking like that is a continual challenge for me. Yet when I do think of heaven in the midst of everyday life with all its uncertainties, I feel the comfort that Jesus offered to those first disciples. I feel the comfort of knowing that whatever I face today, one day I will be with Christ in our Father’s home. I feel the comfort of knowing that today’s concerns and trials are framed by the sure promise of eternal joy with Christ (Hebrews 12:2-3). And I feel the comfort of knowing ultimately that though we die, we will live (John 11:25-26).
In a world of uncertainty, heaven is a certainty.
Stephen Unwin is a writer and editor with Our Daily Bread Ministries. He has degrees in sound engineering and theology and is currently studying for a PhD on the theology of gift and gratitude. He’s married to Katy and they live in Melbourne, Australia.
It’s amazing how Jesus Christ looks past His own cares to care for His disciples. David Cook unpacks the comfort that Jesus offers in more depth in Journey Through John. You can request a physical copy by contacting us at request.au@odb.org
