Good morning again, children.
As I threatened last night, I'm going to
speak on heaven this morning.
And what could be more irrelevant to the
practical German mind?
And yet, what is more desperately urgent for
the German nation?
And my own nation, which is more German
than it knows.
But heaven, more heaven.
Everything in the world, the flesh and the
devil, conspires against it.
If it's only a casual category for you,
that is only doctrinally correct, you'll never have
it.
You'll know you have it when you experience
the transforming power of it.
You'll be in the world but not of
it.
And strangely immune from the powers of the
world.
Because you'll see the things that are invisible
and eternal.
The things that shall shortly become permanent and
enduring.
While the things that are temporal and seen
will pass away.
This is central to the whole apostolic perception
of the faith.
This is apostolic seeing itself.
Everything is radically altered when it is seen
in the light of heaven.
And the world wants to persuade you that
if you become heavenly minded, you'll be no
earthly good.
And you've been too quick to agree.
When actually it's the opposite that's true.
Except you're heavenly minded, you're no earthly good.
Was there anyone more heavenly minded than Paul?
He saw the eternal weight of glory that
made his present sufferings both momentary and light.
And this is exactly the point, children.
You do not have a grasp of heaven
until it profoundly affects your present.
It made his present sufferings both momentary and
light.
And his apostolic sufferings were enormous.
Five times have I been suffered strokes of
thirty-nine, forty less one.
Many times beaten with rods.
Stoned and left for dead.
And in shipwreck and in the seas all
night.
In fastings and persecutions.
In fear of my own brethren and flight
for my life.
And yet all of these sufferings were both
momentary and light.
Because he did not fasten his eyes on
the things that are temporal and seen, but
on the things which are invisible and eternal.
And they affected his present.
This is exactly what makes us strangers and
pilgrims and sojourners in the earth.
This is why, when the communist authorities prevailed
in Russia, the believers were put in mental
institutions and given shock treatments and straitjackets.
This is irrational.
This is insanity in self.
To say that there is a valid invisible
realm of heaven that counts.
And it counts in a way that affects
the believer presently.
That will make you strange.
And a pilgrim and a sojourner in the
earth.
Which should all along have been our description
anyway.
But if it's to be that for you,
you'll have to contend for it.
Contend for the faith that was once and
for all given the saints.
It's more than the issue of its doctrines.
It's more than just a statement of dogmas.
But here is the heavenly quality of life
at stake.
You have to contend for that.
Because everything conspires against it.
And I can't imagine any other nation where
this is more the case than here in
Germany.
I feel like a poor cousin.
In America, we don't all have this civilization
like you.
Or the colors of joy that you experience
during the day.
These rich earthly seductions.
As far as food, pleasure and earthly lusts
are concerned.
How should heaven be real for you?
Unless you confess that you're a stranger in
the earth.
That you choose to be a stranger and
a sojourner.
For for them, God is not ashamed to
say that he is their God.
And he has prepared a city for them.
A heavenly city.
One that they cannot wait to enter.
And their present living is in anticipation of
that.
Does that make one impractical and irrelevant now?
Im Gegenteil.
On the contrary.
I just remembered that from German.
It's a paradox.
But the more that we lay hold of
heaven, the more profoundly relevant we become on
earth.
Who is a greater example of this than
Paul himself?
What practical question did he not consider?
The discipline of the church with erring brothers.
How we should even take communion.
He was continually involved in the daily life
of the church and all of its practicalities.
But he could give answer because he was
the man from heaven.
He said, I have my citizenship in heaven.
While he was yet on the earth.
Heaven is reality, children.
It's truth itself.
It's the headquarters of all that is real.
And that's why if we are to be
a gate to heaven and the earth for
Jews that will come, we need to be
rooted in the earth, but a ladder that
ascends to heaven.
But if it's only for you a phrase,
a category, something that we can wait for
until we die, we will not be that
gate.
I spoke for three weeks on the subject
of heavenly reward to our own little family
in northern Minnesota.
It was unbelievably difficult.
I had never had such difficulty.
It was like speaking to a concrete wall.
The word kept bouncing off.
I had never seen such a resistance to
a theme ever.
That's the resistance to heaven that is to
be found in the earth.
Even in our own flesh.
The world is too much with us.
Therefore the scripture says, set your affections on
the things which are above.
And not below.
That's an act of will.
That's a deliberate choosing.
Because if you are not conscious of this
and willfully and consciously make this your choice,
then the whole weight of worldly, fleshly things
will assuredly keep us below.
So having said all that as an introduction,
I want to direct you to a confrontation
that is eternally classic.
The man of earth versus the man of
heaven.
Nicodemus and Jesus.
In John chapter 3.
And don't look upon this as mere history.
This is you that is being described.
This is a confrontation that is coming to
you.
God is going to send his Jacob-Nicodemus
people into the midst of you.
For who is the best expression of the
earth in its worldly wisdom and erudition and
philosophy and understanding but us Jews?
We have given the world earthly alternatives to
the things which are heavenly.
For example Marxism.
Freudianism.
And every ism that has its origin out
of Jewish genius.
We are eminently the men of the earth.
Even in our Judaism.
It is still an ism.
And we are going to confront that earthly
man.
Everything points to it.
This is the historic conclusion of the age.
And Nicodemus is the ultimate expression of it.
The best.
Religious.
Ethical.
Moral.
A ruler of the Jews.
And with a sufficient integrity to discern that
there is something about this Jesus that needs
to be examined.
What a classic collision.
And he asks some good earthly questions.
You are a teacher that has come from
God for no man can do these miracles
that you do except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except the man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
heaven.
What kind of answer is that?
It's a heavenly answer to an earthly question.
It bears no relationship to what was asked.
One man is speaking from the platform of
the earth.
Another one is answering from heaven.
What kind of answer would you give?
God has a plan for your life.
Step one, step two, step three, step four.
The gospel as the nomenclature on how to
be saved.
The technical formula for salvation.
I can tell you right now.
You'll lose every Nicodemus that God sends to
you.
They don't need earthly answers.
They need a heavenly answer.
And one that can only come down from
above in that moment.
To those who can trust for it.
And will not rely on their methodologies.
German all too German.
God is calling you to the heavenly sphere.
And all eternity is at stake.
For the Nicodemuses will pass through us completely
unimpressed.
For we will have answered them exactly as
they thought we would.
The answer of Jesus is bewildering.
It does not seem to make sense.
And as he goes on it gets worse.
The poor Nicodemus becomes absolutely rattled.
Must the man go through a second time
through his mother's womb?
And Jesus does not explain.
He does not seek to alleviate him from
the crisis that his word brings.
For he says the spirit lists where it
will and you cannot know.
From whence it came know where it's going.
I'm preaching that way this morning.
I don't know where it's coming from.
I don't know where it's going.
I don't know the next sentence.
The next scripture.
All I know is the theme.
Heaven.
And I'm required to wait on God for
the next statement.
It may not appear so to you.
It may seem flawlessly fluent.
But I'm as much dependent upon heaven this
morning as Jesus himself was in that conversation
that night with Nicodemus.
He could not know which way the spirit
was going.
He could only obey.
And so I also.
And you also.
But Art, this is a total antithesis of
all in which I have been instructed and
brought up in German culture and education.
This is death for your German mentality.
But it's life for Nicodemus.
Maybe not on the spot.
Maybe he goes home rattled and confused.
Maybe he agonizes on his bed through the
night hours.
What was this man saying?
What does it mean?
But I have perfect confidence I'll meet him
in heaven.
Because he heard from heaven.
From a son of heaven.
Even while he was on the earth.
Look at verse 12 and 13.
If I've told you earthly things and you
believe not, how shall you believe if I
tell you of heavenly things?
And no man hath ascended up to heaven
but he that came down from heaven, even
the son of man which is in heaven.
But what a confusing statement.
The son of man is standing right there
in Jerusalem with Nicodemus.
In the earth.
But he says the son of man which
is in heaven.
At the very same moment that he's on
the earth.
And if you don't understand that.
And I know you don't.
You're living outside the faith.
You've not yet come in to the apostolic
place.
You're still the victim of categories.
Secular and sacred.
Religious things.
You're not in heaven while you're on earth.
You cannot believe for that.
Therefore you cannot receive for that.
Therefore you cannot express that.
This is the faith.
This is the gate to heaven.
And if we don't find it.
And consistently maintain it.
We will lose the earthly Nicodemuses whom God
sends into our midst.
No man hath ascended up to heaven but
he that came down from heaven, even the
son of man which is in heaven.
It's the statement of Jesus.
But also of every son of God who
is in him.
Who sets his affections on the things which
are above.
Whose citizenship is in heaven.
Even while he's in the earth.
And going to work tomorrow morning.
In the office, the factory and the school.
He comes to those places as the man
from heaven.
With not some kind of phony effete spirituality
that walks on eggshells.
Any more than Jesus was.
He's true man.
Full man.
Not some affected spirituality that is ethereal.
But you can't be that except you're heavenly.
Heavenlyness is what makes that man.
A man.
What's the application for preachers and pastors?
To trust heaven.
And the spirit that lists where it will.
And you cannot know.
I've got to know.
What will be the result of this?
How will the people be affected?
What do we do in practical respect?
You cannot know.
What you're still required to trust.
And you're going to find yourself speaking bewildering
words.
That leave people confused.
And you can't send them home happy at
the end of the same service.
They may not be happy for several days.
Because your strange word has precipitated a crisis.
And though your mouth was responsible for creating
it, it's not responsible for solving it.
The great American evangelist Phinney was such a
heavenly man.
He didn't send them home happy.
He sent them home trembling.
Who were clutching the pillars of the building
lest they fall into very hell itself.
And he didn't give them the formula for
salvation to alleviate their distress.
He allowed the distress to have its full
work.
And when these men came through days later,
they were not just saved, they were profoundly
converted.
But you have to be a heavenly man
to preach like that.
Because if you have earthly concerns, I'll lose
the congregation.
This is confusing them.
They'll look for another place where they can
go home happy.
The heavenly man cannot consider what the result
of his obedience is.
He can only perform it.
In obedience to what comes down from above.
And not what rises up out of himself.
That which is born of the flesh is
flesh.
And that which is born of the spirit
is spirit.
Don't marvel that I said you must be
born again.
Everything must be born again.
Everything must come down from above.
That's a startling dependency.
For everything else is not heavenly.
There's a must, there's an imperative.
Not just for our initial salvation, but our
continuation ever after.
It's not comfortable to the flesh that wants
to know.
That wants to have its assurance and its
security.
But that which comes down from above is
given moment by moment to those who will
receive it and express it.
And I was saved because I heard from
heaven, from a heavenly man.
Yes, the man who picked me up in
Switzerland.
After I stood for two or three hours
in the rain and watched the cars whiz
by.
And this man stopped with a new car.
And he got out of the car and
greeted me.
He didn't just give me a hurry up,
I'm doing you a favor.
I was suspicious of his exceptional cordiality.
Yes, heavenly men will be misunderstood.
Even in the church.
And he took my filthy, wet rucksack and
put it through the back seat of his
car and it ruined his upholstery.
He didn't notice.
I thought, what manner of man is this?
A car for him is only a convenience.
It's not an object of worship.
And we drove off and he turned and
he looked at me.
I was then 34 years old.
He saw that I was not a high
school kid out on a lark.
He said, I'm not a high school kid.
I said, why are you traveling this way?
And in the best German that I could
find, I said, I'm a modern man whose
life is broken at its foundations.
That's exactly the condition in which my people
will come into your midst.
For our foundations are false.
They're philosophical and ideological and earthly.
We don't know the foundations that are heavenly.
And before I could finish, I heard myself
saying to him, and I'm Jewish.
And I thought, how unwise for me to
have expressed that.
I wish I could take those words back.
And I cautiously turned to see the effect
on him.
And this man was radiating like a light,
glowing.
I'd never seen such a reaction to that
news.
It certainly did not mean that to me.
It was another predicament of my life.
A Jew born in New York, what did
I have to do with these Palestinian origins?
It was a mystery.
Of which he evidently knew more than I.
So we insisted that we stop for refreshments.
And we had one of those ultimate conversations.
The ultimate expression.
What did he say, Art?
Nothing.
But such listening.
Such attention to my speaking.
Such a drawing out of my heart.
Till I shared with him the total anguish
of my modern soul.
I was the man of the world.
And I despaired for the world and was
without hope.
And what is he going to tell me?
University graduate.
Marxist, existentialist, pragmatist.
Nothing new under the sun.
I had my arms folded over my chest.
Looking at an ordinary Gentile.
Nothing outwardly impressive.
And he said with his quiet voice, Art,
do you know what the world needs?
And I leaned forward and I thought to
myself, at least he knows how to ask
the questions.
Yes, I want to know what the world
needs.
I'm a piece of the world.
We Jews have designed this world.
And it's a world that's dying.
I want to know what it needs.
And if he had said, are you saved,
brother?
I would have died.
But he said, what the world needs, Art,
is for men to wash one another.
And down I went.
Struck by God.
Because you need to understand that from my
earliest youth I was a seeker after answers
and an idealist and a visionary and a
romantic for the better world, for human brotherhood,
in a whole history of failed idealisms.
And I was a seeker after justice and
had my ideals and all kinds of ideas.
And the whole thing included a failed marriage
to a German wife who had been a
Hitler youth and human reason was not enough
and goodwill was not enough and we were
reenacting together under our own roof the ages
-old tragedy without answer,
without answer.
So when he said what men need is
to wash one another's feet, I had never
read that because I had never read the
Bible I was a typical Jewish biblical illiterate.
I could quote you Marx and Freud but
not my own book.
And the power of that word pierced me
through and before I could recover he was
speaking to me the gospel in German and
I wanted to complain that's not for me
it's for the Goyim, I'm a Jew, we
have our own book.
But I could not find my voice and
I had to receive his words in the
name of Jesus in which we Jews have
been persecuted for 2000 years and the very
city of Esslingen which is so dear to
me from my early days in Germany as
a GI I
learned later that the whole Jewish community of
Esslingen was burnt alive and was locked into
its own synagogue when the crusaders came through
to loot and to pillage the Jewish communities
on their way to the Holy Land.
I knew he was speaking the words of
truth and life but how could it come
in the name of Jesus?
I was staggered and bewildered and left in
that condition and have never seen that man
again but I've tried to find him all
the times I've been back to the Zurich
Winterthur area asking the Christians do you know
an Edwin and he was an accountant in
an automobile agency and he sang in the
choir in the church and he knew about
art and writers no one has ever heard
of him and was it a man or
an angel and unless my people ask that
question after they meet you they have not
been touched by heaven angels ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man that's the greater
thing that Jesus showed Nathaniel and wants to
show us the house of God God is
in this place because it's rooted in the
earth but it ascends to heaven John says
in chapter 3 verse 31 he that comes
from above is above all he that is
of the earth is earthly and speaks of
the earth he that comes from heaven is
above all do you believe that moment by
moment do you realize that if you even
quote John 3.16 you might be doing
the earthly thing merely
because you invoke scripture does not necessarily make
it heavenly unless God himself has given that
from above can you live in that dependency
for what must come down from above for
that which is above is above all not
just in the religious and the spiritual realm
but in all of our life above all
in 1 Corinthians we read that that which
is not first is spiritual but that which
is natural and afterward that which is spiritual
the first man is of the earth earthly
the second man is the Lord from heaven
as is the earthly such are they also
that are earthly and as is the heavenly
such are they also that are heavenly when
you read the scriptures of the last days
it describes two categories of people those that
dwell on the earth and those that dwell
in heaven while they are in the earth
and the earthly their hearts fail them for
fear when they see the things that are
coming upon the earth how shall you
not share that fear as you live in
the same earth with them and watch the
horrendous things that will take place economically and
politically and socially because you live
in the earth but you don't dwell there
your essential existence is from above you have
your citizenship in heaven I'm feeling again the
resistance of unbelief even the resistance of unwillingness
of the people who prefer the earth to
heaven but with Sunday services more
Nicodemus than they are of Jesus but here
is the promise of God as we have
borne the image of the earthly we shall
also bear the image of the heavenly how
will he form that image in us he
will send the word and the faith for
it which will come by hearing even such
a word as may be coming this morning
has its origin in heaven to impart a
faith that will bring you to the heavenly
place and then it's for you to maintain
it I'm not sure what I'll be speaking
tonight but this may be preliminary to that
for how shall you believe for heavenly reward
the crown that is given to the overcomer
who bears the sufferings of the faith in
the earth except that he sees by the
eye of the spirit the heavenly thing but
who are you we are only dangerous in
proportion as we are also heavenly for only
the heavenly threaten the kingdoms of darkness and
of earth so set your affections on the
things which are above and not on the
earth I came into my son's room some
years ago he was a boy in high
school he was doing his Sunday service he
was doing his homework the radio was on
loud noise music and there was junk all
over his desk and he found a little
place to put down his book and scribble
his few answers and I exploded I said
what's that set yourself to do your work
shut the cup and turn the radio off
give yourself undistractedly to what is before you
for this is not unto the teacher but
unto the Lord which to God I had
had students like that when I was a
teacher I would not have had to wait
until I was 35 to get saved they
would have challenged me day by day not
in giving me predictable earthly answers that were
safe for them so they could obtain their
grades but they would seek their answers from
above and write in papers to me mysterious
bewildering things which would have created a crisis
coming from Gentile students whose earthly ability I
knew and was not impressed but unfortunately I
did not hear from heaven for they did
not seek heaven they gave earthly answers to
earthly questions because they wanted to succeed in
the earth set your affections on the things
which are above shut off the radio the
video or the TV every earthly thing that
draws your attention away and seek that which
is above set yourself up heaven is not
a convenient category we can't turn on and
off like a water faucet it's going to
take a struggle to break the powers of
the earth and begin to release us into
heavenly things and then to maintain it when
every day you'll be tempted to give earthly
answers sufficient for earthly needs that leave men
unaffected from above I praise God that Jesus
was not such a one he was a
son of God who while he was in
the earth was yet in heaven and he
gave heavenly answers bewildering answers confounding all the
earthly categories and the end thereof was the
salvation of a Pharisee the man of the
earth for you are dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God in Colossians
chapter 3 when Christ who is our life
shall appear then shall you also appear with
him in glory my last statement for this
morning you thought it would never come because
you're earthly watching the clock wondering about lunch
and what you're going to do today this
is eschatological expectancy when the Christ who is
our life shall appear are you living in
that heavenly anticipation not only in that moment
when he indeed comes as king but in
every moment when the Christ who is our
life shall appear that's my faith for this
morning's preaching just coming with one word heaven
and trusting for words that will come down
from heaven moment by moment and if they
don't come then his life is not revealed
and you're left with your face sticking out
and the congregation and the leadership saying well,
I don't think we'll hear from him again
and that's more than the issue of future
meetings the issue of future relationships particularly
in the mystery of Israel and the church
the stakes were high this morning and so
were they also when I had no inspiration
or thought of how to speak it's always
a strange tension to be in the earth
but to be dependent on above it is
the faith that will make you strange but
God is not ashamed to call those his
people and to be their God and he
has built for them a city and not
every believer will inhabit it and I'll speak
about that tonight so let's pray heaven more
heaven especially in Deutschland oh God heaven more
heaven break into this earth into its categories,
into its mentality its limited expectations its love
for earthly things its lack of vision for
the purposes of God its selfishness and self
-centeredness its shallow religiosity heaven
more heaven that there might be a gate
to heaven for the Nicodemuses whom you will
worship that the many Nicodemuses whom you will
send the earthly men, the ultimate men of
the earth that they can hear a word
from heaven for those who can speak it
because they trust God for it because even
while they are in the earth they are
in heaven let it be this people in
this city with this history and in all
Deutschland gates to heaven for the Jacobs who
will come and be waken from their sleep
God is in this place and I knew
it now this is the house of God
this is the gate to heaven and this
is the mystery of God for the end
of the age let it be Lord by
a people who will trust the spirit that
lifts where it will and don't need to
know where it's coming or where it's going
because they haven't because they are sent from
heaven and trust heaven for Jesus in whose
name we pray Amen