That's a great introduction to what we're going to look at this morning. We've been in the Apostles Creed for 16 weeks and these last four messages have to do with I believe in the life everlasting. We probably don't talk enough about everlasting life. Heaven, what does that mean? What does that consist of? I'm going to read three passages this morning. First beginning with John 3 and verse 16, verse we all know, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. John 5, verse 24, I tell you the truth. Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life, first John 5, verse 12. He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son of God does not have life, amen. In 1952, a Colorado housewife named Virginia Ty, I think that's how it's pronounced, was hypnotized and asked to remember earlier events in her life. She was 29 at the time and so she remembered when she was 18, when she was 15, when she was 12, when she was 5. And as the fellow who hypnotized her went back earlier, he asked her to take another step back and he found when he did that she began telling about a different childhood, about 150 years before that, a childhood in Corc Ireland. Here was a lady, 29 years of age, who began telling of what appeared to be of another life. And as she spoke, her voice changed and she began speaking with a very thick Irish accent. She could sing a little Irish songs that she had no memory of, growing up in Colorado. She described the store where they bought their groceries in Ireland. She described getting married at age 17, moving to Belfast. She mentioned the church that she attended, the name of it. She could describe vividly the coastline of Ireland. She even told about the details of her death at, in 1864, at the age of 66 and she told of watching her own funeral, describing her tombstone and what it was like after her death. All this was told with a very thick Irish accent, somehow and explainably she had been reborn in America. And everything she told about had very specific details. Even though Virginia time herself was born in 1923, had never been to Ireland and didn't have an Irish accent. There was a book written about it, you may remember it, the search for a bridey Murphy, it became a bestseller and if I remember, it also was a movie. Some people here and account like this and they go, that's it, it's proof of life after death. This must be how reincarnation fits with the Bible and with being born again. Reincarnation being born again, you're born over and over until you progress. Well, not so fast. Some reporters investigated the story of bridey Murphy and the book that was kind of hastily written. And as they investigate, they went back in the records in Cork, Ireland, where she was supposedly from and there was no record of any bridey Murphy being born there. There was no tombstone, there was no record of the wooden house that she described and as a matter of fact, all the houses during that time were made of brick or stone, not of wood. The church that she mentioned having attended and described was called St. Teresa's was not built until 1911. She described sleeping in an iron metal bed and scraping some of the paint off of that iron beds didn't exist in Ireland until 1850. So as they checked out her story, they didn't really understand how she was able to speak with this Irish accent, but further investigation revealed that her parents were part Irish and that an Irish immigrant named bridey Murphy Corcole, spelling bridey a little bit differently, lived across the street from her as she grew up as a child in Chicago. And so they concluded that everything Virginia Thai told about this, about her memories from Ireland could be explained as memories of her long forgotten childhood. Now many people have confused, have been confused about the new birth, about everlasting life. And it is true that some people have fallen prey to believing in reincarnation. Reincarnation means reincarnating, entering flesh again when we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus. We celebrate his becoming flesh. And so reincarnation is you die and you're reincarnated, you're brought back again, Buddhist believe this and teach it. It's a system of works. You keep coming back and being reborn until you learn life's lessons, advance to a higher level and finally achieve Nirvana. If you remember the movie Groundhog Day a few years ago, a very humorous movie, it was kind of based on that kind of theme. There are still other people who have reacted to it and to the whole business of heaven and they've said, heaven is a big coping mechanism to help people deal with the pain of life. It's not true. It's just something that Christians have decided to believe and teach in order to cope with the pain of life. This is basically how Adolf Hitler saw heaven. He saw it as making people weak. So we need to understand heaven and eternal life and the passages that I chose today, I'll speak to it. First thing I want to establish this morning is this, eternal life begins the moment you put your trust in Christ. Eternal life begins the moment you put your trust in Christ, John 524. I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has already crossed over from death the life, verse 512, he who has a son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life, write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. John 10, verse 28, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. Now, yes, on the one hand, eternal life is in the future when you die. But on the other hand, you don't have to wait for it. Eternal life begins, now it begins the moment you trust Christ. Notice in these verses that I read, it's not just speaking about heaven as a future event. It's speaking of heaven as now. Now the John 10, 28 is not perhaps so apparent but in John 10, 28, John uses the present indicative tense which has the meaning of, I give right now. I give right now. I give them right now eternal life, not simply one day. This fits with what Paul said. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Eternal life is God's gift to everyone who believes and it is free and it is instantaneous. It's not something we earn, it's not something we attain to, it's not something we qualify for. It's not that you're reborn, reincarnated enough times until you learn your lesson. It is free and instantaneous. And the moment you hear those words free, it may arouse a little bit of suspicion. But sometimes you get in the mail, a little postcard that says something like this, congratulations Charles, you have won one of the following. Now when they say congratulations Charles always look at it skeptical because obviously they don't know me because I don't normally go by the name Charles. And so I figure right away I don't trust this because it's obviously they don't know me. But as you look down the list of the flat screen TV, the new car, the Hawaii vacation and the steak knives, it's pretty obvious there's a hook, there's a catch. And if it were an absolutely free gift, they would have already mailed your steak knives. You wouldn't have to go, you wouldn't have to sign up anything, you wouldn't have to call a number, you wouldn't have to go on the internet, you wouldn't have to show up to get it, it would be absolutely free. When we hear the word free, we normally think there's a hook. Our family took a vacation some years ago to Panama City. And while we were on the beach, somebody came around handing out flyers and the flyers said, come look at our vacation property and receive a free radio just for looking, just come look. You'll get this radio, I showed it to Stacey and said, I want that radio. She said, we don't want to do that, it's a free radio, all we got to do is show up and they're going to hand us a radio. About three hours later, she looked at me and we were both exhausted and she said, how do you like your free radio? Eternal life is not like that. It is eternal, it is free, it is immediate. You don't have to do something to make God like you. You don't have to be reborn and attain to a better record. God loves you and God initiated it and God is the one who gives it. Sometimes we miss that in the evangelical world when we say things like I gave my heart to God. That's true, that's true, that's not wrong, but the real emphasis is that God is the one who gave. God is the one who gave his son, God is the one who gives eternal life. For the most part, when we think about eternal life, we think from the perspective of when I die, that's when I get it, when I die, I'll get eternal life then. But when Jesus comes, that's when I will receive eternal life, when God has finished judging the world, that's when I'm going to receive eternal life. In the Pharisees' day, they saw eternal life by way of the law. This was a reasoning. Since God is eternal and since his commandments are true eternally, he's got to set up a righteous kingdom and obviously eternal life comes from being a lawkeeper. And the gospel says, no, it's the reverse. Eternal life only begins when you admit to being a lawbreaker, not a lawkeeper, and it begins the moment you trust Christ, point two. Eternal life consists in looking to and continuing to focus on Jesus Christ. Eternal life consists of looking to and continuing to focus on Jesus Christ. Your orientation has been radically changed from yourself to Christ, from looking at yourself to looking at Jesus. This is what it means to be a Christian. Jesus in essence says, it's not about you, it's about me. There's a transition from being consumed with yourself to, from, this is what I want to do with my life, to God, what do you want me to do with my life? God, what do you want me, what plans do you want me to make, what job do you want me to take? What do you want from my family? And it's not just a salvation decision, but it's a series of life decisions and you're not going to just one day receive eternal life, and this eternal perspective, the Bible says, if you're a Christian, you have already received it. First John says, this is how we know we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren. This is how we know we've, we've have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. Now yes, in heaven your sin is going to be eradicated. And what that means is that you're going to love your brother or your sister in Christ, but it also means that there has already been a change and a revolution inside of you. It's not just this person that I don't like and can't stand now, in heaven I'm going to be enabled to love them. It means there's already been a change inside of you that Jesus died for him or her that though there's hears or hear sense against you may be heinous against Jesus, they're even worse. And so I value him, I value her, I love him or her because Jesus does and this has to do with my relationship with him. Now why is focusing on Jesus important? It's really simple. That's where the joy is, that's where the joy is. There's no joy in you, there's no joy in me, there's no joy in our accomplishments or performance. Let me tell you a painful reminder of this. This past Christmas Eve. Now every pastor that I know and I've spoken to struggles with preaching on Christmas, not because we don't like Christmas or enjoy Christmas, it's hard subject because so much has already been said, what can you say that hasn't been said before? And so I prepared a Christmas Eve message entitled, should we be here? And I talked about the regulative principle of worship and Calvin and Knox's view and the term Christ mass in December 25th as the feast of Saturnalia and the origin of Christmas trees and mistletoe and I said several times, should we be here? And it wasn't because I was arguing against Christmas and it wasn't because I was trying to put anybody down, I was trying to create some tension and then the bombshell, then the switcheroo when I pulled the rug out and said no, we really shouldn't be here if God were just completely just and not loving we would already be in hell. And one man said to me, you had me, you had me, I wondered where you were going, that was clever. And a second person said, I'm not sure you accomplished what you wanted. And a third person said, tell you three of those kind of offended. Because I thought back about all that, I wanted to be unique and that's not all bad but to some extent I have to admit I probably sought my joy in being unique, in having a surprise. But you see, that's not where you get your joy from as a Christian. It's not from the sermon you preach, it's not from the class you teach, it's not from the office you hold, it's not from any of those things, it's not because you sacrifice for the church, the life and the joy comes from looking to Jesus and being focused on Him. And let me tell you, that's what heaven is all about. And it's going to be perfected when we get to heaven, what it's begun right now, it's begun right now. And so I have a different perspective. Christian faith is having a different perspective, it's looking to Jesus, it's being focused on Jesus. And that's why people who go to heaven experience a change of life in this life. People who are going to heaven experience a change of life in this life because there's already say been a fundamental eternal change. I begin to desire Jesus above everything else. He's not just the means of going to heaven, he's just not just my passport, he's not just my ticket, he's the goal of heaven and heaven is being in his presence. And so eternal life begins the moment you trust Christ. And the eternal life consists in looking to and continuing to focus on Christ. And third, eternal life consists of a glorious eternity. I know that sounds redundant, but it's true. Eternal life consists of a glorious eternity. Listen to how Jesus expressed it. Remember when Lazarus died, Mary and Martha were so saddened. And Jesus says in John 11, 25, listen, I'm the resurrection. And the life, and he who believes in me will live even if he dies. And then he says, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. It's absolutely astounding. You know what it means? It means a thousand years from now, heaven will just be beginning. A thousand years after that, heaven will just be beginning. And a thousand years after that, heaven will just be beginning. We sing when we've been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing his praise than when we first begun. Eternal life consists of a glorious eternity. Think of everything that is put into perspective by that. Think about the suffering you've been through in the last year, five years, 10 years ago. Think about the death of a loved one. Think about the process of aging that you observe periodically as you look in the mirror or as you go to the doctor, as you take medicine. Think about your investment portfolio. Think about affliction. All these things are put into perspective by eternal life that consists of a glorious eternity. Over 20 years ago, I do a man named Robert Shirley who was a ruling elder down in the, what was then the North Georgia Presbytery. Robert was a ruling elder, a very committed Christian. He was in some sort of sales. He lost his life savings in a hardware deal. I don't understand what happened. I know that the scenario was something like this. He gave his word about something. His word was his bond and it cost him literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. Six months or so later, he gave a testimony at Presbytery about it, telling how God had been faithful through all of that and said things like, I'm at an age where I'm not going to live that much longer anyway. And I can tell you for sure how this has made me look forward to heaven. And this has focused me on heaven as never before because that's where my true home is. It was moving. I mean, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. You may have heard skeptics just kind of mocking the whole concept of heaven. Well, Robert Shirley and others, it sounds good. That's a lot of wishful thinking. Pying this guy, buying by, that's a coping mechanism. Robert Shirley, he couldn't function in the real world. Oh, positive self-talk, no. Actually, Robert Shirley was functioning in the real world. He wasn't escaping reality. He was escaping two reality. Heaven is going to consist eternal life of a glorious eternity. Listen, you will never experience loss, never. You will never be bored. You will never have regret. You will never get restless. You will never get tired. You will be stimulated beyond any excitement that life has to offer. There are five exciting times in my life when I got married. Number one, and number two through five were the births of my four children. I remember when my oldest daughter, Lauren, was born. She made this little face, she didn't really cry out. She just kind of whimpered like her feelings were heard. And I mean, it was, it was glorious. And actually, when she was born, she came out yelling. That was an expression of her little personality. I remember when Tyler was born. He started to cry, and they put him on the warming table or cleaning him up. And as he started to cry, I went over and spoke to him. And the moment he heard my voice, he stopped crying. And when Chandler was born, his birth was distinctive in my memory because that was the one time I got to cut the umbilical cord. It was like freeing him from mother space ship, so to speak. It was thrilling four times, four times. I witnessed a miracle, four times. I witnessed the glory and wonder of a new life beginning. But let me tell you what, it doesn't compare. It doesn't even compare with the glory of eternal life in heaven. Jesus prayed in John 17. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory. The glory you've given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. And the glory of eternity, the glory of the new life begins the moment. You understand your wretchedness and see the glory of a Savior who is crucified for your sins. That's when heaven begins. That's when eternal life begins. Knowing, understanding that the innocent one, the innocent one was the one who suffered and died. And the guilty ones like you and I are the ones who go free. There's glory in that. There's glory in that. And when you see that and when you trust it and when you receive it, Jesus says, it's yours forever. And it begins now. Let me ask you, have you done that? Have you done that? Have you done that? Have you done that? Have you done that? Have you done that? This is what we mean. When we say, I believe in the life everlasting. Amen. Father, thank you for the glory of life in this world. But thank you that it's only a taste of what is to come. And thank you for the glory of seeing and knowing the Savior who was crucified for us. That we might go free and receive eternal life. Lord, I pray for anyone here who has never trusted Christ, who has never received the free eternal gift. Will you make Jesus real and big in their understanding and in their eyesight? Would you show them their need of Christ and will you show them the glory of the Savior? That everlasting life would begin right now. We thank you for the gospel in Jesus' name. Amen.