Growing in the Spirit

What then is the future that awaits us as Christians?

Let me remind you again of our tragic failure to realise the truth about ourselves. What is it that awaits us when we come to die? I want to put this message to you by way of contrast.

Sailor's rest

I read a passage in a daily newspaper under the heading 'These great words'. And the great words were: 'I love to consider a place which I have never yet seen, but which I shall reach at last, full of repose, and marking the end of these voyages, and security from the tumble of the sea. This place will be a cove set around with high hills on which there shall be no house or sign of men, and it shall be enfolded by quite deserted land; but the westering sun will shine pleasantly upon it under a warm air. It will be a proper place for sleep. The fairway into that haven shall lie behind a pleasant little beach of shingle, which shall run out into the seas from the steep hillside, and shall be a breakwater made by God. The tide shall run up it smoothly, and in a silent way, filling the quiet hollow of the hills, brimming it all up like a cup - a cup of refreshment and of quiet, a cup of ending. Then with what pleasure I shall put my small boat round, just round the point of that shingle beach, noting the shallow water by the eddies, and the deeps by the blue colour of them, where the channel runs from the main into the fairway. Up that fairway shall I go and the gates of it shall shut behind me, headland against headland, so that I shall not see the open sea any more, though I shall still hear its distant noise. Under that failing light, all alone in such a place, I shall let go the anchor chain, and let it rattle for the last time. My anchor will go down into the clear salt water with a run, and then I shall tie up my canvas and fasten all for the night, and get me ready for sleep. And that will be the end of my sailing.'

Great words?

'These great words'! Thank God they are not from the Scriptures. They are what the world calls great words and I suppose they are very beautiful in a literary sense, but I thank God I am not called to preach literature. I will grant, if you like, the beauty of the language, but I cannot think of anything which produces a more striking contrast to the text we are considering together now.

Is that the end? Is that what death means for the Christian, to be alone - no man or anybody - alone, turning a little boat round the corner of the headland from the mighty ocean into this little eddy, and there, alone, you fall asleep and end the voyage? Oh, how I thank God for the Christian gospel! I cannot imagine anything more terrible than that, that is pessimism, that is despair, this desire to be alone. My friend, if you are a Christian, that is not what awaits you, it is this: 'Father I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.' You see the contrast - the Christian desire is not to be alone, regarding that as the supreme bliss, it is to be where Christ is - 'where I am.'

Where are we going? Are we going into some silent place surrounded by wonderful hills and the shimmer of light upon the waves? No, that is not the gospel! We are going where Christ is '. . . to be with Christ, which is far better' (Philippians 1.23). To the Christian, death does not mean being alone, it means going to be with him. That is what he said, you remember, to the thief dying by his side, upon the cross: 'Today', he said. You are not going into some little eddy and there be alone and put down the anchor and fall asleep - 'Today shalt thou be with me in paradise' (Luke 23.43) '. . . to be with Christ, which is far better.'

The whole company

And you notice that our Lord is very concerned here to impress upon us that not only shall we be with him, but that we shall all be with him: 'Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, shall be with me where I am' - I believe it means the total aggregate of Christians, the whole company of the redeemed, all of us together will be with him; we do not look forward to being alone at last, no longer buffeted by other people, and thinking: 'Thank God I'm at last alone!' - not a bit of it. That is a travesty of the gospel which merely appeals to the natural mind because of the beauty of its language. What the Christian looks forward to is this:

'Ten thousand times then thousand,
In sparkling raiment white,
The armies of the ransomed hosts
Throng up the steeps of light.
'Tis finished, all is finished,
Their fight with death and sin,
Fling open wide the golden gates
And let the victors in.'

Henry Alford (1810-71)

The very essence of the Christian position is that Christians want everybody to share what they have, and they all look forward to being in heaven and to being with all the ten thousand times ten thousand. That is heaven, not to be alone, thank God, but to be among this ransomed throng of the redeemed, safely gathered in, all who have been with us on earth sharing Christian fellowship, joining with us in song - the saints who have gone before us, the saints who will come after us, we will all be there together. What a wonderful vista, what a vision of glory! That is what he wills, 'that they - all of them - may be with me where I am.'

To gaze and gaze . . .

And what shall we be doing there? Well, this is what he says: 'Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.' It is a great word, this word 'behold'; to behold means to gaze upon as a spectator, but it also means to gaze upon some extraordinary sight, something quite exceptional and unusual. We often have that kind of experience do we not? Maybe we are out walking, and suddenly we turn a corner and see some marvellous sight; we behold, we gaze, we stand and look - it is there, in our Lord's phrase, multiplied by infinity. But this word goes even further than that.

It is a continuous word - 'that they may continually behold my glory'; we go on beholding! That is not the whole of heaven, of course, but it is perfectly clear from the Scriptures, and especially from the Book of Revelation, that this is one of the main things in heaven, to gaze and gaze upon him, to behold him, yes, and very specially, he says, to behold his glory.

With Him . . . an extract from the book Growing in the Spirit on John 17

Sailor's rest

Great words?

The whole company

Henry Alford (1810-71)

To gaze and gaze . . .

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones

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