Going Home
INTRODUCTION
Think how many times we hear, “There is no place like home.” “You can go home when you can’t go anywhere else.” “It takes more than a house to make a home.” The tragic death of Christina Onassis at the age of 38 illustrates this point. Many of her problems stemmed from the poverty of relationships she experienced at home as she was growing up. As her stepsister Henrietta Gelber commented:
"She lacked a sense of achievement; what she was striving for was just to be a normal human being with normal family relationships, which was virtually impossible in her situation. She had houses all over the world, but she never really had a home" (Bible Illustrator, # 1615).
Last Wednesday evening at Prayer Meeting, I announced that in the next message in our series on Heaven I was going to preach a funeral sermon - “I don’t know whose,” I hastened to add. One lady was quick to add, “Well, I am not volunteering.” I understand what she meant, but this subject - “Going Home” - would be appropriate for a funeral message. We often hear a minister say at the beginning of a funeral service, “We are celebrating our loved one’s home going.”
I. HOME IS A METAPHOR FOR HEAVEN.
A. Home Is Special to Most People.
Ideally, as God intended it, a home means family. Home means love and rest. Home means structure and order. Home means peace and security. Home means comfort.
B. Our Heavenly Home Means All Those Things and Much More.
C. Our Earthly Home is Temporal, Our Heavenly Home, Eternal.
The Shepherd Psalm speaks of an eternal home, Ps. 23:6.
Paul stresses this in 2 Cor. 4:18-5:1.
II. THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME.
A. This World Is Not Our Real Home.
The Gospel song tells us, “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.” Nothing in this world is permanent, 2 Cor. 5:2-4; Rom. 8:22.
B. Paul Expresses A Christian World-View.
“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth, Col. 3:2. This world is filled with trouble, 2 Cor. 4:8-10. The glory of Heaven overshadows the sufferings of the world, Rom. 8:18.
III. I AM GOING HOME
A. To Be Absent From the Body Is to Be At Home With the Lord, 2. Cor. 5:8.
There is a play on words in the Greek (ekdaymew, absent; endaymew, present). The word translated “present” means “to be at home with.”
B. If You Are a Christians, To Depart This Life Is To Be At Home with God.
Paul anticipated this home going, Phil. 1:21, 23. Paul wrote of this to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 15:53; 2 Cor. 5:4.
C. My Heavenly Home Will Be Perfect, Rom. 8:28-30.
In Justification we are delivered from the penalty of sin.
In Sanctification we are being delivered from the power of sin.
In Glorification we will be delivered from the very presence of sin.
D. In Heaven We Will Be Perfectly At Home, Heb. 10:14; 12:23;
Our joy will be perfect, Ps. 16:11.
Our knowledge will be perfect, 1 Cor 13:12.
Our Love will be perfect, 1 Cor 13:13.
E. If You Are in Jesus Christ, Your Heavenly Home is Guaranteed, Rom. 8:1.
F. If You Are Not a Christian, You Can Go to Heaven
If You Are Not a Christian, You Can Go to Heaven if You Will Go to the Heavenly Father Just as the Prodigal Son Returned to His Father.