That for followers of Jesus, our end goal should not be: to be forgiven. It's sort of like: phew, I'm forgiven, I'll just sit around and wait to go to heaven. That is the exact opposite of Jesus' message.
Jesus' message for His followers is this: get in line with God's kingdom today, as fast as you can, urgently. I urge you to do this. The whole world's at stake. Come on people, come on! We need to establish the kingdom of God on this earth.
Jesus died, and rose from the dead, and He came back from the dead, and how much did He talk about heaven? None! How much did He talk about hell? None! That is amazing, considering He just preached there. I find that amazing. What I find more amazing is: no one asked Him. Jesus comes back from the dead, and no one asked Him.
You guys know me. If I died today, and you came to my funeral on Wednesday, and then I showed up here next Sunday and ruined your service, how many questions would we get through before someone asks: what actually happened? No one did that, though. Jesus comes back from the dead, and no one says: hey, what's heaven like? What's hell like? I heard You preached there, how was Your altar call? How did that go? When you rose from the dead, it says: tombs emptied up everywhere - was that Your altar call? Are You going to write a book about Your 23 minutes there, and make a billion dollars? That would be awesome if You did that. NO! No one did that.
Jesus comes back from the dead, and this is their response: oh great, You're back. Are we going to take over Rome now? That's an odd response, unless they thought He was about establishing the kingdom on the earth. Jesus is not about getting a whole group of people somewhere else. Jesus is about taking what is somewhere else, and getting it to the earth, and He's entrusting us to do that.
So here's my question: if that happened tomorrow, where would you fit? You say: well I'm forgiven. Good. Good! Yes, amen - but then what? Then what? How would you go with the flames of heaven?
If you're the builder, what part of your life would suffer loss, and what part of you would be celebrated? By the way - that's a question, not a statement. I'm not looking for you to agree with me. I'm just asking the question.
There are all these images. Ever read Malachi, Chapter 2? It says: and who can stand the day of His coming? Who can stand the day of the Lord, for He will purify His people with a refiner's fire, or a launderer's soap?
By the way, these are metaphors. God is not literally setting people on fire. As a matter of fact, in Leviticus, He commands His people not to do it. So if He commands His people not to set people on fire, does it stand to reason He would keep His own rules? God is not a 10 year old boy with a lighter, a magnifying glass, and daddy-issues.
Because white people are weird - you start talking about flames and heaven, people go: whoa! Well I don't want to go there! I don't want to be set on fire - that would hurt. No, come on. The word translated fire is the word pure, p-u-r-e, pure. All forms of the word purity come from this word.
Essentially it's what the rabbi said: that the Flames of Heaven is God's relentless pursuit to make you the best you could be in God's kingdom, without taking your free will away.
In other words, there's all these images; Malachi, Chapter 2, the refiners fire. In Jeremiah he says: he will complete you, like a potter does a clay pot. Hang on, how does a potter finish a clay pot? Fires it up! Obviously a metaphor - none of you look like a pot.
Isaiah 42, he says: I will consume them with my fire, yet they will not understand it. Once again, obviously a metaphor - if you douse someone with gasoline and set them on fire, the main concern should never be: do they get what you're saying? These are metaphors! Euphemisms! Analogies!
So I started looking at this, and I wanted to be brave enough in my own life to be a disciple. I knew that if I was going to be a disciple, I had to be willing to allow heaven to be established in me today.