When Heaven Opens: Part 2

A funeral has a way of stripping the noise away. I start with that kind of moment and a simple, weighty truth: Jesus Christ is not a Savior for one group, one color, or one nation. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and that reality puts a responsibility on every believer to speak clearly about salvation while there’s still time. No one wants to look into a casket and realize they stayed quiet when they should have pointed a friend to the cross.

From there, we return to our “open heaven” Bible study and linger at the baptism of Jesus Christ. We walk through why He was baptized, what God revealed when the heavens opened, and how the Father’s voice and the Spirit’s descent frame Christ’s public ministry. Then I draw out three practical rules for true Christian service: living in the joy of sonship, keeping our headquarters in heaven through constant communion with God, and accepting that testing often follows dedication.

Next we move to Acts 7, where Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, looks up and sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. That open heaven moment explains courage under persecution, highlights the reality of the risen and exalted Christ, and even sets the stage for Saul of Tarsus to be shaken by a heavenly vision that will change him forever. If you want expository Bible teaching on the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship, and keeping your eyes on heaven when life turns hostile, this message will steady you.

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Transcript

Welcome To The Broadcast

SPEAKER_01 0:54

All right, now I'm Brother James, and this is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, and we're certainly very happy that you've tuned in to the broadcast today. Now, uh, somebody said you always say we are happy that you've tuned in, and why do you say we when you're the only one that's speaking? Well, I may be the only one speaking, but there are many, many people who are praying and who are giving and making it possible for my voice to be heard over this radio station so that you can hear the preaching of the cross radio broadcast, and each and everyone that prays for and supports this ministry is happy that you've tuned in today. We're glad to have you with us, and we're going to continue with our series of messages on the opened heaven that we began on the last broadcast, talking about the times in the New Testament scriptures when heaven is open. You know, I just got back at the time I'm making this recording, just got back from a uh funeral uh service, and you know it's uh it's a strange thing if you've never had such an experience. It's a it really is a strange thing to be the only white man in an entire uh building full of of black people. Now, uh I'm not gonna get into any kind of racial discussion today or anything like that. I'm just gonna say to you that I am happy, I am thankful that my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ didn't die for the white men to be a white man's Savior. And I'm glad he didn't die just for the uh the lost sheep of the house of Israel to be a Jewish Savior. I'm glad he isn't a black Messiah. I am thankful that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and he died not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world, and you can say that whether you're white, black, red, yellow, or somewhere in between, you can say, Thanks be unto God, that he sent his son the Lord Jesus Christ to suffer and bleed and die for your sins. And what a wonderful experience it is to walk into a place like that and know that every saved person in there has Adam's blood in their veins, Acts chapter 17, but has been washed by the blood of God's Son. As a matter of fact, it's called God's blood in Acts 2028, and we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and that's not a white salvation or a black salvation or a uh an oriental salvation or Jewish salvation. There's one Savior, one Lord of all, only one who can honestly say, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me, but him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. And you know something else that if you'll just uh suffer my manners here for a moment, uh something else, just a great and wonderful blessing is to walk up to that casket and see that that body laying there, and know and know that you have done everything in your power to tell that individual what Christ did for them, how their soul could be saved, and how they could enter the glory of heaven when they died. Now I don't know if this uh man who uh died last week and whose funeral service I've just returned from, I don't know if he ever trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior or not, but what a blessing, what a joyous blessing to walk up to that casket and look into the face of one whose blood is not on your hands, saved or lost, knowing that you've given them all the information they needed to be saved and born again. Now, my friend, that's the that's the calling, that's the responsibility, that's the duty of each and every one of you that are saved to see to it that you never go to the funeral of a friend, you never go to the funeral of an acquaintance, and have any cause whatsoever to regret the fact that you did not prepare them for their final journey. Now uh strange thing, I I went in there and and uh looking up and and here's old uh Jude Hankins coming in, and and Jude Hankins, uh I'd I've known Jude Hankins since I was uh in the seventh grade in school. Uh we played basketball together. And that fella, he was uh was put out of school in the ninth grade for knife fighting and had already already become a drunkard. And the poor fella, he was drunk this evening, and and I suppose that for for twenty-five years he's not known sobriety. For twenty-five years he's not known what it is to have a sound mind. Now, I hadn't seen that fella since I've been saved. I have not seen him, I have not talked with him since I was born again. Now that's been uh seventeen years. I'm sure I hadn't seen him for two or three years uh prior to that. It's been close to twenty years since I'd seen that fella, and he he I turned on and I said, Is that is that you, Mr. Hankins? And he said, Uh yes it is, uh Mr. Knox. How are you? And of course we're using Mr. I was I didn't know if he still wanted to be called Jude or not. Uh Gerald was his name, and uh we got talking a little bit and I I told him. He had that the alcohol in his breath and that glazed look in his eyes, and he said, Well, what have you been doing? I said, Well, I'm pastoring a little church now. I um become a Christian. And he smiled, he got a big smile on his face, he said, You You I said, Yes, sir. I said, The Lord Jesus Christ is able to save somebody like me, able to give me eternal life, able to clean me up, able to put me into the ministry, and what a blessing I was able to say, and you know, if he could do it for me, he can certainly do it for you. I'm not proud of what I used to be, not proud of what I was before I came to know Jesus, but I certainly am thankful that the changed life can be a testimony to those that can see at a glance that Jesus Christ makes a difference. Let me ask you something. Are you enjoying the privilege of being a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ? Nothing really pleasant about a funeral, and yet if you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, you never sorrow as those that have no hope. We all know that life is short and death is sure. Sin the cost Christ the cure. Well, I appreciate you bearing with me there as I just uh unburden my heart a little bit about those things. I hope and pray that as we talk about the open heaven on the broadcast today, it'll be a blessing to you. We started last time and we talked about the fact that in Matthew three, Mark one, and Luke three, in each of these passages we are told of the open heaven at the baptism of Jesus Christ. We also read about the heaven being open at Acts 7, Acts 10, Revelation 19, and John chapter 1, and in due time, the Lord willing, we will talk about each of these in our study, but we want to finish up on the broadcast today, this matter of the heaven being opened at the baptism of Jesus, and then start in on one of the other openings of heaven and uh see how far we can get. We talked last time about the threefold reason why the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized to fulfill all righteousness as an act of identification with sinful fallen man, and as an act of dedication to the will of the Heavenly Father. We also saw that the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ had a threefold result. The heavens were opened, the voice of the Father was heard from heaven, bearing witness to his Son, and the Spirit, like a dove, descended upon him. We want to talk now about a threefold rule that follows from this event, and there are in this event three basic rules which govern all true service for God. These are seen in the experience of God's perfect servant and are to be reproduced in the lives and experiences of all who seek to serve him. First of all, the servant must be living in the conscious joy of sonship. The servant must be living in the constant joy of sonship. At the commencement of his public ministry, the sonship of Jesus Christ is declared. The message to Pharaoh back in the Old Testament days in Exodus chapter 4, verse 22, was this. Let me read it to you, Exodus 4, verses 22 and 23. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn, and I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. Now Israel would fail, but the divine intention was clear, and that uh intention will yet be achieved. In Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter number three, the Bible says this, and let me read you verse seventeen. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Now God has no pleasure in the service of hirelings. John ten thirteen makes this clear. Only his sons can serve him rightly, and the Lord Jesus Christ was conscious of the fact that he was the Son of the Father. This was declared by the Father from the open heaven. Then secondly, the servant must have his headquarters in heaven. From thence the service of the Son originates. Thither he goes when his work is done. And so it was with God's perfect servant. We read these words in Mark chapter one and verse number eleven, and there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. With his heavenly headquarters, the Lord Jesus Christ had constant communication in prayer. He said in John 11 42, I know that thou hearest me always. There he took his seat when his work was done. We read this in Mark sixteen, verses nineteen and twenty. And then thirdly, the servant must be tested. The servant must be tested. After the benediction of the baptism came the temptation of the wilderness. After the dove came the devil. He had been announced as the beloved Son. If thou be the Son, immediately came the words of the tempter. The temptation demonstrated that the Lord Jesus Christ was who he was, the Son of God, in perfect obedience to, in perfect dependence upon his Father. The temptation indicated that here was one without flaw, one intrinsically holy. Now God had one son without sin, but he never had a son without testing and trial. So that's the first case of heaven being open. The second of these we find in Acts chapter number seven. If you have a Bible, I hope you'll turn there and we'll begin our look at this second opening of heaven. Marvelous thing in this book of Acts. The nation of Israel had their Messiah sent to them. He was declared to be their Savior, their Messiah, their King, their Christ, sent by God. And they crucified him. They rejected him. They said, We have no king but Caesar. We'll not have this man to reign over us. They took him out to the cross at Calvary, chose Barabbas a robber in his place, had him crucified, rejected him. Three days and three nights later he rose from the dead, showed himself alive to his disciples by many infallible proofs, told them to tarry at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, and then ascended up into heaven. Forty days and forty nights later, the Holy Spirit of God descended, and dwelt these believers on that day of Pentecost, and they went out and began to proclaim the death, burial, and resurrection of King Jesus, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah, the death, burial, and resurrection of God's Son and God's servant. And in Acts 2, Acts 3, Acts 4, Acts 5, Acts chapter 6, the beginning of the preaching of the cross was at Jerusalem to the nation of Israel, and they get one great final opportunity, the leaders of this nation to repent of their evil deed and wickedness in crucifying their Messiah and their Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, when Stephen preaches to them his great sermon in Acts chapter number 7. He reviews the history of the nation of Israel, how God sent them Moses, how God sent them Joseph, how every single time that God sent them a deliverer, every single time God sent them a leader in their pride and their rebellion and their self-righteousness, they rejected the one that God sent until finally they took their Messiah, their king, their savior, their Christ, and rejected him. And Stephen calls upon them to repent. He calls upon them to turn from their wickedness and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. And of course, you know what happened. The Bible says in Acts chapter number seven, and we'll begin our reading at verse 51. Acts chapter 7, beginning at verse 51. Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the young man's feet, whose name was Saul, and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this he fell asleep. Now the martyrdom of Stephen serves not only to portray one of the loveliest characters in the New Testament, it also serves to introduce Saul of Tarsus, the arch persecutor of the early church, who after his conversion was to become one of its mightiest apostles. The words of Stephen testifying to seeing the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God were not lost on Saul. Later, that glorified man was to speak to the prostrate persecutor as he lay helpless, arrested by that risen Lord on the Damascus Road, and he spoke from the right hand of power. Saul would not be disobedient to the heavenly vision. In Stephen's martyrdom, Luke, riding under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, recording the Acts of the Apostles, twice uses the words the right hand of God in verse 55 and verse 56. How revolutionary this would have been to Saul. Jesus, the crucified, glorified by God. But it was true, and was later to become the center of Paul's doctrine and the comfort of his heart. He was later to write in Romans 8 34 it is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God. He wrote that in Romans 8 and verse 34. It gave him consolation in his prison in Rome. Writing to the Ephesian Christians, he said that God set him at his own right hand in heavenly places. That's Ephesians 1 20. To the Colossian Christians he wrote, Where Christ is at the right hand of God. In Colossians chapter 3 and verse 1, that is where our affections ought to be. So this matter of Stephen looking through the open heaven and beholding Jesus at the right hand of God the Father was to become a very significant truth in the New Testament scriptures. Stephen had also testified to an open heaven. Heaven open. This was a new idea to Saul. Up until now, he had been concerned with earthly hopes, earthly prospects. The city of Jerusalem had filled his eyes and ambitions. But Stephen had seen the glory of the Lord outside that city, and so would Saul. Acts 26 and verse 13. Let me read that to you. Acts 26 and verse number 13. Right here we read At midday, O king, I saw in the way the light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them which journeyed with me. He thereafter speaks of, and this is Paul when he begins to write and teach, he would speak of our house which is from heaven in Second Corinthians five. He teaches the saints to wait for God's Son from heaven, even Jesus, in First Thessalonians 1 10, assuring them that Christ would descend from heaven with a shout in 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 16. Like the baptism of the Lord, there is a threefoldness here in Stephen's vision. Stephen is full of the Spirit. He sees the glory of God, he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and we want to consider each of these three factors of Stephen's vision. Now, when I say a vision, I don't mean a mystical thing that he imagined or supposed. I'm we're talking about what Stephen actually saw with his eyes. First of all, Stephen was full of the Spirit. Stephen was full of the Spirit. Whereas we are never exhorted to be baptized in the Spirit, let me say that again, please. I realize what I just said goes contrary to ninety percent of what you're going to hear on a Christian radio station in these days, but I'm going to say it again anyway, as a Bible believer. We are never exhorted anywhere in the Word of God to be baptized in the Spirit. Why in the world all these men keep mouthing off about being baptized in the Spirit? You need to get baptized in the Spirit, and you keep trying to get baptized in the Spirit because these men are telling you this. Why don't you read your Bible sometime instead of being a blind follower of the blind and ending up falling in a ditch with your leader? We are never exhorted to be baptized with the spirit, but we are exhorted to be filled with the Spirit. Let me read you from Ephesians chapter five, beginning at verse eighteen. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. In the book of Acts, the filling of the Spirit is a phenomenon which is repeated in the case of the same people. So some who were filled with the Spirit in chapter two and verse four were again filled in chapter four and verse thirty-one. You read about them being filled in Acts 9 17 and again in Acts 13 9. In contrast, the baptism in the Spirit is never repeated. Just as there is no necessity for a repetition of Calvary's cross. So there is no necessity for a repetition of Pentecost. It's amazing the people that would take a shot at the Church of Rome for claiming to be continuing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary in the Mass, and these same people will go down to an altar and try and repeat the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that took place on the day of Pentecost. Six of one and half dozen of the other. Now, what needs to be considered carefully is the use of tenses in the book of Acts. Sometimes the tense employed indicates a snapshot action, a momentary experience, a supply to meet the need of the moment. Such occasions when this tense is used, for example, are found in Acts 4.8 and Acts 431. Let me read you these so you can see just exactly what I'm talking about. Acts chapter 4 and verse number eight. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, seven of them. Acts four thirty one. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. Acts thirteen and verse number nine speaks in this fashion. Then Saul, who is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him. On the other hand, sometimes the tense indicates something more continuous and more lasting. For example, Acts chapter six and verse three. Acts chapter six and verse three. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you, men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom ye may appoint over this business, and in the verse that we read earlier, Acts 7 55, in the case of Stephen, but he being full of the Holy Ghost. This doesn't imply a momentary filling for the need of the hour. This implies a continuous walk and manner of life. Here, rather than a momentary occurrence, tense used indicates a permanent character of a person's life. Being full marks the permanent character of Stephen's spiritual endowments. Not here a special occasional influence to meet the emergency, but a character and manner of living. The tense implies not a sudden inspiration, but a permanent state. So being filled with the spirit, being full of the Holy Ghost, he looked up steadfastly into heaven. So note then one effect of the filling of the Spirit Heart occupation with heavenly things. His eager gaze was fixed on a glorified man in glory. This is what being a Christian should be a person filled with the Holy Spirit, looking up with steady gaze of faith into heaven and occupied with a glorified Lord. Now listen, I don't want to get on a negative bent or negative trend, but do you realize something? Do you realize these people today who talk the most about being filled with the Spirit spend all of their time occupied with the things of this earth, being healed, feeling good, being well, prospering, having a new car, a new home, plenty of money, having lots of friends, building a big church? Do you realize that that occupation with the things of earth is a testimony that you are not filled with the Spirit? Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, wasn't occupied with the crowd round about him, wasn't occupied with the congregation he was preaching to, wasn't occupied with a mob rushing forward to stone him, wasn't occupied with his physical condition and saying, God heal me, God make me well, God get me out of this trouble. No, he was filled with the Spirit, and therefore he was occupied with heavenly things, not earthly things. Note the powerful effect produced upon Stephen by the person who filled the vision of his soul. Here was a man in the most terrible circumstances, surrounded by enemies, death staring him in the face. Yet he is not controlled by these things, but he is governed by heavenly objects. The world was rejecting Stephen as it had rejected his beloved Lord not so long before, but heaven was open to him, and gazing up into that open heaven he caught some of the rays of glory shining in the face of his risen Lord and not only caught them, but reflected them back upon the moral gloom that surrounded him. Here then is a genuine Christianity. Here is genuine spiritual experience, living conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Thanks for tuning in today. Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast. For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W. Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptistland, or our website, BibleBaptistTeland.com. Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.