If you reflect on heaven and the hereafter and Christ's plan for you, then it gives you perspective. Every trial of life, every triumph of life is seen in perspective. Heaven helps you to seek consolation. There are sufferings and sacrifices and difficulties in the Christian life, and the great consolation is eternal. So I will not indulge in self-pity if I am asked to tread some difficult territory. Are you inclined to suffer from depression? I don't mean clinical depression so-called, for which you may need help, something which is not reasonable for a person to suffer from; I am talking about ordinary depression. Well, think of heaven, and the blessings that await you. An ordinary depression will come into proportion. Heaven will make a tremendous difference to your stewardship: you won't hoard unnecessarily for yourself. There are people who spend half their lives hoarding and then it comes to the half when they think they are going to enjoy what they have hoarded, and they cannot, because some tragedy or sickness befalls them, or life is cut short. Think of heaven and you will be a great steward. Think of heaven, and you will be rich in good works and helpfulness to others. Think of heaven and you will practice self-denial much more easily, and you won’t be carried away. What a difference heaven will make to your witness, because you will view people as lost. And then praise and worship: when I come into the house of worship and sing God’s praises, I must think of heaven. Yes, earthly blessings matter too, but do not forget the heavenly blessings, the greatest things.
The believer cannot, strictly speaking, die. The moment the light of this world goes out, the light of the next comes on for the believer; you enter into eternity. What must it be like to cross the threshold of eternity? Perhaps in pain, in confusion, yet the moment you are transferred from death to life, the soul is filled with inexpressible anticipation and wonder and amazement, and you know your soul has taken flight into eternal glory. You are overwhelmed with a sense of safety and security, joy unspeakable and full of glory, says the apostle Peter. The great day has arrived and you've come to meet Christ your maker. All pain is gone, fatigue will never be felt again. Fear and anxiety are finished forever. Never another pang of grief. The sins that cling to us, the heart sins, are all taken away. But the greatest thing will be the reception. We are not told as much in Scripture in plain terms, but lurking in the parables of Christ we find there is to be a reception – ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant’ – people who have gone before, loved ones, but chiefly the Lord himself.
Sadly, there are churches in which godly men who love the Lord, do nothing but preach to the saints, or when they do preach the gospel, as one notable preacher said years ago, all they do is wave the flag. They may hastily say, ‘We are all sinners and we need a Saviour, and Christ is that Saviour and you must trust in him’, but that is just a summary. That is not the sword that we find in the Scripture, we find reasoning and pleading and explanation. You need dedicated, persuasive, soul winning preaching at least one service a week. Many churches shy away from this, not because they don't believe the gospel, nor because they don't want people saved, but somehow that is what happens. Churches cannot survive in a day like this, in atheistic communities like ours, without regular preaching of the gospel, without conversions. Let churches not select good earnest preachers who are only able to expound the word and cannot preach the everlasting gospel. Richard Baxter's, Fifty Reasons to Turn to God without Delay, is not a summary gospel persuasion. It is what he used to call ‘wrestling with souls’, and that is what we must be doing. In Acts 18 Paul is charged in Corinth with persuading men to worship God, contrary to the law, and the word translated ‘persuade’ means he uses intensive arguments, not just a summary gospel. Later, in Ephesus, he is said to have mightily convinced the Jews; he utterly proved that Christ had to die, that there is no salvation without an atonement, and he publicly showed this by the Scriptures.