Under the Canopy of Heaven 2. The Opening of Heaven Alive@5 2.7.18
Introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqX6OtY4MoA
In the introduction to last week I emphasised that our age has witnessed an eclipse of the reality of heaven both in wider culture and in the Church. Since humans were made for a communion with a world greater than this one we shouldn’t be surprised that people starved of connection with heaven are racing after experiences to transport them beyond the ordinary day to day, whether through eastern meditation, devotion to nature, surround sound music, pornography or addiction to drugs like “ecstasy” etc. Christians by nature are not likely to easily fall prey to these deceptions, but I am convinced that a great deal of the intensity in some sorts of contemporary church meetings, not only the vibrant music but the darkened building, dim lights and all the way to the smoke machine, are a satanically introduced deception to imitate our need to commune with the world above. The deception is exposed by the impure or undisciplined lives of many of those who frequent such assemblies.
The only thing that can deliver us from all error in neglecting or emulating the power of heaven is the coming of Jesus. Whereas the psalmist could say, “The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.” (Ps 115:16), with the coming of the God-man heaven and earth belong to humanity in Christ (1 Cor 3:21-23). If this is real how does it become real in our lives and in particular what are we to understand by the opening of heaven? Does it mean what some Pentecostal churches think of by an “open heaven”, a strong sense of the presence of God with signs, wonders and prophecies, or does it mean much more? The easiest way to answer these questions is to scan the biblical examples of the opening of heaven.
Old Testament openings of Heaven
The first example comes by sovereign divine initiative in the case of Jacob. This unworthy scoundrel has just stolen the birthright from his brother and is fleeing out of the Promised Land, “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord” (Gen 28:12-13). In his weakened state Jacob has an incomprehensibly gracious revelation of the heavenly world without a trace of judgement. At an uncertain hour when Israel stands unclean and under divine displeasure (2 Chron 26:16-23; Isa 6:1) Isaiah has a vision of the glory of the LORD to be a prophet in the temple (Isa 6). Even more directly is the catalyst for the commissioning of Ezekiel, “In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” (1:1). In exile in an unclean land cut off from priestly ministry in temple and cult and in a humanly impossible situation Ezekiel experiences a parting of the invisible barrier between heaven and earth. In the very presence of God a completely new reality bursts into view. Nothing in the text suggests Ezekiel had done anything to set up this encounter; he received a manifestation of God at a point of great weakness. From there he was issued into the throne room in heaven (1:1ff. cf. Jer 23:18ff.).
Fulfilment in Jesus
These rare Old Testament encounters with God come to their fullness in the person of Jesus. When Nathanael is amazed by Jesus’ prophetic insight he replies that he is the fulfilment of Jacob’s dream, ““Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”” (John 1:51). The angels now ascend and descend on Jesus who is the ladder between heaven and earth the link between God and humanity. It is in Jesus that the heavenly revelation, “I am the Lord” now takes place (cf. John 6:35; 8:12, 58 etc.). Christ is “the gate of heaven” the way between God and the world. The connection between Isaiah’s visionary experience of heavenly realities and Christ is made clear in John 12:41, where after quoting from Isaiah 6 it says, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his i.e. Jesus’ glory and spoke of him i.e. Jesus.” The fulfilment of the Ezekiel vision in Christ is even more profound. When Ezekiel is ushered into the throne room in heaven he sees angelic creatures and the glory of God. These details are picked up and expanded in Revelation 4-5, where the climax is far beyond the Old Testament prophet’s cautious description of “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (1:28). The apostle John sees the resurrected and crucified Lamb in the midst of God’s throne (Rev 5:6). The concentration point of Christ brings clarity to everything in heaven and earth.
An opening of heaven is always all about the revelation of Jesus. This is what happened to the persecutor Saul when he saw the Lord on the road to Damascus, “suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord? “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”” (Acts 9:3-5 cf. Acts 9:17; 22:14; 1 Cor 9:1). The gospel came to Paul, in his own words, “through a revelation of Jesus Christ” so that God “who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to/in/through me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (Gal 1:12, 15-16). Because of his ecstatic throne room experience Paul was transformed into an apostle of Christ through whom God was glorified (Gal 1:24).
These apocalyptic scenes find their ultimate expression towards the end of the book of Revelation. Taken up in the Spirit through a door open in heaven (4:1) John witness’s scene after scene which constitute the “revelation of Jesus Christ” as the victorious Lamb of God. (1:1). The opening of the door of heaven climaxes in the context of the marriage supper of the Lamb, “I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war…. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.” (19:11, 13). The unimaginably intensity of these visions serve the essential purpose of edifying the people of God to endure the spiritual conflict in which they are engaged.
The Revelation of Jesus
The most significant episode in the openings of heaven recorded in scripture is one for which Jesus himself is the recipient; “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”” (Luke 3:21-22) The heavens were “torn apart” in an apparent fulfilment of the desperate prayer of a prophet in the midst of a lost wandering people ruled over by ungodly powers(Isa 63:17-19), “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down….to make your name known to your adversaries” (Isa 64:1-2). What is happening as heaven opens over Jesus is unlimited in scope because the revelation which it brings is unfathomable in depth. An open heaven brings the gift of the Spirit in the form of a dove, signifying a creative act of grace beyond a flood of judgement (Luke 3:7, 9) infinitely in excess of the dove of Noah (Gen 8:12; 21). The resting of the Spirit on Jesus means the temporary nature of his relationship with man is over (Gen 6:3) and Jesus is anointed with power to bring eternal life (Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38). The direct character of the Father’s voice from heaven means a new era of revelation has arrived in his Son. And the pleasure of the Father in the Son marks him out as the triumphant Messiah of Psalm 2, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah (42:1; 52:13- 53:12) and the sacrificial lamb of Genesis 22:22.
This open heaven at Jesus’ baptism was deeply important for Jesus himself. “There is a sense in which it is possible to say that this one came to Jordan as Jesus of Nazareth and left it as the Messiah of God.” (Hawthorne) He leaves the river empowered to bring in the kingdom of God by overthrowing the forces of evil, but ultimately to die and rise again. The open heaven at Jesus’ baptism prophetically points to the passing away of the cursed old world and the birth of a new eternal creation. It opens up access to God’s own view of things.
Us
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12). But since believers in Jesus have been “Born again/from above”, they are expected to have insight into heavenly things. In John, “heavenly things” are things about Christ himself, e.g. that as he said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” (6:51). Since Jesus has now received Lordship of heaven and earth (Matt 28:18) none of his actions need be concealed from us. For example, Paul says, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Rom 1:18) and goes on to list a whole hosts of sins familiar in our time. Yet many contemporary Christians cannot see that God is acting from heaven actively judging such sins in a way that is much more vital than them simply being a breaking of his laws. Likewise, Hebrews comments about a great shaking of ““not only the earth but also the heavens”” and counsels, “if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.” (Heb 12:25). Yet much of the Church today cannot recognise we are in the midst of such a shaking! Or when we are told of the Second Coming, “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels” (2 Thess 1:7) this is just unreal to comfortable Western believers as if heaven is closed to us? These are very deep matters.
Because through adoption of sonship we share in the status of Jesus as the Son of God (Heb 2:11) heaven is open to us as sons. This means that every testimony of the Spirit in our hearts (Rom 8:16) and every time we sense God is speaking to us (1 Thess 2:13) we are sharing in the Holy Spirit’s presence and the Father’s voice which passed through the heavens and settled on Jesus (John 1:33). Jesus is the living bridge between heaven and earth. If these are true things we must ask what’s missing in the theology, spirituality and discipleship of the Church today that’s stopping us from enjoying an “open heaven”? I’ve found this a particularly difficult question to get an answer for in prayer. But here is what I believe is the unified New Testament answer.
Holes in God
When Jesus appeared in risen form to his frightened disciples he didn’t seek to impress them about his new status as a glorified human, Lord of heaven and earth, by doing some stupendous miracle. He showed him the holes in his body (John 20:19 – 28). This evoked in Thomas one of the most elevated testimonies to the revelation of Jesus in all of scripture, ““My Lord and my God!”” (v.28). these words echo a prayer in the psalms (35:23) and even more significantly the language of the celestial worship in the throne room of heaven recorded on in Revelation (4:11). It is the slaughtering of the Lamb (5:6) which makes it possible for a sinful human being to bear the majestic heavenly visions in Revelation. None of this should surprise us because the book opens with, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.” (1:7). Christ’s advent from heaven will be marked by a great repentance (cf. Dan 7:13; Mark 14:62) drawn out by the sight of his bodily wounds. If John’s testimony weren’t enough Hebrews makes this connection even clearer; “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places (in heaven) by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh” (Heb 10:19-20). The torn body of Jesus opens up the intimacies of the heavenly temple.
The physical breaking of the body of Jesus signifies that he bore the curse as a sin bearer in our place (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13). This was the time when heaven was closed to the Son of God (Mark 15:34) testifying that it is now open to us; this is the heart of the revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev 1:1 etc.). When the Church is largely in the dark about the immanence/closeness of the heavenly world it is because it has taken its eyes off what the cross means for God; that it is the opening of “the gate of heaven” (Gen 28:17).
Conclusion
Christians are like amphibians because in Christ we inhabit two worlds, the one above and the one below; but our presence in these domains isn’t symmetrical for “our life is hid with Christ/who is our life in God” (Col 3:1-4). Isaiah’s lament, “We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like those who are not called by your name. Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down….to make your name known to your adversaries,” (63:19-64:1-2) is true on one level, looking over much of the Western Church the rule of God and the name of Jesus seem absent, but on another level this cannot be. Heaven cannot be closed to the Bride of Jesus, even if he must discipline her (Rev 3:19) in ways that make it seem like the world above is far more remote than the world below.
The biblical revelation is that eaven and earth, the old and new creations are held together in Jesus the crucified and resurrected Lamb. As the pathway for Jacob, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Saul to an open heaven came through a union between their broken conditions and a share in the suffering of the cross so it is for us (cf. Col 1:24). As God’s grace unites our brokenness with the life of Christ heaven is opened to us granting a revelation of Jesus Christ. This is what it’s all about and this is my testimony (Rev 19:10). In 1994 some of us were called to do a week of prayer and fasting, 6 am – 6 pm daily. The final day was filled with all sorts of conflicts and strange events until I felt like I was being crushed by some sort of power pressing in on me. All I could do was lay flat down on the carpet and grip it so as to persevere in seeking God. Then this scripture came to mind, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” (Acts 3:19-21). At that point I had a clear insight into the heavenly realm where Jesus was ascended as Lord over all things. The order for an opening of heaven seems to be invariable; only when we are somehow despairing of life itself (2 Cor 1:8-9) and turn to the Lord is heaven opened for us. This order of death-and-elevation with Christ is a gift and one for which we must be willing to ask.