Revelation 11:12: "And I heard a great voice from heaven, saying unto them,
come up hither."
This text is the voice of God to his people.
It is an invitation given at the appointed hour to every Christian.
Once the time shall come, and it will come, and there will be heard "a great voice from heaven"
to every believer in Christ, saying, "Come up hither."
This should be a joyful subject of anticipation to everyone of us who are in Christ.
Instead of dreading the time when we will leave this world to go to the Father,
we should be anxiously waiting for that hour when we will be free from the bonds of this earth,
and we will be free from this body of clay -- this body of death.
To some Christians, the call to come home will be not only a joyful anticipation,
but it will be intensely delightful when it arrives.
It is not true, as many might think, that death when it really appears is a dreadful
and hideous apparition.
"Death no terrific foe appears;
An angel's lovely form he wears;
A friendly messenger he proves,
To every soul whom Jesus loves."
I truly believe that when the welcomed approach of death arrives that most believers
will see it as their best friend, and rejoice at that last hour with intense delight and joy.
There are many believers who have suffered for many years.
Some years ago, I was a pastor of a lady who had a creeping debilitating disease.
Through the years paralysis had moved up from her legs to her body to her hands,
and then all the way up to her throat -- then her throat -- she had to be fed by feeding tubes.
She was a Christian, and she was ready to welcome death.
I was told that she was at the hospital in the emergency room, and that she was close to death.
I rushed to the hospital, and went to the emergency room and found her awake and crying.
She told me that the nurses had walked in something sticky on the floor beside her bed.
They discovered that it was her blood, and that she was bleeding to death.
She said that she was suddenly in a beautiful world walking beside a white picket fence
with beautiful flowers growing beside it, and she could look inside and see the smiles
and happy faces ready to welcome her as soon as she made it through the gate.
As she was ready to go through the gate, she said she heard the doctor calling her name
for he had brought her back to life.
She said to me, "I was almost home, and the doctor brought me back."
She said that she told him that she hated him for bringing me back.
She was almost home.
No more suffering.
No more pain.
No more long nights waiting for the morning.
No more feeding tubes.
She was almost home.
Some weeks later, she went home!
She had been suffering for months, never resting, never at ease, never one day of relief.
She had cried many times at night, "Would God that it was morning."
Oh! How welcome it will be when that voice cries out from heaven," Come on up!"
That invitation from heaven will be a sound of extreme joy to the ears of that one
who is weary of their pain and suffering.
The world will know when some of us have died that we have not been idle,
and that we have served God with all our strength.
And there are those great Christians around us who have served God with all their might.
The time will come when old age shall take away our youthful energy,
and that vitality and strength will be replaced with daily weariness.
So, happy will be that day, just when we think we can do no more, our doing will be ended,
and our reward shall come, and we shall hear our Saviour say, "Come on up?"
And then, we will see the glory that we have prayed for and old things will be passed away
and all things will become new.
And with intense delight, death will be welcomed by those Christians who have lived in poverty.
Those who have shivered in the cold of the winter will wake up in the brightness
and warmth of heaven.
They will leave their loneliness and their friendless desolation to the communion
and sweet fellowship of Christians made perfect.
They will leave from an empty table to a table filled with with all the delectable food of heaven.
They will escape their poor emancipated bones.
They will no longer have crying children crying for bread, and crying to be fed.
Oh, what a joy that will be!
Oh, just to be at home forever in heaven.
Women will know the sweetness of perfect bliss when they leave this earth
as paupers and become princes.
Poor men will now know the joy of becoming a prince.
Though many of us may never have to suffer protracted sickness, or abject property,
or excessive labor, or suffer the death of martyrdom, yet if we are true followers of Jesus Christ,
whenever death does come, it will be a joyous and blessed time for us to be at home in heaven.
And when the great God of the ages gives us that invitation to "Come on up,"
and we will hear it --
"I said sometimes with tears,
Ah me! I am loth to die;
Lord silence thou these fears;
My life's with thee on high.
Sweet truth to me!
I shall arise,
And with these eyes
My Savior see.
"What means my trembling heart,
To be thus shy of death?
My life and I sha'nt part,
Tho' I resigned my breath.
"Then welcome harmless grave!
By thee to heaven I'll go;
My Lord, thy death shall save
Me from the flames below.
Sweet truth to me!
I shall arise,
And with these sides
My Savior see."
Now let us say also that this invitation should be a time of patient waiting.
God knows best when it is time for us to be called to "Come up hither."
We should not wish to leave this present world until God calls us.
Patience must have her perfect work.
We should not wish to die while there is more work to do.
We should not wish to die while there is still witnessing that we should do.
We should not wish to die when we should give more glory to the name of our Lord.
When George Whitfield was sick and wanted to die, his nurse had prayed for him and said,
"Oh, no, brother Whitfield there is no dying for you; there are many poor souls
that still need to be brought to Christ, and you must live."
And he did live.
We must not by neglect or by wanton waste of strength or for any other reason
cut short a life that may be useful.
Paul said to the jailer in Acts 16, "Do myself no harm!"
That's good advice for all of us.
God knows the time that we will travel home.
God knows how long our life may be useful.
God has planned for that time that we shall go home.
So, we must be ready to stay on this side of Jordan, or to cross the flood
just as our Lord would have us do.
That gracious invitation is also matter of absolute certainty as to its ultimate reception.
I would not want to close my eyes in sleep if this were a subject of doubt personally to me
and as to whether I can truly say that it is well with my soul.
I can understand a person being in doubt about his interest in Christ,
but I cannot understand the person being content with those doubts.
This is a matter about which we want to be absolutely certain.
This is the most important matter we will ever have in this life.
I would say to every child, to every young person, and to every adult,
"Are you sure that you will hear the God of all the ages say to you, "Come on up?"
If you truly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour,
and you have trusted Him with all your heart, you will hear that call from the throne of God
-- it will certainly come.
"He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life."
There is no "if's" or "but's" that must be tolerated in our hearts.
No, absolutely not!
We cannot afford to be satisfied with just guessing about the destination of our eternal soul.
Can you be at ease without infallible certainty?
You may die tonight, and be lost forever.
Can you be happy with your doubts?
I would certainly urge you not to shut your eyes and go to sleep tonight
until you are sure that you are going to open them in the morning again on earth or in heaven.
But if you fear that you may open up those eyes in hell,
how can you even dare to close them in sleep.
How can you consider going to sleep if your bed will become your tomb
and your bedroom become the entrance to hell?
I would plead to you, that you would know that the seal of God is upon your soul,
and that the precious Holy Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit that you are born of God.
Then, I would hope and pray that you will joyfully wait for that wonderful day
when the Savior shall say to you, "Come on up!"
As we leave this life, angels will come to me to us and take us upward beyond the stars
until we see our precious Savior, Jesus Christ, and then we shall become like Him,
and live forever in our eternal home called heaven.
The brightness of that beautiful city will fill our eyes.
Music will break out for from those angels escorting us to heaven.
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be lifted up ye everlasting doors,
that the blood-brought up the King of Glory may come in."
The pearly gates will open, and the joyous friends and loved ones gone on before
will welcome us to the city of life eternal.
And Jesus is there!
Oh, what a wonderful joy, joy, joy -- boundless oceans of joy.
I shall see Jesus!
O, I Want To See Him!
"As I journey thro' the land, singing as I go,
Pointing souls to Calvary—to the crimson flow,
Many arrows pierce my soul from without, within;
But my Lord leads me on, thro' Him I must win.
O I want to see Him, look upon His face,
There to sing forever of His saving grace;
On the streets of glory let me lift my voice,
Cares all past, home at last, ever to rejoice.
When in valleys low I look tow'rd the mountain height,
And behold my Savior there, leading in the fight,
With a tender hand outstretched tow'rd the valley low,
Guiding me, I can see, as I onward go.
When before me billows rise form the mighty deep,
Then my Lord directs my bark; He doth safely keep,
And He leads me gently on thro' this world below;
He's a real Friend to me, O I love Him so.
O I want to see Him, look upon His face,
There to sing forever of His saving grace;
On the streets of glory let me lift my voice,
Cares all past, home at last, ever to rejoice."
Oh how wonderful it will be in that beautiful home called heaven.
There will be rest forever -- no more toil -- only delightful service,
and to be in the presence of our Lord and God forever.
It will not be long until we all shall hear our Savior's voice saying, "Come on up!"
"When all my labors and trials are o'er,
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore
Will thro' the ages be glory for me.
When by the gift of his infinite grace,
I am accorded in heaven a place,
Just to be there and to look on his face,
Will thro' the ages be glory for me.
Friends will be there I have loved long ago;
Joy like a river around me will flow;
Yet just a smile from my Savior, I know,
Will thro' the ages be glory for me."
O that will be glory for me,
Glory for me, glory for me,
When by His grace I shall look on His face,
That will be glory, be glory for me."
Sermon adapted from several sources by Dr. Harold L. White
