Peter Tan-Chi - How Can I Enter Heaven?
The most important question that I believe you can ever ask is this: if there's a heaven, how can I enter heaven? Today if you notice, modern people, whether you like it or not, have this mindset: life someday will be judged. There will be a scale: sin versus good works. I recently asked a friend of mine, which I have not met for a couple of years. And I said, "Sir, have you come to a point where when you die, you will surely go to heaven"? And he told me, "Yes"! I said "Why"? He said, "Well, I am good to people". And he said, "I believe my good deeds will make me enter heaven". I kept quiet for a while. Then I asked him, "What about your sin? What happens to your sin"? And this friend of mine looked at me. He kept quiet because he never thought about it, what about his sin? Then I asked him, I said, "Are you a sinner?" and he was very frank: "I am a sinner".
I realize he was bothered. So my friend, let me ask you: is that your concept? That on judgment day, "If I do good works, if I obey the commandments of God, somehow it will overcome my sins and I'll enter heaven"? For many people this is their belief system: "If I am good, plus if I obey the ten commandments, I will enter heaven, salvation". For other people, "If I have faith, I must have faith; but I must also have good works. Then I will enter heaven". For others, "If I have faith in Christ, then I have eternal life. It doesn't matter how I live anymore". But what does the Bible say? Well, you'll be surprised, the Bible is very clear. How do you enter heaven? Faith in Christ alone is equal to salvation resulting in good works. I'm going to explain this through an amazing parable of Jesus. It is called the parable of the Good Samaritan.
When you see this word "lawyer" in the context of the book of Luke, Matthew, Mark, it has nothing to do with criminal lawyer or defense lawyer. This kind of lawyers are experts in the law of Moses. So they are like religious teachers. So this lawyer asked Jesus and he put him to the test. You see, Jesus knew the heart of the lawyer. His motive was not good. He wanted to test Jesus. You see, the lawyer asked Him: Notice the assumption of the lawyer, "What shall I do"? In other words, "Can I be good enough? What should be my performance to inherit eternal life"? And look at what Jesus said. Jesus answered. Jesus wanted the lawyer to explore his own belief system. You see, the lawyer is an expert. He combined two passages, one in Deuteronomy 6 and the other one is in Leviticus 19 This is precisely the summary of the ten commandments!
The first part of the ten commandments deals with God. The next part of the ten commandments, from the fifth to the tenth, deals with loving your neighbor. And that is absolutely true. This guy was believing that through the Law, he can enter heaven. Why? Because if you love God with all your heart, you will love your neighbor as yourself. The only question is can anyone do that? And then the lawyer replied to Jesus. The word "justify" comes from this legal word, "dikaioō". This has to do with being declared righteous before God. Wishing to be declared righteous to himself, he said, "Who is my neighbor"? What was the problem of this lawyer? The lawyer thought he could love God, 100% with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his might.
Do you know of anybody who is able to love God with all of his soul, with all of his might, with all of his strength? His second problem is he thought that you can love God without loving your neighbor perfectly. He believed that it's possible to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and spirit, and not really love your neighbor completely. That was his mindset. In short, this guy was self-righteous, self-sufficient. In his mind, he was good enough to So how can you help somebody who is self-righteous? How can you help somebody enter heaven when he thinks he's good enough to enter heaven? And that's why Jesus, being a Master Teacher came up with this parable. I will now give you a quick summary of what Jesus is leading into when it comes to how can one enter heaven? I call this ABC of salvation.
A, you must admit you are a sinner. You need humility. B, you must believe that it is only by grace. You must believe that Jesus loves you and died on the cross for you. What is C? You need to call on Jesus. You need to claim His promise. A-B-C. Let us see how this is explained in the parables of Jesus. I'm going to give you two parables of Jesus quickly. First in answer to this lawyer. Now Jesus began the story by saying What do they do? They stripped him. In other words, they removed everything. They beat him. The grammar is they kept beating him. They went away, leaving him half dead. Now, if you're the listener, what will you be thinking? Here was a guy who is half-dead. If ever there is somebody who should love this man, it should be the priest or the Levite.
Who are the Levites? Levites are religious people also. They serve in the temple like the priest. Levites assist the priests. So the Levite and the priest represents religious people who should know about the love of God, who should know about loving your neighbor. If there is somebody who qualifies to obey God, by loving Him, by loving people, it should be the priest or the Levite. But they are not able to do it. Now notice the twist: Now I want you to notice something: Jesus introduced a character, a Samaritan. Who are Samaritans? Samaritans and Jews don't get along well. You will see in John 4, Do you realize the greatest insult you can do to a Jew is to call him a Samaritan? They don't like each other.
Notice in John 8, They were cursing Jesus in saying "you are a Samaritan". What can we learn from this amazing parable? You will notice the Samaritan. What did he do? The first thing he did, he felt compassion. There was love in action. You want to know what true love is? Here's what Jesus is saying: "You want to live up to My standards? I'm going to show you what it means to love God with all your heart and to love one another". He bandaged the wounds. How will you bandage somebody? The guy has no more clothes, that means he probably tore his own clothes. He has to tear up his clothes to bandage the guy. "Pouring oil and wine", notice, oil and wine, these are expensive materials, and the Samaritan poured them on the wounds.
Now you and I know wine has alcohol, so it's antiseptic. Oil is antibacterial, so it is to help heal the wounds. Not only that, "he put him on his own beast". We do not know what is the beast, but in all probability, it is a donkey. That means the Samaritan had to walk because the man was put on the donkey. The man was put on the animal, so he had to walk. Inconvenient. Do you notice how this man went out of his way? He was not going to the inn, but why did he go to the inn? For the sake of that poor guy who was beaten up half-dead. The Samaritan not only brought him to the inn, "and took care of him". How long did he take care of the wounded person? I won't be surprised if he tried to give him something to eat or something to drink. How long? The whole night. Why do I say the whole night? You look at the next verse.
Do you notice? "The next day". He stayed the whole night. He took out two denarii. This man was generous. Why? A denarii is one day's salary. It has been shown during those days that a typical price of an inn is 1/32 of a denarii, meaning he provided for the stay of this man even up to two months. But whatever it is, he was generous. And this is amazing. He told the innkeeper, You know what that means? He was willing to risk everything to save this man. Do you know, this is an opportunity to be extorted? "Take care of him; whatever more you spend, I will return", a personal guarantee, unconditional love. Ladies and gentlemen, is it really possible to love somebody like that? What is Jesus saying? This kind of love is what is required.
Let me summarize the kind of love that God is talking about. It is not emotion. It is not in the head. It's action. It is sacrificial. This Samaritan risked his own life. He could have been robbed himself. He did something. It was costly, the wine, the oil. It was inconvenient, he had to walk, and the guy was riding on the donkey. It was extravagant. It was generous. It was lavish. And most of all, it was unconditional. It was toward an enemy, a Samaritan versus Jews. And last of all, it was supernatural. Why? Because the truth is no one can have this kind of love on a consistent basis. How can anybody love God hundred percent all the time? And how can anybody love somebody as perfectly all the time?
The parable is to show that it is impossible to be able to love like this. And here is the clincher. Jesus now addresses the lawyer: And the lawyer could not even pronounce the name of the Samaritan. By this time, we don't know what happened next, because it ended abruptly here. Jesus is a master teacher. He twisted the question now, and instead of trying to say, "Who is my neighbor, narrowing down the scope of my responsibility"? Jesus changed it: "Are you a neighbor"? In other words, are you able to be a neighbor to anybody that you see who is in need? The Bible is very emphatic. What Jesus is saying is simply this: the reason why the priest and the Levite did not help that neighbor, because... For Jesus, our root problem is our inability to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and that my friend is our problem. We don't really love God.
And that's why we have a problem loving our neighbor. You see these two men, the priest and the Levite, represented the Jewish establishment. They thought they loved God and they loved others as themselves. The truth is they don't love God and they don't love others. These two men failed miserably in the requirement to have eternal life. Jesus wanted to show the lawyer how spiritually bankrupt, how inadequate religious people are like him. The lawyer thought he loved God with all his heart, but he did not. The lawyer thought that you could separate loving God from loving your neighbor. Another mistake. You cannot do that. The lawyer never realized to love your neighbor includes loving the unlovable, includes loving anybody that you meet along the way.
The story of the good Samaritan is not to make people feel guilty about not giving their money to the poor. While it's good to give money to the poor, it's not to make people feel guilty that they're not taking care of those who are suffering; it's good to take care of the suffering. This story is designed to convict people, to really let them feel guilty for not loving God perfectly and for not loving others perfectly, so that you are now going to run to the One who alone can provide forgiveness for our failure to obey the laws of God. You will notice many people misapply the parable of the good Samaritan. They think the purpose is that this is a story so that we put up hospitals, we put up clinics, we help the poor. Yes, we are supposed to do that, but that is not the intention of this parable.
The intention of this parable is to show us we are spiritually bankrupt. We are not able to be like the good Samaritan because there's only one good Samaritan that met that qualification, that is Jesus. There's nobody else who can do what the good Samaritan did. You know why? Without God, it is impossible to love the unlovable. So how do you enter heaven? A-B-C. A, you need humility; admit you are a sinner. Admit we are sinners. Admit our inability to obey the legal requirements of God. The lawyer needed to see that. "I cannot do it, Jesus. I realize I don't love God enough. I realize I don't love my neighbor enough, and I realize I will never be able to love God a hundred percent all the time". Admit.
What is B? You must believe that only Jesus can save us. We must believe that only Jesus died for our sins. He alone is the perfect Samaritan. Jesus is the good Samaritan that did all of the above. He came down, He saved sinners like us. He paid with his own dear price, unconditionally, lavishly. Believe that Jesus is the only one that can save us. C: call on Jesus. Many of you are familiar with the story of the tax collector. How do you see ABC in the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee? Let's read together. Do you notice the background of this parable? It has to do with self-righteousness. A, B, C. Admit you are a sinner. The problem is these people will not admit they're sinners.
Now you and I know that's not the way to heaven, because the Bible is clear, no one is righteous. But because of pride, because of spiritual pride, we think we are able to obey God, especially religious people, this is the problem. Notice the story of Jesus. Do you see, to admit you're a sinner is exemplified by the opposite of the Pharisee. The Pharisee will not admit they are sinners. The Pharisees are self-righteous. They look at themselves, they think they are good enough, they are righteous, and they look at others with contempt. These are proud people. He's comparing himself to other people. He does not understand the holiness of God, the standards of God. He's full of pride. And when you compare yourself with others, you may seem better, but that is not the way to heaven. You have to humble yourselves, admit.
Notice the tax collector. The Bible tells us the tax collector humbled himself, He called on the Lord, "be merciful to me, a sinner". You must understand the historical background of people going to the temple. When you go to the temple, you offer an animal sacrifice. You believe that forgiveness is available through God. But he did not stop there, he not only believed, he called on the Lord, "Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner". And what was the promise of Jesus? "I tell you, this man went to his house, justified, declared not guilty, rather than the Pharisee".
The Pharisee was a religious man. Do you realize it is very difficult for religious people to enter the kingdom of heaven? Because they think they're good enough. The problem with religious people, they do good works. They pray and they think they're good enough. They are dependent on their own righteousness. But the parable of the good Samaritan tells us clearly we will never be able to follow the standards of God's holiness, the standard of God's love for you and for me. How do you see the concept of the ABC of salvation in the story of the crucifixion of Jesus? There were two criminals: one was mocking Jesus, one was making fun of him. The other one was willing to humble himself.
Notice what he said. The other criminal who humbled himself, said the following: Do you notice: one of the criminals admitted to himself, "I am suffering justly. I am receiving what I am deserving. I am guilty". But he also believed in Jesus, "This man has done nothing wrong". And notice in verse 42, I love verse 42. This man believed that Jesus is the coming King. He believed that Jesus is the Messiah. And he said, "Lord, remember me". He called on Jesus. "Remember me when You come into Your kingdom," and what did Jesus say to him? Jesus gave him the assurance of entering heaven.
"Today you shall be with me", the ABC of salvation. In Acts 16:30, 31, you have this idea of how to go to heaven played out when you humble yourself and you call on Jesus. Here's the story of the Philippian jailer. The Philippian jailer, after seeing all the miracles that happened, turned to the apostle Paul and he said, "What must I do to be saved"? Do you notice that question? "What must I do to be saved"? The most important question! What must I do to enter heaven? What is the answer? "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved".
What is the answer? ABC of salvation. Admit you are a sinner. Believe that Jesus died on the cross for you, believe that he alone can save you; and C, call upon Him. Claim His promise of forgiveness. Claim His promise of salvation. Amazing promise, Romans 10:13: You see, to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love others begins with receiving His love. And you will not receive His love until you are convicted by your total inability to love Him, not just to love him, you are not able to, in fact you don't love him at all. And the Bible tells us: Have you experienced the love of the Lord?
Today I want to give you an opportunity. It is so crucial that you understand that love God with all your heart, to love your neighbor as yourself begins by receiving His love. Once you receive the unconditional love of God, you are able, slowly but surely, to love Him. You learn to love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind. And then surely, slowly but surely, you learn to love your neighbor. You see, to love God, love your neighbor begins by receiving His love. We are not able to do that ourselves.
Do you love God with all your heart? Are you able to love your neighbor? Friends, Christianity is not that complicated. We are saved to serve. Saved by grace. Saved by the unconditional love of God. But once you have Jesus, you are commanded to love Him and to love one another. Loving your neighbor is a command, but that command is only made possible once you have Jesus in your heart. So to those of you who have Jesus, you need to stop excusing yourself by not loving the unlovable. You have no excuse, but to love people the way God wants you to love. But to those who have never experienced the love of God, I want you to apply the A-B-C in your life.
As I close, I want you to remember: how do you enter heaven? For most people, they think "if I do good works, if I have enough obedience, somehow my sin will be compensated". Can I tell you something? If you look at the scale, this is what you must think of: these are my sins. They are heavy. When it comes to good works, praise God, it is not my good work, it is the good works of Jesus. Because of Jesus, all of this is nothing. All my sins are paid for because the works of Jesus, the life of Jesus, is more than enough to pay for all my sins. And that's what you need to understand: when God would judge you someday, He does not use your good works as a basis. He uses the life of Christ: how He loved you, how He died for you, how He paid the price for all of your sins. But once you experience forgiveness, it's now incumbent upon us to love God with all our heart, to love others as we love ourselves.
Remember, God will never give us a command without giving us the power through the Gospel to obey the command. We are saved to obey. And my prayer is you will continue growing in your love for God and your love for one another. Just remember no amount of obedience, no amount of good works will ever be good enough. We need Jesus. The way to heaven is never by obeying the Law or good works. Why? Because you will never be good enough. You have to admit that you're not good enough. You have to humble yourself and say, "Lord, I'm a sinner. I want to love You, but I don't love You enough". Then you come to Jesus.
Remember we began by asking that question: how can I enter the kingdom of heaven? How can I enter heaven? Do you know the answer now, how to enter heaven? A-B-C. Admit you're a sinner, believe that Jesus loves you, He died for you, and call upon Him to be your Lord and Savior. Let's pray together, and if you would like to be sure you go to heaven, pray this prayer with me.
Lord Jesus, I admit I'm a sinner. I admit I cannot save myself. I believe that You died on the cross to pay for my sins. I believe You are the only One who can forgive me, who can give me salvation. And Lord, I call upon You today like the tax collector, like the criminal on the cross. I call upon you, Jesus. Come into my life. Be my Savior. Be my Lord. Thank You, Jesus. For saving me in Jesus' name, we all pray. Amen and amen.