“Heaven” – Part 7 – Revelation 21:9-22:5

All my early driving life I drove pickup trucks; usually the louder and faster the truck the better.  So, you can imagine the pain I felt when I got a new job that I knew would require a lot of driving and I had to trade my ¾ ton Chevy Crew Cab with a 454 and dual exhaust for a…Volkswagen Jetta…with a 2-liter engine.  It was tiny and it made no noise and had no power but it got 30-something miles to the gallon so I drove it and hoped I wouldn’t see anybody I knew when I was in it.

It was so embarrassing.  I remember being stopped at a red light and a girl I used to date pulled up next to me and looked down from her pickup over at me and just kind of smiled with this “I’m so sorry” smile.  It was awful.

I remember hearing a sermon about that time and the preacher was talking about glory and he said that the name “Ichabod” meant “no glory” so I named that little car “Ichabod” for that reason.  There was no glory while driving that little thing.  Nobody ever looked over and gave a thumbs-up and said, “Nice practical car!”  That never happened.  “Good gas mileage rocks, dude!”  No, people don’t say that.

You don’t paint flames on the side of a Jetta.  You don’t put Edelbrock carburetor stickers on the window.  You don’t rev the engine at a red light to challenge the guy next to you. There is no glory in a Jetta and I think if we are honest, most of us like a little bit of glory every now and then.  Right?  We like to think we have something nice or different or fun that other people might appreciate.

I know, I know.  You’re way too spiritual to want any glory but I do.  Is that shocking for me to say?  Would it surprise you to know that even the modest and humble servant of God, the Apostle Paul felt the same way?  Did you know he looked forward to glory?  In Romans 8:17, he says, “¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

That’s big talk, isn’t it?  How dare Paul say he wanted to share glory with Jesus?  Is that blasphemy?  No, that’s what Jesus wants for us as well.  In John 17, Jesus is praying to the Father and asks Him to give us, His disciples, His glory.  According to that verse in Romans, we share in the sufferings of Christ now and will share in the glory of Christ later as His “co-heirs” in Heaven.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?  But what does that really mean?  What will that look like?  What will Heaven look like?  Just how glorious will it really be?  Well, let’s look at the ultimate passage for finding out about the glory of Heaven.  Turn to Revelation, the last book of the Bible, and let’s look at chapter 21, verse 9, through chapter 22, verse 5.  Revelation 21:9-22:5.

We have just one more sermon after this one in this series about what Heaven is going to be like and we have a lot of ground to cover so let’s get right to it.  We pick up where we left off last week with the author, John, being given the grand tour of Heaven by an angel.

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. ¹¹ It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. ¹² It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. ¹³ There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. ¹⁴ The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵ The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. ¹⁶ The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. ¹⁷ The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. ¹⁸ The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹ The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

²² I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵ On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. ²⁶ The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷ Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ² down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³ No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. ⁴ They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

That’s a lot to take in, I know.  Can you imagine what it must have been like for John?  He is shown something no one has ever seen before; something so unimaginably beautiful and indescribable and he is told, “Now, write down what you see.”

Look at verses 10-11 again.  He “showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. ¹¹ It shone with the glory of God.”  When Jesus said in John 14:3 that He was going to prepare a place for us, this is it.  This is the capital city of Heaven.  It’s not all of Heaven, just the capital, where we will live with God and He will live with us.  As I understand it, we will be able to travel all over the new earth but this is the place to be, the New Jerusalem. 

Now, it says it shone with the glory of God.  What does that mean?  What is the glory of God?  We talk about it a lot.  We sing songs about it.  It is referred to in the Old and New Testaments.  We talk about doing things for our own glory in a negative sense but God does things for His glory and that’s good.  But what is God’s glory?

Well, I did some research – I googled it – and this is what I found.  God’s glory is the beauty of His spirit.  So, there ya go.  Hope that helps.  Try not to cry as you meditate on that.  But I need more than that.  I’m not smart enough to get anything out of that.  So, I kept looking and let me share some of what I found.

When we talk about God’s glory, there is literally nothing that we are or know or have or can imagine that is not included in God’s glory.  The Bible talks a lot about it.  In Exodus, it says that God’s glory went ahead of the Hebrew people in fire and cloud as they crossed the desert.  Moses saw the glory of God and his face glowed so bright he had to wear a veil.  All through the Old Testament His glory filled the temple.

In the New Testament, His glory was seen by the shepherds at the birth of Jesus (Luke 2) and at the transfiguration of Jesus (Mt. 17).  The resurrection and ascension of Jesus both manifest God’s glory.  1 Corinthians 11:7 says man is the glory of God and Isaiah 43:7 says man was created for God’s glory.  When someone dies, we sometimes say they have gone to glory, speaking of Heaven and that’s correct.  Asaph said the same thing in Psalm 73.

Everything was created by God so everything is for God’s glory.  Why has God ever done anything?  Why does God do anything even now?  The answer is He does it for His glory.  If everything I did, I did for my glory, I wouldn’t have any friends.  Everybody would hate me.  But when God does something for His glory, He deserves it and it’s good for everybody.

The problem we have understanding that is that our finite brains cannot understand infinity.  How long or how far is infinity?  We can’t understand that completely.  But God is infinitely powerful, infinitely loving, infinitely knowing.  He is everywhere all the time and always willing to forgive if seriously asked.  That kind of infinity is impossible for us to truly relate to but through faith we know it’s true.

In this life, sometimes God allows things to happen to us that are difficult to understand and difficult to get through but, in the end, if we are obedient, it is for our good and for His glory.  BUT…in the next world; in Heaven, everything will be for His glory and we will share in that glory because of His grace.  It will be beyond all we could ever ask or imagine.  He is infinitely creative and Heaven will reflect that creativity all to His glory and we will get to live there with Him.

Go back to our passage in Revelation 21.  It says that it shone with the glory of God and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel.  Then John goes on to describe the enormous and incredibly beautiful city.  Just try to imagine how big and how beautiful this is.  The New Jerusalem will be 1400-1500 miles cubed.  Okay, so picture the state of Texas.  Imagine driving from El Paso in west Texas to Longview in east Texas.  That’s a long, long way and it’s also about half of one side of this city, the New Jerusalem.

I looked on a map and I’m guessing it will cover about three-fourths of the United States but it says it is as high as it is long and wide so that makes it a perfect cube.  It doesn’t say it but how else could it be a cube unless it has levels of some kind?  I don’t know.  Maybe it has twelve levels.  Whatever it looks like, there will be plenty of room for everybody.

Let me throw in a couple of things here.  First, some commentators say that due to its immense size and shape that obviously these measurements are not literal.  Surely they are symbolic and maybe that’s true but, again, I will always err on the side of taking the Bible literally and I do here as well.  First off, God goes into great detail to show us by man’s measurements how this place looks.  Also, yes, numbers are often symbolic in the Bible but they can be symbolic and literal.

Another thing I want to add here is that I know some of you are thinking you don’t care about the size.  You just want to go there and not have any more crying and pain and I understand that but, again, God has given us great details here.  He told John to write this down for a reason and do you know what that reason is?  Why does God do anything?  For His glory!  Studying this, understanding it and even just thinking about it and discussing it gives God glory and builds us up in the process.

So, we looked briefly at the size of the New Jerusalem.  Let’s think about the colors.  God loves colors.  Think about how many different colors He made just humans, not to mention the animals and the fish and the flowers and the sunsets.  God’s creativity always includes color and this city will be outrageously beautiful in color.

While I might not pronounce each precious jewel correctly in verses 19-20, I did look them all up and there is every color of the rainbow decorating the city walls.  I uploaded some pictures off the internet just to remind us of God’s creativity.  I may have gone overboard but just think, if this is what this earth looks like now, can you imagine how beautiful and bright and colorful the New Earth is going to be?

It’s a common evening for me to sit on the back deck and watch the sunset.  Almost every night I think I need to take a picture but what am I going to do with another sunset pic?  After a while, even my Mom gets tired of me sending her a picture and a picture doesn’t do it justice anyway.

I read the other day that the reason the sky turns different colors is based on a couple of things.  Rain and dirt or dust affect it but the main thing has something to do with the wavelengths of the different colors that our eyes see.  During the day, the sky is usually blue because the sun, the source of the light, is close and blue has a short wavelength.  In the evening, when the sun is far away, the sky turns red and orange because those colors have long wavelengths.  I thought that was interesting.  You may not.

But anyway, verse 23 says that the New Jerusalem will not need the sun because God’s glory will give it light and if God’s glory is everywhere…what color will the sky be?  In verse 5 of this chapter, Jesus said, “I am making everything new” so who knows what color the sky will be but I bet it is rarely a dull gray.  Sunrises and sunsets show God’s glory.  How much more so when His glory is the light?  Oh, I can’t wait!

Okay, we have to move on.  There is way too much stuff here to discuss this morning.  You have to come back tonight and we will get into more detail.  I want to skip all the way to the last part of our passage this morning.  Look at verse 5 of chapter 22. 

There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

What do you think it means that we will reign forever and ever?  I don’t know why exactly, but some people have a hard time with this.  But that word “reign” means just exactly what you think it means.  What does a king do?  He reigns.  He has control.  He rules and has influence.  He has power.  The problem is, for an earthly king, power has the tendency to corrupt, doesn’t it?  Do you know why?  Satan.

Satan always wants to counterfeit, corrupt, skew and twist everything God intends for us but reigning is exactly the thing we were created to do.  Leave the last book of the Bible and turn all the way over to the first book of the Bible and you’ll see why I say that.  Genesis chapter 1, verse 26.

The New Living Version says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’”

Let us make man in our image and they will reign.  Adam and Eve were created to rule and reign over the old earth but they failed.  In the New Earth, we won’t fail.  There will be no greed, no corruption, no bribes or kickbacks.  Every Old Testament saint, every New Testament believer, every Christian from every country, every tribe, every class, everywhere will be a ruler over some group or city or nation.  How do you like that?

Well, some of you may think you don’t necessarily like that.  Reigning is not your style.  It’s not your idea of Heaven.  Well, that’s okay.  It’s God’s idea of Heaven and if God wants you to rule, then He will give you the gifts, the abilities and the mindset to do it and do it well, without the curse of sin that we have now.

Whatever your opinion is of President Trump, I’m sure all of us think sometimes about what he could do or say or not say that would be better.  It’s that way with every president.  We’re all great armchair presidents.  Well, imagine how it is going to be in Heaven when you really can make those decisions but you will have the very presence of God there with you to make wise and beneficial choices for everybody.

Because crowns are the primary symbol of ruling, every mention of crowns in the Bible is a reference of our ruling with Jesus.  (Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 217)  Revelation 2:10 says, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  Revelation 2:26 says, “To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations.”  Revelation 3:11 says, “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”

In Luke 19, in the parable of the king’s servants, Jesus talks about those who are faithful with little will be given much and even talks about it being cities that we are to take charge of.  I don’t know where every person will reign but your eternal satisfaction and fulfillment depends on your faithfulness here in this life.  Heaven is going to be great for everybody there but some people, the ones that are faithful and obedient here, will have more satisfaction, more blessings – yes, even more fun – than those who are not.

I think about the thief on the cross next to Jesus.  The man never did one thing in this world for the sake of Christ or in His name.  All he did was at the very last minute he believed with all his heart that Jesus was the Messiah, the Way, the Truth and the Life and that he wasn’t getting to the Father or to Heaven except through Jesus.  That’s all it took for that man to make it to Heaven but he got there with no crowns or rewards to speak of.

Even he will reign over something.  It may be a hut out in the woods or something.  I don’t know.  But I want more for my eternity.  How about you?  Are you being faithful with what you have been given in this life?  If we were created to reign and our reigning will be for the glory of God, I don’t want to give Him the bare minimum glory.  I want everybody in my life here on earth and in the next life in the New Earth to say, “Look at what God has done in Him and through him.  If God can use him and bless him, the broken man and cracked vessel that he is, I wonder what God can do through me.”

Maybe, like that thief on the cross, you have spent your life doing what you think is best, without any real regard for what God says or wants from you.  How’s that working out for you so far?  Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  I love you too much to not tell you the truth.  There is a real Heaven and a real Hell.  Repent and turn away from your sin.  Ask for forgiveness of that sin and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and make Him Lord of your life today.  We are not guaranteed another breath.  Do it right now as the music plays.

“Heaven” – Part 6 – Rev. 21:1-5

Do we have any movie buffs here this morning?  I have some movie lines I want you to guess.  Tell me what movie they come from.  I’ll start with an easy one to get you warmed up.

May the Force be with you.	STAR WARS	1977
What we've got here is failure to communicate.	COOL HAND LUKE	1967
You can't handle the truth!	A FEW GOOD MEN	1992
If you build it, he will come.	FIELD OF DREAMS	1989
One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.	ANIMAL CRACKERS	1930

Ok, I have one more.  The movie came out in 1939.  Back when Troy was just a teenager.  The main character makes the following observation when speaking about home: "Someplace where there isn't any trouble...do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat or train. It's far, far away... behind the moon... beyond the rain."  Wizard of Oz

Why does she want to go to a place “beyond the rain”?  What’s wrong with rain?  Rain is always symbolic for trouble and difficulty so she is looking forward to a place without all the problems of the world she was in.  Now, (I know it’s hard to believe but I have never seen this movie) I assume she is looking forward to getting back to Kansas, right?  She says something about, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Well, I’ve been to Kansas and I’m looking forward to much, much better one of these days.  How about you?  This is a nasty, sin-sick old world that seems to have lost its ever-lovin’ mind here lately and I am so tired of it.  Satan is referred to as the prince of this world in John 12:31 and he has completely brainwashed this world into thinking that tearing down monuments will solve racism.

He makes it sound like common sense that we should abort the little unwanted fetuses before they become “real babies”.  He has lived up to his name as the father of lies by convincing this world that what the Bible calls abomination is just an alternative lifestyle.  Satan has this world convinced that when marriage gets really difficult, just leave.  When life gets really difficult, just end it.  When you have to suffer the consequences for your bad behavior, it’s somebody else’s fault.

All of this has led to a world that is less happy, more stressed, more diseased, more hateful, more busy and less fulfilled than ever before and we can expect it to get worse until Jesus comes again.  Are you bummed out yet?  Well, you ought to be.  Sin ought to bum you out.  Sin ought to make you mad.  Sin is our worst enemy and as I have said before, it is the worst thing in this world that can happen to us.

Having sin in our lives is the root cause of all our problems; even death.  Romans 6:23 says that what we get for our sin, “the wages of sin” is death.  But for a Christian, even death is better than living in sin because sin puts a barrier between us and God.  Paul said to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21) For a Christian, death means being with Jesus where there is no more sin; no more abortion or racism or guilt or even crying.  Did you know that?

We joke about this being “Cries Fellowship” because it happens so often around here.  Not me, of course.  But for most people, it will be so nice not to cry anymore, won’t it?  Well, that time is coming soon.  I promise you.  Let’s look at the passage that tells us that in Revelation 21:1-5.  We looked at it last week but there is so much to this passage that I want to revisit it and really understand what we can about what Heaven will be like.

This is part six in our series and we still have a couple to go.  We have seen why and how we are to prepare for Heaven by storing up our treasure there.  We have seen what happens at the Rapture and the difference in the Rapture and the Second Coming.  We have seen how wonderful the Millennium is going to be and we talked last week about how, with God there, all our wants, needs and desires will be fulfilled in Heaven.

But we are so used to crying.  We are so used to pain; some more than others, but death, mourning, crying and pain are such a way of life for us in this sin-infused world that it is hard to imagine living without it.  We come into this world with crying and pain and we usually leave with crying and pain.  I heard the joke about a man who said when it came his time to die, he wanted to go like his father did, in peaceful sleep…not screaming and crying like the passengers in his dad’s car.

Let’s turn to Revelation 21:1-5 and see what it says about crying and pain.

Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." ⁵He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

A preacher was preaching one day and he asked the congregation if they were ready to go to Heaven.  Everybody in the place raised their hands except one little boy.  The preacher asked, “Son, don’t you want to go to Heaven?”  The boy said, “Sure.  Some day.  But I thought you was getting up a load to go now.” That’s an old joke.

Well, I’m ready to go now.  I’m tired of this nasty old world with its old jokes.  I’m tired of the death, mourning, crying and pain.  I want to hear some new jokes.  I want to hear laughter.  I want to hear singing and whistling and humming.  But in this life and in this world it seems like what we usually hear is griping and complaining and passing blame and making excuses.  Then that all leads to crying and pain, doesn’t it?

Look at verse 4 again.  ⁴'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."  I looked up all those words – death, mourning, crying and pain – in my commentaries just to make sure I understood what was being said.  I’m happy to report that they mean just what you think they mean.  There will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain because there is no reason for them.

In this life, what are some of the causes of crying and pain?  You don’t have to mention what you are going through or what you are experiencing right now but, maybe, what you have seen other people cry about.  We cry about poor decisions we or others have made.  We cry about the guilt that comes from those decisions.  We cry when we see others make the same decisions because we love them and don’t want them to have to go through what we have gone through.  I think that’s why our children make us cry so much. 

We cry when things are hard or they don’t go our way.  We cry when people disappoint us.  We cry when we disappoint other people.  We cry when we disappoint God.  Of course, we cry when death comes to a loved one because we will miss them when they are gone.  We cry when we see death coming for us because we fear the unknown.

All of those are perfectly good reasons to cry but do you know why we have to go through that stuff?  Do you ever wonder why God doesn’t wave His hand and make this life easier for us; without all this crying and pain and death?  Well…it used to be that way, at least for a little while. 

Turn to Genesis chapter 3.  I want you to see for yourselves why we have to go through all of this.  It’s important.  Turn to the first book of the Bible, chapter 3 and verses 17-19 and verse 23.  "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. ¹⁸It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." ²³So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

This all happened as the consequence of sin and there are still consequences of sin and the consequences rarely affect only the sinner.  There will always be consequences for disobedience, just like there are benefits of obedience but with disobedience the consequences affect, not just us, but all those around us that we love the most.

In Genesis 3, God says there is now a curse on the ground.  This represents every aspect of their lives.  That’s all they knew.  It’s how they survived.  Now, everything for them and for every generation since has been cursed by sin.  Oh, it’s easy to get all upset at Adam and Eve for messing it all up for us, right?  But we do the same thing today and reap the same consequences, don’t we?  Sin curses everything. 

I heard a woman speaking at a women’s rally one time. She said, "Where would man be today if it were not for woman?" From the back of the room came a voice, "We'd be in the Garden of Eden, eating strawberries."  That may be funny to some of us but it’s not true.  We all mess up and we all have to suffer the consequences and the consequences are death, mourning, crying and pain.  That’s the curse of sin.

That’s also what is going to make Heaven so wonderful.  No more sin.  Now, somebody asked a great question last Sunday night at Bible study.  If you aren’t coming on Sunday nights, you are really missing out.  Anyway, the question was, since Satan was originally an angel in Heaven and he sinned, won’t we be tempted to sin in Heaven?  That’s a great question but the answer is “no”.

First, we know there won’t be sin in Heaven because the Bible says so.  At the end of this chapter, in verse 27, it says that nothing impure will ever enter into Heaven, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful.  In chapter 22, verse 3: ^3” No longer will there be any curse.”  No more curse means no more sin.

But we also read in Matthew 13:41 that “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.”  We will still have free will but there will be nothing there that even would cause us to sin.  We will have everything we could ever want, need or desire because as we read last week, God Himself will live with us.  He will meet and exceed all desires and for a lot of us, our biggest desire right now is for there to not be any more death or mourning or crying or pain.

I want you to see, though, that death, mourning, crying and pain…is the old order of things.  Look at verse 4 again.  ⁴'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."  Then look at verse 5.  ⁵He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"

Everything new!  No more sin.  No more curse.  No more temptation or regret or guilt or shame.  No more having to ask for forgiveness.  Now, that sounds pretty heavenly to me right there!  I read about a woman who was a well-known secular humanist, which, from what I understand is just a smart atheist.  While on her death bed, she told a Christian friend, “What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me." 

The psychologist, Sigmund Freud, said that the main source of all humanity’s woes are feelings of guilt. I heard another psychologist say that ¾ of all mental patients would be cured if they believed they were forgiven.  No more sin.  No more curse.  No more need for forgiveness.

Look, I am just as fascinated as you are about what Heaven is going to be like and if all dogs go there and what we are going to do and I can’t wait to see Aunt Bessie just like you.  But just knowing that I will never again disappoint my Savior; never again will I have to drag myself into His holy throne room in prayer with my head down and my tail between my legs and cry out in pain for forgiveness – that’s what I want Heaven to be like and I know you do too if you are a true believer. 

I’m not worried about what my mansion is going to be like or how my glorified body is going to work.  I trust Him with those details.  He said He is going to prepare a place for me and so I trust that He knows what paint color schemes I like best and what I like to eat and what I like to do.  I’m glad God has shared some of what that will be like, but if there is no more death, mourning, crying or pain, count me in.  That will be great but I just want to be with and please my Savior, Jesus Christ. 

I have one more passage I want you to turn to before we close.  In the Gospel of John, chapter 20, Jesus has been crucified and put in the tomb.  His disciples are beyond crushed.  Everything they had believed, trusted, wanted and needed was dead behind a rock in a graveyard.  They had no plan for the future.  They had no hope for this life or the next if Jesus was dead.

They buried Him on Friday.  Saturday was the Sabbath and so first thing Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene went to the graveyard to pay her respects.  Can you imagine the pain that must have felt like a lung being pulled out when she got to the tomb and saw that His body was gone?  This is just too much!

Now she’s just bawling.  It’s an ugly cry full of overwhelming pain.  Let’s pick it up in John 20:10-18.  ¹⁰Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. ¹¹Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹²and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. ¹³They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my LORD away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." ¹⁴At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. ¹⁵He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." ¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher"). ¹⁷Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the LORD!"

She’s not crying now, is she?  Everything is okay now.  “I have seen the LORD!”  The presence of the Lord was enough; more than enough.  For Mary, there was no more mourning or crying or pain because she had seen the Lord.  Don’t you know that even when that day came, whenever it was, that Mary Magdalene’s earthly body gave out and she breathed her last that she could go in great peace, having seen, been with, worshipped and believed Jesus?

She had seen with her own earthly eyes the power Jesus had to overcome death and if death is overcome then so is the mourning, crying and pain of sin for eternity.  "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Cor. 15)

Jesus has overcome death, sin, Satan and this world and that ought to be a great encouragement to all of us.  This life is hard but it’s short and the thought of spending eternity in Heaven with Him and without all the pain of this world should make us burn with desire to tell somebody else what little or much we know about it.

The thought of sin being the root cause of all our crying and pain ought to make us hate sin and Satan even more.  While there will always be something to mourn, cry or hurt over in this life, we can have forgiveness in this life and that brings peace.  It brings peace with God and when we have peace with God, we can have peace with men.  Knowing that God is in control and that he loves us and forgives us brings peace and joy even in the painful times.

Add to that the knowledge that we have that at the end of this short life we will see Jesus if we are true believers and we can have peace that passes all understanding. (Philippians 4:7) How does that sound today?  If you don’t have that all you have to do is believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that nobody gets to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6) Repent of your sins and ask God for forgiveness and He will be faithful to forgive and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  Don’t wait.  Do it today.

Prayer / Invitation

Adrian Rogers is one of my favorite preachers.  He went to Heaven several years ago but in a book he wrote, he mentioned that he had a son named Phillip who passed away.  He didn’t say how, just that it was a great tragedy.  Before that, he had regularly gone to the hospital to visit sick folks and to witness to them and in his rounds, he said he met a very cynical old man and had tried several times to lead him to Christ.

After his son’s death, Dr. Rogers went back to the hospital to visit that man and somehow the man had found out about his son.  “What are you doing here?” the old man asked.

“I came to see you” Rogers replied.

“Are you still serving God after what he did to you?”

“I’m not bitter at God” he said.  “I’m bitter at Satan.  He has a greater enemy in me today than ever before because I know that behind all the sickness, sorrow, pain, suffering and death is sin.”

“Heaven” – Part 5 – Rev. 21:1-5

I want you to use your imagination with me for a few minutes and I want you to picture this meal.  You sit down to dinner, hungry as you can be, and on the big plate in front of you is a wonderful, healthy combination of raw cabbage, raw broccoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflower.  How’s that look?  To me it looks like I’m going hungry tonight but maybe you like raw veggies.  Good for you.

But then, before you can even decide whether you are going to eat those veggies or not, there is placed in front of you a big plate of those 14-layer brownie – cookie things that Bunnie makes.  They are hot out of the oven.  The chocolate is melting.  The coconut is mouth-watering.  I don’t know how she does it but they are incredible!

Now, imagine that nobody else is around.  Nobody will see.  Nobody will ever know.  What happens next?  If you are anything like me, those 23-layer brownies are history.  I will eat those until I’m sick.  I may just stick my head down in them and eat them like an animal.  I might roll around in ‘em, just eating and rolling and loving life.  Bunnie knows I love those brownies.

I would have a hard time eating those vegetables if Bunnie’s brownies were sitting there.  I don’t know if I could do it.  Well, I think Heaven is sort of that way.  If we knew everything there is to know about Heaven, I think we would have a hard time concentrating on what we are supposed to do here in this life for thinking about what the next life had in store.  Also, I’m pretty sure Bunnie’s brownies will be in Heaven but that’s not the point.

There are lots of things we don’t know about Heaven but I believe God gives us enough to keep us motivated to do what needs to be done here but also to look forward to what lies in store for us as believers when we get there.  I have to admit I was encouraged this week when I read a sermon by the late, great W.A. Criswell who said, and I quote, “Preaching on Heaven is hard.”  That made me feel a little bit better.  I feel the same way and that’s probably all that great expositor and I have in common when it comes to preaching.

It’s hard to preach on Heaven because there is a lot we don’t know and some of what we know is to be taken literally and some of it is symbolic.  Timing is also an issue.  Great theologians will argue over what happens when and what comes next and what happens after that.  Sometimes finding application for a sermon on Heaven can be difficult if you just lay out a bunch of facts but even though it can be difficult, I believe it is important.

Yes, I’m curious, as you probably are, about what Heaven is going to be like.  But we are told that all scripture is God-breathed and is useful. (2 Tim. 3:16) We are told to set our minds on things above. (Colossians 3:2) We are told to store up treasure in Heaven (Matt. 6) so we have to prepare for it.  Putting on our helmet of salvation means, in part, meditating on our eternal home in Heaven so we should at least know a little bit about this place where we are told to think about and prepare for.

So far, we have stayed away from an intensive eschatological study.  This isn’t everything you need to know about the end times.  My purpose is just to see more about what Heaven is going to be like.  I say all that and yet we still haven’t technically made it to Heaven yet.  We have talked about what happens when we die and where we go and why we go there and how long that is going to last but today – finally – we get our first glimpse of Heaven as we will know it.

So, turn to the Book of the Revelation; the last book of the Bible, and let’s read chapter 21, verses 1-5.  The Apostle John wrote this book on the Isle of Patmos where he was exiled for preaching the Gospel.  Little did the authorities who put him there know that this is right where God wanted John so God could reveal some incredible things to him; things that have blessed and encouraged every generation since.

We saw in the previous chapter last week about the Millennium – the period after the Rapture and after the Second Coming of Jesus where we, as believers in Jesus, will reign and serve and live with Jesus on this earth as we know it but without the presence or influence of Satan.  Jesus called it a time of refreshing and it will last a literal 1,000 years and it will be wonderful and great as we live in our glorified bodies.

After that thousand years, Satan will be set free but quickly thrown into the lake of burning sulfur and all of us will then go up to Heaven and live with God for eternity in Heaven.  Right?  Well…not exactly.  Let’s read Revelation 21:1-5 and we will see exactly what happens.

Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." ⁵He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

Poor John!  Can you imagine Jesus telling you to “Write this down!”  I’d be a nervous wreck.  That would be just the time my pencil lead would break or my pen would run out of ink.  “Excuse me, Gabriel.  Can I borrow a pen?”  How embarrassing.

Anyway, hey, let me ask you a question.  Are you tired of this life and this world yet?  Especially after reading that passage, are you still in love with this nasty, old world and the problems caused by sin in this world?  Maybe you are young and in the prime of your life and this world still looks fun and exciting to you.  Well, enjoy your youth because it won’t last long.  Enjoy that flat stomach and that wavy hair.  Enjoy good sleep and the ability to work hard and play hard.  As some of us with a few years under our belts know, it’s not going to last forever.

These bodies, these relationships, these minds – they are all meant to wear out.  Yes, youth is wasted on the young but getting old stinks for a reason.  God created us with a longing for something more than this earth can provide and that longing grows stronger as our bodies grow weaker.  The older I get, the readier I am and the readier I want to be for eternity in Heaven.  The older I get and the more I study it, the more real Heaven becomes and the more I want to store up treasure there.

When we are young everything seems to take so long to happen but as we get older we look back and it seems like just yesterday that we were young.  How many of you know what I mean?  I remember when I was a kid and I would hear my dad make that grunting noise when he bent over to pick something up.  You know the sound.  I wondered why he did that.  Then I remember the first time I heard myself do it.  Oh no.  I’m old.

Old age is not for sissies, that’s for sure.  But we have been given in this passage something incredible to look forward to and after studying it carefully, I am surprised, excited and encouraged by what I read.  Maybe you will be too.  In fact, the first sentence has two ideas that may surprise you.  Look at verse 1 again. Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

"A new heaven and a new earth.”  What does that mean?  Well, we know from several other passages that this earth as we know it will be destroyed.  In Luke 21:33 Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”  2 Peter 3:10 says, “But the day of the LORD will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”  The psalmist says in Psalm 102 that the earth’s foundations will be discarded like clothing.

Now, this could get really complicated.  Whole sermons have been preached on this and complete books written about how earth will be destroyed but not completely and how “forever” doesn’t always mean forever.  But here is my simple explanation of it.  In Genesis, God used water to destroy the earth and everything on it except Noah and his family, right?  Well, similarly, after Satan is done away with, God will destroy the earth again, only this time with fire.

John Piper argues that God did not create matter to throw it away. He writes, “When Revelation 21:1 and 2 Peter 3:10 say that the present earth and heavens will pass away, it does not mean that they go out of existence, but may mean that there will be such a change in them that their present condition passes away.” (Heaven – Randy Alcorn, page 152) Then he compares them to a caterpillar and a butterfly.  The old is destroyed and the new emerges.  Think of it this way.  We will live in glorified bodies on a glorified earth in a glorified Heaven.

My point here is that so many people think of our eternal home in Heaven as being “up there” where God is now but really, Heaven will come down from “up there” and will forever be on this earth.  For most of us, I don’t think it will ultimately matter, but it’s good to see the truth. 

The other thing interesting about this verse is that it says there will no longer be any sea.  How many of you are like me and are bummed out about that?  I love the water.  I love being at the ocean.  Well, I have, what I believe, is good news about this.  I have read literally dozens of commentaries about this because I wanted to know the truth.  I know this bothers people every time we read it and while I know we aren’t going to be disappointed with Heaven, there is something about this that bothers people.  I completely understand.

Now, this verse plainly says that there will no longer be any sea and I will always err on the side of taking the Bible literally BUT first we have to take it in context.  For John and everybody else in those days, the sea or the oceans were places of terror and separation.  They didn’t have compasses and if it was cloudy or they lost sight of land, they were lost.

They didn’t have scuba gear and all they knew about ocean creatures was what came up in their nets when they were fishing.  If you have ever been deep sea fishing or if you ever watched those Jacques Cousteau specials, you know that some of that stuff is just plain scary.  So, when they thought of the sea, they thought of cold, treacherous waters that separate nations, destroy ships and drowned loved ones in poisonous waters.

But also, we know that in other places like Isaiah 60, speaking of the New Jerusalem, it says, “the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.”  (Verse 5) Then it says, “Surely the islands look to me; in the lead are the ships of Tarshish, bringing your children from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honor of the Lord your God.” (Verse 9)

Even if there are no more oceans and no more sea, we do know that there will be plenty of other water.  Revelation 22 tells of a great river that flows right through the capital city and flowing rivers go somewhere.  If not oceans, then large lakes, so, don’t worry.  If fishing and boating and snorkeling are part of your idea of what Heaven will include, I think you’ll be very happy.

Now, let’s get to something with a little more meat on it, if you will.  While it is going to be great to go fishing or swimming or boating on this new earth that we are going to be on for eternity, and while we hope that Heaven will have dogs and Mexican food and we can’t wait to see old Aunt Bessie again, I want to skip to verse 3 and let’s look at something that will fulfill all of our wants, needs and desires in Heaven.

"Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”  Let’s stop right there for a while.  What does it mean for God to dwell among the people?  Is that any different than it is right now?  Isn’t God everywhere and the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts?

Let me ask you something.  How do you know God exists?  Have you ever seen Him with your eyes?  Have you ever heard His voice audibly with your ears?  Have you ever touched Him with your fingers or even smelled Him with your nose?  No.  We only know that God exists because the Bible tells us and it has been proven to be true and we sense His presence with us and feel His guiding hand through the Holy Spirit that does live inside of us.

But John continually says, “I saw…” over and over again and so will we.  We will see God.  We will be with God; touching Him and knowing Him and spending time with Him and THAT is what makes Heaven heavenly.  I’m not just trying to be spiritual here either.  God is the Creator of all things including the Creator of our wants, needs and desires so it only makes sense that He will be the one to satisfy those as well. 

Since the beginning, man has wanted to see God.  In Exodus 33, Moses asks and is allowed to see the back side of God.  Job said, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. ²⁶And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; ²⁷I myself will see him with my own eyes-I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27) 

The psalmist says in Psalm 63:1, “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”  We may think we want lots of things but our real desire, our God-given desire is found only in God Himself.  That’s why acquiring stuff in this world never satisfies.  You can never get enough money or fame or power or anything else.  None of that will truly satisfy.

Our longing for Heaven is a longing for God.  (Heaven – Randy Alcorn, page 171) Being with God is what is what gives us satisfaction in this life.  Think how much more satisfied we will be when “God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

In Psalm 27:4 David says, “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”  Asaph understood when he wrote in Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.”

Father J. Boudreau wrote something along these lines, “When we see the face of God we will become beautiful with His beauty, rich with His wealth, holy with His holiness and happy with His unutterable happiness.”

I can’t wait to get there like I can’t wait to eat Bunnie’s cookies.  Phooey on this life like phooey on raw vegetables.  I can’t wait to go swimming and running and riding motorcycles on golden streets and seeing my loved ones and having a perfect body but even all of that won’t satisfy forever if the One who provides it isn’t there.

As some of you know, I have a problem with most of these books and movies written by people who have supposedly died and gone to Heaven and seen Jesus because the focus of them always seems to be on seeing Uncle Jake or how beautiful the sky is or having their body healed.  When John saw Jesus in Heaven in Revelation 1:17 it says he “fell at His feet as though dead.”

Paul heard Jesus speak on the road to Damascus (Acts 9) and just hearing His voice made Paul fall down, go blind and nearly killed him for three days.  The problem is, as it says in Hebrews 12:14, “without holiness no one will see the LORD.”  But we don’t get to Heaven on our righteousness, do we?  1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”  Philippians 3:9 says, “the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

We ought to wake up every morning and go to sleep every night thanking God that one day, maybe today, but someday soon, we will see God face to face not because of anything we have done or ever will do but only because of what Jesus has done for us by dying on the cross to pay for our sins and all we have to do is have faith in Him.

Is that a good description of you?  Do you have faith?  Oh sure.  Everybody has faith, right?  But the proof of faith is a changed life.  The proof of repentance is a changed life.  The proof of thankfulness is a changed life and if that does not describe you, then I need to talk and pray with you right now as the music plays.