Themes of the Bible: Heaven (Revelation 21-22)

 

Themes of the Bible: Heaven (Revelation 21-22)

Alright, so this is both the end of this sermons series that we’ve been in together for the last nine months, and it’s also the final pages of Scripture that we’ll be in today. For this study, we've been looking at key portions of Scripture that God has preserved for us in his Word. He's protected His word for us to study and learn from today, and in preparation for this final portion of Scripture, we’re going to start by talking about the afterlife. And we have a big problem right off the bat. We have a lot of problems as human beings, but this is a big one; the concept of heaven involves eternity and we do not have eternally equipped minds. If you remember the very beginning of this series, back in May or June, we started the very beginning in Genesis by establishing that when God creates the universe he establishes these natural laws that we're bound by and one of those natural laws is time. Everything has a beginning point and ending point. But remember that the Creator is not governed by those laws. So, God establishes these natural laws, one of which is time. Beginning and end. But God Himself is not bound by those laws. So one day when we're on the other side, the concept of time will have passed away, and we'll have this mind that understands what God already understands, but right now you have a little feeble mind and we don't understand this kind of stuff very well.

With that, let’s look at Revelation chapter 21.. if you've got it open look at verse 6. [Read Revelation 21:6]. Alright, most of you probably know that alpha and omega is from the Greek alphabet. It's the first letter and it's the last letter, signifying the beginning and the end. Like saying, “from A to Z.” God is saying, I’m the beginning and I’m the end. Again, it’s a concept that we can’t fully understand but understand that he's talking about God as the beginning point of our reality and he's the ending point. Everything that you know originates in God. Everything that you know, everything that you see, everything you will ever know originates in God. He was before anything else, so everything that is reality to us begins in him. And by the same token, everything will end or culminate in him. It is all building towards this, because there is nothing that will outlast God. There was nothing that preceded God. The prophet Isaiah said it this way, “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me’” (Isaiah 44:6). Mankind worships all kind of stuff, there's people that surround you that worship ultimately themselves, their own mind, and they determine what they believe as right and wrong. They may attribute it to a certain God or a statue or whatever it is that they want to worship. But what God is saying here in his word to us is that before any of that stuff, He was, and after all of that stuff has ceded itself to the fire of the end times, He will still be. It all begins, and it all ends with God. He has the first word of history he will have the last word of history and he has absolutely no competitors.

If you want to use an analogy we use the analogy of a potter and pottery. The pottery wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for the potter. The only reason the pottery exists is because of the potter and by the same token, once the pottery does exist, it exists to serve his purposes. And that's why we exist as human beings. That puts us in a very difficult spot when it comes to trying to understand eternal things. How does a piece of pottery understand the ways of the potter? So, it's very difficult for us, but the good news is that we're not alone. These great titans of the faith that God used to write the pages of Scripture that we've studied, they didn't have any better of a clue. Look at this, Ezekiel tried to explain heaven and what he came up with was a whirlwind of fire and it was engulfing itself. What in the world does that even mean? I don't know what that means. . . And Paul, who says that ‘either God took me to heaven or he gave me a vision of heaven, I don't really know. God knows what he did but I can't even express to you what it is that I saw I heard things and it's not even possible for my mind to be able to put onto paper what it is that I witnessed there. . .’ and then you got Solomon, the wisest man to ever live who says ‘I can't even comprehend how anything, even the heavens can contain God. . .’ He's huge, he's over everything, how is it even possible that anything could even contain him? So, you and I, and them have finite feeble minds, but heaven is consumed with the infinite. We understand these concepts of grace and beauty and duration and joy and contentment. You know people who are full of grace, you know what grace is. You know what beauty is, and the different forms it comes in. You know what duration is, you know what joy and contentment are, even if you’re lacking both. You know these concepts, but add the word infinite to the beginning of it and it's just a descriptor. We can't comprehend what that means. So, what God does in these two chapters, is he gives us a glimpse of heaven and eternity. It's almost as though God realizes that there's no way these people can understand what it is that awaits them, but what I’m going to do is I’m going to give them a little nugget of what it’s like. And they're going to look at the nugget and they can wrap their little feeble minds around this nugget and it'll give them a vision of what it is that's coming.

Look at verses 10 and 11 of chapter 21 of Revelation. [Read Revelation 21:10-11]. Okay, it looks like a jewel. Hold on to that for just a second. Now notice what he says here. He sees this holy city coming down out of heaven, and the first thing to notice is this is not heaven. God is not showing John a picture of what heaven is. This is the city, the capital city, the new Jerusalem that he has seen come down out of heaven and he's being given a glimpse of it and God is going to use an angel to show John some basic things that he can understand and wrap his mind around as a human being.

This should already tell you a little bit about what heaven's going to be like. Look back at verse 1. [Read Revelation 21:1]. This tells us that what is on the other side is not that unfamiliar to us in the sense that sometimes we believe that we're going to be these little spirit beings floating around with harps. That's not what this is. This is a new heaven and a new earth. You know what earth is, and you know what we do on earth, so this is a new earth that is created far more spectacular than even this one is, and you know how gorgeous the central coast is this time of year. . . but the new one will be incomparably better in every way. So, what we know is that there will be a new earth that is created but here's the thing, this new heaven and this new earth are not separated by our sin. God will come down and dwell with people in the new earth. That's amazing! He's going to be here with us.

I’m sure that some of you have been to Yosemite before. Others of you have not been, but you've seen pictures. Those who have been, have also seen the pictures, and they will tell you that the pictures don't do it justice. You stand in the bottom of the valley looking up and your knees go weak when you see that for the first time. It's just unbelievable. So I want you to imagine coming to me with a piece of paper, like computer paper, and a couple colored pencils and saying, ‘I’m never going to be able to see Yosemite Valley, never going to be able to go there, so can you draw for me what Yosemite is so I get a good idea of it.’ Now imagine what I’m going to come up with, the great artist that I am. The best I could do with a piece of paper, simply trying to draw a picture of Yosemite valley, but I guarantee you that it won’t convey 1 percent of the magnitude of the real thing. That’s the same with this description of our eternity. We’re reading an illustration now, but one day your knees will go weak when you see it for yourself in person.  

With that, let’s read verses 16 and 17. [Read Revelation 21:16-17]. Ok, first of all, we know what a mile is, so what the angel is doing is using a human measurement. God is allowing the angel to show John actual dimensions so he can wrap his mind around how big this thing is. Fifteen hundred miles! That's how wide this thing is. It's 1500 miles wide, it's 1500 miles long and then, this is where it gets crazy, it's as wide and high as it is long. Now you're not talking about a normal city that we understand. This is like a cube, and he provides the dimensions. If you don't know the dimensions, it’s as if you go to New York City, out to Salt Lake City, and from the base of the Rio Grande and the southern border with Mexico, up to the northern border of Canada. That's 1500ish miles. This is a city that is that long and that wide and it is also that tall. This is a massive cube that is coming down out of heaven. Billions and billions of people or souls could reside in this singular city that we're talking about. [Read Revelation 21:18]. So, the gold is so pure, so refined that it's virtually transparent. You have never seen gold this pure before. And the roads and the walls of this city are made of that gold. You can see through these things.

Look back at verse 3 of chapter 21. [Read Revelation 21:3]. It’s God with man. God is filling this area with his all-consuming presence. Heaven is filled with God, and there's no place that you will go in heaven where you will be separated from God. His beauty is no longer inhibited by sin like it is in this world. You see elements of God reflected in creation, of course. But it's muted, it's inhibited by our sin that we've invited into the world. But in glory, this paradise God is making for us, God is shining into every corner of the universe. Look at chapter 22 verse 5. [Read Revelation 22:5]. Why is there no night in heaven? Because God fills heaven and there's no darkness where God is. So, everything is brilliant light, and this light is strong enough to illuminate every corner of the universe. And remember, you have this city that is made of pure gold. It's so pure that you can see through it, and we’ll see this light shooting through the walls and the streets of pure gold and you’re going to have this magnificent glow, this unbelievable beauty, God’s glory bouncing off of all the walls and all the roads. This is a magnificent unimaginable vision that John sees coming down out of heaven.

I want you to imagine for a second the first glimpse you get of this holy city. I imagine some of you will see your mom or your dad already living in the midst of this. Perhaps the baby that you lost at an early age, he or she is walking on these streets. They’re sharing in God's glory. Look at chapter 21, verse 2. [Read Revelation 21:2]. We will gasp at this breathtaking beauty for eternity. Like a husband see his bride for the first time on their wedding day.

But also look back at verse 3, and you saw where it said “he will be our God and we will be his people.” I don't want to suggest to you that heaven will just be church forever. Heaven isn't an eternally long church service. What scripture is saying is that it's an eternity we spend experiencing God's love and experiencing God and his great creativity and his genius in every area of our existence and we do it all with his people. That's what heaven is. The closest earthly experience I can think of pales in comparison, but it’s a week at Christian camp. You're there and you're surrounded by fellow believers, you're doing multiple Bible studies a day, you are dedicating time to worship, you are high on God that entire week, you are completely devoted and completely cut off from the rest of the outside world. But, the bad part of camp is the end of the week. You go home, you’re back in the world, and all your unbelieving friends surround you and pretty soon you're back to where you were before. So, what I’m getting at, is that the end of the week never happens. This is an eternally long church camp.

There will never be a time when God feels distant, there will never be a time where he feels silent, where you're looking and longing and saying, ‘I need to hear from God.’ You'll never experience that, you'll never be disconnected from him. You will be high on God all the time because God is everywhere.

Remember when we did the resurrection message that we talked about the new bodies that we're getting. You remember the resurrected body of Jesus could move freely through walls, the resurrected body of Jesus could show up in one place and then another, He even flew when taken up to Heaven. But, the best part is that your perfect glorified form is completely undone from all the effects of the sin. The glorified body is delivered from all of its weakness and all its frailty and all its disease, all of its addictions, all of that is gone. Your senses, your ability to see and hear and smell and taste and feel, all of those things will be increased exponentially and no disease and no distraction will hinder any of that any longer. You will experience God with no limits exactly as he had intended from the very beginning.

Look at Revelation 22 and look at verse 3. [Read Revelation 22:3]. What is heaven going to be like? We will serve him and dwell in his universe for eternity. And some of you might say, ‘you have got to be kidding me. I thought at least when I died, in death I would get a little rest and you're telling me I’m going to go to the other side and I’m going to start working again!?” Right, but it’s not work like you understand it to be work. Work like it was always intended to be when God created the garden of Eden. He put Adam in the garden to work the garden, and work was a form of worship and obedience, but it didn't have the toil, it didn't have the drudgery, all of those things that we don't like about work won’t be there. 1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” The mind and the being of God is inexhaustible in every area. It's not just that our senses are going to be magnified in heaven, but our intellects will be as well.

Dr. Ben Carson said, “I’ve worked on the brain my whole life and it's amazing if you learned one new thing every second it would take you three million years to challenge the capacity of the human brain.” Well, in heaven, peel all of that away. Take all of that away because the capacity of the human mind will be glorified and it will be expanded. You will learn the secrets of God but never exhaustively fill your mind beyond its capacity. You're not going to be bored. Every attribute of God has inexhaustible depth and breadth and that's what you will be exploring and learning for eternity. We'll be pursuing that. I can't wait for that, every day more joy and every hour we're going to have more discovery and every moment there'll be more fascination than the one before.

I want to make sure that you remember the guarantee that Jesus made to his disciples. He said, “my father's house has many rooms. If that were not so I would have told you, that I’m going there to prepare a place for you. . .” Two things about this. First of all, you've probably been on vacation before. We all love vacations. The moment you walk into your hotel room and it's all clean and nice and you put your stuff down, and you're thrilled to be there. Now, fast forward seven, eight, ten days, and even though you enjoy being there, it’s not as fun. Just watch the bus leaving Disney World. Maybe you’re sick, the money's running out, even if you had a great time, and you know it's time to go home, and you don't like that last day of travel. But then there’s that feeling when you walk into your house and you lay down in your bed and you sit in your recliner or lay on your couch and you're watching your TV. The comfort of home, that's what heaven is going to bring us. The excitement of new, but the unrivaled comfort of home that never gets old. This is a homecoming. There may be places in this world that feel like home to you, but wait until you get to heaven. That's what your soul was made for and it will feel at home. It’s unlike anything you've ever experienced before. The other thing is, Jesus says, “I’m going to prepare a place for you.” It’s not, I’m going there to prepare a place for y'all. There's a difference between you and y'all. If he's going to prepare a place for y'all it's all going to kind of be the same thing. We're going to have the same kind of quarters. No, this is being prepared with your personal taste in mind from a creator that knows you better than you know yourself. Maybe Christiana will get a big palace with pillows everywhere, and maybe I’ll get a hammock and a pine tree, and a beautiful alpine lake all to myself.  But of course, he's thinking of things that you haven't even thought of and you couldn't even imagine right now. Next, look at the promise that we see in verses 4 and 5 chapter 21. [Read Revelation 21:4-5]. Everything is new. I will be made new. Whatever my desires once were, I’ll be made new with the ability to do that which God desires.

In all of this, heaven is a complete reversal of the curse that holds so many of us back from our dreams and aspirations. If that sounds too good to be true, I get it. I understand that. So, how do we know that it is true? Look at the end of verse 5, “He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’” He doesn't have to say that. When God says something, it's trustworthy and it's true. But here he is taking a special effort here to express to John. It’s as if God said, ‘Listen, I know this sounds unbelievable, but write it down because this is trustworthy and it is true.’ God is staking his character on the truth of this promise that he's sharing.

And to end this sermon and this series, how many times in Scripture has man doubted God? You've seen it all year long as we've gone from chapter to chapter to chapter to chapter. How many times has man doubted God and every time our faithlessness has been met with his faithfulness. Every single time. So, I’m going to say to you, that if you have come to believe that our Lord is the author of this universe, and if we believe that he is that deliverer of the Israelites, and if we believe that he is the savior in that manger coming to dwell with humans, and if we believe he is the sacrificial lamb on that cross, and if you've come to believe that he is the conquering messiah of the empty tomb, if you believe he is the alpha and the omega, then you can known and believe that this promise is true. So my challenge to you as we leave this year long sermon series, is to spend a few moments every day, challenge yourself to spend a few moments every day simply dwelling on what awaits you in the next life. Spend a few moments focusing on these promises of what comes next for those of us who are in Christ. I know the depression of this world, I understand the anxieties that we feel, I understand the pain and the loss that we experience, but look at what Paul writes to the Colossians in chapter 3, verses 1-4. “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

 Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. We are so consumed with earthly things and it’s killing us, so how about we follow this instruction that we have right here. I’m not telling you that this as a way to avoid dealing with the reality of this world like some sort of escape where you go and you meditate, that's not what I mean. I’m not trying to make this life seem less significant or less important or less urgent. In fact, I mean the exact opposite. This may be a really bad analogy but it's the one I like to use. Imagine you're in an aircraft and somebody jumps out of the aircraft with no parachute. That's a tragedy. If you have no parachute, all you can do is sit there and mourn what has happened to them. But if you had a parachute, some confidence to live outside of the plane, I know this would be asking a lot, but if it's somebody that you cared about, would you not jump out and try to speed towards them as fast as you can and wrap them up in your arms before you pull the rip cord? If you had the parachute and the promise that you were going to be okay, wouldn't you make that effort to save another, or a few more people? That's the world that we're living in. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you and I have the promise of a parachute, and there's a world of people that don't. So let's go after them, let's jump after them so that they might be saved too.

It's our confidence in that hope that allows us to have this daring sacrificial love that can mean an eternal difference to so many people. It's what Paul said in Colossians 1:4-6, “. . .since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth. . .” Look at where it comes from! That attitude springs from the hope stored up in you for heaven. That's our hope. That's what we have and that's what we can go into the world with. And when the world sits there and says, ‘look at the way they're sacrificing themselves for others. Look at the way that they love. Why would they act like that?” We answer back, taking into consideration everywhere that we have been through this year and when they say ‘how can you act like that towards others? How can you give of yourself in such a way? How can you sacrifice for the good of others when it costs you so much?’ Then we can answer them and say, ‘sit down, have I got a story for you.”

Let’s pray.