Paradise Regained: The Garden of Heaven – Revelation 21-22 – Skip Heitzig
Well, good morning to you and Happy Christmas. We’re in this season and we’re doing a series called Follow The Trees. Last week, we looked at one tree in the Garden of Eden. This week we’ll look at the Tree of Life in the new Jerusalem in the future. And then Christmas Eve, we’ll talk about the third tree, and that is the cross.
A question or an issue about the book that Nate wrote, Christmas Under the Tree. There are 50 copies left. That’s all that we have presently. They’re all signed copies. So if you want a great children’s book for Christmas to read to your kids, it follows this theme. We have 50 left, and you can get a copy over in our bookstore, SoPo.
Turn in your Bibles, please, to the Book of Revelation this morning. Chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21. It’s good if you have a Bible. I hope you brought one. If you don’t have a real one, maybe you have a fake one on your phone or your tablet. So whether you have a real Bible or a fake Bible, take out your Bible. Get to Revelation chapter 21, back of the book, and we’ll begin in a moment.
Let’s have a word of prayer. Father, we want to thank You for the season that we are in. It is an opportunity for us as believers to share the meaning behind this season. It is lost. It is obscured every year by commercialism. And yet we have an opportunity to let the light shine in our world. And I pray that we as believers will use it. We pray that You will comfort those in our midst who are afflicted because of loss, Lord. This time of the year is very difficult for some carrying a heavy burden of somebody they love who’s not with them this year. We pray that you would comfort and strengthen and uphold them with your righteous right hand. In Jesus’s name we ask. Amen.
Well, last week, two men in Rockland, Maine, tried to steal a Christmas tree, here we have footage, from a hotel lobby. Now, this is a full on Grinch move right here. So they go into this hotel lobby. It’s an artificial tree. They unplug the tree. They try to remove it and take it into an elevator.
I don’t know why an elevator. If you’re going to steal a tree, go out the front door. But they took an elevator. The bottom of the tree did not come up, so it came apart. So they finally yanked it and brought it in the elevator. They were identified and they were arrested 25 minutes later. That’s all it took for the police to find them and arrest them.
And the funniest part of it is the police report. They said, we don’t know why and no one quite knows the reason. It could be their head wasn’t screwed on just right. It could be perhaps their shoes were just too tight. Or perhaps their heart was two sizes too small. Yes, it was a full on Grinch experience.
But the ultimate Grinch was Satan himself, who tried to steal the Tree of Life. In fact, stole man’s opportunity to partake of the Tree of Life, which would grant them living forever, and instead turn them toward disobeying God, eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Last week, I told you that all of history can be viewed through the lens of three trees, the first being the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Second is the Tree of Life, and the third is the cross of Christ. Those are the trees we are following.
In Genesis chapter 2 and 3, because man and his wife disobeyed God and they took the one thing God says, do not take, do not do, they were banished from the Tree of Life. Now, you might just say, well, it’s gone. It’s over. Until we get to the very end of the Bible itself, and we discover it’s as if the Tree of Life has been transplanted. It shows up again at the very end of time in the new Jerusalem. We’re going to see it in chapter 22.
I’m excited about this message, because it’s going to be a wild message for some of you, but we are going way into our future and talk about heaven. And I made a discovery about heaven, and that is the older we get in life and the closer we get to the end of our earthly lives, the more people think about heaven. Whatever you think about during your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, by the time you see that there’s more road behind you than in front of you, you start thinking about where you’re going next.
I had a couple friends of mine. He’s a pastor and this is a pastor’s wife. And she was fatal. She had a fatal disease. And she was in another state, and she asked me if I’d visit her. So I went to visit her in the hospital. And she just wanted some time alone with me. She said she considered me her pastor. Her husband wasn’t really excited about that part of it.
But she just said, I’d just like to ask you some questions. Just tell me about heaven. I know the Bible. I know what it says about heaven. I just want to hear you describe to me as best you can what heaven is going to be like. Because she knew in a few hours she would be there. And I told her. We went through the scriptures. I helped to describe what I knew. And then as I was leaving the room, she said, Skip. And I turned around. And she said, I’ll see you around the corner. She knew she would be in God’s presence very shortly.
In Revelation 21 and 22, we learn things we are going to see and things we’re going to do in heaven. People always wonder, well, what am I going to see. Angels? Am I going to be sitting on a cloud in a white robe? Am I going to be playing a harp? Am I going to be singing all day long, endlessly? No, you’re going to be doing something very, very different and seeing things that really defy description almost.
In chapter 21 of Revelation, we are entering into what is called the eternal state. The eternal state. It is an entirely different dimension than we now presently know. In Revelation 21 and 22, we are entering into timelessness, into eternity.
Remember in school when you were growing up and the teacher would teach history with a timeline? So they’d put a line on a chart or on a chalkboard, and that represented time. And so you have little dots along the timeline. This dot might represent the founding of our nation. Then there’s another dot that would represent World War I, then another dot that would represent World War II, et cetera. That’s time on a chart.
So you might think eternity is simply the line goes on forever. But I want to suggest to you that’s not the best way to think of eternity. Think of it this way. Remove the line altogether. There is no line. There is no time. Einstein showed us that time is relative, that time has physical property and will vary according to mass, acceleration, and gravity. But God does not live within the constraint of a time space continuum. He dwells in an eternal realm. And so I just want to get your mind there as we get into chapter 21 and 22.
By this time, the rapture is over. The tribulation is over. Armageddon is over. The second coming of Christ is over. It’s all past tense in this point. The 1,000 year reign of Christ on the Earth called the millennial kingdom, the kingdom age, is also over. That Earth and the heavens will have been destroyed by God, and a new one is put in its place. That’s what we enter into when we get into chapter 21 and 22.
Now, what I’d like to do is give you four aspects of heaven’s design. Four aspects of heaven’s design. Of course, this is not the totality of heaven. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard. It has not entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. But read the next verse. It says, but God has revealed them to us by His spirit. We’re going to read what God has revealed to us by His spirit in the scripture of what the future is going to be like in heaven.
First of all, this eternal state has a design that I’m calling the anterior design. That is from the front. What does it look like, generally speaking? So look at chapter 21, verse 1. John the apostle writes, “Now I saw a new heaven and a new Earth. For the first heaven and the first Earth,” that’s this one, “had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
Then I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,” get this, “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.”
The general appearance that strikes John as he sees this coming down out of heaven is that it is like a dazzling bride. That’s the general description. That’s the anterior view. It’s like, wow, breathtaking to him.
Now, you will notice in verse 1, he says, “Now I saw.” And then in verse 2, “Then I, John, saw.” And I’m bringing that to your attention because the book of Revelation is filled with that phrase. In fact, 36 times in this book it’s then I saw, now I saw, and I saw, I, John, saw. And so what we are getting here is an eyewitness description of a future vision. John is a spectator of future events.
And I bring this up because some people try to squeeze the Book of Revelation into a non-literal symbolic meaning. It doesn’t really mean what it says it means. I know John saw this, but he’s not really meaning that literally. It’s all just a bunch of symbols. And if you ask them what the symbols mean, then they say, well, I don’t know. I can’t tell you what it means, but it is symbolic. But they can’t tell you what the symbols mean. Or if they tell you what the symbols mean, 40 other people have 40 other symbolic meanings.
I think it’s best to read it in a literal, grammatical, historical sense. Take it at face value. Yes, there are emblems and symbols, but they point to a reality, to real events. So this is what he sees. This is his eyewitness description.
And one of the troubling things to me, I have told you before, because I’ve covered this with you before, one of the troubling things to me is that little phrase in verse 1 where he says, also there was no more sea. I have long wrestled with that text, but I take it to mean– you know what it means? There’s no more sea.
[LAUGHTER]
That’s it. There is no more sea. And here’s the best way to explain it. The new Earth, the new heavens and Earth, are no longer going to be water-based in their existence. The present universe, of course, depends on water. 2/3 of the surface of the Earth is water. 65% of your body is water. 90% of your blood is water. You live in a water based environment. You need that.
The present watery Earth will be reconstructed for the millennial kingdom, 1,000 years. And after that, it’s done. It’s over. It gets destroyed. Verse 1, I saw a new heaven and a new Earth, for the first heaven and the first Earth had passed away. This should be not new news to us. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet said, God’s going to make a new heaven and new Earth.
2 Peter chapter 3 in the New Testament, Peter says, “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements that is on the Earth will melt with fervent heat.” That’s total destruction. “Nevertheless, we according to His promise look for new heavens and a new Earth in which righteousness dwells.”
So we’re dealing with a whole new planet Earth in Revelation 21, a new physical planet, not water based. No need for a water based system. We’ll have glorified bodies. We won’t have the same dependency as we do now.
Let me take you down to verse 9. We’re still dealing with the anterior view, the frontal view. Verse 9. “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, come, I will show you the bride.” Because that’s what it looked like to John at first. The lamb’s wife.
“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” This is not like the Jerusalem in the Middle East in present day Israel. This is new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. “Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.”
So John looks up, sees this city coming out of heaven from God toward the new Earth, perhaps affixing itself to the Earth, perhaps just out from the Earth a little bit. Can’t be sure. But settling somehow in juxtaposition to the new Earth as the capital city of the eternal state. And John wants to describe to us the light that it has. Having the glory of God, it says, verse 11, her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
Now, there’s an interesting word that he uses here for light. It is the word phoster. It’s a little bit different than the typical word for light. The typical word for light in Greek is phos. But here it’s phoster, and phoster means a light source, an illuminator. Think of a light bulb. That would be a phoster. It is something in which light is concentrated and from which light radiates. That is, light is pouring out of the new Jerusalem. Why? Verse 11 says, having the glory of God.
Now, he mentions a stone here, the jasper stone. In modern times, jasper stone is opaque. In ancient times, it was more clear. It was more translucent, and it was more diamond-like. So think of it, John is trying to describe a diamond-like appearance. But he says also in verse 11, please notice the last part of that verse, it is clear as crystal.
Here’s the idea. John is looking at the light. It is radiating from this glorious city that he sees coming down, and it is able to go through all the surfaces because it is clear as crystal. And you know, I’m guessing, I’m guessing this, that in the Bible, the revelation of God, the appearance of God is often associated with light.
Jesus said, I am the light of the world. In 1 John chapter 1, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. And oftentimes, when God shows up, it’s in the form of light. Moses wanted to see the glory of God. God said, you can’t see my glory and live. You’ll die. But I’ll pass alongside of you. You will see my afterglow only because if you look at me in full, blazing glory, you’ll be dead meat. I’m paraphrasing a little bit.
So that experience happens. Moses comes down from the mountain and his face is what? It’s glowing. Just that after presence of God coming by the cave where he was hiding himself caused his face to glow. And then when God was with his people in the wilderness, it was a pillar of cloud by day, but a pillar of light by night. So God is often associated with light. And so then in the new Jerusalem, light is radiating from this city, the Shekinah glory of God is radiating from the city. That’s the anterior design. That’s the front general appearance.
Let’s notice a little bit more the exterior design of this future capital city, your future home. I’m not going to go through all the verses. He talks about 12 gates and 12 foundation stones. The 12 gates have the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 foundation stones of the city have the names of the 12 apostles. Let me take you down to verse 15.
“And he who talked with me,” that is this angelic representative, “He who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city.” A measuring tape. “Its gates, and its wall.” Evidently then, this angel wants John to know what the measurements are.
Verse 16. “The city is laid out as a square. Its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed 12,000 furlongs.” Now, I know you’re thinking, that doesn’t help me. Well, 12,000 furlongs is 1,500 miles. So the angel says, let’s measure this baby. And they take out the measuring stick and it is 15,000 miles. And notice this. Its length, its breadth, and its height are equal. Can you picture it? It is a perfect cube. The measurement of the future city of Jerusalem is a 1,500 mile cube.
Now, let me help you understand 1,500 miles. 1,500 miles is the distance from Maine to Florida. 1,500 miles is the distance from Dallas, Texas, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1,500 miles is the distance from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Spokane, Washington.
That would make the new Jerusalem 2,250,000 square miles. Or, to put it in easier configuration, the size of London, England 15,000 times. So it’s 15,000 times larger than London, England. Or if you prefer this, just slightly larger than our moon. So he sees a square object the size of the moon radiating light called new Jerusalem, coming out of heaven to the new Earth.
Erwin Lutzer said this. This city could be composed of 396,000 stories at 20 feet per story, each with an area as big as half the size of the United States. Divide that into separate condominiums, and you have plenty of room for everyone who has been redeemed since the beginning of time.
By the way, this should help you understand what Jesus said when He told His disciples, in my father’s house, there are many mansions. One of the worst translations ever. It doesn’t even make sense in English. How do you have a house with mansions in it? So a better translation. In my father’s house, there are many rooms, many abiding places. Maybe He was talking about the new Jerusalem.
Let me just throw something out at you for fun. In verse 3, it says, behold, the tabernacle of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. Let me take you back to the Old Testament. There was that tent structure called the tabernacle. And what was the one room where God dwelt? Where the Ark of the Covenant. It was called the Holy of Holies. The measurement of the Holy of Holies was 15 feet by 15 feet by 15. It was a 15 foot cube. It’s just sort of interesting to me that the new Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God that is with man, is 1,500 miles cubed. This is your future home. New Jerusalem.
Dr. Henry Morris, a scientist and an engineer, said 20 billion people could inhabit this city and assume that if 25% of the city is used for dwelling places and the rest for whatever else, streets, parks, public buildings, he calculates each person, all $20 billion people, could have a cubical block with 75 acres on each face to call his own. Pretty big place.
Now, because it’s 1,500 miles, not just flat in two directions, but high, I’m going to throw something else out at you. Probably don’t think about this much. The streets run not just vertically, but– or horizontally, but vertically.
You remember when Jesus rose from the dead? He rose from the dead. How was it that He could be in one place physically and then the next minute in a whole different city physically? Just appeared, just walked through the walls and showed up. He’s on the road to Emmaus and He’s in the upper room, hanging out with His disciples. Or He’s up in Galilee.
So my suggestion to you is you in your glorified body, in the new Jerusalem, having the same capacities as Christ will be able to travel multidimensionally. Again, Dr. Henry Morris says it should also be remembered that our new bodies, the new bodies of resurrected saints, will be like those of the angels, no longer limited by gravitational or electromagnetic forces as at the present.
This will be easy, for– thus it will be easy for the inhabitants to travel vertically as well as horizontally. Consequently, the streets of the city well may include vertical passageways as well as horizontal avenues. Now, I ask you, this is not what you thought of heaven would be like. You’re still thinking clouds, harps, singing. Sounds pretty fun.
Now, let me take you to the interior design. We’ve seen the anterior from the front. We’ve seen the exterior. It’s all measured. Let’s go inside this city. Verse 22. He goes inside. “But I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty and the lamb,” that’s Jesus, “are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The lamb is its light.”
Verse 25, “Its gates shall not be shut at all by day.” And I love this little part. “There shall be no night there.” Because light is emanating from it. It is perpetual. There’s no sun and moon. There’s no cycles like we have of sun and moon, sunrise, sunset, et cetera. There shall be no night there.
Now, as we go inside, the first thing John makes a mention of is that there’s something not there. There’s no temple. And I think the reason John writes this is because he’s surprised. John, in his day, in every ancient city, the center of town was a temple. Always. It was the most noticeable feature. It was the predominant feature of every ancient city. John had lived in Ephesus. The Temple of Diana dominated that city.
If you were to go to Rome or Corinth or Athens, same thing. Temples dotted the landscape and they were always in the center square. Even Jerusalem, Earthly Jerusalem, had a temple in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The temple was a dominant feature. Also in the millennial kingdom, which is by now passed, but there will be a temple in the millennial kingdom for 1,000 years of Christ’s reigning upon the Earth. So here he expects to see one, and he doesn’t see one. In the eternal state, there’s no need for it.
But again, I want you to think a little bit differently here. Rather than thinking of the temple as being eliminated, I want you to think that the temple is being expanded. That every part of it is the Temple. Henry Alford puts it this way. The inhabitants need no place of worship or sacrifice. The object of all worship being present, that is God the Father, and the great sacrifice Himself being there, that is Jesus Christ. So the temple is expanded. Because He’s going to occupy in blazing glory the whole of the new heavens and the new Earth.
Do you remember Jesus praying before His crucifixion to His father? He said, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was. We are now seeing the glory that Jesus came from, and He will occupy again.
So that’s the interior design. Let me take you now to the superior design. What I mean by that is the new Jerusalem, your future home, this aspect of heaven, the eternal state, is designed for superior living. It is life at its fullest. It is like the Garden of Eden. Remember, we saw last week the Garden of Eden, paradise lost. Well, now you’re about to see paradise regained.
Verse 1 of chapter 22. “And he showed me a pure river of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the lamb. In the middle of its street and on either side of the river,” was what? There it is again. It shows up again. Was the Tree of Life. Get this.
“Which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse. But the throne of God and of the lamb shall be seen in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun. For the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.”
This is Main Street. This is downtown new Jerusalem. And what we notice is it’s like a garden. It’s a garden-like environment. And it’s flanked by a river that comes from the throne of God and the lamb. By the way, there’s a word in the New Testament, paradise. It’s only found twice. Paradise. Paradise, referring to heaven, is a word that actually means a walled garden, which perfectly fits the description of the new Jerusalem. A walled garden-like environment.
And as we read the description in the first five verses, it reminds us of the Garden of Eden. Remember, the Garden of Eden had one river with four different branches that watered the entire garden. Here there is one river. The headwaters are from the throne of God, the Father, and the throne of Christ. That is, the lamb. The water is cascading across these transparent gold surfaces. Again, you just have to try to picture it in your head. We’ve not seen anything like it.
This is the eternal state. Before this was a millennial kingdom. The millennial kingdom was 1,000 year reign of Christ on the Earth. Now, from our perspective, that hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen. There will also be a river in that millennial kingdom. In the Jerusalem on Earth, in that glorious kingdom age, there will be a river that flows from Jerusalem into the Dead Sea and into the Mediterranean Sea. This river is different. The throne of God is the source of this river. As if to say, God is our source. God is our portion. God is our provision. God is our very life. It is called the Tree of Life. This is called the River of Life.
Again, I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds here, but I kind of get deep into the weeds here. This is a very different river than any river we have known on the Earth, because the hydrological cycle, as we now know it, will not be present in the new Jerusalem. Because to have a river, you got to have a sea, and there’s no more sea. So the typical cycle, the hydrological cycle of evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and collection is not present. That’s in the present day Earth. But in this reality, it is not. This is a different kind of river, but a river nonetheless. Just simply a garden-like environment.
Now, this takes me in my mind to Psalm 46 verse 4, where the psalmist says, “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high.”
Now, let me take you down to this tree. It says, “In the middle of the street,” verse 2, “and on either side of the river was the Tree of Life, which bore 12 fruits.” Remember, the Tree of Life appeared in the Garden of Eden, the beginning of history. Now at the beginning of eternity, it shows up again. Back then, in Genesis 2 and 3, mankind was forbidden from eating of the Tree of Life because they had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, put them in a sinful state. God placed cherubim to guard the tree of life and kicked man out of the garden. You say, what kind of a God of love is that? A God who really loves them a lot. Because if they would have been allowed to eat of the Tree of Life after they have sinned, they would have been perpetually, eternally in a state of sinfulness.
So God said, you can’t have it. But he doesn’t obviously get rid of the Tree of Life, because it shows up here again. What’s interesting about the Tree of Life here is it says it’s in the middle of the street and at the same time on both sides of the river. Explain that to me. How do you have something in the middle of the street and on both sides of the river?
Well, here’s some possibilities. Do the branches extend over? Are there two trees? Are there several trees, like a Tree of Life forest? Or is the trunk of the Tree of Life so wide, like the sequoias in California, where you have the road going through the trunk. Maybe you have the river going through the trunk of the Tree of Life.
I can’t help you there. But I can give you a couple of examples on this Earth. There is something in Colorado they call a clonal colony where they have 106 acres of trees called pando trees, and they’re actually just part of one tree, one root system that shows up in 106 acres.
Or there’s a tree called the banyan tree. And the banyan tree, which is found in India and subtropical places on the Earth, grows limbs, and the limbs become quite heavy. So as the limbs grow out and get heavier, they actually drop new root systems down from the branches. And the root systems go down, form new trunks to support the large limbs. So if you were to step underneath an old banyan tree, it would feel like you are in a forest of trees when you’re actually only under one tree. Just a thought.
But then in verse 2, it says it bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every what? Now, that’s troublesome. Every month? I thought we’re not dealing with time anymore. I thought this is the eternal state. The timeline has been removed. How are we dealing with months?
Well, this is one of those anthropomorphic expressions where you have the language of God written in simple human terms, just so we can grasp the idea of some form of reality. One commentator simply puts it this way. There will be a regular cycle of joyous provision filled with variety, changing all the time. God in heaven is going to make sure you’re not bored. And when you go through Main Street of new Jerusalem, there’s going to be a changeover of different kinds of fruit every season, every month, from our perspective.
But there’s something else that requires us looking at. It says the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations. Now, the reason that’s noteworthy is because they’re healed from what? If there’s no disease, if there’s no pain, if there’s no death, which it says in chapter 21, there is no more death, no tears, what are they being healed from? The word for healing is the Greek word therapeio, which sounds like therapy or therapeutic.
These leaves are for therapeutic means. These leaves enrich life. Think of it like vitamins. You don’t take vitamins because you’re sick and you need healing. You take vitamins to enhance your life. So think of these leaves as eternal life vitamins, eternal life boosters.
So we got fruit on the tree. You have leaves on the trees. And somebody will say, well, does that mean we’re going to eat in heaven? We’re in glorified bodies. Are we’re going to eat? Why not?
Angels in the Old Testament ate with Abraham. Genesis 18. Jesus, when he rose from the dead, ate meals with his disciples, cooked for them, and ate with them on the shores of Galilee. And then Jesus at the Last Supper said, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine anymore until I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom. So maybe we will.
All of that to simply say, heaven is not sitting on a cloud with white robes, playing harps, singing endlessly. But it’s a place of dazzling beauty, lots of variety, and enrichments that supplement joy.
Well, what are we going to do in heaven? Well, you’re going to do three things according to this text. You’re going to serve Him. You’re going to see Him. And you’re going to support Him. I want to show you that.
Look at verse 3. You’re going to serve Him. There shall be no more curse. I love that. But the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. You say, well, like what? What are we going to do? Whatever he wants you to do.
But like putting man in the Garden of Eden to keep it and to tend it, he gave Adam a job as soon as he made him, God is going to have us do something. Serve Him. So again, I just want to get to this idea of if you ever think heaven is boring, I mean, really? I mean, I’m not bored on Earth. I’m active on Earth. I don’t think heaven would be boring.
In fact, what’s great about it is there’s no more curse. No more curse. No more pain. All of that is gone. Serving God now in a cursed world is hard. It’s hard because I find myself handicapped by my own weakness and my own sin. To be in a perfect environment and a glorified body, serving the Lord will be a joy and will be easy. I’ll never get tired. So, number one, you’re going to serve Him.
Number two, you’re going to see Him. Verse 4. They shall see His face. Remember, Moses said, or God said to Moses, you cannot see my face and live. You can’t have that experience. You will die. And His name shall be on their foreheads. Now in glorified bodies, in this eternal state, we are going to be able to look upon the blazing glory of God and not die, because we too will be glorified.
And by the way, this is the best part of heaven. People say, what are you looking forward to when you get to heaven? The gold streets, the River of Life, the Tree of Life? No, seeing God face to face. Heaven is like home. The greatest thing about a person’s home isn’t what’s there, but who’s there. Seeing God personally, being with Him intimately is the best part of heaven.
Then it says, and you might just want to skip over this, but I don’t want to skip over it. It says, His name shall be on their foreheads. What does that signify? It signifies ownership. They’re mine. He’s mine. She’s mine. Listen to this promise. Revelation chapter 3, verse 12. Jesus speaking to the church at Philadelphia. “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he will go out no more. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write on him my new name.”
So you’ll have a lot of information there. God’s name, the name of the city in which you dwell in new Jerusalem, and the name of Jesus. In other words, this one belongs to me, and this is his home or her home. So you will serve Him. You will see Him.
Three, you will support Him. Verse 5. “There will be no night there, no need of lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.” You’re not just going to serve him, you’re going to reign with him. The Bible says you are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And just as He was glorified, you too will be glorified.
So again, you’re not just sitting on a cloud, bored out of your mind thinking, great, I’m going to be in heaven. I won’t even have my cell phone to kill time. No, it will be exciting, it will be diverse, and you will be busy. And by the way, that’s how our lives should be right now. Filled with joy, filled with diversity, and being busy about His business.
But this is your future home if you’re a believer. Do you want to be there? Do you want to eat of the Tree of Life? Do you want to drink of the River of Life freely? That’s the last invitation, by the way, in chapter 22. Whoever wills, let him come and drink of the water of life freely.
If you do, then put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, because this is His kingdom and the kingdom of His Father. He said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if you’re ever wondering, well, what does that look like? Now you know. This is it. It’s a wild scene, but it will be your reality and my reality one day.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the glories of heaven. We get a little bit of Revelation, not much about the new Earth, but a whole lot about this new capital city, new Jerusalem, the eternal state. You have prepared this for us. In your Father’s house, there are many rooms, and one of them has our name on it. And your name will be on us, because you own us. You purchased us at another tree, the cross of Jesus Christ.
How thankful we are that we are yours, and that your plan for us not only includes forgiving us, not only includes adopting us, not only includes making us your own, but includes taking us to heaven. And I think of the prayer of Jesus when he said, I pray that those who believe in me will be with me where I am and see my glory. And this is the glory that we will see.
Lord, I pray for anyone who might be with us who has not put their trust in the Lord Jesus. Just like this sounds outlandish to some, the whole Bible sounds outlandish to some, Lord, I pray you would reveal its truth and its importance to hearts, minds of some who are here and have never trusted in you.
They would realize everything they have tried up to this point has fallen short. And they during this season will turn to you and invite you to be their Lord, their master. Just like Adam and Eve were given a choice, we are given a choice. I pray that we would choose wisely. Choose Christ. It’s in his name we pray.
We hope you enjoyed this special service from Calvary Church. We’d love to know how this message impacted you. Email us mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can support this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church.
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