Your Choice, Heaven or Hell (Rev 21:1-27)
I'm going to tell you about your future. About the choice you make, and where you will spend that future, and just what that future place will be like. I've spent some time here, teaching from the pulpit, telling you what Hell looks like. Today, we will look at a place seen only by a few human eyes: Heaven.
I've heard it said, that there are two things that are certain, death and taxes. Maybe we could add to this short list that we will not only have taxes, but more taxes. But, seriously, there are two more things that are certain--the decision that you make regarding Jesus Christ, and what happens because of that decision.
First, let's look at what happens. Once you die, one minute after you die, you will either be happier than you could ever imagine or you will be sadder and more scared than you ever thought possible. Let's take a look at the good side--Heaven.
Now when I talk about heaven today, I will be talking about what heaven will look like for eternity, after the world is gone and the new earth and universe is in place. There are many events that occur in between that are really important, like the Bema Seat judgement, which I have already preached on, the triumphant return of Christ with His saints, the millenial kingdom and the final battle with Satan, but I hope to preach on this at another time soon.
When we see our new place of habitation, heaven, we will see things that are beyond our wildest imagination. And, what I tell you about today is only a small piece of what awaits for you in heaven, if you so elect to go there.
Jesus tells us in John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
For the saved, Jesus has prepared a place just for you. And we see this place is referred to a mansion. Now a mansion is not what you may think. In the Greek, the word for mansion is mon-ay', which means:
1) a staying, an abiding, a dwelling, an abode
2) to make one's abode
This leads us to believe simply this--it may not be a mansion. It may be more like an apartment, or a house, and yes it may be a mansion. But I guarantee you this--it will be without comparison. There are no homes like it here on this earth.
Each one of us will have our own personal place to live. Any saints that were homeless on this earth will never be homeless again. There will be no rich section, no slums, no vacation homes or hotels.
Where are all of these homes located? What will heaven look like? Let's look at today's scripture, Revelation 21:
Rev 21:1-27
CHAPTER 21
1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
Let me repeat part of that scripture--for the first heaven and first earth had passed away. Why? Because the first earth and first heaven were polluted by the presence of evil. And there also would be no sea. There will be plenty of water and probably some small lakes, but the seas will be gone. Right now, only a small part of the earth is usable land. The oceans take up most of the surface, and mountainous and desert areas take up a large part of the land. This will be changed.
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Note that it is prepared as a bride for her husband, but New Jerusalem will not actually be the Bride. The bride of Christ are you and I, those that are saved. This is discussed earlier in the Book of Revelation.
3 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. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
We will be with God, directly in His presence.
4 "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
As we discussed a few weeks ago, when we are Raptured by Jesus Christ, we will receive new glorified bodies, ones that resemble that of Jesus Christ. But this takes it one step farther... Can you imagine what it will be like to be in a place where you will never be sad again? No more grieving the death of a loved one, because death is wiped out. No more betrayals by friends, sin will be gone. No more insults; sin will be gone. No more sorrow; there is indication that God will remove the painful memories that we will have of those that are unsaved that didn't make it to heaven.
We also see here another reason why the earth and the first heaven (atmosphere) had to be destroyed and recreated. Death, sorrow, crying and pain are all part of the curse that has extended from Adam to you and me. And the land was defiled by this. Also, the atmosphere is where Satan and his gang of spiritual hoodlums have hung out, and God eliminates their former abode.
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
6 And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
Last week, we talked about rivers of water in Psalm 1. Do you remember what the rivers of water represented? That's right, the Word of God. All of those questions that theologians have argued about for centuries will be answered. All of those things that we do not agree in Bible study will be settled (maybe I'll be wrong!). You and I have a desire to know those things that we do not know about God, and we will never have a question go unanswered. We will be given life by God, and this life is found in His Word.
Now, in verses 7 and 8 we see a contrast between the haves and have nots:
7 "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
He who overcomes is the saved; those who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ. We shall inherit the riches of heaven, which I will tell you about in a little bit.
8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Right here in the middle of a description of the beginning of an eternity with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God gives us a reminder that those who don't choose to be with Him have a different destiny. More about that later.
We have seen that we will never sorrow, we will never cry, we will never be betrayed, we will never have a single question that we cannot have answered by God. We have seen that we have one of two destinies that lie before us. Let's look at the good side of the equation:
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, the Lamb's wife."
10 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,
11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
The New Jerusalem will be like no other thing you have ever seen in your life. It will shine with the glory of God.
12 Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
13 three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
14 Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The number twelve indicates government in the Bible. Twelve apostles, twelve tribes.
15 And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
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: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal.
17 Then he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
The angel measured out the New Jerusalem for John. The New Jerusalem will be 1500 miles long, wide and high, forming a cube. The size of the New Jerusalem will be like nothing we've ever seen; the size alone would startle. To get a good idea about the size of the New Jerusalem, this is a building that will stretch from the state of Maine to the state of Florida and would be 360,000 stories tall. The walls will be almost as thick as a football field. But if you think that this is impressive, look at what it is made of!
To give you an example of the height, the USX building in Pittsburgh is only about 68 stories tall. I ran up the steps of the USX tower in a footrace once, and I mean to tell you that I can't imagine what it would be like to run up 360,000 flights of stairs! Just the ground level of New Jerusalem would hold over 11 billion people! When Jesus said he would prepare a place for us, he really meant it!
Just looking at the New Jerusalem will be beyond anything that we have seen. If you have seen the movie Independence Day, you saw how big the ships were compared to the cities, and how big the mother ship is in comparison to each of those ships. New Jerusalem will be bigger!
18 The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. (example of windows).
19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper (transparent gold), the second sapphire (hard as diamond, but blue in color), the third chalcedony (sky blue with other colors running thru it), the fourth emerald (bright green),
20 the fifth sardonyx (red and white stone), the sixth sardius (a common red jewel), the seventh chrysolite (similar to jasper, gold but transparent), the eighth beryl (sea green jewel), the ninth topaz (yellow green, tranparent), the tenth chrysoprase (another shade of green), the eleventh jacinth (violet color), and the twelfth amethyst (purple).
And this is just the foundation! It's incredible if you think about all of these colors combined and stretching as far as the eye can see.
21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
Each gate will be one solid piece of pearl. The streets of gold will be a transparent glass with a gold element to it.
22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
23 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.
24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.
25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).
Evil will be conquered. Around here, we used to be able to leave the house with the doors unlocked. This is not the case now. In heaven, there will be no locks on the doors!
26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Now that we know what heaven will look like, lets take a look at what life will be like.
Part of our heavenly existance is that we will recognize others from this life. We see in the story of Lazarus and the rich man that Lazarus knew the rich man, looking at him in hades from Paradise. If you go to heaven, you will see others that made it--grandparents, friends and some famous people. One man that I'd like to meet is Daniel!
You will live forever. In John 10:28, Jesus tells us "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
At camp, and here, I told the kids to remember it this way--you live forever, you never die and nobody can take it away.
We are given new bodies--resurrection bodies. I like Superman. Villians can shoot at him, punch him, drop boulders on him and throw knives at him and he appears indestructible. But, what about kryptonite? Your resurrection body is indestructible; it cannot be destroyed. Not even kryptonite will affect it!
We will experience a pleasure and joy that we have never known. How many here like to ride a bike? I tell you, riding a bike is one of the most fun things that I do. I rode down Ruff Creek hill once, and hit 51 mph; the wind at my face, my bike and my body moving as one and the incredible speed was awesome. Maybe you like rollercoasters, playing your Nintendo 64 and finally beating the game, or what ever. Imagine that thing that you like to do the most. The pleasure and joy that you will have here will not even be close to what you will experience in heaven. (Cereal vs pizza)
You will be in direct contact with God. When Isiah and Ezekiel saw the majesty of heaven, the fell down on their faces. Not only will you see heaven and be stunned, you will be in direct contact with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It will be more powerful an event than we can imagine, with angels and other saints looking on.
We will be in a state of constant worship. I won't be boring, dull or anything like that. We will be in God's direct presence, and no service like you ever saw will be like this. The singing will never be off key, and the music will be unreal. But best of all, we will not need to go to a church or temple--God himself will be our temple.
Let me tell you about Turtle's favorite things. First there's God, then there's Mom and Dad, then there's eating. Turtle loves to eat. He asked me a few days ago if we will eat in heaven. The answer is yes! When Jesus arose from the dead, he had a resurrection body--indestructible, but also able to pass thru walls. But, he also ate with the disciples, and we will eat with him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. So, the answer Turtle, is yes, if you want to eat, you can.
If Heaven is perfect, then won't heaven be perfectly boring? No. We will have the ability to understand in ways that we cannot now, and we will have eternity to learn from God. God's knowledge is infinite, as we see in
Ps 147:5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite. NKJV
With all of these wonderful things, I'll bet that you are sold on heaven.
No more pain. No more suffering. No more guilt over things we did or didn't do. We will be able to accept ourselves as God does, without looking at what we did, or what we look like or how well we did in school.
We will be satisfied all of the time. We will be happy all of the time. We will enjoy ourselves for all of eternity. We will see Jesus, our friends and family that made it to heaven, we will no longer have dentist visits! No more scraped knees! No more broken fingernails! No more indigestion!
Now, let's look at the alternative. I really don't like to talk about this, but you've gotta know.
If you don't choose to put your faith in Jesus, you go to is Hell. I'm gonna tell you that Hell is the most scary place you've ever heard of.
What is hell like? Hell was described in verse 8 as "fire and brimstone". (Explain burning and indestructible body)
Those that experience the second death, which is separation from God will be in a place scarier than you've ever imagined. (Evil person) BEING SEPARATED FROM ALL THAT IS GOOD.
Being in the dark, and being alone. Demons are in torment right now, and the Bible shows that these demons are alone, isolated from others and in darkness.
Those things that you like, you will crave but never get.
Prov 27:20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.
You have a choice. And the choice you make will last forever. A choice for all that is good in God, or a living nightmare forever.
What is that choice? Jesus.
